August 2013

Last week the California Senate unanimously approved a bill requiring that operators of commercial websites and online services that collect personal information disclose how they respond to “do-not-track” signals from web browsers and whether they allow third parties to engage in online tracking.  The legislation, which was introduced by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, has been sponsored…

This spring, a jury convicted Robert Braddock, the Finance Director to former Congressional candidate—and former Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives—Christopher Donovan, with conspiring to hide the source of $27,500 in campaign contributions.  According to the indictment, Braddock accepted contributions to the campaign knowing that they had been reimbursed by individuals associated with…

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Tuesday in the so-called “Aereokiller” litigation.  The case tests whether services that allow subscribers to stream broadcast television on their computers and mobile devices infringe the exclusive right of copyright owners to publicly perform their copyrighted works.  Specifically, the Ninth Circuit…

Today the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) issued a discussion draft of a “Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework.”
Executive Order 13,636 on Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity tasked NIST with developing a “Cybersecurity Framework” “to reduce cyber risks to critical infrastructure.”  The Order specifies that the Framework must “provide a prioritized, flexible repeatable, performance-based, and cost-effective…

The IRS issued guidance today defining same-sex marriage for purposes of federal tax rules.  Following the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor last June invalidating section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), federal law no longer limits the definition of marriage to opposite sex spouses.  However, the Windsor decision did not…

The Daily Herald reported that last Tuesday suburban Chicago DuPage County repealed previously adopted county-specific pay-to-play rules.  In 2010, DuPage County enacted a county ordinance prohibiting any “officer,” including county board members, from soliciting or accepting campaign contributions in excess of $1,000 from any person or entity seeking an official action or doing business with…

By Eric Carlson & Scott Livingston
On August 27, 2013, state-run China Central Television broadcast a taped confession of detained British fraud investigator Peter Humphrey confessing to having used “illegal means” to obtain the personal information of Chinese citizens.  This highly unusual broadcast of a confession made by a foreigner in China, along with other…

Under the Internet closed captioning requirements established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), after certain triggering deadlines, video programming shown on television with captions in the United States and distributed in full-length form over Internet Protocol (IP) must be provided with captions online.  Beginning on September 30, 2013, the IP closed captioning requirements will apply…