2007 was a good year (the highest in the last six years) for venture capital investments, and was especially good for Internet and technology firms.  According to this report - Venture Capital Investments Climb - $29.4 billion in VC fundings were made in 2007, over half of which were made in biotech, internet firms, and "green" technology.  $4.6 billion of the total was made to Internet companies.  In addition, more than $34 billion was raised by VC firms for future investments, so the positive trend of investments looks good for the foreseeable future. 

If you’re considering raising venture money for your Internet business, now is the time to calculate what you need, create a well-thought out plan for how you would use the money, and work on your pitch. 

I was recently made aware of an excellent resource for court decisions that impact Internet business: The Internet Library of Law and Court Decisions by NY attorney Martin Samson.  The site features a database of cases organized by subject matter area with handy synopsis for each.  There are over 480 case decisions so far, which makes this a very nice resource to begin your research.

Evan Brown over at InternetCases.com has a good overview of the recent happenings in a year old case against YouTube over whether YouTube deserves DMCA safe harbor protection from claims of copyright infringement.   As Evan describes, the Court found seven different requirements that a web site needs to meet to be able to claim safe harbor. 

Court interpretation like this are important.  Illumination of the requirements of the DMCA for web sites that allow users to upload content are necessary to better help us Internet attorneys advise these web sites on ways to minimize their legal exposure. 

As InfoWorld reports, two individuals were convicted a couple of days ago for sending out mass spam with pornographic images in them.  And, in what is being reported as a first, these individuals were convicted of criminal violations of the CAN-SPAM Act, which has normally been enforced through civil proceedings. They may have generated $2 million from these activities but I bet the thought of the potential thirty year sentences facing them make them wish they made a different choice. 

Just another reason why you want to be sure that you comply with CAN-SPAM requirements. And, of course, don’t include pornographic images in mass emails - the government (and most recipients) hates that…