BizTech Law Blog

On Tuesday, March 6, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing on Spurring Job Growth Through Capital Formation While Protecting Investors, Part II.  There is a stated intent to take up the capital formation bills in the near future.  Crowdfunding is one of several areas being considered to improve the capital formation climate.

Let's revisit a previous posting regarding the scope of the Fourth Amendment in the digital era. 

Last year, the Department of Justice requested the U.S. Supreme Court to approve the warrantless and covert attachment by law enforcement of a GPS tracking device to an individual's vehicle. The DOJ’s request arose from a U.S. Court of Appeals decision, which vacated the life sentence of a convicted drug dealer.  In that case, the Court of Appeals held that law enforcement violated the individual’s Fourth Amendment rights by secretly attaching a GPS tracking device to the individual’s vehicle without a warrant.

In the age of instant access to online information, it is essential for a business to know what others are saying about it - both good and bad.  For example, a physician will want to confirm the glowing review of a recent article is properly acknowledged on the Internet but also that a negative patient comment is immediately refuted or deleted.

After the U.S. House of Representatives passed a crowdfunding bill in November, it appears that the crowdfunding concept has stalled in the U.S. Senate.  Two alternative bills have been introduced in the Senate, both of which would create greater regulatory roadblocks than the House bill, substantially limiting the ability of most start-up and seed stage companies to utilize crowdfunding to raise capital.  It has been reported that at the committee hearings in December, most of the testimony focused on concerns about the potential for fraud, rather than the importance of access to capital and the need for job creation.  So far in January, no further action has been taken by the Senate on the crowdfunding bills.

Smartphone usage has skyrocketed in the past few years.  Physicians are no exception to the trend - with more than 81% of physicians using smartphones.  Disturbingly, the number of health data breaches has risen in tandem with increased smartphone usage, and most experts agree that the increase is no coincidence.

Recent reports have indicated that 96% of all health care organizations have experienced at least one data breach during the past two years. Although the report did not detail the number of data breaches attributable to mobile devices, there is agreement that the widespread use of mobile devices is putting patient data at risk.

The Commercial Felony Streaming Act (S.978) is pending introduction to the United States Senate.  If S.978 is passed, it would make the unauthorized streaming of copyrighted material a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

The potential passage of S.978 has sparked fears that artists like Justin Bieber (who began his quest toward pop stardom by singing covers on YouTube!) could end up in jail. DemandProgress.org has even argued that S.978 could shut down Twitter, YouTube! and other popular sites.

Facebook has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission regarding charges that it violated users' privacy rights.

Why Facebook was under investigation?

In December 2009, privacy advocates filed a complaint with the FTC following certain changes to Facebook privacy policies.   Specifically, the FTC complaint alleged that Facebook made aspects of its users' profiles - such as name, picture, and friends list - public by default and without user consent. The FTC stated that such actions violated user expectations of privacy and threatened the "health and safety" of users by exposing "potentially sensitive affiliations" such as political views and sexual orientation.

The FTC complaint also alleged other situations where Facebook "made promises that it did not keep," such as promising that it would not share information with advertisers or retain data that it promised users was deleted.

On November 29, 2011, the State Bar of Michigan's Health Care Law Section presented a webinar entitled "Making Sense of 'Meaningful Use' Incentives for Electronic Health Record Adoption," which was attended by a number of Foster Swift health care attorneys.  This program gave a wonderful overview of the procedural requirements in obtaining incentive payments for the use of electronic health records ("EHR").

On November 3, 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would create a new exemption from registration under the securities laws for what has come to be known as "crowdfunding."  The crowdfunding exemption would: 

With the holiday shopping season gearing up, let's take a look at a common scenario.  Frank, a "last minute" shopper, purchases a great gift from an Internet merchant's website.  The Internet merchant states that the item will be delivered to Frank in 3-5 business days.  Unfortunately for Frank, the item is delivered 5 days late. Does Frank have rights under the law?  Is the Internet merchant required to notify Frank of the late delivery? Read on.