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High Court Says Concealment of Assets Can Take Away Important Right in Bankruptcy

February 22, 2007 By

Pete Yost
The Associated Press

February 22, 2007 – The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a financially troubled small-business man gave up an important right under the federal bankruptcy code because he failed to disclose all of his assets as the law requires.

In a 5-4 decision, the Court said Robert Marrama of Gloucester, Mass., could not convert his bankruptcy case from one chapter of the code to another, as the law ordinarily allows.

The reason, the Court said, stemmed from his failure to disclose a Maine vacation home placed in a trust. Marrama, who operated a flooring company, listed the value of his interest in the property as zero, according to papers in the case.

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Filed Under: Collections

Thoughts on Music: DRM, iTunes and the iPod

February 16, 2007 By

by Steve Jobs
www.apple.com

February 6, 2007: With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open” the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

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Filed Under: Community, Copyright/Patents, Technology

US Senate Introduces Strong Privacy Bill

February 8, 2007 By

by Vidura Panditaratne
Press Esc

February 7, 2007: US Senators yesterday introduced a bill that better protects the privacy of citizens’ personal information in the face of data security breaches across the country.

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) co-sponsored the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act, which was first introduced in 2005 with co-sponsorship from Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) following serious data breaches at ChoicePoint and LexisNexis.

Senator Specter, who is the Ranking Member on the panel, is co-sponsoring the bill again this Congress.

Since then breaches at several other firms and within state and federal governments have exposed millions of Americans to identity theft by leaking or losing their personal data, which included names, addresses, and sometimes Social Security numbers.

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Filed Under: Community, Litigation, Technology