AS-IS: Ecommerce, Internet, Software & Technology Law and Contracts

This month's Wired magazine has a perceptive article about so-called "data scraping" or "screen scraping" practices.  It discusses the practical aspects of data scraping (such as IP address banning or blocking as a practical remedy to prevent scraping), use of cease and desist letters, and use of properly-licensed web services application programming interfaces (API's) as a way to control such practices.

The article does not provide any detail about underlying legal theories or court cases to prevent data scraping, such as those based on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) or court cases concerning unfair competition.

Source: Should Web Giants Let Startups Use the Information They Have About You?, by Josh McHugh. 

Posted by Harry at 03:55 PM | Permalink

I've just written and added a new article to my web site, Welcome to California: A Very Short Introduction to Several California Laws that Affect Out-of-State and Foreign Businesses (MS Word file).

My resources page contains other articles that I've written.

Posted by Harry at 05:11 PM | Permalink

A fellow lawyer in Cupertino, Stephen Wu, has co-authored a recently published book on information security law. 

According to the American Bar Association (ABA), the book "provides fundamental information on how to assess security risk, legal requirements for information security, and examples of best practices to avoid the many different kinds of security breaches. The book also discusses liability stemming from security breaches and provides pointers to other sources of standards, guidelines, and best practices. This Handbook will give clear and comprehensive guidance to anyone who wants a basic understanding of information security threats and the legal issues related to them."

Posted by Harry at 12:04 PM | Permalink

Welcome to the AS-IS blog, where I plan to discuss ecommerce, internet, software and technology contracts and licenses, as well as the laws affecting internet and software companies, both large and small.  My focus is on California law and Silicon Valley.

 This blog is sponsored by the Boadwee Law Office.  Please visit that site to learn more about me (attorney Harry Boadwee).

Posted by Harry at 10:53 PM | Permalink