HerringLaw: Civil Rights & Discrimination Law in Iowa

Password Wallet for iPhone

from Selznick Software is the upgrade that allows export to iPhone - in fact, it exports the entries to an iPod [text] file, to a stand alone encrypted web page, and to a Safari Bookmarklet for iPhone. Then you choose which Safari collection to put it in. You sync your iPhone and it shows up in Safari [no need to be online] and you enter your password [which is WAY easier than with the stylus on the Treo] and voila, you can see and access your passwords, notes and etc. on your iPhone! Sans WiFi.

Adventures with iPhone

So, I go out of town for client meeting. Take MacBookPro and iPhone with me. Am awaiting ruling on motion in limine dispute and guidance regarding a hearing on Monday, for which there is alot of preparation yet to do. Before leaving, I changed the preferences in PageSender so when fax came in a copy was mailed with fax as attachment to my DotMac account [not the usual Gmail account I use]. Finish my meeting and start to drive home, still anxious to receive word. Turn on iPhone and click to gather Mail while I am driving = I'm not watching it mind you [not safe] but as I drive, the Edge network is downloading email from my .Mac account...So, I see something from court administration. It's the court's ruling faxed to me. It's in my .Mac account on the iPhone and after I pull over, I select that message and the faxed order appears. I move my fingers over the glass screen to make it appear larger and easier to read. And I read the bottom line, seemingly no hearing on Monday. After which there's a flurry of conference calls to be sure of that, but in any event, my iPhone received the fax from PageSender and it was easy to open and read, and to forward onto my client. And get back on the road to home.

Save on Gas for your Auto Trips

On my way out of town to client meeting, checked GasBuddy.com and also Mapquest's gas price map [the search in Google produces quite a few options: 'gas prices']. Pricing in Des Moines as of now is about $2.52-$2.54 a gallon and up in Mason City where I am headed [and on the way] the price steadily rises to around $2.80. For a savings of around 20 cents a gallon, that's a good use of 5 minutes of my time.

The Jobs-ian iPhone Rebate

My initial take on the Jobs open letter to the early-adopter iPhone customers:

This is really a brilliant move == sort of like bringing back Coke as Coke Classic....I know that when Aperture was upgraded and the price lowered and Apple gave me a rebate of $200 on my early adopter price, I spent it happily at the Apple Store but I also felt quite good about doing so [probably would have anyway] - I sort of expected this might happen and am pleased to see prayers answered.. . .

And one which apparently resonates with others: BuzzMachine.

Is temporarily stored data in RAM subject to eDiscovery?

An interesting case from California was discussed in Law Technology Today involving whether the e-Discovery rules of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure reach beyond the typically understood types of digital data [e.g., on harddrives, on backup drives, etc.] to the RAM [random access memory] which holds digital data only temporarily. Because of the realities of BitTorrent's file-sharing protocol, the MPAA had to sue on a theory of 'contributory infringement'. And to prove that, the MPAA needed evidence which was stored for only six hours in the RAM of the server. Thus, the quesiton under the Federal Rules is whether this data is "electronically stored information". Because the evidence could only be obtained through preserving and producing the RAM logs and from nowhere else, the magistrate ordered TorrentSpy to preserve and produce those logs. The full discussion at LTT is well worth reading for the details.

An appeal was filed and was heard in mid-August. The magistrate's decision was upheld and the judge adopted a broad reading of "electronically stored information" and upheld the earlier ruling. The positions of the contending parties and the district court's decision is fully discussed at the e-Discovery Team blog.

Private EMails of Employees may no longer be so

A friend recently provided me with the link to a very interesting article pointing out that in some situations employers with employees who not only use their business accounts but also personal accounts to deal with business matters may subject not only the business email accounts but also personal accounts to discovery and review in litigation.   Writing in the  New York Law Journal, Christopher Boehning and Daniel Toal discuss in some detail their research in:  Caution: Private E-Mails Might Turn Public.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure [and many state rules] require people and businesses receiving a subpoena or request to produce documents to locate and produce all responsive documents in its "possession, custody or control".  FRCP 26(b), 34(a).  When an employee uses his or her personal account to conduct business, whether it's because they're off on vacation or finishing up loose ends at home, that not only obligates the employer and the employee to respond with relevant business emails but also, sometimes, with access to personal email accounts as well.  As the authors note this blurring has occurred in the political realm as well: 

"The White House and its staffers were subjected to criticism and scrutiny for their use of non-governmental e-mail accounts and BlackBerrys in connection with official business; New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's aides' personal e-mail accounts have been targeted for communications concerning the investigation into the Senate majority leader; and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine recently declared that he would stop using e-mail entirely in response to legal requests for private e-mails between the governor and his ex-girlfriend."

So, the caution for both employers and employees is to be prepared to preserve and provide not only business email accounts and information but also personal accounts where there has been a co-mingling.  Given the ubiquitous use of email these days for business communication not matter where one is, it's a safe bet that some co-mingling has occurred and legitimate discovery requests will have to be met with full disclosure.