Discovery of metadata – data about data – is becoming increasingly important in litigation. This is because metadata may be able to shed light on the who, what, when and where of digital evidence as metadata contains wide ranging information about digital files.
The flood of news stories on the data-collection and online behavioral advertising (“OBA”) practices of search engines, mobile apps, brand advertisers, and social networks is giving many people a distinct feeling: “the creeps.”
Revised Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) entitled “Failure to Preserve Electronically Stored Information” was included in the package of rules the US Supreme Court recently transmitted to Congress. If Congress does not act, the rule will become effective on December 1, 2015. The chair of the Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Judge David Campbell, described the task of drafting this rule as “the most challenging task any of us on the committee have ever undertaken.”
It has been almost five years since the Texas Legislature enacted an anti-botnet law, Texas Business & Commerce Code § 324.055, to combat botnets on the Internet. But as of the date of this writing, there are no reported Texas cases interpreting the law, and botnets continue to be as big an online scourge as ever.
For affiliate marketers, the mobile channel promises to engage consumers like never before. With a wide variety of ad units, tracking and targeting technologies, and network marketing models, mobile has the potential to dramatically extend advertisers’ reach and improve ad-spend ROI. However, this opportunity comes with its share of legal risk, especially when working with large mobile ad networks. This article highlights some of the key negotiation points in mobile ad network agreements and provides some tips for minimizing legal risk.
On February 11, 2015, a federal district court in California issued an important ruling on the patent eligibility of certain business processes underlying virtually every online affiliate network.