Welcome to The Expanding Universe of Internet Law
Charles Carreon
Welcome to the future, where technology changes our lives and creates new legal issues faster than lawyers can fashion doctrines to accommodate them. Internet law encompasses the entire universe of legal issues that arise from technology's effect on every aspect of our employment and personal lives. The daily news is full of Internet law issues-- damning emails, leaky security, text messaging scandals, myspace confessions. Instant global communication makes the world incalculably more fluid. Fortunes can shift radically in seconds, and oftentimes only quick legal action stands between being on the losing end of such a shift. The media hypes each new consumer benefit - flatter, brighter screens, faster operating systems, cheaper memory, higher resolution, fewer dropped calls - which is all true enough, but when you are look at it from the losing end, the exciting world of the Internet reveals a dark side.
I got a front row seat facing the dark side of the universe of Internet law during twenty months of litigating the Sex.Com case as the attorney for maverick dot-commer Gary Kremen. Gary was the original registrant of “the world's most valuable domain,” but lost it to a con man's trick and had to sue to get it back. I advanced the legal theory that the stolen domain was “personal property” subject to theft and recovery through the federal courts, and obtained a decision that rocked the Internet world when the domain, then producing over $400,000 per month, was transferred to Gary by court order, setting a milestone of Internet law. Along with the transfer of the domain, Gary got domain thief Steve Cohen's mansion, where he lived for several years. Ultimately, Gary sold the domain for $14 Million, the most expensive domain name sale in history, and another milestone for the history of Internet law.
I have represented other clients whose fortunes were twisted violently by errors in technology, like Roger Benson, a man whose identity was confused by California police due to a fingerprint database error and spent forty-three days in jail due the Kafka-esque cockup. After discovering the root of the problem — a defective electronic fingerprint scanner in an Oregon jail that had mixed Benson's vital statistics with another man's crimes, Carreon obtained a verdict of over $300,000 against the State of Oregon for negligently scrambling the records and nailing an innocent man for crimes he had never committed, or even been charged with.
Internet law is vast and in a constant state of flux. Your issue could be one that has already been raised by others, or it could be totally new. With my background in civil and criminal law, I can provide the strategic counsel essential to a successful outcome. To arrange a consultation, call me at 520-841-0835. To read more on the subject of Internet Law, browse Charles' Primer of Online Media Law.
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