Cyberkill

Details of new legislation to be introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller are leaking. Essentially, the legislation in its current form would give the President the power to declare a "cyber-emergency" and allow him or her to turn off the internet. It would also create a licensing standard for technology professionals to create a single standard. In the bill there is no definition of what is a "cyber-emergency" or any bounds to the President's powers.

This is a road paved with good intentions, and we know where that leads. Giving the President a kill switch and giving the President a blank check to declare a cyber-emergency is ridiculous. Let private industry deal with cyber-threats and attacks; given some motivation I'm sure they'll come up with something before the government does.

Microsoft's Word Patent Appeal

An appeals court just set the hearing date for Microsoft's appeal of an injunction against them selling new products of Word for September 23, 2009. HP and Dell are filing amicus briefs on Microsoft's behalf, arguing the injunction would hurt business.

Preferred vs. Common

Professor Stephen Brainbridge wrote a terrific blog on In Re: Trados Incorporated Shareholder Litigation, No. 1512-CC (July 24, 2009), analyzing the duties a director owes to preferred shareholders vis a vis common shareholders. The court held that directors owe duties to common shareholders are common law in nature, where preferred shareholders are usually contractual in nature. If common shareholders and preferred shareholders have divergent interests, directors should favor common law shareholders.

Schmidt resigns from Apple board

Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board of directors citing a conflict of interest. And that has nothing to do with the Federal Trade Commission's investigation of Apple-Google collusion in the marketplace.

Virtual Taxation

Adam Chodorow has published an article detailing a possible solution on tracking basis on virtual assets for tax purposes.