By Andrew Jacobs Cyberattack on U.S. and South Korean Governments Stymies Investigators Law enforcement officials are still investigating the cyberattacks that hobbled some U.S. and South Korean government websites for five days beginning July 4, the New York Times reports. The distributed denial of service attack caused 50,000 to 65,000 infected computers to jam websites of government agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Secret Service with an extraordinary amount of traffic. Although independent and government investigations have ... Read More...

By Tyler Lacey Law Enforcement Using Cell Phone Data During Investigations, Privacy Laws Yet to Catch Up On July 5, The New York Times posted an analysis of the use of cell phone forensics by law enforcement. According to the article, major cell phone service providers receive hundreds of requests each month from law enforcement agencies for data that can be used to track a user’s cell phone. Many of these requests are not backed by search warrants that require ... Read More...

Tenth Circuit Affirms Liability for Seller of Private Telephone Records By Tyler Lacey – Edited by Anthony Kammer Federal Trade Commission v. Accusearch Inc., June 29, 2009, No. 08-8003 Slip Opinion On June 29, 2009, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the Wyoming District Court, holding that Accursearch’s sale of private telephone records on its Abika.com website constituted an unfair practice in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) and granted summary judgment for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Dan Gooden ... Read More...

By Tyler Lacey Federal Prosecutors Launch New Attack Against Online Gamblers in the United States On June 9, the New York Times reported that federal prosecutors asked four American banks to freeze accounts containing money believed to be used for distributing winnings to online poker players. Wells Fargo, one of the contacted banks, received a court order requiring that the funds be frozen. Professor I. Nelson Rose of Whittier Law School described the move as “surprising” and as a “gamble” ... Read More...

By Sarah Sorscher Supreme Court to Consider Business Method Patents Patently-O reports that the Supreme Court granted certiorari on Bilski v. Doll. The Court will address whether a patentable “process” must be tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or transform a particular article into a different state or thing. The Court will also consider whether this “machine-or-transformation” test, which effectively forecloses meaningful patent protection to many business methods, runs counter to the intent of Congress in enacting 35 U.S.C. ... Read More...