ITechLaw Elects 2011-2012 Board of Directors and Officers

Record Attendance at 2011 World Technology Law Conference & Annual Meeting, San Francisco, May 12-13

By Michael Peeters and Rory Radding

San Francisco Conference Co-Chairs 

ITechLaw welcomed nearly 250 conference attendees to the 2011 World Technology Law Conference and Annual Meeting, held May 12-13 in San Francisco, California at the Four Seasons Hotel, as part of ITechLaw's year-long 40th anniversary celebration.

Conference attendees hailed from 39 different countries around the globe, in what was ITechLaw's largest US conference to date. The conference was a productive meeting of daily conference sessions on topical technology law issues and trends, such as convergence and social networking,  interactive workshops on Arbitration & Mediation, Data Protection, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, and Outsourcing, and multiple networking opportunities, such as the annual black-tie Gala Dinner, held at the Exploratorium museum of science, art, and human perception in San Francisco.

During the conference, ITechLaw presented the first ITechLaw Achievement Award, which is given to an individual who has made a significant and demonstrable achievement in technology. The recipient of the 2011 award was Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel and current Linux Foundation fellow who oversees the open source development of the widely-used Linux operating system.  

Accepting the award on Torvalds' behalf and the conference's keynote speaker was Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. Zemlin works with the world's largest technology companies, including Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Nokia, and others, to help define the future of computing on the server, in the cloud, and on a variety of new mobile computing devices. His work at the vendor-neutral Linux Foundation gives him a unique and aggregate perspective on the global technology industry.

We also thank the conference attendees, as well as our speakers and sponsors, for their participation and for contributing to the great success of the 2011 World Technology Law Conference & Annual Meeting. We look forward to seeing you at ITechLaw's future events.  

What a terrific year for ITechLaw and its members! As ITechLaw celebrates its 40th anniversary (1971-2011) as the leading global organization for legal professionals focused on technology and law, we hope you will continue your support and participation in ITechLaw during this momentous year.

Over the past year, ITechLaw has strived to bring to our members new and improved benefits. Recent additions include:

• Monthly webinars on substantive technology law topics, offered at no cost to our members;
• Up-to-date content through committee projects, such as the E-Commerce 4th Global Survey of E-Commerce Legal Developments and the International Survey of Benchmarking Terms;
• New committees, including the Arbitration & Mediation Committee and Virtual Worlds & Video Games Working Group;
• Interactive workshops at ITechLaw conferences, led by each ITechLaw committee;
• Increased social media activity on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook;
• Expanding member resources, such as free access to the Practical Law Company Cross-Border Handbooks on outsourcing, IP, and data protection, as well as the daily newsfeed and monthly eNews; and
• ITechLaw's own mobile app, a mobile device-friendly way to view the member directory and other member resources on the go!

Most ITechLaw memberships expire June 30, 2011. You can renew your membership online at our Member Center. Please log in and choose "Renew Membership." If you need password assistance or need an invoice for your membership renewal, please contact ITechLaw Member Services. 

ITechLaw has recently introduced a Group Membership option, which offers significantly discounted membership dues and a streamlined billing process for firms and companies with multiple members in ITechLaw.

Members may take advantage of this new membership category to have up to 10, 11-25, or 26-35 participating ITechLaw members from the same firm or company, at a savings of up to nearly 50% off individual member dues, as well as group billing.

Complete membership categories for both individual and group memberships, as well as associated dues, can be found here. Please contact ITechLaw Member Services with any questions regarding this new membership category.

ITechLaw Returns to Estonia for 4th Annual Tallinn Conference

Save the Date: June 2011 Webinars

Watch for more details, including registration information, coming soon for two June 2011 webinars on the topics of Outsourcing and Virtual Worlds & Video Games:

Is Agile Adapted to Large Scale Projects

June 2011 - Date TBA 

Hosted by the Outsourcing Committee

Large-scale agile software development remains an active research area. Its origination lies in projects with low criticality and short time frames, which attract a small number of senior developers and which typically have requirements that change often.

If the traditional predictive waterfall model results in an obvious failure for a vast majority of projects, should one or several agile development methodologies be contemplated for larger and more critical projects?

What could we select in these adaptive methodologies that we, as lawyers, could apply in our contracts for large-scale IT projects?

Alternatively, what do we learn from waterfall software development failures that should inform our decision to choose all or part of agile software development methodologies?

Join ITechLaw for this webinar to answer these questions, and to continue to improve the best practices of IT projects-related contracts.

Understanding Key Legal Issues in Gamification 

June 22, 2011 @ 11:00 a.m. ET

Hosted by the Virtual Worlds & Video Games Working Group

In this rapidly changing legal and regulatory environment, new issues arise weekly, and there's a lot you need to know to manage risk.  

This webinar will discuss the latest risks, opportunities, and strategies to manage virtual goods, economies, and communities in our gamified world. Hear from James Gatto, Partner at Pillsbury and one of the world's leading experts on this topic, and Patrick Murck, Business Development / Legal executive at BigDoor. 

Watch your email for registration details coming soon. 

On December 15, 2010, Canada finally legislated against the problem of unsolicited electronic communication (i.e., "spam") by signing into law Bill C-28 ("FISA").  With the passage  of FISA, companies that commercialize their products and services across North America as a single market, and that use electronic communications such as newsletters, bulletins, and issue alerts, now need to comply with both the new FISA and with the United States' Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 ("CAN-SPAM").

FISA represents a significant step in the regulation of unsolicited electronic communications, and while it has certain similarities with CAN-SPAM, it also has important differences. This overview  presents a high-level comparison of the anti-spam regimes in Canada and the United States with a view to assisting companies marketing cross-jurisdictionally in complying with what is now, collectively, a North American anti-spam regime. Read More.