TL;DR Web scraping is a complicated legal subject involving more than a dozen different laws. As such, it’s not possible to summarize all the legal issues associated with web scraping in just a few hundred words. That said, you can read the bolded sections here and the infographics in just a few minutes and learn … Read More
Since the early 2000s, the most important federal law governing web scraping in the United States has been the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”). For host websites that wanted to stop scraping, the CFAA has been the go-to legal remedy to threaten web scrapers. For the first time since the law was enacted in … Read More
The first rule of the law of web scraping is this: Details matter. As I’ve written before, there are dozens of laws associated with web scraping. As such, no single “three-part test” can tell you whether what you’re doing is legal or not. The only way to properly assess that is to look into the … Read More
Web scraping has recently come under scrutiny from regulatory agencies that investigate securities laws. Increasingly, investment firms have been using web scraping as an alternative form of data collection. To bolster more traditional data sets like SEC filings and financial statements, investment firms have been going directly to websites and online resources to get information … Read More
Note: The numbers relating to Delaware’s tax rates below are accurate at the time this article was drafted. Delaware may change its charges; you should confirm those numbers at the time of filing. Delaware’s annual tax on corporations, which it calls a franchise tax, is due March 1st each year. There are two methods of … Read More
Facebook aggressively monitors web scraping on its platforms. And they aren’t shy about sending out cease and desist letters when they believe someone is violating their terms of service. After the Ninth Circuit’s decision in hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp. in 2019, however, there might have been some question whether a court (and, in … Read More
Bots are perfectly legal. Unless, of course, they’re programmed or designed to do illegal things. To paraphrase legal scholars Mark Lemley and Bryan Casey, well-drafted laws prohibit verbs, not nouns. There are millions of ways that you could code or program an automated system that generates almost no legal risk whatsoever. And there plenty of … Read More
In the past month, much of the world has shifted to remote work practices and so much has been disrupted. Here, at McCarthy Garber Law, we have continued to provide our legal services, uninterrupted, in the midst of this disruption to the outside world. And we’ll continue to do so. We’re able to do so, … Read More
More and more, I’m hearing frustration from post-revenue or post-capital raise corporations that want to pay new hires in common stock. It seems like an obvious win-win: a new hire, with faith in the company’s success, gets paid in common stock for a future pay day, and the company can commit the cash it would … Read More
One question I seem to be hearing more often from prospective clients lately: “How do I set up a holding company for my startup?” The answer is you don’t. Or, perhaps more precisely, you shouldn’t. A holding company is a company that owns other companies. The classic and most successful example is Berkshire Hathaway, the … Read More
Angels blue sky Business Conflicts business formation C Corp cease and desist CFAA consulting contracts copyright crowdfunding Delaware due diligence Entrepreneurship Equity financing founders hiring a startup lawyer how to buy a business incorporation intellectual property Kickstarter letter of intent llc negotiation non-compete agreement Non-disclosure agreements Our Firm Privacy Law Raising Capital s corp securities Selling Your Business Sometimes Cheap Is Expensive startup lessons startups stock options trademark trade name Trespass to Chattels venture capital vesting Warren Buffett Web Scraping Weird Laws
