Library Filters and Censorship
Censorship Reaches Ridiculous Extremes is a commentary on the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) by prolific writer Kari Lydersen.
Author archives
RIAA Wants More Names From Verizon
InternetNews.com reports that the legal battle by the RIAA to obtain the name of a Verizon ISP customer alleged to have pirated music using a P2P application has escalated with the issuance of more subpoenas demanding the names of other persons accused of copyright infringement. See RIAA Wins Battle With Verizon Over Customer Data for …
FCC Hearing on Library E-Rate Program
The FCC will hold a public hearing May 8 on the topic of compliance and oversight for the fraud-ridden e-rate program for libraries.
The FBI, FISA and Surveillance
EPIC has obtained a copy of an Internal FBI Guidance on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (pdf), dated 1/23/03, that provides detailed information in response to the question, “What do I have to do to get a FISA?” i.e., the steps necessary to obtain authorization for electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes. See also my …
Privacy Controversy Over WHOIS Database
From EPIC: “Current policies for the .COM/.ORG/.NET top-level domains require the publication of personal information, such as a registrant’s mailing address, email address, telephone number, and fax number. EPIC’s WHOIS Privacy Issues Report (pdf), issued as ICANN considers new policies for WHOIS data, recommends that WHOIS policies follow the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development …
War Generates Surge of Traffic to Gov't & Commercial Sites
The start of the war against Iraq has generated a huge spike in web traffic to military sites, along with associated bottlenecks, which have impacted access to sites that include the U.S. Army Home Page and the UK Home Office’s site for terrorism information and advice. Commercial sites such as Yahoo News are also reporting …
Official Transcript of CIPA Case
The Supreme Court released the official transcript, in PDF (59 pages), of the oral argument held Wednesday, March 5, 2003 in United States v. American Library Association. See several of my previous postings on the case here and here.
Google and E-Commerce
Google’s Offspring: Taking Baby Steps critiques the search engine’s e-commerce site, Froogle, through which users can find information about a wide range of products for sale on the web by category.
Blogs By and For the Legal Community
From Robert J. Ambrogi, Blawgs: More Than Just Fluff reviews several dozens sites that offer useful information to the legal community.
Justice, War and the Constitution
According to this AP report, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made some interesting statements at John Carroll University yesterday. In particular, after his speech and during a question and answer exchange he said that when the nation is at war, citizens can expect that civil liberties “…will be ratcheted right down to the constitutional minimum. …
Search Engine for RSS Feeds
My previous posting on a new search engine for RSS feeds indicated the site was seeking a new name, and here it is, Feedster. See also this article, Search engines target Weblogs.
New Report on Spam and E-Mail Addresses
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) published a new report, Why Am I Getting All This Spam? (16 pages in PDF), which documents the volume of spam received over the course of six months by hundreds of accounts created specifically to research this issue. Although the report offers no absolute methods for beating spam, …
