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The people of U.S. will be glad to know that for the first time in a decade, their country is not the leader in executions. That privilege now belongs to China and Iran. For the death penalty opponents this is welcome news as they have been trying hard to abolish the death penalty rule in…

Argentina has a serious trafficking issue. And it’s not just drugs — but iPhones. Buenos Aires, the nation’s capital, is rife with stores sporting Apple signs and images of the late Steve Jobs. Walk into any of these unaffiliated shops, and you’ll find white walls covered with iPhone accessories. But to purchase an iPhone, you’ll…

Web sites can be accessed virtually everywhere. A frequent worry of website operators is that a court in some distant state will find that it has personal jurisdiction over them and force them to defend a suit far from home. While it often seems that courts are biased towards assuming jurisdiction over defendants, two recent…

Digital media law update: Plaintiffs who believe they have been wronged by acts committed by U.S. multinational corporations in foreign countries have long attempted to bring claims against such corporations in the U.S., and based on U.S. law. However, such plaintiffs face many hurdles. Some claims are dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction over the…

The FTC’s recent settlement against soft goods marketer Iconix Brand Group, Inc. shows the hazards of trying to skirt the hassles of compliance with the Childrens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501-6506. If your website privacy policy disclaims an intent to collect information from kids and asks kids not to submit personal…

Internet gaming: On September 1, 2009, the 3rd Circuit handed down an opinion rejecting several facial challenges to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 (31 U.S.C. § 5361). This decision was on a suit brought by the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association – iMEGA — a gaming industry advocacy group. Interactive…

Employers seeking to discover what their employees are doing and writing on the internet will can find themselves out of the reach of federal wiretap laws (under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act [“ECPA”] and the Stored Communications Act [“SCA”]) so long as they limit their efforts to intercepting and accessing emails and web activity conducted…

The Senate Judiciary Committee has rejected Attorney General Mukasey’s call to advance legislation undoing the Sentencing Commission’s reform of federal sentencing guidelines around crack cocaine, the Los Angeles Times reports. Not only that, the LAT notes that Senator Patrick Leahy actually had the political cojones to call the AG’s tactics what they really are: fear-mongering….