Technology Legal News Articles & Interviews

Los Angeles, CA Five years ago, Los Angeles attorney Erik Syverson saw the future. He decided to focus his legal practice on what happens in the world of cyberspace. "The internet is here to stay," says Syverson. "I realized a few years ago that the internet world is going to bring up all kinds of legal issues."

Washington, DC The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning consumers about internet fraud relating to advertisements for acai weight loss products.

Regina, SK A thin, wiry man with piercing eyes who claims to eat and sleep very little, Canada's Tony Merchant is a somewhat misunderstood character but nevertheless a very good litigation lawyer. He's pursued hundreds of class action suits with excellent results in a country where people are historically less accustomed to settling grievances through civil action than in the US. Merchant's latest newsworthy suit is a class action against Facebook. In a country with only 33 million people, it is estimated that there are 15.7 million Facebook users. The putative class, as lawyers say, is phenomenally large.

Little Rock, AR A family battle is going to court—but this time the battle is not between mom and dad. Instead, a 16-year-old boy has alleged that his mother harassed him when she logged onto his Facebook page, read his posts and changed his password to lock him out of Facebook. The lawsuit is a striking example of how the Internet has changed families and communities, and how it continues to challenge the way parents raise their Internet-savvy children.

Miami, FL One of the most galling types of internet scams involves the sale and non-delivery of items online. While the vast majority of vendors on eBay are honest and legitimate, there are always a few who are looking to make an easy dollar off unsuspecting customers. Such was the case with Nilton Rossoni, a Brazilian businessman living in Florida, who ran what the Miami Herald described as one of the largest and most brazen Internet scams in the history of eBay.

Washington, DC Mason LLP has filed a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (San Jose Division), Hibnick v. Google, Inc., Civil Action No. CV-100672-JW, on behalf of potentially several million Gmail users to whose accounts Google Buzz was recently added. The lawsuit seeks to enjoin Google from continuing to operate Buzz without appropriate internet privacy safeguards and it seeks damages, including statutory damages of $100 per day per user.

Los Angeles, CA In the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti earlier this week, many online charities and funds have sprung up to provide relief to the Caribbean nation. Yet analysts are cautioning web surfers to be careful of internet fraud when donating to charities online.

Vancouver, BC The latest word on internet fraud has nothing to do with a fictitious inheritance scam from Nigeria or a rare magazine you bought on eBay and never received. The latest scam takes advantage of the mushrooming popularity of Facebook and other social networking sites by hooking victims into thinking they are being solicited by their own family members or Facebook friends.

Salt Lake City, UT The popular search engine Google is taking legal action against several companies alleged to have run a widespread work-at-home internet scam using the company's name and logo.

Bromont, QC A Canadian woman on medical leave from her job in Quebec received an unexpected visit from her insurance company—on Facebook. The insurance company, which was paying the freight for her bout with depression, searched her Facebook profile and noted that she appeared to be having too much fun for someone allegedly suffering from depression.