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Bruce Boyden

Is Electronic Snooping OK If You Have Good Intentions?

the conversation Should journalists or security researchers be able to access your home network and change settings without your permission, or snoop on your email and web browsing traffic, in order to further their research? I would think the answer is obviously no, even if the research is legitimate. But two stories that ran last week seem to be expressing dismay at restrictions placed on journalists or security researchers by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act that allegedly prohibit them from doing exactly that. The issue is significant because, in the wake of several controversial prosecutions (Lori Drew, Aaron Swartz, Andrew Auernheimer (a/k/a “weev”)), there is considerable pressure building to amend the CFAA. I think it would be a serious mistake to amend the CFAA, or any other electronic intrusion statute, to permit journalists or security researchers — or possibly anyone describing themselves as such, such as bloggers or hobbyists — from accessing poorly secured home networks or private communications just out of curiosity.

Here’s Forbes privacy blogger Kashmir Hill on a security flaw in a home automation system: Read More »Is Electronic Snooping OK If You Have Good Intentions?

Ninth Circuit Revises UMG Recordings v. Shelter Capital Opinion

Veoh logoI want to briefly interrupt the hubbub over Kirtsaeng (which I fully intend to contribute to at some point) to note that last week the Ninth Circuit released an updated opinion in UMG Recordings v. Shelter Capital Partners, the Section 512 immunity case it decided back in December 2011. The old opinion, 667 F.3d 1022 (9th Cir. 2011), is now vacated. Apparently the panel conducted a rehearing and the new opinion modifies the old one in a few ways, primarily to bring the opinion in line with the Second Circuit’s opinion in Viacom v. YouTube, 676 F.3d 19 (2d Cir. 2012). I’ve created a redlined version showing the changes (aside from minor differences like page numbers).

That’s a pretty interesting development, I think. I can’t think of another copyright case where an appellate court changed its opinion after having been persuaded by the reasoning in another circuit’s opinion. Certainly it would be better if the Ninth and the Second Circuits “talked to each other” more often in this way.

In any event, the outcome is still the same: UMG lost on all of its arguments that Veoh didn’t fall within the safe harbor, and that Veoh’s investors were secondarily liable for infringement; Veoh still loses on its argument that its Rule 68 offer of judgement should get it attorneys fees. But there are several important alterations to the reasoning. Read More »Ninth Circuit Revises UMG Recordings v. Shelter Capital Opinion

Can a Website Operator Disclose Identifying Information About Blog Commenters?

groundhog-smOver on The Faculty Lounge and Prawfsblawg there is an emerging kerfuffle over whether it breaks any laws, or leads to any liability, for a blog operator to disclose the email addresses or IP address of people that post comments there. The whole debate is somewhat ridiculously wrapped up in a brouhaha that it’s not worth going into, and involves Paul Campos, Brian Leiter, Leiter’s co-blogger Dan Filler, The Faculty Lounge (where Filler also posts), the whole Law-School-Is-a-Scam movement, anonymous trolls, and who knows what else. Suffice it to say it is reaching kerfuffled heights of kerfuffledness. I’m just interested in the legal question as an Internet Law issue. If you really must know more, you can follow the links in wrap-up posts on Volokh Conspiracy and Above the Law.

(Aside: The whole thing reminds me of a lawsuit between neighbors. Some dispute arises between the two — maybe one doesn’t keep his or her grass cut short enough. Pretty soon the neighbors come to hate each other, and seek to express that hate in legal claims over every perceived infraction dating years back, no matter how tenuous the relation of those claims is to any facts. Before you know it, they’ve got dueling civil RICO lawsuits against each other, and they are telling their lawyers, “it’s the principle of the matter!” I tell my students they should see dollar signs when they hear that phrase, at least if they are billing by the hour, but other attorneys have told me what they hear is, “Run away!“)

Let’s start with a hypothetical, in order to avoid the need for any hyper-ventilated speculation. A runs a blog on which B comments, providing an email address that is not displayed with the comment, which A then provides to third party C. Is A liable for anything?

One point worth noting right away is that, unless you add more facts to the hypo, there’s nothing in it that would hinge liability on whether the disclosure is to one person or 1,000 people. So what people are suggesting is some legal provision that would prohibit a blog operator from posting on the site, “Dear ObstreperousMan, using email address joe@yahoo.com and posting from IP address 168.192.100.100, I’m sick of your rude and abusive comments, and you are not welcome here any more.” Is there something in the law that would prohibit such behavior or subject the blog operator to liability?

The short answer is no, I can’t think of any basis on which the blog operator would be liable for such conduct. It seems clear that the actual law is only a small and perhaps relatively insignificant part of the furor, but I still found it to be an interesting intellectual exercise, so let me walk through what people have suggested.Read More »Can a Website Operator Disclose Identifying Information About Blog Commenters?

First Sale, “Lawfully Made,” and Copyright Stalking-Horses

copyrightThe Supreme Court heard oral argument this morning in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., despite Hurricane Sandy’s imminent arrival and the fact the entire federal government in Washington DC is shut down today. Kirtsaeng is a copyright case raising the issue, argued two years ago in Costco Wholesale Corp. v. Omega, S.A., of whether the first sale doctrine applies to third-party imports of goods manufactured under the authority of the copyright owner abroad. (Costco resulted in a 4-4 affirmance due to Justice Kagan’s recusal.) In more plain English, if someone in the United States purchases legitimate copies of some item abroad that has a copyrighted work somewhere in it, can they import those items into the United States and resell them here without violating the Copyright Act? The specific issue in Kirtsaeng involves used textbooks, but it could just as easily apply to watches with a copyrighted logo on the back (the good at issue in Omega), shampoo with a copyrighted label on the bottle (Quality King v. L’Anza), or any product with copyrighted software in it.

Costco indicates the mischief that could come about from a holding saying that the first sale doctrine does not apply to imported goods. There is zero chance that Omega was actually concerned about the redistribution of its copyrighted logo, located inconspicuously on the backs of its watches, as opposed to the grey market arbitrage of the watches themselves, which of course are not copyrightable. But mischief that does not rise to a constitutional level doesn’t tell us what the law is. The arguments in Kirtsaeng focus on the meaning of the phrase “lawfully made under this title.” Section 109(a) provides that:

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106(3), the owner of a particular copy or phonorecord lawfully made under this title, or any person authorized by such owner, is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy or phonorecord.

Kirtsaeng, the petitioner, argues that “lawfully made under this title” means “made with the authority of the copyright owners as required by Title 17, or otherwise authorized by specific provisions of Title 17,” a theory Kirtsaeng borrows from the Solicitor General’s brief back in Quality King. Wiley argues that because Title 17 does not have extraterritorial application, “lawfully made under this title” must mean “lawfully made in the United States pursuant to Title 17.”

That’s the question that cert. was granted on, but the whole debate strikes me as off-target. As a result I don’t think either side’s briefs really grapple with the problem here. Read More »First Sale, “Lawfully Made,” and Copyright Stalking-Horses