We’ve got a great social technology-focused episode this month, starting out with our “Chaos in the Courts” story about a new anti-theft app for the iPhone.

In our “On the Blawgs” segment we feature a post from the China Law Blog about registering for video game copyrights, why it’s important, and what problems some companies may run into if they don’t. You may recognize The China Law Blog from a previous podcast where we interviewed the blog’s creator, Dan Harris.

In our “In the News” segment, we feature a recent news story from Thomson Reuters News & Insight about new developments in the escalating legal battle between Samsung and Apple.

Then, in our interview segment, we speak with Peter Toren, of Shulman Rogers, about his experience in intellectual property litigation and what legal battles he thinks might be on the horizon in the social gaming industry.

You can listen to the episode now by clicking the Play button on the built-in player below, or listen to the November edition of the Legal Current Podcast later. (more…)

With the trial of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak still frequenting global news headlines, the spotlight for anti-money laundering and anti-corruption issues has largely stayed on the Middle East. But there’s another part of the world, a little closer to home, where U.S. companies still need to exercise caution and that’s Latin America.

This region of the world presents American companies with a volatile and risky combination of a history of public corruption coupled with booming growth, particularly in industries where foreign companies often need to rely on public bidding.

To learn more about the anti-money laundering enforcement efforts in Latin America, as well as how U.S. companies can re-double their efforts to ensure compliance, we are speaking with Will Barry and Jeff Lehtman, both partners out of the Washington D.C. office of Richards Kibbe & Orbe.

You can listen to the episode now by clicking the Play button on the built-in player below (more…)

We’ve got an entertaining episode this month, starting out with our “Chaos in the Courts” story about a 22-year-old self-proclaimed vampire, just in time for Halloween.

In our “On the Blawgs” segment we feature a post with some great tips for Twitter users, including information about the new enhancement to the Promoted Tweets program.

In this month’s interview segment, we speak with Sally Abel from Fenwick and West, LLP about some potential trademark issues that are being created with the new .xxx domain for the adult entertainment industry.

Then, in our “In the News,” segment we feature a recent news story from Thomson Reuters News & Insight about the new policy adopted by the Federal Judicial Conference about the wholesale sealing of civil cases in the courts.

You can listen to the episode now by clicking the Play button on the built-in player below, or listen to the October Legal Current podcast later.

 

This post originally ran on our Legal Current Blog.

This post originally ran on our Legal Current Blog.

Social media seems to be just about everywhere, and used by just about everyone. But with a lack of legal boundaries surrounding social media, it becomes difficult to determine what is fair game for law enforcement and what is private property. A recent trend where US law enforcement agencies have searched Facebook accounts without the users’ consent suggests to some that there is a need for laws to evolve with developing technology.

Fourth Amendment rights have also been brought into question with the rise of social media sites like Facebook being used as a legal resource. Without the users’ knowledge, law enforcement agencies are gaining access to detailed aspects of their account, such as messages, status updates, and even rejected Friend requests.

We spoke with John Browning, managing partner for the Dallas office of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard and Smith, and author of The Lawyer’s Guide to Social Networking: Understanding Social Media’s Impact on the Law about this issue. John shared with us how he sees social media affecting the legal system, how he believes laws will need to change, and how his book is a great resource for lawyers dealing with issues involving social media.

Listen to the full interview with John by clicking on the player below or by downloading it here.

This post originally ran on our Legal Current Blog.

Do laws need to change to keep up with technology?

That is one question that many corporate general counselors may be asking as they try to decide whether to take an anonymous online critic to court. Recently we’ve seen many companies fail in their attempts to prosecute vocal online critics and make sites like Google and Twitter turn over their identities.

So where do we draw the line? When are people simply exercising their First Amendment rights versus violating the law?

For answers to these questions and more, we turned to Craig Newman, partner in the New York office of Richards Kibbe and Orbe LLP, to hear his take on when companies should go after anonymous posters on the internet through litigation.

Although it is not easy for companies to prove the validity of their lawsuits against online anonymous posters, it is an increasing trend as companies generate more creative legal claims. Craig is a reporter-turned-lawyer and has some interesting insight into the paradoxical nature of this recent development online and in the courts.

Listen to the full interview with Craig by clicking on the player below or downloading it here.

This post originally ran on our Legal Current Blog.

You can hardly turn on the television or open a newspaper without seeing something about the Casey Anthony trial. The question of what happened to 2-year-old Caylee Anthony during the summer of 2008 has plagued the minds of millions of Americans. Many were glued to television sets and Twitter feeds to keep up with the latest findings in arguably one of the most publicized cases ever.

You’d practically have to be living under a rock to not have heard or read something about the case over the past three years. While this is good for the media, it creates a nightmare when it comes to selecting an unbiased jury.

As it stands today, the basis for what makes a fair and impartial jury is largely focused around the notion that potential jurors have little or no exposure to the case before trial. In instances of highly publicized cases, such as this one, the question that is always asked of potential jurors is whether or not they can put aside their preconceived notions, and ignore information that they may have already heard, in order to base their verdict solely on the evidence presented in court.

And in a case like Casey Anthony’s where the majority of the public wrote her off as guilty before the trial even began, this was easier said than done.

Richard Gabriel, a trial advisor for Casey Anthony’s defense team, talks about the jury selection process and the unprecedented challenges that the team faced in order to ensure that their client received a fair trial.

Richard has more than 26 years of experience as a trial advisor and has assisted counsel in several prominent cases including the O.J. Simpson, Heidi Fleiss and Whitewater trials. Richard is also the co-author, with Ted Donner, of the book Jury Selection Strategy & Science which provides guidance for attorneys on how to navigate the jury selection process in order to give their client a fair trial.

You can listen to the interview now by clicking the Play button on the built-in player below, or click here to listen later. (more…)

It’s a very lively episode this month – the highlight being an interview with Dana Kravetz, an employment law expert, looking at the recent Supreme Court decision on what is being called the biggest class-action sex-discrimination case in over 50 years. Dana adds to this discussion with his prediction of the implications this case will have on similar employment and potential class-action lawsuits against big employers in the future.

Check out Legal Current’s podcast on Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling against Microsoft.

This post originally ran on our Legal Current Blog.

We have an especially dynamic episode this month – the highlight being an interview on how social media plays a role in political unrest around the world. We speak with Peter Apps, political risk correspondent for Reuters, about the use of social media in the uprising in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East. We also talk with Peter about his recent articleon the superinjunctions in the U.K., and how some people are using Twitter as a loophole to bypass court orders.

In our new segment, “In the News,” we highlight a recent news headline from Thomson Reuters News & Insight about a new program of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that could give whistleblowers a financial reward for information leading to large-scale enforcement actions.

We’ve got those segments, plus our regular features, including “On the Blawgs” which features a post from theAttorney Sync blog on how to keep your personal and professional lives separate on Facebook. Lastly, in “Chaos in the Courts” we bring you a bizarre story about a man who prank-called 911 more than 80 times.

You can listen to the episode now by clicking the Play button on the built-in player below, or by clicking here.

We’re also on iTunes (just enter “Legal Current” in the search box).

If you have a suggestion for a future interview or episode theme, just leave a comment on this blog post or send an email to contact@legalcurrent.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at @legalcurrent.

How do events like the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan impact insurance law? How is the insurance world keeping up with the ever-changing social media landscape?

For answers to these questions and more, Legal Current turned to attorney and author, Steven Plitt. Steven is the author of several insurance related publications including Couch on Insurance as well as his latest book, Practical Tools for Handling Insurance Cases.

Listen to the full interview with Steven by clicking on the player below or downloading it on itunes.