Amazon Now Delivers Product Info Via RSS Feeds
Amazon.com Syndicated Content now provides users with the option of receiving product updates in hundreds of categories on “the top 10 bestsellers in that category,” via RSS feeds.
Using Biometrics to Combat ID Theft
Treasury notice from the March 2 Federal Register: Public Comment on Formulating and Conducting a Study on the Use of Biometrics and Other Similar Technologies to Combat Identity Theft For reference, see the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act).
House Passes Copyright Royalty Act
On March 3, the House passed the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004 (H.R. 1417): From the Washington Post, via BizReport, the act “would authorize a judge appointed by the Librarian of Congress to hear royalty disputes, eliminating a system that webcasters say excludes them from the process of determining the amount of …
More Kudos for RSS
How To Speed-Read the Net – Ditch your browserRSS makes surfing for news a joy.
With New Acquisition, Ask Jeeves Raises Stakes in Search Engine Competition
Ask Jeeves today announced the purchase, for $150 million in cash in addition to stock, of Interactive Search Holdings, owner of “Web properties and businesses [that] include My Way, My Search, My Web Search, iWon, Excite and the MaxOnline advertising network.” [thanks Donna] For background, see this Information Week article and Smartmoney.com’s financial analysis of …
Children’s Listbroker Privacy Act
On March 3, Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) introduced the Children’s Listbroker Privacy Act to ban the oline distribution and sale of personal data on minors. “Commercial list brokers routinely advertise and sell detailed information on children, including names, addresses, ages, and other data, for use in marketing. This data is commonly …
Catalog of FDA Approved Drug Products
From the Food and Drug Administraton, Drugs@FDA is a “Catalog of FDA Approved Drug Products; Approved and tentatively approved prescription, over-the-counter, and discontinued drugs; Drug approval letters, labels, and review packages. (updated daily) Searchable by Drug Name or Active Ingredient, or Browse by Drug Name.
NY Court Rules Against Sale of DVD Decrypting Software
Paramount Pictures, Corp. and Twentieth Century Fox Films, Corp. v. 321 Studios (March 3, 2004): “A federal judge in New York rules that manufacturing and distributing software for sale that can decode the content scramble system used to encrypt DVDs violates the anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.” [FindLaw] Statement of Robert Moore, …
From Library of Congress, the Harry A. Blackmun Papers
About the Blackmun Papers View Highlights Finding Aid for the Collection (HTML) Finding Aid for the Collection (PDF: 410 pages) Selected Bibliography on Harry A. Blackmun Copyright and Restrictions
The Journey of Supreme Court Justice Blackmun
From the New York Times, Documents Reveal the Evolution of a Supreme Court Justice. Other postings on the Blackmun papers, available to the public beginning March 4, at the Library of Congress. See also from NPR: Justice Harry Blackmun’s Papers, Documents, Oral History Reveal Supreme Court’s Inner Workings From NPR, via the SCOTUSBlog, Nina Totenberg’s …
Commentary on Eldred v. Ashcroft
How I Lost the Big One “In this article adapted from his upcoming book, Eldred v. Ashcroft lead counsel Larry Lessig explains how the decision how to argue Eldred was made, and what he believes went wrong.” [Link from The Eldred Act]
Database Protection Bill Moves Forward in Congress
See Hands Off! That Fact Is Mine and Weaker database bill gets House committee vote. See other postings on H.R. 3261, the Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (DCIMA). See also the Consumer Access to Information Act of 2004, HR 3872. From Wired, Hands Off! That Fact Is Mine