You are here: Home / 2010 / Archives for March 2010

Data Privacy and Protection – U.S. Mission to The European Union

March 29, 2010 By

U.S., EU Carry Out Passenger Name Record (PNR) Review – Representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the European Union (EU) held a joint review of the 2007 U.S.-EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreement on February 8-9, 2010, in Washington, D.C., says a joint statement issued on February 10. The U.S.-EU PNR agreement sets forth commitments for the processing and transfer of PNR for flights between EU Member States and the United States. During the course of the comprehensive, two-day review, an EU expert delegation led by the European Commission observed first hand how PNR contributes to DHS’s layered approach to border management and aviation security and how DHS handles PNR data. The EU expert delegation will issue a report reflecting its analysis resulting from the two days of site visits and discussions.

via Data Privacy and Protection – U.S. Mission to The European Union.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

TrustLaw to Launch as International Pro Bono Matchmaker for Law Firms and NGOs

March 27, 2010 By

The Thomson-Reuters Foundation unveiled its new international pro bono project to a group of big firm lawyers and representatives from nongovernmental organizations in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Dubbed TrustLaw, the effort is designed to provide a new online market for pro bono projects around the world, connecting NGOs and nonprofits in need of free legal services with law firms looking to help.

The project’s Web site, Trustlaw.org, will launch in mid-April and function like a Match.com for pro bono work, explained Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson-Reuters Foundation. Nonprofit groups like Transparency International and Kiva.org can post descriptions of the projects they need legal help with, from analyzing the anti-corruption efforts of an NGO in Russia to tax and regulatory advice in setting up a microfinance group in Uganda. TrustLaw staff will then help translate each proposal into clear-cut legal needs that member law firms can quickly analyze to determine whether a project is something they can take on, Villa said. Firms including Latham & Watkins in the U.S. and Garrigues in Spain have already signaled their interest in the project.

via TrustLaw to Launch as International Pro Bono Matchmaker for Law Firms and NGOs.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Buy Globally, Sue Locally for Products Liability | Law.com

March 27, 2010 By

In a global economy, price and convenience are valued above all else. Global consumers demand produce out of season, buy sophisticated appliances made with cheap labor and build homes with materials shipped from abroad. And yet when these products prove to be defective, they expect to be able to sue the manufacturer at the local courthouse, regardless of where it resides. After all, the product reached them — so they should be able to sue in their home court, right?

We’ve come a long way from Penoyer v. Neff, 95 U.S. 714 (1878), when a defendant’s physical presence in the forum state was required to exercise jurisdiction over him. Various U.S. Supreme Court decisions have expanded the notion of personal jurisdiction, simultaneously muddying the water as to precisely what constitutional analysis is required.

Take, for example, Asahi Metal Indus. Co. v. Superior Court of Calif., 480 U.S. 102 (1986). There, the separate plurality opinions of justices Sandra Day O'Connor and William Brennan both approved of some form of the “stream of commerce” theory of jurisdiction but disagreed on the exact formulation of the test to be applied. Although lower courts subsequently used some form of “stream of commerce” analysis after Asahi, they seldom used it as a stand-alone test. Most have always added to it some form of “minimum contacts,” “purposeful availment” or other analysis to establish that the defendant somehow intended or expected to benefit from the jurisdiction. This traditionally has been seen as required by the due process clause.

via Buy Globally, Sue Locally for Products Liability.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

French Hacker Played Guessing Game to Access Twitter Accounts | Technewsworld.com

March 27, 2010 By

After months of investigation by police and the FBI, a French hacker accused of breaking into the Twitter accounts of President Barack Obama and singer Britney Spears was arrested earlier this week.

Francois Cousteix, a 25-year-old unemployed man from central France who is known online as “Hacker Croll,” is also accused of breaking into Twitter administrators' accounts and copying confidential data — an attack that was acknowledged by Twitter cofounder Biz Stone last summer.

Cousteix is reportedly no technology genius, nor did he have nefarious intentions; rather, he simply wanted to point out Twitter’s vulnerabilities, according to reports.

Cousteix has confessed to the hacks and now must appear in court in Clermont-Ferrand on June 24. If convicted, he faces the possibility of two years in prison and a 30,000 euros (US$40,226) fine.

Twitter did not respond by press time to TechNewsWorld’s request for comment.

Guessing the Answers

Cousteix frequently perpetrated his attacks simply by guessing the answers to the security questions on his victims’ accounts and then using that information to change their Twitter passwords, AFP reported.

He also often posted electronic copies of the pages he hacked into as proof of his successful attacks, according to reports.

Though Cousteix didn’t attempt to profit financially from his Twitter attacks, he was already known to police for minor scams amounting to some 15,000 euros ($20,111), AFP reported.

via Technology News: Privacy: French Hacker Played Guessing Game to Access Twitter Accounts.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How the New EU Rules on Data Export Affect Companies in and Outside the EU | Dr. Thomas Helbing – Kanzlei für Datenschutz-, Online- und IT-Recht

March 27, 2010 By

On 5 February 2010 the Commission of the European Union (EU) has updated the set of standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to processors in non-EU countries. The old clauses are repealed with effect from 15 May 2010.

Standard contractual clauses are an important instrument for companies in the EU to comply with national data protection laws if information on individuals is transferred to or accessed by organizations outside the EU.

The EU Commission decision is relevant for all organization receiving personal data – for example customer or employee data – from subsidiaries, customers or vendors in the EU.

In addition, the new standard contractual clauses will also affect companies who indirectly receive personal data that originally comes from the EU, e.g. by providing services to companies which process EU data. This is because the new standard contractual clauses require from companies importing personal data from the EU to contractually impose the terms of the clauses on any subcontractor to which they transfer personal data or grant access.

In particular, agreements on outsourcing, cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS) or application service providing (ASP) and software like Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software are affected.

via How the New EU Rules on Data Export Affect Companies in and Outside the EU | Dr. Thomas Helbing – Kanzlei für Datenschutz-, Online- und IT-Recht.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Guidelines for Discovery of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) | US District Court – Kansas

March 27, 2010 By
THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF KANSAS
Guidelines for Discovery of Electronically Stored Information (ESI)
These guidelines are intended to facilitate compliance with the provisions of
Fed. R. Civ. P. 16, 26, 33, 34, 37, and 45, as amended December 1, 2006 and
December 1, 2007, relating to the discovery of ESI. In the case of any asserted conflict between these guidelines and the above-referenced rules, the latter shall control.
LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Tiger Woods, Facebook and ESI, oh my! « Lextek – Chicago Lawyer’s Tek Talk

March 27, 2010 By

Know When To Get Help

If you don’t know the difference between operating system metadata and internal metadata all three members of the panel advise you hire a trusted third-party to collect the data necessary for your case. John Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc., added that if a small firm is attempting to cut corners on costly e-Discovery by simply asking the resident IT staff of the company you are investigating to properly extract ESI (electronically stored information) – don’t. In most cases an untrained e-Discovery IT person won’t understand the evidentiary impact of the data and won’t know how to best preserve the data. In the worse possible scenario the relevant data for your case won’t be collected and s/he might inadvertently damage or corrupt the data collected to the point where it won’t be admissible in court. United States District Court of Minnesota Judge James Rosenbaum said metadata is thought of as “the black box in the airplane…It is not sacrosanct. It can be changed.” And once it is changed, it can be ruled inadmissible.

Social Media and e-Discovery

Can you submit Facebook pages as evidence? Absolutely. Judge Rosenbaum cited the Rules of Evidence 801 d section specifically while giving his nod of approval to accepting social media comments, posts, and photos that appear on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook as evidence in a case. Making questions like “Do you have a Facebook account?” and “Do you have a MySpace page” a regular practice during intake and monitoring the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s social networking accounts were strongly recommended by the panelists.  For lawyers looking for more e-Discovery evidence John Simek was happy to oblige, he said “Twitter has every single Tweet that was ever made” recorded.

ESI for everyone

United States Magistrate for the District Court in Kansas City Judge David Waxse repeatedly said that lawyers should make a reasonable attempt to become knowledgeable about their client’s ESI. He counseled lawyers to  “narrow down the issues in the case” as their first steps in the e-Discovery process, and cited a PDF with specific guidelines for dealing with discovery of electronically stored information.

via Tiger Woods, Facebook and ESI, oh my! « Lextek – Chicago Lawyer’s Tek Talk.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Revisiting ‘Zubulake’ Six Years Later | Law.com

March 27, 2010 By

In January, Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York, who authored the landmark electronic discovery decisions in Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC, issued an opinion that she titled “Zubulake Revisited: Six Years Later.” See Pension Comm. of the Univ. of Montreal Pension Plan v. Banc of America Sec. LLC, No. 05 Civ. 9016, 2010 WL 184312, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 15, 2010).

Although the case did not present any “egregious examples of litigants purposefully destroying evidence,” 13 plaintiffs were sanctioned — seven for negligence and six for gross negligence — due to their lackluster preservation, collection, search, and production efforts. Id. at *10, *15-*27. All of those plaintiffs were subject to monetary sanctions, two were to provide additional discovery, and the grossly negligent plaintiffs were subject to a carefully tailored, rebuttable spoliation instruction.

In Montreal Pension, the court analyzes levels of unacceptable discovery conduct and differing burdens of proof in establishing sanctions and potential sanctions. The case provides guidance to courts and practitioners and is likely to be widely cited in the future.

The plaintiffs in the case were investors suing to recover $550 million in losses due to the liquidation of two British Virgin Island hedge funds.

via Revisiting ‘Zubulake’ Six Years Later.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Citing First Amendment, Court Denies Motion to Compel Production of Information Sufficient to Identify Anonymous Discussion Board Users : Electronic Discovery Law

March 27, 2010 By

McVicker v. King, 2010 WL 786275 (W.D. Pa. Mar. 3, 2010)

In this suit arising from claims of unlawful and discriminatory termination, plaintiff, a former employee of the Borough, sought to compel a third-party owner of an internet discussion board to produce information sufficient to identify anonymous authors of certain, relevant posts.  Plaintiff argued the identities of the posters may be relevant to impeach defendants’ testimony regarding when the determination to terminate plaintiff was first discussed.  Citing First Amendment considerations, the court denied plaintiff’s motion to compel.

The issue of when defendants learned that plaintiff filed an EEOC claim was critical to plaintiff’s claims.  Based on the content of certain posts to an internet discussion board on which local government activities were discussed, plaintiff issued a subpoena seeking to compel the production of information related to the identities of the anonymous writers.  Plaintiff believed that their identities would be relevant to impeach defendants’ testimony.  The owner of the discussion board, Trib Total Media (“Trib”), objected and refused to produce the requested information absent court order.

Taking up the issue upon plaintiff’s motion to compel, the court noted the lack of published authority on the issue but recognized that courts had nonetheless developed “a range of standards” to address the issue and that it was “clear that a party seeking disclosure must clear a higher hurdle where the anonymous poster is a non-party.”

Dismissing plaintiffs arguments that Trib lacked standing and that the anonymous users had no expectation of privacy, the court applied a four-part test:

whether (1) the subpoena seeking the information was issued in good faith and not for any improper purpose, (2) the information sought relates to a core claim or defense, (3) the identifying information is directly and materially relevant to that claim or defense, and (4) information sufficient to establish or to disprove that claim or defense is unavailable from any other source.

via Citing First Amendment, Court Denies Motion to Compel Production of Information Sufficient to Identify Anonymous Discussion Board Users : Electronic Discovery Law.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , ,

Yukos haunts Rosneft: A spectre of litigation | The Economist

March 27, 2010 By

…The timing is particularly important given a $98 billion claim made in the European Court of Human Rights against Russia by Yukos before its destruction. Despite Russia’s protests that Yukos no longer exists, the court accepted the case; a judgment is pending. In its defence, Russia argued that “the integrity, professionalism and independence” of Russian courts has not been challenged. But the European Court, which regularly overturns Russian legal judgments, may have a different view. If it finds in Yukos’s favour, the shareholders could seek enforcement in any court in Europe.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Yukos’s former owner, already serving an eight-year sentence for tax evasion, is now on trial for stealing oil as well. According to a recent poll, 41% of Russians believe that the government is putting pressure on the courts to secure a guilty verdict, whereas only 20% think otherwise.

The Kremlin has tried to portray Mr Khodorkovsky as a blood-soaked gangster and Yukos’s destruction as a noble act on behalf of Russia’s defrauded taxpayers. In a recent phone-in session open to the public, Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, in effect accused Mr Khodorkovsky of murder, diverted responsibility for Yukos’s bankruptcy to foreign banks and took pride in returning to the Russian people the money he says was stolen from them.

But few Russians seem to subscribe to that version of events. According to the same poll, only 7% of respondents believe that the destruction of Yukos has benefited the people, whereas 63% believe it was orchestrated in the interests of a small group of bureaucrats and businessmen with close ties to the Kremlin. The thought that some foreign courts might share that view must truly haunt Russia’s rulers.

via Yukos haunts Rosneft: A spectre of litigation | The Economist.

LinkedInPinterestEvernoteWordPressBlogger PostEmailShare
Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »