Internet Lawyer Blog

The Securities and Exchange Commission stated that publicly-traded companies should disclose the threat and potential impact of cyber attacks that pose a risk to their investors.

The commission made its comments in a letter to Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, that was released on June 8, 2011. Last month, Senator Rockefeller and four other Democratic senators wrote a letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, urging the agency to issue guidance on disclosure of data- security risk, including "material network breaches," attacks that may result in the theft of intellectual property or trade secrets.

The threats from cyberspace grow more powerful and pernicious. Companies like Sony Corporation, Google Inc., and Lockheed Martin have admitted startling security lapses. The International Monetary Fund, last month suffered a breach leading to the loss of highly sensitive data. The United States Congress and executive branch agencies face approximately 2 billion attacks in cyberspace per month in 2010.

The Pentagon's new strategy for blunting cyber-attacks focuses almost exclusively on improving defense instead of deterring intrusions or threatening retaliation, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General James Cartwright, stated on July 14, 2011.

Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn today released the Pentagon's "Strategy for Operating In Cyberspace," which outlines five "strategic initiatives." One is increased partnering with other U.S. agencies and private industry to craft a "whole-of-government" approach.

Read more here.

President Barack Obama is summoning top congressional Republicans and Democrats to a rare Sunday meeting at the White House to begin "hard bargaining" on a broad debt-reduction deal.

At the July 10 session Obama will make his latest bid to break a partisan impasse over whether to include cuts in entitlement programs and tax increases in an agreement. Both sides in the debate are signaling openness to compromise on each front.

See more here.

Will investors move out of their "safe haven" markets? In 2009, downgrades and debt auction failures in countries like the UK, Greece, Ireland and Spain were a stark reminder that unless advanced economies begin to put their fiscal houses in order, investors and rating agencies will likely turn from friends to foes. The severe recession, combined with a financial crisis during 2008-09, worsened the fiscal positions of developed countries due to stimulus spending, lower tax revenues and support to the financial sector. The impact was greater in countries that had a history of structural fiscal problems, maintained loose fiscal policies and ignored fiscal reforms during the boom years. Going forward, a weak economic recovery and an aging population is likely to increase the debt burden of many advanced economies, including the U.S., Britain, Japan and several eurozone countries.

To read more please go to www.forbes.com.

The White House will host a Twitter town hall with President Barack Obama on July 6. The president will answer questions submitted via Twitter, which limits messages to 140 characters. The town hall will focus on jobs and the economy, and a video feed of Obama's answers will be streamed online.

See www.twitter.com/salaratrizadeh for more information.

Google, Inc. has temporarily shut down a search engine feature that allows users to find real-time updates from Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and other social networking sites.

See more on www.twitter.com/salaratrizadeh.

Hackers broke into Fox's political Twitter account early Monday, posting updates saying President Barack Obama had been assassinated. A series of six tweets coming from the FoxNewsPolitics account reported that Obama had been shot to death in Iowa and the shooter was unknown.

See more on www.twitter.com/salaratrizadeh

California legislators approved collection of an online sales tax among their revenue efforts as they passed the state budget on Wednesday.

Sponsors estimate the tax could bring in $200 million a year by collecting taxes that consumers have been avoiding when they make online purchases.

Federal law says states can only tax companies with a physical presence in a state, but the new California law applies that to include companies such as Amazon.com Inc. of Seattle, that have "affiliates" in a state.

Civil Rights - Social networking website was not "place of public accommodation" within meaning of Title III of Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA").

Plaintiff Karen Beth Young brings this action against Defendant Facebook, Inc., alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq., the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Ca. Civ. Code § 51, et seq., the California Disabled Persons Act, Cal Civ. Code § 54, et seq., and state-law contract and negligence claims. Although Young's amended complaint describes vividly her personal experience of losing access to her online social community and the challenges she faced attempting to obtain redress through Facebook's automated customer care systems, it does not state a legal claim upon which relief may be granted. Accordingly, Facebook's motion to dismiss will be granted.

Young opened a personal account with Facebook in February 2010.[1] She subsequently created additional Facebook pages for the "Cancer Forum," "Cartesian Plane For The Cure," "Karen Beth Young ,— Public Figure," and "Join Karen Petition Facebook Say No to 5000 Friends." Young sent "friendvites" to others she believed were interested in cancer-related issues and developed "genuine and heartfelt" relationships with those she met online. Young's personal page grew to include approximately 4,300 "friends."

In June 2010, Young's Facebook account was deactivated for the first time. According to an email from Facebook, Young's account was disabled for behavior identified as potentially harassing or threatening to other Facebook users, including sending "friend" requests to people she did not know, regularly contacting strangers, and soliciting others for dating or business purposes. Resp. Ex. A-1. She was told that the decision was final and could not be appealed. Id. Young, who states that she suffers from bipolar disorder, was upset by having the ties to her online social network severed. She made numerous email and telephone inquiries regarding the deactivation of her account, but Facebook's response did not include any "human interaction." Compl. -d 7. She then drove from her home in Maryland to Facebook's headquarters in Santa Clara, California. There, Young was told by a receptionist that she could not meet with anyone in person or by telephone. However, she was allowed to fill out a written form requesting assistance.

Two days later, in response to that written request, Young received an email stating that her account had been disabled because Facebook's security systems had determined that she had been sending "friend" requests too quickly or that her "friend" requests were being ignored at a high rate. Compl. Ex. D-4. She was told that her account would be reactivated, but she was warned that sending "friend" requests to people she did not know,—or other violations of Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities,—would result in her account being disabled permanently. Id. Young responded to the email requesting clarification and a personal meeting. Receiving no response, she returned to Maryland, where after two days her account was deactivated again. She received another email informing her that her account had been disabled permanently because she had violated the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, that it would not be reactivated for any reason, and that she would not be provided further information about her violation or an opportunity to appeal. Id. Young then drove to California a second time and commenced the instant proceedings.

The Court was not without sympathy for Young's plight. Young was understandably frustrated that she could not discuss the termination of her account with a live person, and both this frustration and the loss of her access to Facebook's social network had a particularly acute impact on Young because of her bipolar condition. The Court stated that "as customer service functions increasingly are handed over to automated systems, it is important that service providers, such as Facebook, understand the implications that such practices can have for the less sophisticated and more vulnerable. However, because Young's amended complaint [did] not state a cognizable legal basis upon which relief may be granted, it must be dismissed. Because the amended complaint fail[ed] to address many of the issues identified by the Court in its previous order, and because it appears that there is no realistic possibility that further amendment could cure the deficiencies in Young's pleadings, leave to amend will be denied."

Internet miners voted Monday to allow virtually unlimited new domain names based on themes as varied as company brands, entertainment and political causes, in the system's biggest shake-up since it started 26 years ago.

Groups able to pay the $185,000 application can petition next year for new updates to ".com" and ".net" with suffixes using nearly any word in any language, including in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided at a meeting in Singapore.

California Senate Does Not Pass Social Networking Privacy Bill.

On June 2, 2011 the California State Senate for the second time did not pass a Senate Bill that would require social media networks to adopt default settings restricting the display of their users' personally identifiable information.

The bill, S.B. 242, known as the ,"Social Networking Privacy Act" was introduced by Senator Ellen Corbett earlier this year. The bill required social media networks to adopt default settings prohibiting the display of "personal identifying information", such as address, telephone number, driver's license, social security number, and credit card numbers. It also required the networks to advise users of their ability to change the settings for display of personal information in "plain language." Finally, it required networks to remove personal identifying information "in a timely manner" upon request.

A former San Francisco computer engineer convicted of locking other city officials out of the city's network has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 million in restitution.

A judge also ordered 45-year-old Terry Childs on Tuesday to forfeit the $11,000 he had on him when he was arrested as a down payment toward the money he owes his former employer, San Francisco's Department of Technology. A jury convicted Terry Childs last year of changing the passwords to the city government's computer network in July 2008. Following a 12-day stalemate, Mr. Childs finally surrendered the new passwords to then-Mayor Gavin Newsom during a jailhouse visit.

To read more go to http://www.ap.org/

With the legal sparring between Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and SunCal taking a new, nasty turn in California, Lehman is turning to a New York bankruptcy judge to block the real-estate developer from attempting an "end-run" around the court's previous rulings.

Lehman Brothers is accusing SunCal of playing "Russian roulette" in its cross-country legal fight with Lehman and is asking Judge James Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan to enforce the automatic stay in its Chapter 11 case. That request, if granted, would bar the California developer from challenging more than $100 million in claims Lehman has asserted against the SunCal projects in their California bankruptcy cases.

Lehman's filing Tuesday in New York came the same day as SunCal took control of three other developments it had begun with Lehman's backing that had been mired in bankruptcy for more than two years. SunCal, which picked up the properties at a bankruptcy auction for $71 million, took the opportunity to criticize Alvarez & Marsal, the restructuring firm unwinding Lehman's estate, for blocking its attempts to bring the California projects out of bankruptcy.

Read more here.

Vallejo, California, officials voted to file for bankruptcy because the San Francisco suburb isn't able pay its bills after costs for police and firefighters soared and the housing market's slide cut into tax revenue.

The city council's unanimous decision last night will make Vallejo the largest California city to file for bankruptcy and the first in the state to seek protection from creditors because it ran out of money to pay for basic services. The decision came after it failed to win salary concessions from labor unions.

The city of 117,000 is facing ballooning labor costs and declining housing-related tax revenue that have left it with a $16 million deficit forecast for the year starting in July. In bankruptcy, creditors will be kept at bay while officials devise a plan to balance the books. City services would still operate.

For more information go to http://www.bloomberg.com/