Technology Insights
Analysis and practical guides on technology.
150 articles, checklists, and guides on technology law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice—for a specific matter, contact the firm.
Vulnerability Disclosure Program and Safe Harbor Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist takes a company from the decision to accept outside vulnerability reports to a published, maintained vulnerability disclosure program with a safe harbor that actually protects good-faith researchers. It covers governance and ownership, scope, authorization and safe harbor language addressing the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, state computer crime laws, the DMCA anti-circumvention rules, and contract terms, and the rules of engagement that keep research from becoming a data incident. Later phases cover the intake channel and security.txt under RFC 9116, triage and service levels aligned with ISO/IEC 29147 and 30111, disclosure timelines, bounty program design including platform terms and sanctions screening, and sector overlays such as CISA Binding Operational Directive 20-01 and federal IoT procurement rules. Red-flag boxes, a deadlines table, common failure points, and a worked example for a mid-size software company complete the checklist.
The Video Privacy Protection Act in the Age of Pixels: Who Is a Consumer and What Counts as Personally Identifiable
This article explains how a 1988 statute written after a reporter obtained Robert Bork's video rental list became the basis for thousands of claims against websites that embed a tracking pixel near a video. It reads the statute's text and the leading appellate decisions closely, including the split over who is a consumer now before the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Paramount Global and the split over what counts as personally identifiable information. It explains what a pixel, a c_user cookie, and a Facebook ID actually do at the level of the browser and the network. It covers the knowledge requirement, the consent provision, the narrow ordinary-course exception, standing after TransUnion, the $2,500 damages arithmetic, class certification, and mass arbitration. Worked hypotheticals show how the same website faces different outcomes in different circuits. Readers come away knowing which questions are settled, which are open, and what each likely answer would change.
Unlocking Cell Phones: The Law and the DMCA Exemption
Unlocking your cell phone so it works on another carrier's network is legal in the United States today, but the path to that simple sentence runs through one of the strangest detours in modern copyright law. For a brief stretch beginning in January 2013, unlocking a phone without your carrier's blessing was arguably a federal copyright violation under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention rules, after the Copyright Office declined to renew a long-standing exemption. A record-breaking White House petition and a rare burst of bipartisan agreement produced the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act of 2014, and the exemption has been renewed in every triennial rulemaking since. This article tells the full arc, explains how Section 1201 and the triennial process actually work (including the deep circuit split over whether circumvention must have any connection to copyright at all), and untangles the often-confused trio of unlocking, jailbreaking, and rooting. It closes with worked examples, an FAQ, and a look at how all of this connects to the broader right-to-repair movement.
Social Media Account and Handle Disputes: Impersonation, Username Squatting, and Who Owns a Company Account
This article explains who owns a social media account when a company, an employee, a founder, an agency, or an influencer all have a claim to it, and what the law does when a handle is held hostage, squatted, or used to impersonate a business or a person. It breaks an account into its legal parts (the platform license, the handle, the credentials, the content, the audience, and the goodwill) and shows which body of law governs each. It tells the story of the leading cases, from PhoneDog v. Kravitz, Ardis Health v. Nankivell, Christou v. Beatport, and Eagle v. Morgan to In re CTLI, Mattocks v. BET, and the Second Circuit's 2024 decision in JLM Couture v. Gutman. It then covers the federal computer-access statutes after Van Buren, trade secret and contract theories, state employee password-privacy laws and the NLRA, the reasons the ACPA does not reach usernames, impersonation remedies under the Lanham Act and state statutes, and why Section 230 usually defeats suits against platforms over suspensions. An extended worked example, common mistakes, an FAQ, and practical takeaways close the article.
Section 230 Reform and Platform Liability for User-Generated IP Infringement
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act famously shields online platforms from being treated as the publisher of user content, but its own text carves intellectual property out of that shield in 47 U.S.C. 230(e)(2). This article maps the resulting two-track world: copyright claims run through the DMCA's Section 512 notice-and-takedown safe harbor, while trademark and other IP claims are litigated on the merits under doctrines like contributory infringement. We update the doctrine to mid-2026, anchored by the Supreme Court's unanimous March 2026 decision in Cox Communications v. Sony Music Entertainment, which rewrote the standard for contributory copyright liability, alongside Moody v. NetChoice, Gonzalez, Taamneh, Anderson v. TikTok, and the Cox repeat-infringer line that preceded the Supreme Court's intervention. We explain how reform aimed at non-IP harms would still reshape IP enforcement through shared moderation infrastructure, and we draw out the practical stakes for rights holders, platforms of every size, and the creators caught in the middle. The piece compares the U.S. approach to the EU's Digital Services Act and offers concrete guidance for practitioners advising on intermediary liability.
Bringing a Health App Into Compliance With Consumer Health Data Laws: A Practical Guide
This guide is for the people who have to do the work at a health app, wellness or fitness product, direct-to-consumer telehealth company, or retailer selling health-related goods. It sequences the project from the first question (are you inside HIPAA at all) through a data map, ad-tech triage, consent flows, the separate consumer health data policy, vendor terms, sale authorization, deletion, security, geofencing, and breach decisions under the FTC's Health Breach Notification Rule. Each step says who owns it, how long it usually takes, what it costs in engineering and conversion, and what sample language looks like. Worked examples follow a sleep app, a telehealth clinic, and a retail chain with an in-store pharmacy. A section on common mistakes and a section on how disputes actually develop, from both sides, close the guide.
Domain Name Acquisition Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist puts a domain purchase on one desk, from the go or no-go decision through the closing file. Each task names its authority and carries practical notes, with red flags where deals usually go wrong. It follows the buy-side phases in order: decide, clear, read the record, structure the approach, negotiate, diligence the seller, paper the deal, fund escrow, close in the right sequence, and secure the name afterward. Rules still in force are separated from ICANN's reforms adopted in June 2026, which await implementation. It is built to be printed and initialed by the person responsible for each item.
Data Breach Litigation Toolkit: Privileged Investigation Protocols, Standing Motions, and Settlement Terms
This toolkit collects working papers for data breach class actions on both sides of the case, each with its purpose, owner, and timing, and each followed by drafting notes tied to authority. It includes an outside-counsel-led forensic engagement letter, a dual-track investigation protocol, a distribution log, a litigation hold, and a work product declaration. It also includes a complaint analysis worksheet, a forum map, standing motion and opposition outlines, an implied contract defense chart, and plaintiff-side tools such as an intake script, a CCPA notice, and forensic report discovery requests. It ends with a settlement term sheet. Bracketed items are placeholders, and each template should be adapted to the facts and forum.
Buying a Domain Name From Its Current Owner: Brokers, Escrow, Transfers, and the UDRP Risks You Inherit
The name you want is taken, and the person holding it wants real money. This article explains what a buyer actually acquires when a domain name changes hands, how brokers, marketplaces, escrow agents, registrars, and registries move the name, and what is changing under ICANN's Transfer Policy. It then turns to the hazards a buyer inherits, chiefly the rule that a purchase resets the bad faith clock under the UDRP and, outside the Ninth Circuit, under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. It reads the leading cases closely, including GoPets, Prudential, Jysk, Schmidheiny, CRS Recovery, and the recent Arizona decisions on purchased names. It also covers stolen names and title, security baggage on a used domain, tax treatment, and how a failed offer can shape a later UDRP or federal case. Readers come away able to decide whether to buy, fight, or pick another name.
Social Media Law Basics
Social media sits on top of a surprisingly deep legal stack: federal immunity statutes, copyright law, advertising regulation, labor law, constitutional doctrine, and a patchwork of privacy rules. This article maps that stack for anyone who posts, markets, hires, moderates, or governs online. We explain Section 230 and its limits, the 2023-2024 Supreme Court decisions in Gonzalez, Taamneh, Moody v. NetChoice and Lindke v. Freed, the FTC's endorsement rules for influencers and its 2024 fake-reviews rule, the Consumer Review Fairness Act, the line the National Labor Relations Act draws around employee venting, the state laws protecting employees' account passwords, who owns a work account when an employee quits, the rules for content ownership and DMCA takedowns, and how defamation, anonymous-speech unmasking, impersonation, and contests actually work. Plain-language explanations and worked examples throughout, with cross-links to deeper articles. It closes with an FAQ and the usual reminder to get real counsel before you act.
Lookalike Domains and Typosquatting: Phishing, Invoice Fraud, and the Legal Tools That Take Them Down
A lookalike domain costs a few dollars and can redirect a six-figure payment within days. This article explains how typosquatted, combosquatted, and homoglyph domains work at the level of DNS, mail records, and email authentication, and why DMARC on your own domain does nothing to stop them. It then maps the legal tools by speed, from registrar abuse reports under ICANN's 2024 DNS abuse amendments and notices to hosts, CDNs, and browser blocklists, through the URS, the UDRP, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, in rem actions, and emergency orders. It reads the leading cases closely, including Shields v. Zuccarini, Coca-Cola v. Purdy, and Arista Records v. Tkach. It also covers the question most victims ask first, which is who bears the loss of a misdirected payment, under UCC Article 4A cases such as Studco v. 1st Advantage, the best-position cases such as Beau Townsend and Thomas v. Corbyn, and the split crime-policy decisions. It closes with what remains unsettled and what a business should change before the next invoice arrives.
Anonymous Speaker Unmasking Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist turns the law of unmasking anonymous online speakers into tasks, in the order they arise, for the three participants in every identification fight: the plaintiff who wants a name, the speaker who wants to keep it, and the platform or provider that holds the records. The plaintiff's track runs from capture and preservation through the decision whether a name is worth pursuing, lawful investigation, the choice of claim, court, and limitations strategy, the evidentiary showing that the Dendrite, Cahill, Highfields, and Sony Music tests require, the Doe complaint and Rule 26(d)(1) motion, first-tier and second-tier subpoenas, and verification before amendment. Short sub-checklists cover the DMCA 512(h) subpoena, state pre-suit petitions, out-of-state platforms and the UIDDA, foreign proceedings, and domain names. The speaker's track covers the notice window, preservation, a motion to quash filed without revealing a name, arguments matched to the type of speech, and anti-SLAPP and fee-shifting tools. The platform's track covers validating and scoping legal process, the Stored Communications Act and Cable Act limits, notice to users, objections and third-party standing, and production. Red flags, an FAQ, and practical takeaways close the document.