Legal Radar

Art Activists: New York City Halted Museum Protest Speech

Several art activists filed a federal suit against New York City and claimed their First Amendment rights were being violated during last year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art protest.

The plaintiffs utilized mobile video projectors to show political messages and images.

NYC police officers, who were present during the protest, seized the group’s projector since it beamed “political speech” on the side building of the museum during a gala for David H. Koch on September 9^th.

Police halted the van and carried out criminal summonses to the activists for illegally posting advertisements.

The activists were brought to a local precinct and held for a few hours prior to being released. While the summonses were dismissed, the police kept the projector.

Samuel Cohen, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the NYC police unlawfully arrested his clients and took the projector to prevent them from carrying out their free speech rights.

The complaint, which was filed in the previous week in a Manhattan federal court, is seeking trial and monetary damages.

Court of Appeals Reverses Privacy Victory in Phone-Tracking Case

A federal Court of Appeals made a ruling early this week saying that the police won’t require a warrant to track mobile devices of suspects, overturning a decision in a previous privacy case.

The 11^th U.S. appeals court in Atlanta felt the government never violated any privacy rights regarding an individual who was convicted in a 2010 armed robbery and currently serving a prison sentence.

The case serves as the latest test of the Fourth Amendment privacy protection rights against unreasonable seizure and searches in today’s digital era.

In a 2012 court ruling, prosecutors offered cell tower location information that strategically placed Quartavius Davis and his associates near the scene of robberies. In order to acquire a court order for the records, prosecutors only had to show that data taken from a prepaid wireless service was relevant to the probe.

Two of the judges said the Fourth Amendment requires the government to attain a warrant prior to accessing any cell location information.

Senate Teeing Up on Bill Meant for Patent Litigation

In the previous year, the House of Representative set out strong support for patent reform, especially on measures made to cut back on patent suits. Early this year, the House brought back a bill, the Innovation Act, and just this Wednesday, the Senate backed up the bill with support from influential Senators.

The bill indicated numerous measures to slash patent lawsuits made to promote quick settlements for companies who frequently make payments instead entering legal battles that could be more costly to defend.

The bill will entail plaintiffs to make be more specific and clear. It also adds limitations to the amount to be forked by the patent-litigation holder from firms in the early stages of a suit, in order to protect defendants from “fishing” instances.

It also give courts more leeway to reward lawyer fees to the losing party of the suit as well as plaintiffs seen by a judge to have brought a suit with little or no basis.

Judge: FBI Trickery in Sports Betting Case Deemed Unconstitutional

With the FBI suspecting an illegal World Cup betting ring from within several Caesars Palace Villas in Las Vegas, their agents last year arrived at a clever idea to get inside one of them.

With assistance from the hotel’s WiFi contractor, the FBI agents interrupted the internet service of guests, acting as internet repairmen, and fooled a butler into getting them into one luxury suite --- without any warrant. This allowed the FBI to collect enough evidence to arrest Malaysian gambler Wei Seng “Paul” Phua.

Last Friday, a U.S. federal judge made a ruling indicating that the FBI’s tactics is in violation of Phua’s 4^th Amendment rights. Prosecutors felt that the trick carried out in Phua’s case was an exception since online access wasn’t deemed a critical service.

Prosecutors revealed that $13M of bets were made before the FBI, who collaborated with Nevada’s gambling regulators, who raided other villas in Caesars Palace where Phua, his son, and others were staying. The FBI agents took their computer, money, and mobile phones.

Judge: GM Can Retain Its Bankruptcy Protection

A federal judge early this week ruled that GM (General Motors Co.) can hold on to its bankruptcy protection, which allows it to halt legal claims worth billions of dollars from consumers seeking damages over a faulty ignition switch.

Robert Gerber, a U.S. bankruptcy judge, who heard the oral arguments, submitted a 134-page ruling indicating that he couldn’t find evidence where GM carried out fraudulent acts in court when it participated in the bankruptcy process. The protection curbs customers from filing suit for compensation for injuries sustained and declining resale values to older GM vehicle models equipped with faulty ignition switches.

Attorneys of the plaintiffs argued that GM mislead the court for not revealing the faulty ignition switch matter, which it had knowledge of back in 2005. GM said its executives weren’t informed of the issue until 2013, which pushed for a 2.6-million vehicle recall a year later. The ignition switch problem has now been linked to over 80 deaths and more than 100 injuries.

Trade Group Suing to Reverse Net Neutrality

United States Telecom Association, an industry trade group, filed a suit early this week to reverse the neutrality rules set by the government --- the first of what may lead to a tide of legal battles.

The court filing asserts the rules to be arbitrary, unpredictable, and in violation of the federal law. The current filing may be a bit short on details, but the timing is crucial. Suits filed within the first 10 publication days of the Federal Registry are submitted into a lottery that will determine where the case will take place.

The Federal Communications Commission displayed its neutrality rules on the Federal Register early this week, a big step that kicked off what may be a long and tedious legal battle between the trade groups and the government.

Industry groups will likely make a legal challenge on procedure grounds as well as questioning the authority of the FCC on reclassifying the Internet as a service of telecommunication. Tom Wheeler, the current chairman for the FCC, expects a successful defense on the case.

United Kingdom Set to Regulate Bitcoin Exchanges

The U.K. government will be readying digital currency exchanges in a bit to support technology innovation while curbing criminal usage.

In a released document with regards to the country’s 2015 budget, the Treasury plans to enforced anti-money laundering regulation to the U.K. digital currency exchanges.

Such measure is aimed in creating the proper environment for legitimate figures to grow while crafting a harmful environment for illegal digital currency users.

The Treasury also plans to have a thorough consultation sometime this year to seek another angle with regards to shaping the new regulation.

The government is planning to create ideal standards and practices for digital currency business to make sure consumers are protected. Voluntary standards will be made by the U.K. government, the digital currency industry, and the British Standards Institution.

At the same time, the government is aiming to support the growth of its own financial sector and trigger a competition within the banking sector.

Dutch Court Trashes Data Retention Law

A Dutch court early this week gave privacy advocates a victory by bringing down a data retention law that allows government agencies access to any telecommunication data.

The Hague district court said the law was in violation of privacy rights and the right to personal data protection.

The latest ruling is a big blow to the Dutch government, which said the law was essential to combat crime and terrorism. But it’s a win for privacy advocates, lawyers, and journalists who said the law was unconstitutional since data is stored regardless if the citizen is a suspect or not.

The ruling is effective immediately, prompting telecommunication firms to no longer gather and store data.

The government was previously reluctant to trash the law for national security reasons. Authorities are aggressively seeking ways to expand surveillance capabilities following the latest attacks in Copenhagen and Paris, and an increasing number of radical Muslims who were born or grew up in Europe.

Europe Looking to Further Secure Data Privacy Law

The United States and Europe are pushing each other further apart when it comes to data privacy matters.

Shaken up by the current Snowden issue, the EU is making last touches on a bill that would alter the way European-based American companies would handle consumer data. Such measure would replace the current patches of European data privacy laws.

The draft legislation will entail consumers to make an explicit consent before businesses are cleared to share their personal information.

The legislation is currently in the EU negotiation process and will need to make it through several legal hurdles before it can take full effect.

EU authorities are already thinking of removing the U.S.-EU agreement called “Safe Harbor.” This agreement lets American firms gather data generated by EU consumers. Such change can take effect at any point in time.

EU Data Protection Supervisor, Giovanni Buttarelli, a figure who coordinates with the EU data protection policy, is hoping the new law will help streamline national data protection in all European nations.

Fraud Making Its Way to Apple Pay

Banks have observed a growing fraud occurrence in Apple’s mobile-payment system as criminals continue to exploit the verification process credit card additions, some tech observers say.

Banks have tightened the process of verification to fight off the fraud.

The fraud issue was brought up by Cherian Abraham, a payment systems expert who collaborates with retailers and financial institutions on mobile payment solutions.

Abraham indicated that it’s never an anomaly to observe fraud making up about 6% of Apple Pay transactions, compared to the 0.1% payment transactions via a plastic card swipe. He also said the rate of frauds vary from one issuing bank to another.

Apple Pay utilizes a secure element in its latest iPhone models to store encrypted payment information separately from the rest of the mobile device. A fingerprint reader ensures the owner of the phone has made the purchase and issues a one-time code entry so merchants won’t see credit card details from the buyer.

Creating a card provisioning process is time consuming and may turn away potential Apple Pay consumers.