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.
Software License Agreement Review Checklist: A Practical Checklist
A software license agreement is forty pages in which three unmarked clauses carry most of the risk: a liability cap the size of a team dinner, a clause licensing your uploaded data to "improve" the vendor's products, and an audit right priced at list. This checklist gives a reviewer a systematic, repeatable order of attack: pre-review context (deployment model, business stakes, regulatory regime), the license grant and its metric and audit rights, SaaS service levels and support, data ownership/security/breach/exit, IP and open source, warranties and disclaimers, indemnification, the all-important limitation-of-liability cap and carve-outs, and term, termination, escrow, and Section 365(n) continuity. Each phase pairs checkboxes with the WHY, the good-acceptable-dangerous spectrum, and the case law that gives the clause teeth (Vernor, Adobe v. One Stop Micro, MDY v. Blizzard, ProCD/Specht/Nguyen, UCC 2-316 and 2-719, 11 U.S.C. 365(n), Mission Product). It closes with common mistakes, primary authority, and related mclaw.io resources.
Top-Level Domain Names: An Overview
This article explains what top-level domain names (TLDs) are and where they sit in the Domain Name System hierarchy, then maps the full landscape of generic, country-code, sponsored, and new gTLDs. It describes ICANN's governance role and the new gTLD expansion program, the registry-registrar-registrant chain, and how WHOIS data and the EU's GDPR shape investigations. The article details the trademark rights-protection mechanisms built into the gTLD system—the Trademark Clearinghouse, Sunrise and Claims services, the Uniform Rapid Suspension System, and post-delegation procedures—and compares the two principal anti-cybersquatting remedies, the UDRP and the federal ACPA, 15 U.S.C. 1125(d). It examines the unsettled question of whether a domain is property, analyzes how the USPTO treats TLDs in trademark applications including the Supreme Court's decision in Booking.com, and closes with practical guidance, worked hypotheticals, and an FAQ. It is written for judges, practitioners, and laypeople alike.
Regulation of Cryptocurrency Around the World
Cryptocurrency sits at the crossroads of money, securities, commodities, property, and software law, and the rules differ sharply depending on which token you hold and which border you stand behind. This article explains in plain language what crypto and blockchain are, then maps the fractured U.S. framework: the SEC and the Howey securities test (including the 2023 Ripple ruling and the conflicting Coinbase and Kraken decisions), the CFTC's commodity jurisdiction, FinCEN's anti-money-laundering regime under the Bank Secrecy Act, the patchwork of state money-transmitter laws and the New York BitLicense, and the IRS's treatment of crypto as property. It then surveys the rest of the world, from the EU's comprehensive MiCA regulation to the very different approaches of the UK, Switzerland, Singapore, and Japan, to outright bans in China and elsewhere, plus the rise of stablecoins (and the 2025 federal GENIUS Act) and central bank digital currencies. Because the 2024-2026 U.S. legislative landscape is moving quickly, the article flags what is settled, what is contested, and what is genuinely in flux. Worked hypotheticals translate abstract doctrine into concrete decisions a founder, investor, or compliance officer actually faces. Read it as a map, not as legal advice for any specific transaction.
COPPA Children's Privacy Compliance Checklist: A Practical Checklist
Children's privacy compliance turns on two documents most companies do not have: a dated audience analysis explaining why the service is or is not directed to children, and a written retention policy showing what is kept, why, and for how long. Recent enforcement has concentrated on retention and deletion rather than collection, and the amended rule now requires both documents explicitly. This checklist runs the analysis in order—classify the service, inventory every data element and every embedded SDK, map each to a lawful basis, build the consent flow where consent is required, and implement deletion that reaches derived data as well as raw records. It closes with the design defaults that satisfy the newer state and international regimes.
Data Minimization and Avoiding the Over-Retention of Personal Information
Data minimization and storage limitation are the twin privacy principles that tell organizations to collect only the personal information they actually need and to keep it only as long as they actually need it. This guide explains where those duties come from—GDPR Article 5, the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, the FTC's expanding enforcement posture, and sectoral laws like GLBA, HIPAA, and the FCRA—and why "we might need it someday" is no longer a defensible reason to hoard data. It walks through the real-world costs of over-retention, from larger breaches and bigger fines to crushing e-discovery bills, and then lays out a practical, step-by-step program: data mapping, retention schedules, classification, defensible deletion, de-identification, and privacy by design. Worked examples and a FAQ translate the law into operational decisions a business can actually make. The throughline is simple: the data you never collected, and the data you safely deleted, cannot be breached, subpoenaed, or fined.
Open Source for the Law Firm: A Practical Guide
Open source software lets a law firm own its tools, its data, and its destiny—often at a fraction of the cost of proprietary suites—but only if the firm pairs the technology with the ethical diligence the rules of professional conduct now demand. This action-oriented guide walks through a realistic open source stack for a solo or small firm, from the operating system to practice management, documents, email, ediscovery, accounting, and security. It maps each technology choice onto the lawyer's duties of technology competence (ABA Model Rule 1.1, Comment 8), confidentiality (Model Rule 1.6(c)), and supervision (Rules 5.1 and 5.3), drawing on ABA Formal Opinions 477R and 483 and recent state ethics opinions. It explains how open source licenses (MIT, Apache, GPL, AGPL) actually work, gives an honest total-cost-of-ownership comparison, and treats data portability as a structural hedge against vendor lock-in. It closes with a phased, low-drama migration plan a firm can actually execute. The companion piece, running a law firm on open source technology, covers the philosophy and full toolchain in more depth; this is the shorter, do-it-this-quarter version.