Dr. Ronald B. Standler Attorney in Massachusetts
Computer & Technology Law
I am licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and
admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Massachusetts,
as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.
Services available include:
Computer Law
software license agreements, including shrinkwrap contracts or end-user license agreements (EULAs)
law of Internet, cyberspace, online services, computer bulletin boards
copyright infringement
(e.g., computer software or content of websites)
trademark infringement, domain name disputes,
unfair competition
privacy of e-mail
development of a computer
Acceptable Use Policy
for an employer or internet service provider
duty to maintain reliable equipment and software
duty to maintain secure data (i.e., privacy, trade secrets)
design defects in computer hardware or software
computer technology
information technology
misuse of computer hardware or software
(e.g., civil liability for hackers)
nondisclosure agreements and other protections for intellectual property
liability of electric or telephone utility for interruption of service
liability for errors or harmful information in content
of databases ("information torts")
law of meteorology, e.g., lightning,
negligent weather modification, negligent weather forecasts, etc.
I can easily travel to towns in northeastern Massachusetts,
or to the Boston area, including Cambridge, MA.
About Dr. Standler
By way of introduction, I:
programmed computers since 1968
(mostly numerical models of physical phenomena,
automatic collection of data from scientific instruments,
statistical analysis of data, and design of numerical algorithms),
earned a Ph.D. in physics in 1977,
was a professor of electrical engineering for ten years,
wrote more than 30 archival technical papers and
one book, and
am an attorney in Massachusetts since December 1998.
My technical experience means that I not only understand technology,
but I am personally aware of the importance of protecting intellectual
property rights of programmers and companies who have paid for
research and development expenses.
My homepage at www.rbs2.com/
contains links to documents with my credentials,
my current fees, how to contact me, and
links to my essays on other topics in law.
My Essays About Computer & Technology Law
Essays on this website are provided only to provide general information
and to communicate my personal comments on interesting topics in
law, technology, and society. Essays on this website are neither
legal advice nor legal opinion. Accessing this website or reading
documents on this website does not create an attorney-client
relationship. See my disclaimer
for details.
All essays at this website are protected by copyright.
I have posted my Terms Of Service
for printing, copying, and distributing my essays
at this website.
I am an attorney only in Massachusetts, so I can not provide
legal advice to people in other states of the USA, unless they have been
injured or sued in Massachusetts, or unless your local attorney hires me as a consultant.
However, I have posted the following hints for
how to find an attorney.
My long essay on examples of
malicious computer programs
(e.g., computer viruses and worms) emphasizes the
nonexistent or weak punishment for the authors of those malicious programs.
I have also written an essay on how to recognize e-mail that contains a
hoax about computer viruses.
My essay on copyright law in the USA
considers copyright infringement on the Internet, as well as
fair use, photocopy machines, and plagiarism.
My essay on trademark law discusses some
abuses on the Internet.
Computer equipment is vulnerable to damage by
electrical surges
on the power and data conductors.
While surges are mostly an engineering problem,
there may be legal liability for electric and telephone utilities,
and also liability for manufacturers of computer equipment.
Computers and other electronic technologies can be used
to invade people's privacy. For example,
privacy of e-mail is a serious concern
to many people. My other essays on privacy are
listed in a separate webpage.
My discussion of issues in preparing a computer
Acceptable Use Policy
mentions more than twenty substantive issues to consider.
My discussion is cast in a university environment, but similar
issues occur in policies for businesses.
Law & Technology
My essay on the response of law in the USA to new technology.
I discuss the effect of invention of the printing press,
telephone wiretaps, contraception, videotaping at home,
protection of computer software, and regulation of the Internet.
My essay on infotorts cites cases nationwide
in the emerging family of torts in which information caused harm, usually
either as (1) errors in nonfiction books/magazines/newspapers,
or (2) violent crimes that were inspired by movies or videogames.
I have also posted an essay on proximate cause
in information torts.
My essay on the law of
weather modification discusses
and analyzes court cases in the USA concerning cloud seeding
and summarizes the basic principles of tort liability for cloud seeders.
While this essay was written to inform farmers, ranchers,
meteorology students, and attorneys working in environmental law
or water law about the obscure law of weather modification,
this essay is also a case study in how and why courts
in the USA avoided deciding disputes about this novel area of technology.
My separate essay on the
history & problems
with cloud seeding also explains the need to give adequate long-term
financial support to basic scientific research before
engaging in practical applications.
My essay, Tort Liability in the USA for Negligent Weather Forecasts,
discusses each of the reported court cases in the USA on this topic that
involved either people on the ground or sailors at sea.
This essay also compares and contrasts cases involving an airplane crash
caused by negligent weather information from employees of the
U.S. Government.
In 1997, when I was a student in law school,
I wrote two term papers that show the interaction between science, technology,
engineering standards, medicine, and law in the USA:
(1) Lightning injuries to users of telephones and
(2) Legal duties to warn and to protect people from direct
lightning strikes.
The legal duty to warn of lightning
at recreational facilities compared with the duty to warn of riptide at beaches,
an essay that I wrote in March 2007.
Copyright 2009 by Ronald B. Standler
This document at http://www.rbs2.com/icomp.htm
first posted 14 Jan 2009, revised 5 Nov 2009