There has been a rush of news stories about Florida’s new anti-sexting law which went into effect October 1, 2011.  Unfortunately, much of the coverage is inconsistent:  for example, CNN describes the new law as “easing” the penalties for this type of lewd behavior. The Sun Sentinel/Palm Beach Post simply …

While much of the focus on Internet safety is on our children, a lot of what they learn may come from the habits of their parents.  I had the pleasure to speak to a group of parents, and then a group of 7th and 8th grade students, at Rosarian Academy …

The concept of bitcoin, a virtual online currency, has been in the news in 2011.  The good news is that it has been somewhat stable, received media attention, and survived an attempted hack (arguably better than major corporations and some nations).  The bad news is that it remains a shadow-currency …

Remember the “news” that our smartphones are tracking user locations and storing them in files on the phone?   This article discusses how the iPhone accumulates and stores location data — and how it can be obtained by lawyers in civil cases. Originally published in the Trial Advocate Quarterly, Volume …

In 2011, the Palm Beach Bar Association hosted “Intermediate Facebook for Lawyers & Law Firms,” a seminar regarding Facebook: 1.  Current legal ethics issues; 2.  How to use Facebook and social media for jury selection; 3.  Facebook marketing for lawyers; and 4.  How to set up a Facebook fan page …

Didn’t think so.  But their services agreement automatically opts you in. Here’s the fix: 1.  Log in.  Click on your name in the upper right corner.  Select “Settings” 2.  Find and click on “Account” in the lower right corner. 3.  Select “Manage Social Advertising.” 4.  The box is likely checked.  …

Lawyers, and really anyone, should pay attention to whether their smartphone is appending “sent by my iPhone”-type messages at the bottom of business emails.  It’s an unnecessary advertisement for someone else’s product in your communication AND sends a variety of poor messages. Don’t believe it?  Read this article, from the …

Lawyers and businesses overlyfocused on e-discovery often raise interest in other parties’ metadata (as well as concern about their own).  Good practices call for companies and firms to scrub email attachments before sending.  But digital photos are often forgotten and, worse, overlooked by common scrubbing software.   Even in our …

Lawyers (and others) often send emails with large PDF and other attachment. This article from the May 2011 Palm Beach Bar Bulletin will give you some tips and tricks to get around firewalls and other e-barriers.  

A Wisconsin federal court judge dismissed a case against the makers of South Park where the plaintiff had alleged a copyright violation of its use of an Internet viral video, What What in the Butt.  In the April 2008 episode, “Canada on Strike,” character Butters Stotch “replicates parts of the …

Have you run across the situation where you want to email PDFs, video or image files but they get caught in either the sender’s or recipient’s filter because the attachments are too large? Problem solved. This article from the May 2011 Palm Beach County Bar Association Bulletin explains how to …

Do you use passwords such as “password,” “loveyou,” or 1234567?  Apparently most of us do.  Even if you have a pretty good password plan for multiple Internet accounts, check out this month’s article, “Smart Lawyers, Dumb Passwords” in the Palm Beach County Bar Association Bulletin (April 2011).

The Ninth Circuit federal court released its decision in Facebook v. ConnectU, the lawsuit made famous by the 2010 movie, The Social Network, regarding the creation of Facebook and the litigation it spawned.  The full decision is here.  The news coverage (already clocking in at over 800 stories in four …

In a federal court case out of Kentucky, defense counsel reportedly cribbed portions of the brief from… Wikipedia.  And then from a Federal Judicial Handbook.  Both times without proper citation. Before getting to the orders, we note the case has the narrowest connection to Florida. In a February 2011 order, …

A Kentucky court, in an unpublished divorce case opinion, held that under the circumstances of that case, there was “nothing within the law that requires [a party’s] permission for the photographs to be published in that manner.”  See Lalonde v. Lalonde.  Case did not address other potential concerns over distributing …