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.
Government Data Demand Toolkit: Legal Process Review, Objections, and Notification
This toolkit supplies the working documents a law enforcement response function runs on, in the order it uses them. It provides an intake log, a validation form that catches the defective third of demands, a one-page routing decision tree, and a scope negotiation script that resolves more demands than litigation does. It then gives objection letters for the recurring cases—a subpoena seeking content, a civil subpoena, a section 1782 application, and a foreign government demand—plus an emergency request verification form built around the callback rule that defeats fraudulent requests. Later tools cover nondisclosure order tracking and the customer notification that follows expiry, a preservation tracker, a production cover letter and review sheet, a transparency report template, and the contract clauses the whole program depends on. Each item is annotated with the failure it prevents.
EU Platform Regulation Toolkit: Notice Mechanisms, Reports, and Gatekeeper Obligations
This toolkit provides the working documents of a European platform-regulation program, in the order a company builds them. It opens with a scoping memo template that settles the tier question, then a legal representative selection memo, model terms and conditions clauses, and a notice submission form designed around what makes a notice legally sufficient. The centerpiece is a statement of reasons template with every prescribed element and a generation specification for engineering, followed by a complaint form and decision record, a trader verification file, and an advertising and recommender disclosure set. Later tools include a dark patterns audit, an authority order response letter, a transparency report template, a DMA business user rights demand letter, and a geo-blocking assessment. Each item is annotated with the requirement it satisfies and the failure it prevents.
DSA and DMA Readiness Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist runs European platform-regulation readiness from the scoping determination through the annual transparency report, with the tier question first because every other obligation depends on it. It covers appointing a legal representative and the two distinct points of contact, the terms and conditions rewrite, the notice and action mechanism, and the statement of reasons with its prescribed elements and public database submission. Later sections handle the internal complaint system and out-of-court dispute settlement, marketplace trader verification, advertising and recommender transparency, dark patterns, misuse suspensions, and the authority and trusted flagger channels. Closing sections cover the harmonize-or-differentiate decision, business user rights against gatekeepers, the geo-blocking option done properly, and an annual scope recheck. Every item is written so a "no" tells you what to do next.
Data Center Colocation and Cloud Infrastructure Agreements: Power, Space, Capacity, and the Service You Actually Bought
A colocation or cloud infrastructure agreement looks like a services contract and behaves like a lease, a utility supply arrangement, and an insurance policy at the same time. This article explains what a customer is actually buying—power measured in kilowatts rather than square feet, a service level whose only remedy is a credit, and a bundle of access and interconnection rights that determine whether the facility is usable—and what the provider is careful not to promise. It works through the characterization question that decides what happens in the provider's bankruptcy, the availability definitions that make uptime commitments meaningful or hollow, the interconnection and cross-connect terms that quietly control cost, and the cloud-specific issues of committed spend, egress, capacity reservation, and regional availability. Separate sections address data access and law enforcement demands, security and audit rights, and the migration and exit provisions that must be negotiated at signature because they cannot be negotiated later. Worked examples follow a retailer's colocation renewal, a scale-up's cloud commitment, and a provider outage.
Data Center Agreement Review Checklist
This checklist reviews a colocation or cloud infrastructure agreement in the order the provisions matter rather than the order they appear. It opens with the capacity commitment expressed in usable continuous load, the redundancy configuration, and the metering and escalation terms that determine the recurring bill. Service level sections work from the exclusions backwards, covering maintenance caps, demarcation, root cause obligations, credit mechanics, and the chronic-failure termination right that gives the commitment teeth. Interconnection, access, and suspension follow. Cloud sections cover committed spend, price protection, egress, capacity reservations, and change-of-terms rights. Later sections address security and audit, legal process for customer data, liability and insurance, provider insolvency protections, regulated-customer requirements, and the exit provisions. It closes with a post-signature governance list.
Cross-Border Government Demands for Data: The Stored Communications Act, the CLOUD Act, and MLATs
A cloud provider with customers in three countries will be asked for the same data by governments that disagree about who may ask. This article maps the law that governs those demands: the Stored Communications Act's tiered process, the CLOUD Act's answer to the territoriality question and its comity safety valve, the executive agreements that let some foreign governments serve United States providers directly, and the mutual legal assistance treaties that remain the slow default. It then covers the demands that are not criminal process at all—civil subpoenas that the Act generally blocks, section 1782 applications after ZF Automotive, and national security process with its own rules and its own silence. It works through the conflict between disclosure obligations here and blocking rules elsewhere, and closes with what a law enforcement response program actually looks like. A running example follows one provider through four demands in one quarter.
Cross-Border Data Demand Response Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist runs a government demand for customer data from intake to production, in the order the work happens and with the validation pass that catches the defective third of demands placed first. It covers the routing decision tree, the tiered process requirements that determine whether a demand is facially sufficient, and the separate handling that foreign demands, civil subpoenas, section 1782 applications, emergency requests, and national security process each require. Later sections cover scope negotiation, nondisclosure orders and the customer notice they collide with, preservation tracking, production review, and when to challenge. Closing sections give the contract terms the whole program depends on, a program build-out list, and a diagnostic for a function that has been running without one. Every item is written so a "no" tells you what to do next.
Complying With the DSA and DMA: A Practical Guide
This guide is the implementation plan for a United States company that has discovered the European platform regulations apply to it. It starts with the scoping determination that governs everything else, then covers appointing a legal representative and points of contact, rewriting terms and conditions to describe what the company actually does, and building the notice and action mechanism. The largest steps cover statements of reasons and the transparency database submission, the internal complaint system and out-of-court dispute settlement, marketplace trader verification, and advertising and recommender transparency. Later steps address authority orders and trusted flaggers, the annual transparency report, whether to harmonize globally or geo-differentiate, exercising business user rights against gatekeepers, and the option of leaving the market. A running example follows a mid-sized platform through a nine-month build.
Commercial Space and Satellite Operations: Licensing, Spectrum, Liability, and Orbital Debris
There is no space regulator in the United States, which is the first thing a space company needs to understand and the reason its licensing schedule is longer than it planned. This article maps the four regimes that actually govern a launch and a satellite: Federal Aviation Administration licensing of launch and reentry, Federal Communications Commission authorization of every transmission, remote sensing licensing for anything that images the Earth, and the export control regime that reaches the hardware, the data, and the conversations. It works through the financial responsibility structure that combines required insurance, cross-waivers, and a government indemnification tier, and explains what orbital debris rules now require and why they have become a licensing gate rather than a courtesy. It closes with liability allocation in launch and hosted payload contracts and with the international law that sits underneath all of it.
Ransomware Response Toolkit: Decision Memos, Sanctions Screening Records, and Notification Templates
This toolkit collects the working papers a company and its counsel need after a ransomware attack, each introduced by its purpose, owner, and timing and followed by drafting commentary tied to the governing authority. It begins with a deadline map and a negotiator instruction letter, then provides a payment decision memo, a sanctions screening record designed around OFAC's strict liability rule and its 2021 ransomware advisory, and a law enforcement contact log. Insurance and investigation templates include an insurer notice and consent request and a counsel-directed forensic engagement letter structured to protect the report. Regulator templates cover CIRCIA incident and payment reports, NYDFS 72-hour, 24-hour, and 30-day submissions, a HIPAA individual notice and HHS summary, and a state attorney general cover letter. The toolkit closes with a customer notice, an employee communications script, and a board briefing outline, all illustrated by a running example involving a public logistics company.
Website Accessibility Self-Audit Checklist: A Practical Checklist
This checklist lets a business, its developers, or its lawyer test a website against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, with the WCAG 2.2 additions, before a plaintiff does. It starts with scoping and tool setup, then works through the success criteria grouped by the four POUR principles, each with a concrete test and the legal reason it matters. Separate phases give scripted keyboard and screen reader walk-throughs of the pages that generate claims, and dedicated sections cover forms and checkout, media, PDFs, mobile apps, and third-party widgets. A governance phase covers the policy, accessibility statement, pipeline checks, training, vendor contracts, and records that make remediation durable. Red-flag boxes, a deadlines table, common failure points, and a short worked example close the checklist.
Identifying an Anonymous Defendant Online: A Practical Guide
This guide walks a plaintiff's lawyer, step by step, from the first screenshot of an anonymous post to an amended complaint naming a real defendant, and shows the anonymous speaker and the subpoenaed platform what to do at each stage. It starts with the threshold decision whether a name is worth pursuing, then covers evidence capture, lawful investigation without a subpoena and the ethical lines around pretexting and account access, and a map of who holds identifying data and what legal process reaches it. The core steps cover choosing the claim, court, and limitations strategy; drafting the Doe complaint; moving for early discovery under Rule 26(d)(1); serving first- and second-tier Rule 45 subpoenas on platforms, internet providers, email services, carriers, registrars, and payment processors; managing notice periods and motions to quash; and verifying, amending, and serving. Separate sections cover the DMCA subpoena, state pre-suit procedures, cross-border routes, and response protocols for the anonymous defendant and the platform. A timeline and cost table, an extended worked example involving a startup's leaked investor deck, common mistakes, an FAQ, and practical takeaways close the guide.