Singularity Law

The Information Technology Law Blog and Podcast by Professor Michael Scott

Archive for 2009

News is Not the Issue, Advertising Is

The newspaper industry is suffering. At least one newspaper is closing down each week in the United States, and this trend is likely to continue unless the industry makes some radical changes in their way of thinking. Unfortunately, those who control most of the newspapers in the United States just don’t get it. These publishers [...]

From Info Tech to Clean Tech

A few days from now I will be co-chairing a conference on “clean tech law.” Many people who have known me for years have been curious as to why I would be organizing a conference in a “new” area of law. The fact is that while clean technology (solar, wind, biofuels) is a new [...]

Upcoming Conference on CleanTech Law

I will be co-chairing an exciting, one-day conference at Southwestern Law School (Los Angeles) on Friday, September 18th on Cleantech Law and Policy.
The program will be divided into four panel discussions addressing a variety of topics, including:
1. The New Government Energy Policies and CleanTech’s Opportunities: Incentives and Market Drivers
2. Learning from the [...]

IT Law Wiki Hits 5000 Articles

Just slightly less than two years ago, a number of volunteers launched the IT Law Wiki. Their intent was to develop a comprehensive encyclopedia of materials relating to the burgeoning field of information technology law.
The IT Law Wiki has reached an important milestone with the posting of its 5000th article. We are grateful to all [...]

And Now … Admiralty Law?!?

When I began practicing in the field of computer law (a quaint term today), a good computer lawyer had to know contract law, and some tax law — and that was pretty much all. Patents were available for hardware, but not software; the Copyright Office still had its doubts about the copyrightability of computer programs; [...]

Associated Press Gets It Wrong, Again

As many newspapers fold or downsize, companies that make their money from selling content to those newspapers are running into financial problems as well. One of the most visible, and outspoken, of those companies is Associated Press (AP). AP is an American news agency that aggregates stories written by its members and its own staff [...]

Heads in the Cloud

In the computer field, like any other field, there are “fads.” Some fads are short lived, while others take root and become part of the fabric of the IT business world. Unfortunately, it is difficult to tell sometimes what kind of fad we are talking about. When the Internet was first opened up to “public” [...]

Google Book Search: The Good, the Bad and the Really Bad

Last month I was honored to speak at the mid-Winter Copyright Society U.S.A. meeting in San Francisco. My presentation was focused primarily on the Google book search settlement, and its implications for copyright owners in general. I had previously written on how I felt that Google had gotten the better end of the deal, which [...]

Join Us in London this Summer

The brochures have been mailed out, the website is completed, and applications are coming in. For any U.S student from an ABA accredited law school, or any foreign law student interested in information technology law, we invite you to join us in London for 5 weeks of stimulating classes (6 units of course credit), interesting [...]