Regulation

Features

An advocacy group has sued Target Corp., claiming that Target's Web site is incompatible with software used by the blind and that such incompatibility is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Features

Two appellate courts recently ruled that an individual who intentionally visited Web sites to view child pornography, but who did not intentionally save those images to his computer's hard drive, could not be convicted or punished for possessing images that were automatically saved due to the Web browser's cache functions. These rulings strike me as badly mistaken, for reasons that I shall explain further below.

Features

In 1998, Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), broadly expanding the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) enforcement powers in the Internet arena. Since then, states and the FTC have become more active in regulating the collection, use and security of consumer's personal information generally. However, the protection of children's personal information remains a top FTC enforcement goal, and the commission has become more aggressive in enforcement of COPPA each year. Companies that fail to proactively act to ensure COPPA compliance do so at the risk of seven-figure penalties. <br>This article provides Web site operators with suggestions on how to comply with the spirit of COPPA when legal obligations are not crystal clear, as in the case when the operator of the Web site in question believes that it can make a good faith effort to be a 'general audience' Web site, but has reason to believe that the site may attract visitors under the age of 13 and is unsure how the FTC will view and treat the site.

Features

Investor confidence and market behavior can be impacted greatly by events that do not necessarily correlate. In the case of the Bayou Hedge Funds fraud, these unique and non-recurring events fueled a fire in the hedge fund industry that has spread, but not necessarily due to the particulars of the Bayou Hedge Funds failure. But, when dealing with significant investments made by pension funds, corporate entities, along with foundations and trusts, a healthy dose of skepticism is natural and appropriate. Not unlike the transition from the Enron scandal to the formation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, hedge fund investors may extrapolate the troubles at the Bayou Hedge Funds to all hedge funds. As a result, questions of the need for regulatory oversight for a stronger accountability within the industry arise.

Features

The legal fiction of corporate criminal liability may finally get the rewrite it badly needs. Urged by practitioners and academics for decades, arguments for changing corporate criminal liability, if not abolishing it altogether, may now have a receptive audience in Washington.

Features

In this age of regulatory and prosecutorial focus on corporate compliance, companies increasingly are relying on special outside counsel to conduct internal investigations into potential wrong-doing. Sometimes, these investigations are prophylactic: A company may want to understand the consequences of its current hiring prac-tices so it can develop standard operating procedures to better ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws. Because this sort of pro-active, self-reflective investigation generally proceeds in the absence of outside scrutiny, counsel has the time and space to conduct a deliberate investigation.

Features

At press time, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty revised the controversial 'Thompson Memorandum.' A new 'McNulty Memorandum' was issued after harsh criticism from District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in the KPMG case and a proposal by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) to abrogate the Thompson Memorandum by act of Congress. Look for an in-depth analysis in our February Issue.

Features

Counsel for companies faced with criminal violations of securities laws must maneuver carefully through a gamut of factors to determine whether to voluntarily disclose criminal conduct. A corporation may face administrative and criminal sanctions for non-cooperation from both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the SEC. But the DOJ's 'Thompson Memorandum' also bestows attractive benefits for cooperation, measured in part by the corporation's willingness 'to disclose the complete results of its internal investigation.' The prosecution may grant a corporation 'immunity or amnesty or pretrial diversion' or 'a non-prosecution agreement in exchange for cooperation.'