Net Radio Act Now Law
President Bush signed the Net Radio Act, H.R. 5469, Public Law No: 107-321. Click here to view previous postings on this topic.
Author archives
Random House Settles E-Book Suit
From the press release at Rosettabooks.com: “RosettaBooks LLC, a leading publisher of electronic books, and Random House, Inc., the largest English-language trade book publisher, announced today that they have settled the pending litigation filed by Random House last year over RosettaBooks’ publication of e-book editions of several Random House, Inc. titles. With no financial payment …
DVD Copying Controversy Escalates
321 Studios has chosen to play David to Motion Picture Association of America’s Goliath in the legal arena. This small company has released a software application for $99.99 that allows purchasers to easily make copies of DVD movies to blank DVDs. The MPA contends that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 prevents 321 Studios …
President Signs Kids Internet Law
President Bush signed into law the Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 (Dec. 4, 2002; 116 Stat. 2766, P.L. 107-317). For more information about this new Internet domain for children, kids.us, please see NeuStar’s (the domain name manager) Proposal for Guidelines and Requirements for the kids.us Second Level Domain.
SEC Institutes Fines Over E-Mail Retention
This SEC press release concerns the agency’s joint action (along with the NYSE and NASD) against 5 high profile broker-dealers for violations of e-mail communications retention requirements. The text of the SEC’s administrative decision is here, and the companies will collectively pay $8.25 million in fines.
Southern District of NY to Initiate E-Filing
The U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, issued a press release on December 2 stating its plan to implement a new e-filing and case management system in February 2003.
Commentary on Total Information Awareness in the Extreme
This article by Matt Smith was published on November 27, but took some time before generating what has resulted in continually escalating interest in the activities of the TIA program by the mainstream press, privacy advocacy groups, and alternative web sites. Mr. Smith obtained and posted personal information on TIA program director John Poindexter, including …
New Doctor-Patient E-Mail Guidelines
Patient’s increasingly indicate that they want to communicate with their physicians via e-mail. However, there are major impediments to this process, including medical liability issues, patient privacy concerns, and billing considerations. However, according to this press release from the eRisk Working Group for Healthcare, new unified guidelines for physician-patient e-mail are now available that have …
More On Internet Censorship In China
Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School have published a new report on Web censorship: Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China. From the abstract: “The authors are collecting data on the methods, scope, and depth of selective barriers to Internet access through Chinese networks. …
China Net Censorship
Amnesty International has published a well researched report on the impact of state controls on Internet access to one of world’s fasted growing population of users. The report provides a timeline that documents the imposition of various controls and regulations on Web access since its introduction to the public in 1995, and their impact on …
DMCA in the Spotlight
FatWallet.com has taken up the fight against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act with their claim that “a group of national retailers forced FatWallet.com to remove Day After Thanksgiving sales information from its site. In letters sent to FatWallet, each retailer claimed that the Copyright Act gives it a monopoly over this price data.”
Oregon City Opposes Patriot Act
Although primarily a symbolic action, the Eugene City Council passed a resolution, with impetus from 2,000 citizen signatures on a petition, stating the city’s opposition to the USA Patriot Act. See also my other posting on a growing movement by municipalities to oppose the Patriot Act.
