Employees who read and send work email after hours – particularly using an employer-provided mobile device such as a Blackberry – may end up suing their employer for overtime hours incurred while performing work-related email tasks on the devices, outside of the course of the normal business day.

Google had its Gmail tail handed to it on a platter when a German court held – not once, but twice (in preliminary and final orders) – that it could not use the name “Gmail” in Germany, as it infringed on a prior user of that name. As a result, Google is banned from using the Gmail name in Germany, and German Gmail users and others in Germany who wish to access the Google email service are banned from accessing the service via the Gmail name.

It was almost exactly a year ago that a Connecticut jury convicted substitute teacher Julie Amero because the computer in the classroom in which she was substitute teaching started displaying pornographic pop-ups during the the class; nevermind that it was the fault of school for not providing adequate security protection on the computer. Now the same thing has happened to Michael Fiola, of Massachusetts. Michael Fiola lost his job and was arrested because the laptop his employer gave him had inadequate security and was compromised by a child-porn downloading trojan.

Lori Drew, the woman who pretended to be a teenaged boy named Josh Evans on MySpace, for the sole purpose of harrassing teen Megan Meier – which lead to Megan Meier’s suicide – and who was arraigned and charged in Federal court in May, has pleaded “not guilty”.

Have you ever been hit (or even just threatened) with a cell phone service provider’s early termination fee – that is a fee for early cancellation of your cellphone service? Held hostage by your cellular service provider because of exorbitant (spelled “extortionist”) early termination fees and clauses? Check out these new proposed laws and lawsuits against AT&T (Cingular), Sprint / Nextel, Verizon, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Alltel, Qwest and others!

As promised, the state of New York has been sued over its new “affiliate tax”, by which it is looking to boost state revenues by collecting as much as 50 million dollars in sales tax from companies that have affiliates in New York who are earning affiliate income in New York. That means that if your company has a super affiliate guru in New York – someone who can really make money with your affiliate program – you are going to get hit with a super affilliate tax on all the sales that they generate for you.

Andrew Kellett, known on YouTube as MrChimp2007, has been served with a restraining order that prevents him from adding to his extensive YouTube collection of 80 videos showing off his unlawful behaviour, including dangerous, reckless and high-speed driving; drug use; and theft. His parents must be so proud.

Four new rules have been issued by the Federal Trade Commission which augment and amend the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. These four new rules amending the CAN SPAM Act take effect this month (June, 2008), and affect all senders of commercial email who have an email list of any size. Here’s what the new CANSPAM Act rules are.

The Internet has opened to many of us opportunities to communicate, to share information, and to learn about the rest of the world. We take this almost for granted in the United States. Many countries, though, run scared from the free flow of information and ideas, believing that by repressing the Internet they can continue to repress their population. The Global Online Freedom Act of 2007, also known by its rather more prosaic name, HR 275, is a bill that would outlaw US companies from dealing with countries that censor the internet, and in particular from “disclosing personally-identifiable information about a user, except for legitimate foreign law enforcement purposes.”

A Federal court today has slammed the door on the family who was trying to sue MySpace because 19-year-old Pete Solis had met their underaged daughter through MySpace, and had, they claim, sexually assaulted her. Nevermind that the girl had lied about her age when creating her profile, which is why Peter Solis thought she was 18 (and why he was able to find her on MySpace at all). The court had some choice words for the family.

In a decision that could have far-reaching ramifications for thousands of Internet advertisers and businesses, the Supreme Court of the United States this week affirmed a law which criminalizes advertising pornography as involving children even if the children don’t actually exist (such as are CGI), are not actually minors (such as very young looking adults playing the part of underaged children) or, in fact, even if there are no children in the images at all!

Lori Drew, the Missouri mother who posed on MySpace as ‘Josh’, a 16-year-old boy, drawing 13-year-old Megan Meier into a fraudulent and faux relationship that ended tragically with Megan Meier taking her own life, has been named in a federal indictment and summoned to appear in US District Court in Los Angeles in June.

Service by email of a subpena does not constitute legal service, yet thousands of CEOs and upper-level executives across the United States have recently been taken in by an unwelcome email in their inbox. The email, claiming to be a Federal subpoena (or, if you’re from California, “subpena”) from “subpoena@uscourts.com,” bears the seal of the U.S. District Court, and demands the recipient present themselves at a grand jury hearing in San Diego on May 7th. In addition the email contains a link and the instruction that the linked document should be downloaded and printed.

Does Google’s StreetView invade privacy and encroach upon civil liberties? There are those who say that it does, and into this group we would have to place the Pennsylvania couple, Aaron and Christine Boring, who are suing the search company for both intentional and/or grossly reckless invasion of privacy and mental distress. They seek a minimum of $25,000.

99 cent iTunes downloads will go the way of the dodo if California state lawmaker Charles Calderon gets his way. His proposal, AB1956, seeks to tax music downloads, adding 8.25-8.75% sales tax to music purchases made online, and increasing the purchase price to $1.08.