Posts Tagged ‘tech through 2008’

New Times column — BlackBerry suits?

My latest column for the Times Online (U.K.) is now up and deals with one academic’s recent prediction that employers would become targets of lawsuits based on their workers’ BlackBerry addictions. An excerpt:

…it made a perfect hey-Martha-look-at-this story, arriving amid the August silly season. As it happens, media people love to confess to their own BlackBerry addictions, which subtly reflect their own importance (people need to reach me day and night!) and in any case make a more agreeable topic of conversation than their gin, shopping or sex addictions….

All that having been said, it’s very unlikely that employers need worry about BlackBerry-addiction suits. Despite rumors to the contrary, American courts have not in fact been much inclined to let sunken-eyed Jane blame her addictions on deep-pocketed James. Compulsive gamblers’ suits have mostly flopped so far – as have those alleging videogame addiction – while the very modest success enjoyed by plaintiffs in fast-food lawsuits has come on other legal theories, such as ingredient mis-labelling.

(Walter Olson, “BlackBerry suits?”, Sept. 18). For earlier posts on the subject, see Aug. 25 (Ted), Sept. 8 (me)(bumped from mid-morning post).

Update: “Entrepreneur” trademark fight

Back in a post of Aug. 31, 2003 we reported on the legal onslaught waged by Entrepreneur Media, publisher of Entrepreneur magazine, against Scott Smith, who had been so rash as to name his public relations shop Entrepreneur PR. Smith filed for bankruptcy after being told to pay a $1.4 million judgment, but the case has now taken a turn not so favorable for Entrepreneur Media. Last month a U.S. bankruptcy judge issued an order to show cause why he should not impose $10 million in sanctions on Entrepreneur Media and its lawyers, Latham & Watkins, over their conduct in the case, which included accusing Smith of hiding assets. “A hearing is set for next month.” (Kellie Schmitt, “Bankruptcy Judge Threatens $10M in Sanctions for Latham, Client”, The Recorder, Sept. 7).

Virtual property, real lawsuits?

Hanno Kaiser at Law and Society Blog (Jul. 18): “Suppose you spent the last eight weeks leveling up in a massive multiplayer online game to obtain a particular armor, only to find out that two days later the online game company took away some of the protective effects of that armor. Do you have a legal remedy for the devaluation of your virtual property?” See also Dec. 30, 2003.

Lawrence Lessig on lawyering

It turns out the celebrity Stanford lawprof can make us sound like squishy moderates on the issue:

In a contentious debate with Random House’s Richard Sarnoff, [Prof. Lessig] argued that the publishing industry’s lawsuit over Google’s book-scanning effort threatens the very soul of the Internet, and there was little doubt who he believes is to blame. “Why unleash lawyers on this issue? We know lawyers suck value out of an economy,” he said, to cheers from the audience.

(Lattman, Jun. 2).