Recent Blog Posts in April 2009 |
| April 26, 2009 |
| Hollywood Fights RealDVD in Court Battle |
| Posted By L. Anthony Bompiani, Esquire |
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Hollywood blasts RealDVD
calling it "rent, rip and return" and contends it's one of the biggest
technological threats to the movie industry's annual $20 billion DVD
market - software that allows you to copy a film without paying for it.
On Friday, the trial began between RealNetworks, Inc.
and Hollywood's six largest movie studios. Attorneys for the studios
argue that RealNetworks Inc.'s DVD "ripper" is an illegal digital
piracy tool, which violates a federal law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Act was signed into law by President Clinton in 1998.
The company claims that the $29.99 software that allows DVDs to be easily copied to computer hard drives is legitimate and actually adds more stringent protections to prevent piracy or other illegal copying. Specifically,
the Seattle-based company says its RealDVD product is designed to
simply let customers back up a purchased DVD and that the software
allows for only one copy to be made.
The
three-day trial is being heard by the same federal judge who shut down
music-swapping site Napster in 2000 because of copyright violations.
In
October, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel temporarily barred
sales of RealDVD after the product was on the market for a few days. At
the time, the judge said it appeared the software did violate federal
law against digital piracy, but ordered detailed court filings and the
trial to better understand how RealDVD works.
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| April 23, 2009 |
| Facebook Friend Request Results in Suspension for Philadelphia Court Officer |
| Posted By L. Anthony Bompiani, Esquire |
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The Associated Press
April 23, 2009
PHILADELPHIA
(AP) -- A court officer in Philadelphia nearly lost his job after he
sent a friend request to a juror on the social networking Web site
Facebook.
Court officials say Nicholas Stampone Jr. was suspended for 10 days earlier this month for inappropriate contact with a juror.
First
Judicial District court administrator David Lawrence says Stampone sent
a friend request to a female juror who was sitting for a case in the
courtroom in which he worked. Stampone was suspended on April 6 after
the juror reported the request.
Find the full article here.
What happen to the finding
that Facebook and YouTube at work make better employees? Not in this
case, I guess. Or maybe that's yesterday's news. Unfortunately, the
article does not state Stampone's age or the age of the juror. There's
also no mention of whether or not the two knew each other before this
particular instance. I'm guessing that they didn't. If they didn't, I
find it a little creepy that there was some Facebook searching going on
to find this particular juror. Live and learn.
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