Mass Law Blog
Intellectual property and business litigation, Massachusetts and nationallyWritten by humans
Lee Gesmer’s Mass Law Blog began in 2005, and contains almost 600 posts. The site initially focused on Massachusetts law, but today it follows business and intellectual property law nation-wide. The site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm represents startup and established companies in the areas of litigation, transactions (including financings, mergers and acquisitions), IP rights, taxation, employment law, standards consortia, business counseling and open source development projects and foundations. You can find a summary of the firm’s services here. To learn how Gesmer Updegrove can help you, contact: Lee Gesmer
Massachusetts Federal Judge Applies the CFAA Narrowly in AMD v. Feldstein
This week's internal report by MIT on its handling of the Aaron Swartz case may be an appropriate time to note that the sound and fury over the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (the "CFAA") is not limited to its use in criminal cases like the Swartz prosecution. The controversy extends to the use of this law in civil cases as well.* *The CFAA may be used as either a civil or a criminal law. However, the words of the statute must mean the same thing in each context. As the court noted in the case...
Client Advisory: New Law Applies Mass Sales and Use Tax to Software-Related Services
Click here for direct access to a pdf of this document. This advisory was updated on August 1, 2013, to reference a FAQ issued by DOR on July 31, 2013. [pdf file="http://gesmer.com/media/pnc/6/media.386.pdf"]
Things are Settling Back Down in Yoknapatawpha County
"It was as though she realised for the first time that you – everyone – must, or anyway may have to, pay for your past; the past is something like a promissory note with a trick clause in it which, as long as nothing goes wrong, can be manumitted in an orderly manner, but which fate or luck or chance, can foreclose on you without warning." Requiem for a Nun, William Faulkner __________________ For many years the Estate of James Joyce was infamous for its use of copyright law to restrict what...
Why Did Broadcasters Use a Local Affiliate to Challenge Aereo in Boston?
Why did a Boston affiliate of ABC file suit a major copyright infringement action against Aereo in Boston, rather than ABC itself? Or another major broadcaster, such as CBS, NBC or Fox? On May 15th, in a post titled "Does Second Circuit Decision Determine Copyright Legality of Aereo “Antenna-Farm” System Nationwide?", I discussed the fact that Aereo had filed a preemptive suit in the Southern District of New York. The suit asked the federal district court to enjoin the major broadcasters (ABC,...
This site is hosted by Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. You can find a summary of our services here. To learn how GU can help you, contact:
Lee Gesmer