Keith Ecker

February 03, 2006 | Inside Counsel

Los Angeles didn't have a problem with virtual murder, pimping, robbery or drug-dealing. But when it came to virtual sex, the city decided to get litigious. On Jan. 26, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed suit against the makers of the widely popular and controversial "Grand Theft Auto: San...

By Keith Ecker

2 minute read

February 03, 2006 | Inside Counsel

When Deputy General Counsel of Microsoft Kevin Harrang took the stage at LegalTech in New York, a silence overcame the audience - a silence that was intermittently disturbed by the bleeps and dings of BlackBerries, Treos and cell phones. These interruptions were fitting, considering that Harrang's keynote speech at the...

By Keith Ecker

4 minute read

January 31, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

Wikis rival project-management software and e-mail in cost and usability.

By Keith Ecker

8 minute read

January 31, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

Move over Madison and St. Clare counties. There's a new judicial hellhole in the state of Illinois. According to the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), Cook County, which includes Chicago, tops its neighboring jurisdictions on the 2005 list of judicial hellholes, coming in at No. 2. Formerly the reigning king...

By Keith Ecker

13 minute read

January 31, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

Hawking Chico's high-end female fashion was Charissa Villanueva's bread and butter. But behind her salesperson smile lurked bitter unhappiness. Villanueva had spent $500 to conform to the California store's dress code. Chico's policy required all employees to wear either its brand, or clothing in the style of its brand. Frustrated...

By Keith Ecker

5 minute read

January 27, 2006 | Inside Counsel

Cingular Wireless may be :) about its pending patent, but the mobile communications company has technologists hopping >:-(. On March 28, 2005, Cingular filed a patent covering the concept of using emoticons, the ASCII-based symbols used by online chatters to express emotions, for use on mobile devices. Specifically, the patent...

By Keith Ecker

2 minute read

January 20, 2006 | Inside Counsel

When it comes to computer security issues, e-mail is old news. In a poll released this week of more than 100 organizations, 73 percent claimed to have some form of e-mail security solution in place, according to Akonix Systems Inc. The new threat on the corporate block is instant messaging...

By Keith Ecker

2 minute read

January 13, 2006 | Inside Counsel

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a closely watched 1st Amendment case between Yahoo! and two French civil rights groups on Jan. 12. In 2000 a French court ordered the California-based company to remove links to Nazi memorabilia on its French and main sites because such material violates...

By Keith Ecker

2 minute read

January 06, 2006 | Inside Counsel

In an effort to bring clarity to SEC enforcement, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has announced a new set of guidelines the Commission will follow for fining companies for fraudulent conduct. Announced Jan. 4., the new SEC guidelines outline a number of factors the commission will take into consideration when determining...

By Keith Ecker

2 minute read

January 06, 2006 | Inside Counsel

Judges need to brush up on their ethics after the ABA released its final draft of its revisions to the Model Code of Judicial Conduct on Dec. 21. The commission in charge of the code is accepting public commentary on the revisions until March 15. "The commission drew on the...

By Keith Ecker

1 minute read