Tag Archives: Ignorantia juris non excusat

Bitcoins, trademarks, and a roadmap for the Bitcoin community

A lawyer from New York filed a trademark application for the mark ‘bitcoin’ on behalf of a client. This has caused an uproar in the Bitcoin community. The uproar has led to statements by the lawyer that he will be withdrawing the application in the U.S. and seek registration of the mark abroad. According to …

July 15, 2011 – 11:19 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Trademark | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Open WIFI Access Points — Should you use them, or is that illegal?

You are away from home or you office yet you need the internet, and you need it fast.  Your smartphone has it, but your files and program are on your laptop.  No sweat, you’re downtown near a bunch of apartments.  You see there is an open WIFI access point called “linksys.” But should you use …

May 5, 2011 – 3:07 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Criminal Law | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Implied licenses: Why copyright and contract prevents North Country Gazette from suing you

The North Country Gazette has threatened to sue folks who read more than one article on their website.  Since the threat was unearthed by BoingBoing and Techdirt, and re-posted on Slashdot, the website has gone down, come back up, and added a username/password authentication requirement. The original threat, detailed by Techdirt, outlines the Gazette’s plans …

October 28, 2010 – 11:08 am | By John William Nelson | Posted in Copyright | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Does U.K. Heritage own all Stonehenge images? No.

U.K. Heritage, the folks who maintain Stonehenge, have claimed ownership over Stonehenge images.1  This is especially relevant to me because I visited Stonehenge in Spring 2009 and, yes, took pictures. Does U.K. Heritage own the rights to all images of Stonehenge?  No.  Might they have claims against folks who took pictures of Stonehenge?  Maybe, but …

October 21, 2010 – 9:55 am | By John William Nelson | Posted in Copyright | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Garage Door Openers and the DMCA’s Anti-Circumvention Provision

Ars Technica, a website chock full of useful articles for any tech lover, has an interesting and lengthy examination of how law and technology interact when it comes to garage door openers. People confuse intellectual property fundamentals all the time.  It is not surprising, then, that specific technical aspects to copyright law get confused by …

December 17, 2009 – 10:01 am | By John William Nelson | Posted in Copyright | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Capturing the value of information — How Newscorp and AP can profit from the news, and how they can’t

Information is valuable.  Governments know this.  Companies know this.  Consumer rights know this.  The Associated Press and NewsCorp know this. Those last two run an entire business on the gathering and dissemination of information.  Both want us all to stop stealing their product. The Associated Press announced details on how they are going to be …

November 17, 2009 – 3:51 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Economics & Commerce | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Briefly why the rule of law does exist in virtual worlds already, and why it is doctrinally dangerous to think otherwise

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Carving virtual worlds out of the general jurisdiction of law is a mistake. Laws govern what occurs in virtual worlds to the extent that those actions fall under a law’s regulation. Just as a contract may be formed over the phone, so to can it be formed in a virtual worlds.

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Similarly, actions constituting Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress can occur in a virtual world just as they might in the real world.

November 5, 2009 – 4:38 pm | By John William Nelson | Posted in Virtual Worlds | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)