Author: Justin Lane

The United States is far behind the rest of the world when it comes to internet speeds. Two thirds of the world is still not online. So, when Irene Estevez, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Time Warner, says that they [Time Warner] do not see a need to offer a product to compete with Google’s 1GB/sec internet service, it’s hard to think she has any idea what weather is outside, much less what the future of global connectivity will be. The comment from the CTO underlies a larger problem with the companies that control access to the internet....

The government refused to comment on a recently unsealed whistleblower lawsuit that claims Navy contractors were engaged in a kickback and bribery scheme from dating as far back as 2004. The contractor accused of bribery was the now-defunct Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow (ASFT) and was located in both Georgia and Rhode Island. The individuals that brought forth the claim, Rekha and Karan Vasudeva, were involved in establishing the company in Georgia. A concurrent criminal investigation was initiated in 2011. No information is available yet as to why ASFT was allowed to continue with its practices after the criminal investigation...

The jury in a case we discussed earlier in the week has found that the defendant, Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, is liable for punitive damages and awarded the plaintiff, Ms. Linda Gross, an additional $7.76 million. The jury is sending a strong message to the manufacturers of these products that patients are not test subjects and the practice of misleading patients into thinking unsafe products are safe will not be tolerated. Ms. Gross’s case is the second large verdict regarding the Pelvic Prolapse Kit. California jury awarded an injured woman $5.5 million for damages caused by...

At the corner of big business and government there lies and waits a company called MarkMonitor, based in San Francisco. What does the company do? MarkMonitor offers enterprise security solutions, protecting trademarks and copyrighted material by monitoring the behavior and activities of users online as an extension of the Center for Copyright Information. What does this mean? If you use a service that transfers files using bittorrent as a file transfer protocol (FTP) your internet service provider (ISP) may be working with MarkMonitor to track the types of files you’re accessing and sharing. Penalties for alleged infringement of a...

The Department of Justice’s long and often overreaching arm is again in the news as Wired reports that the prosecution intended to use Aaron Swartz’s own manifesto against him. As with the cases against Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds, the DOJ would rather pursue cases against celebrities and individuals who have harmed no one rather than pursue the real criminals on Wallstreet who buy and sell the People’s futures every day and are responsible for the worst economic disaster in recent history. Aaron Swartz was a young iconoclast and free information advocate. He was regularly in trouble with the...