What hasn’t the gaming industry given us? With the invention of a vast variety of genres (like RPG, Fantasy, Adventure, Multiple person shooter games, etc) gaming giants across the world have allowed individuals to surpass their own physical abilities in a vast variety of virtual environments. This freedom of ‘movement,’ (not to mention the significant creative leeway one has in these games), has the ability to make one feel invincible!

The gaming giant, Nintendo, recently found itself on the receiving end of some overzealous and unfortunate attention by some of these ‘enthusiastic’ gamers when, in mid 2010, it obtained a summary judgment in its claim against their own R4 cards. Apparently, this card allowed DS owners to transfer PC games to their own console – especially those downloaded from Torrent and P2P websites.

You would think that a large gaming company would easily win this obvious copyright infringement case, but this was not the case. The creator of the R4 card (Playables) claimed that it ‘did not know’ that the card could be used for making illegitimate ‘homebrew’ games. However, this argument did not hold water for the UK High Court. Why? Because the claim violated 2 provisions of the Copyright Designs and Patent Act 1988.

Apparently the fact that the card could be used for making homemade games as well as the fact that it could circumvent security measures was not a strong enough defense. In other words, just the fact that there was a possibility that the card could be used for copyright infringement, made this case weak from the beginning. And so in addition to Ninendo and Playables reaching a settlement, Ninentendo eventually prevailed in court as well, securing a judgment against Playables.

A full recap of this case can be found in this excellent blog post, “Nintendo vs. Playables: The Latest Modchip Case Considered.”

Obviously the United Kingdom is not the only country to face these kinds of questionable cases. Across the pond, here in the United States, Sony also recently filed a lawsuit against a number of hackers who were guilty of publishing security codes for their popular PS3 console. The hackers fell out of Sony’s favor because they could use the pre-existing codes to sign and verify games and software as if they were legitimate purchased copies.

Sony argued that such acts were encouraging the piracy black market, while the defendants claimed that they also wanted to prevent the piracy of games. The gaming industry won out when Hotz (the lead hacker) was banned from ‘offering the public, creating, posting online marketing, advertising, promoting, installing, distributing, providing or otherwise trafficking’ any other gaming information or software that has the ability to bypass the PS3’s security measures.

The hacker was also banned from providing links from websites to either gamers or online users, or to engage in any acts that could compromise the aforementioned copyright issues. One would think that Nintendo would also have taken advantage of this obvious piracy clause, to safeguard its own brand from similar ‘nefarious’ hackers and gamers. It just goes to show that perhaps that even the gaming conglomerates of the world are not safe from the exploits of over enthusiastic individuals intent on doing anything possible to make their gaming experience as “cost-friendly” as possible.

PALO ALTO, CA – February 23, 2011 – TERIS  Bay Area announced today the hiring of Rhett Thomas as Project Manager for its growing Silicon Valley office. TERIS Bay Area has seen a dramatic increase in its eDiscovery business in the Bay Area over the past year.

Rhett has more than 10 years of IP litigation experience on the law firm side of the industry, beginning his career as a paralegal and then moving into the Litigation Support department. He comes to TERIS after eight years at Townsend and Townsend and Crew, LLP, where he most recently was a litigation support specialist. As a paralegal he was involved in roughly 40 matters, five of which went to trial in various districts, including an appearance with the International Trade Commission.

At TERIS, his responsibilities include managing the litigations process for one its primary clients. This includes:

• Insuring requested custodian materials are received and prepared for review
• Managing the use of Clearwell with the client
• Interfacing with clients and outside counsel
• Providing eDiscovery project management for complex litigation cases, including database management, best practices, cost effective workflow, web-based data tools, electronic discovery processes and document analysis.
• Acting as a liaison to coordinate and manage clients, corporate and outside counsel
• Researching, evaluating, testing and advising the client on existing and potential litigation support tools

“TERIS is excited to have Rhett joining our strong Bay Area project management team,” said Kevin Brooks, Executive Vice President, TERIS Northern California. “Our eDiscovery business experienced very strong growth in 2010 – and we are already off to a great start in 2011. Rhett’s experience as a paralegal as well as litigation support specialist will be essential as he understands the myriad of issues involved in project management. He will play a key role in our company’s growth and expansion plans in the Bay Area.”

Rhett is a graduate of Arizona State University.

ABOUT TERIS

Founded in 1996, TERIS  provides legal support and sophisticated eDiscovery solutions to corporate legal teams and law firms across the U.S. and internationally. TERIS’ staff of over 300 was named one of the top 20 eDiscovery service providers by industry researcher Socha-Gelbmann in 2008. The company has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, San Diego, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas, Houston and Chicago. To learn more about TERIS, visit  www.TERIS.co m or follow the company on Twitter at Twitter.com/DiscoverTERIS or Facebook (Facebook.com/TERIS).

Media Contact: David Kaufer, 425-275-8814 (mobile); 206-521-8717 (office) or DKaufer (at) TERIS.com

Twitter has made the impossible possible. By tweeting everything from one’s latest escapades to what they ate for dinner, users are now privy to a social network that redefines relationships. The world is at your fingertips. With just a few taps on your cell phone you can update your online status and be known around the world if you so desire.

Apparently, this is exactly what some jurors are allowing in their courtrooms as well. Sound sketchy? It’s true! The hallowed halls of some courtrooms are now being frequented by cell phone toting journalists who are allowed to Tweet proceedings from the courtroom directly to their own Twitter page.

According to The Telegraph, this was the case in the infamous hearing of the Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, when Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle, made legal history by allowing live updates to be sent from his court on the social networking website. This unusual request was granted on the premises that it be done ‘quietly’ and would not disturb the court. This grant was taken full advantage of by the Times Journalist Alexi Mostrous and the ‘Freedom for Information’ activist, Heather Brooke.

Now you must be thinking: Aren’t mobile phones considered ‘recording equipment’ as well, which by the way, are banned from courtroom hearings for a reason? Not anymore! It has been discovered that some senior judges are seriously considering the issue on whether the world should be allowed a peek at live court hearings, in the form of updated Tweets.

Mobile Tweeting has prevailed apparently because journalists were also allowed to Tweet ‘live text based messages’ from the court hearing of the disgraced social politician, Tommy Sheridan. The infamous politician had been accused of lying in court regarding his adulterous escapades and was sentenced to three years in jail for it as well.

The media was not the only entity that took advantage of this newsworthy event. The trial may have spelled bad news for this political butterfly, but it spelled great news for other social media sites as well. The blogger, James Doleman, was specifically praised for producing widely acclaimed daily updates for his blog followers on ALL 48 days of the case.

This may not be the case for long though. Granted, the lord chief justice did allow the media to Tweet in court, be he also made it clear that he would not tolerate ‘non-journalists’ to partake of the offer. In other words, the judge believes distractions in court could be minimized, or done away with altogether, if onlyjournalists were allowed to Tweet so as to maintain a professional environment in the courtroom itself.

On the other hand, informing the world of legal hearings in real-time is not sitting well with some court officials. According to the Judicial office of Scotland, it will be ‘highly unlikely’ that anyone (be they journalist or blogger) will be allowed to tweet during court trials as that may compromise the ‘proper administration of justice’. On the other hand, a verdict may allow to be tweeted.

How will it all play out? As is the case in nearly any issue that involved technology and law, time will tell. But for now, don’t be surprised if you don’t see more tweeting and social media updates in US courtrooms as well.

The legal industry has been full of ups and downs since the carnage of Black Thursday. The legal employment firm, Robert Half Legal, recently published a survey in which they interviewed a large number of lawyers at different firms, all of whom had hiring authority in their organization.

According to a 2009 press release on the same survey, a retention crisis was imminent due to the ‘economic reset’ that was put in place that changes the way law firms recruit and retain their employees. Not very good news is it?

There is some good news though. Even though the market for labor changed in the last few years, an improving hiring ratio has been predicted for the first quarter of 2011. According to the Robert Half legal survey, 31% of lawyers plan to add legal jobs while a mere 1% expect a decrease. In other words, law firms will be hiring more in 2011 – in stark contrast to the hiring decline in previous years.

The study also revealed some surprising facts about the lawyers themselves. Apparently, a whopping 82% are more than confident regarding their legal organization’s expansion abilities in the first quarter of the current year. However, many of them (almost 52%) report facing difficulties when trying to search for skilled potential lawyers or legal professionals.

Many lawyers who were interviewed revealed that it was due to the improvement in business conditions that urged many legal organizations to open their doors for prospective lawyers. A majority of them will be judged according to the efficiency with which they can execute and manage rising workloads and high standing positions. In fact, several of these firms are now actively searching for candidates to help build and serve the most active areas of the profession.

One shouldn’t rejoice at the misfortune of others, but the rising rate of foreclosures in the next 3 months means that lawyers who specialize in this area will have more than enough on their plate to keep them afloat. Litigation and healthcare received 17% and 14% respectively in the survey as well which in turn increases the demands for legal services in the area.

Additionally, increased bankruptcy filings in the real estate market are also compelling law firms to hire professionals who can generate more business in this area.

One would think that the improving hiring atmosphere would increase the chances of attorneys landing a big job, but so far, this assumption has been wrong. According to the survey, (and as mentioned before) 52% of legal firms revealed that they were, in fact, facing difficulty locating skilled legal professionals.

The reason for this finicky attitude is because employers are being extremely selective during the hiring process because they are now focused on selecting candidates for specific areas. In other words, since trying to identify the perfect candidate from a sea of hopefuls takes time and effort, the hiring process has to be conducted in as thoroughly as possible. The result? An extremely picky legal system that has a lot of jobs to offer but is taking its sweet time in doing so.

So for now consider this the ultimate “good news/bad news” scenario. The legal employment market is finally changing, but not fast enough for many in the industry. Hopefully though we’ll see an acceleration in the hiring and growth among law firms and corporations alike.

Phoenix paralegal Michelle Lopez talks about the changes she’s seen in eDiscovery in the legal industry and offers advice for other legal professionals.

TERIS spoke with Ron Sotak of Ryley Carlock & Applewhite about the need for legal professionals to pursue educational opportunities about eDiscovery, ESI and other related legal technology issues. Whether it’s through CLEs or online, Legal Professionals have a number of avenues to pursue in this area.