David Nosal, a former executive of Korn /Ferry
international, will stand trial on charges he broke into the recruiting firm’s
computerized database and stole information to use in a rival executive search
business. The case, which yielded a key decision narrowing the 1984 computer
fraud and abuse act, gets under way before US District Judge Edward Chen in San
Francisco. The jury will consider whether Mr. Nosal is guilty of 3 computer
hacking charges, one conspiracy count, and two charges for theft of trade
secrets. The computer fraud and abuse act known as CFAA was used in one high
profile case where Missouri mother Lori Drew used a MySpace account to taunt a
teenage girl. When the girl Megan Meyer, committed suicide, prosecutors in the
Central District of California charged her under a theory that her violation of
the MySpace user agreement constituted unauthorized access to a computer. A
different provision of the statute is central to the prosecution of several
individuals who are accused in 2010 of a cyber attack on Pay Pal Inc. in
retaliation for the company’s actions against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
The concern of civil and criminal practitioners is the statute may give heavy
criminal and civil sanctions for violations of terms of service that people don’t
even read. How many people actually read the terms of services before they
except them ? Contact in Atlanta lawyer today with help on your case.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Illegal search? | Atlanta lawyer
The red dog unit was a city of Atlanta tactical unit that
fell under the acronym run every drug dealer out of Georgia. They were very
controversial and created a lot of problems with some of their tactics. Recently,
there has been a lawsuit by Ricky Sampson who claims that he was stopped
without cause and strip-searched in 2010 at the mall west and parking lot by
officers from the red dog unit. Sampson, a city employee, was neither arrested
nor charged with a crime. He filed a civil right suit in February 2012 in US
District Court for the Northern District of Georgia naming the city, Mayor
Kasim Reed and several current and former police officers as defendants. Sampson’s
complaint asserted claims for unreasonable search and seizure, false
imprisonment, abuse and being arrested and battery, as well as claims for
punitive damages. Recently, on March 28, Judge Thomas Thrasher issued an order
dismissing the city and Mayor as defendants, finding that Sampson’s attorneys
failed to prove the city’s police department had an official policy directing
officers to perform illegal strip searches. The order written by the judge did
say there was some evidence that the red dog unit conducted strip searches of as
many suspects as possible based on police supervisor’s instructions, but the
judge felt that the official was not of the rank that they would be acting on
behalf of the city of Atlanta. We’ve always maintained there is no policy to
conduct illegal strip searches, Richardson said. The city of Atlanta police
chief stated that he was unaware of illegal strip searches. Atlanta has paid
out more than 750,000 in damages to 8 people who since 2007 were subjected to
public body cavity and strip searches by police. Plaintiffs allege that there
were a pattern and practice of the illegal searches from 2006 to forward. 2
police officers remain in the suit even though they argued they were protected
by qualified immunity. The judge denied summary judgment to Pettis and Godwin,
2 police officers alleged to have searched the plaintiff illegally, finding
that a reasonable law enforcement officer would be aware that he needed
reasonable suspicion that a suspect held contraband in his private areas before
strip searching him. All but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly
violate the law find protection in qualified immunity Thrash wrote. Attorney
for the city Mr. Richardson said the city is willing to litigate on behalf of
the officers because they believe their side of the story. If you been
illegally searched please contact an Atlanta lawyer.
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