How Goes the CPO? The Consumer Privacy Ombudsman (CPO) provisions of BAPCPA provide its sole clearly tech-oriented change to the Code. Changes to 101 and 363(b), and a new 332 require appointment of a CPO before the Court can approve a sale of "personally identifiable information" that is inconsistent with a privacy policy. Such privacy policies are typically found on web sites (although more and more they can be found in the off-line world.

CPOs have now been appointed in three cases. In the first, In re Engaging and Empowering Citizenship, Case No. 2-05-28175-CGC, filed in Pheonix, the UST appointed bankruptcy maven Don Gaffney of Snell & Wilmer as the CPO.

In October 2006, the first CPO was appointed in a Delaware mega-case. In the Tower Records case, a CPO was needed in connection with the debtor's sale of its on-line store. The UST for the 3rd Circuit interviewed several potential CPOs, selecting Dana Rosenfeld of Bryan Cave's Washington D.C. office for the job. Ms. Rosenfeld is an ex-FTC attorney with substantial experience in the privacy and consumer protection field.

Finally, just last week, Elise Berkower of Chapell & Associates, LLC was appointed as the CPO in the Refco Inc. case in the Southern District of New York. Chapell & Associates, LLC is a consulting firm which, among other things, assists companies in developing their privacy policies. Elise was kind enough to attach an article of mine as an exhibit to her report to the Court.  ¶ 4:52 PM 0 comments

  Talking about Bankruptcy Blogs Talking about bankruptcy blogs, several other blogs are now on-line that focus on bankruptcy issues.

• For fairly in-depth posts, check out In the (Red) The Business Bankruptcy Blog. Its maintained by my friend Bob Eisenbach, a partner with Cooley Godwood Kronish's San Francisco office.
• Sheppard Mullen maintains the Bankruptcy and Restructuring Blog. But it is less of a blog and more of an on-line newsletter.
• The Bankruptcy Litigation Blog is published by The Coleman Law Firm of Chicago. I especially like the part about stupid lawyer tricks.
  
• Kevin Churn, a consumer bankruptcy attorney, maintains The Bankruptcy Lawyer's Blog. It focuses on consumer issues under BAPCPA.
• The Bankruptcy Canada blog focuses on consumer bankruptcy issues in Canada and allows consumers to post questions.
• The Debt Relief Blog focuses on information about various debt relief options for consumers. Its run by a debt relief agency (a real one.)
• Credit Slips is run by six heavy hitting academics, including Bob Lawless and Elizabeth Warren (I put Bob's name first because Bob comes before Elizabeth alphabetically). It gets a little off-track sometimes, but always makes for interesting reading.
• If you find any of the above makes for heavy reading, you might check out the I Am Facing Foreclosure Blog. It follows the travails of a no-money-down real estate investor as he tries to work his way out of his failed fortunes.
  

  ¶ 5:01 PM 0 comments

  The Tech Bankruptcy Blog is Back It has been a little over a year, but the Tech Bankruptcy blog is back, at www.techbankruptcy.com. I took a break in late 2005 for two reasons. First, Marc Barreca of Seattle's Preston Gates took over as chair of the ABA's E-commerce and Insolvency Subcommittee. Second, as a panel trustee, my practice was temporarily overwhelmed by the Tsunami of consumer filings BAPCPA caused.

All is calmer now. I've continued to write and speak on e-commerce and insolvency issues, maintaining the chapter on intellectual property for Norton's and updating my own book, Bankruptcy and Secured Lending in Cyberspace, now published by West. Now, I have a backlog of interesting technology issues and cases to post on, and plan on working through it with periodic additions to this blog.

But not today. Today, I am off to San Francisco for the NCBJ.  ¶ 5:54 AM 0 comments