Blackvine Consulting

Consulting and Contract Development

John Levine consults and performs prototype development for e-mail and other Internet systems through his companies Taughannock Networks (Ta-GONN-ick, named after a local landmark) and Blackvine Consulting.

Through his leadership of the Domain Assurance Council, the IRTF Anti-Spam Research Group, the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, the Network Abuse Clearinghouse, and extensive informal contacts in the ISP and e-mail software community, he offers insight and advice on the design and implementation of e-mail systems.

He offers a series of white papers on electronic mail, along with shorter mini-papers and a weblog on e-mail technology.

He also offers e-mail system development, particularly on systems built around the popular qmail mail system.

Dr. Levine has served in an expert witness on a variety of computer related topics. These are some of the cases in which his participation is in the public record.

Copyright and Intellectual Property

In Perfect 10 vs. Google, he serves as Google's technical expert, has submitted an exert report, and has been deposed. This complex case, which is ongoing, concerns the copyright status of Google's indexing of third-party images that allegedly infringe the plaintiff's copyright.

In Agence France Presse vs. Google, he submitted an expert report as Google's expert. The case, which was settled, concerned the copyright status of the Google News index of online news sites.

In Field vs. Google he was Google's technical expert. The case, which was decided in Google's favor, concerned the copyright status of Google's web page cache.

He also serves or has served in several cases related to patents on web and e-mail technology.

Internet E-mail and Spam

In Blue Mountain Arts vs. Microsoft he was Blue Mountain's expert. He analyzed and reported on Microsoft's software and systems, and was deposed by Microsoft's counsel. The case was settled.

In Virginia vs. Jaynes et al. he was the Commonwealth of Virginia's expert, testifying about his analysis of the e-mail that Jaynes sent, and why it was not plausible that the mail had been solicited by the recipients. The jury found Jaynes guilty and sentenced him to nine years in prison.

Graphics file formats

Dr. Levine has been retained as an expert witness for possible litigation related to patents on computer image file formats. His book Graphics File Formats, 2nd ed is one of only two ever written on the topic.

Compilers

Dr. Levine has served as an expert witness in cases related to compilers, computer software that translates one computer language into another.

In VLIW Technology L.L.C vs. Hewlett Packard et al. he submitted an expert report on behalf of Hewlett Packard and was deposed. This case, which was settled, concerned compiler technology licensed to H-P, and the nature and commercial value of that technology.

Home | About | Consulting | Books | Speaking | Links