News Not All Good For Google ' Or Its Advertisers
June 28, 2005
Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you always should." Never has that saying had more meaning than when it comes to Internet advertising. True, this new avenue for advertising has helped some companies exponentially increase their business, but the methods for "re-directing" prospective customers have come under great scrutiny by the courts in the last 6 months. Recent decisions warn that keyword advertising through paid placements such as "Sponsored" or "Featured" ads could lead you directly to the defendant's table in federal court.
Confronting and Understanding 'Gripe Sites'
June 28, 2005
The Internet has provided an unprecedented opportunity for individuals to disseminate information widely at a very low cost. This means that virtually anybody who wants to distribute a message can do so. <br>It is this sense of empowerment that may drive individuals to spend the time and energy to create sites devoted to complaints about a particular product, service, company, organization, or individual. Frequently these sites employ trademarks owned by their targets, sometimes in the site's domain name itself, and always in the text of the site. Internet search engines pick these references up, so that the gripe sites often turn up side-by-side with official corporate sites in response to Internet searches.
New News
June 28, 2005
Recent developments of note in the Internet industry. This month:<br>FCC Requires VoIP to Clean up Its 911 Act <br>House Votes to Eliminate Spyware<br>Intermix Settles Adware Suit with Spitzer
e-Commerce Continues To Rise
June 28, 2005
Preliminary estimates of first-quarter e-commerce activity from the U.S. Census Bureau show a continued rise in the value of services and goods procured and exchanged online or by other electronic conduits.
Life Insurance and Divorce
June 28, 2005
Life Insurance is an important matter in most divorces. There are a host of issues that are not addressed in the typical negotiation. Consider the following sample insurance clause from a Property Settlement Agreement [PSA]: "The husband shall maintain life insurance for the wife having an aggregate death benefit of $250,000. Said obligation shall be terminated if the husband's obligation to pay alimony is modified/terminated. The husband shall maintain life insurance having an aggregate death benefit of $250,000 for the benefit of the unemancipated children. Said benefit shall be reduced by $75,000 upon the emancipation of the first child and again upon the emancipation of the second child. The obligation to maintain any life insurance for the children shall terminate upon the emancipation of all Three [3] children." There are many important decisions and considerations not addressed in a simplistic -- and typical -- clause like this, and practitioners need practical recommendations and advice on how better to address life insurance issues. This article provides both.
Steering e-Discovery's Course
June 28, 2005
A group of vendors, attorneys and other electronic-discovery services "consumers" hopes to use public input to develop a reference model that would help set e-discovery standards and guidelines.
Subpoena For e-Mail
June 28, 2005
e-Mail is a rich source of e-discovery and it is being used more often in legal and regulatory actions. It was a significant source of evidence in the Enron scandal, in Martha Stewart's case and in hundreds of other cases. According to the ePolicy Institute, 21% of companies have been ordered by courts to produce employee e-mail. A critical consideration for counsel is that when a client receives a subpoena for company e-mail, the client will either be surprised and dismayed, or confident in its awareness and control of e-mail content. The latter situation, of course, is the better one in which to find oneself.
A Quick Look At Elite E-Invoicing
June 28, 2005
Since 2003 Haynes and Boone has seen the number of client requests for electronic invoices triple. Now at least 20% of its clients require electronic invoices, which translates into 5,000-6,000 electronic invoices on an annual basis. Some larger clients accept invoices only electronically. <br>Rather than deal with a third party software vendor, Haynes and Boone LLP decided in 2003 to obtain e-billing software from its major accounting software vendor, Thomson Elite
