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Once again Judge John D. Bates (United States District Court for the District of Columbia) has ruled (55 page pdf) that Verizon Internet Services must reveal, within fourteen days, the name of an anonymous customer accused of using a peer-to-peer file sharing application (KaZaA) to pirate copyrighted songs. The judge’s earlier ruling of January 21 …
O’Reilly & Associates, a leading publisher of books on computer technologies, announced it will adopt the Founders’ Copyright from the Creative Commons project, “that allows copyright holders to voluntarily release their works to the public after the period envisioned in the original 1790 US copyright law–14 years, with the option of one 14-year extension.” The …
Via an e-mail from Mary Alice Baish, AALL Washington Affairs Representative: “Thanks to a trio of very alert law librarians in Ohio, Billie J. Grey, Gail McCain and Al Podboy, for notifying us of a state bill, the Electronic Government Services Act (H.B. 145), that would prevent agencies from providing access to government information and …
Junkbusters Corp., an organization whose declared mission is to stop spam, sent a letter to the FTC on April 22 requesting that the agency investigate discrepancies in the privacy statements posted by eBay as they result in the dissemination of personal data without customer knowledge. Junkbusters President Jason Catlett contends that eBay’s use of two …
Movable Type founders Ben and Mena Trott announced that their company Six Apart Ltd. will soon release “TypePad, a hosted service providing powerful tools for creating full-featured weblogs.” See also, Eyeing Blogger, Creators of Movable Type Expand. Looks as if Google now has some formidable competition in the BlogSphere!
Getting Wired Is Part of Research reviews technology options available to access online court dockets and filings from federal and state courts. Two services mentioned are the comprehensive CourtExpress.com (fee-based) and CourtWeb (which is limited to selected rulings from participating U.S. District Court judges).
From the ABA’s Market Research Department, news that the 2003 ABA National Lawyer Population Survey is available here. In addition to this data, the site provides access to other ABA research and statistics about the profession (demographics, women in law, salaries, quality of life, law firm rankings, corporate counsel, etc.) as well as links to …
The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) posted an Early Release on April 11, HIPAA Privacy Rule and Public Health Guidance from CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (pdf). This 24 page report includes an overview of the new privacy rule, as well numerous links to related online resources from …
The Centers for Disease Control has a launched a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) website, which is updated daily. This site is an excellent example of the power of a content-driven e-gov resource whose goal is to educate the public and disseminate accurate, topical, current information. See also this excellent resource on the subject from …
The EU announced a plan in December 2002 to create a European E-business Legal Portal with the stated purpose of facilitating electronic cross-border transactions. On schedule, the Commission launched the site, eBusiness Lex that “contains information and resources on a range of relevant issues, including contractual aspects, online payments, privacy and data protection and intellectual …
Google is onboard the money train with their acquisition of Applied Semantics, “a company that makes software that analyzes the content of Web sites in order to match them with appropriate advertising,” according to this Reuter’s story. See the Google press release here, which states, “Applied Semantics’ products and engineering team will strengthen Google’s search …
In the continuing saga of Napster, this news that venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners was sued in U.S. District Court (LA) by Universal Music Group and The EMI Group for contributing to global copyright violations by the bankrupt file sharing service. See also my previous posting on the new book about Napster. And …