SEC and Website Disclosure Rules

According to this law.com article, “in the wake of the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and last year’s corporate scandals (such as Enron), more real- and quasi-real-time information about public companies will be available at the SEC’s Web site or directly through the Web sites of companies themselves than could have been imagined last spring.”

Subjects: Securities Law

Congress Loves Canadian Made Blackberry

From the New York Times, another article on the continuing saga of Congress and their fixation with the BlackBerry wireless handhelds. As noted in my previous posting, loyalty to this Canadian device is under significant challenge from a patent infringement dispute with NTP Inc. Time will tell whether Congress will establish a new allegiance with …

Subjects: Congress, Wireless Web

Update on Supreme Court Library Net Filters Case

Below are links with details about Wednesday’s arguments by Solicitor General Theodore Olson and Paul Smith, for the American Library Association, in United States v. American Library Association, 02-361. Start here, with Shelf-Censorship, an opinion piece that includes useful links and an important perspective on the key issues of the case, and then move on …

Subjects: Censorship, Freedom of Information, Libraries

CDT Opposes Maryland Bill Impacting ISPs

Maryland House Bill 661, Internet Child Pornography – Removal, is opposed by the advocacy group Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT). CDT staff counsel John B. Morris testified before the Judiciary Committee Maryland House of Delegates on March 4 that the bill has “…due process problems under the Fourteenth Amendment, free speech problems under the …

Subjects: Censorship, Free Speech, Internet

New System to Fight UK ID Fraud

British Telecom launched “a new global identity verification system, called You Are You (URU). The system will allow governments or businesses to enter a person’s details and search through databases such as the Electoral Role and Post Office Address File – to authenticate their identity.”

Subjects: Cybercrime

Interview With Attorney/Bloggers

In Interview with Bloggers, Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program Jim Calloway discussed blogs with two expert techie attorneys and I am pleased to say, colleagues; Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. A public thank you to both for mentioning beSpacific.

Subjects: Blogs

Legislation to Protect Children on the Web

From the Washington Post, this timely article, Primer: Children, The Internet and Pornography, tracks the checkered past six years of laws specifically intended to protect children on the Web. Unfortunately, no links to the enacted laws and proposed legislation are provided, so here they are: the Children’s Internet Protection Act; the Child Online Protection Act; …

Subjects: Internet, Legislation

Newspaper Editors and the Patriot Act II

The American Society of Newspaper Editors recently issued a memo, The Effect of Patriot Act II on Newspapers. It focuses on three areas in which the proposed draft legislation would impact First Amendment rights: “(1) Increased surveillance authority that might chill speech, especially political dissent; (2) Increased restrictions on access to government information, either generally …

Subjects: Patriot Act

EU Approves Hacker Penalties

EU Ministers agreed to establish a new criminal offense, “illegally accessing an information system,” which would include incarceration for “serious cases.” The text of this new policy is buried on page 19 of this 27 page document (PDF), under the heading “Attacks Against Information Systems.” See also this related article in today’s New York Times, …

Subjects: Cybercrime, EU Data Protection