California Financial Privacy Bill Proceeds
An update on SB 1, the California Financial Information Privacy Act: it received approval from the Senate in a vote of 23 to 6 on March 3. See my previous post on the bill here.
New Tech Magazine Bucks Trend
The recent demise of well regarded techzine Red Herring, just short of its tenth anniversary, follows the discontinuation of other prominent publications in the tech arena, including The Industry Standard in 2001, Upside magazine in 2002, and predictions that continued financial woes at Salon.com will also result in its closure. Amidst all this gloom comes …
New Bill to Protect Consumer Rights In the Digital Age
On March 4, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Benefit Authors without Limiting Advancement or Net Consumer Expectations, or BALANCE Act, that mirrors the text of H. R. 5522, the Digital Choice and Freedom Act of 2002, introduced by Lofgren October 2, 2002. From yesterday’s press release: “This legislation would ensure that consumers are able …
Free Online News Sources Dwindle
This Columbia Journalism Review article, Why Information Will No Longer Be Free, highlights the growing trend by newspapers to cut losses from free access to their websites with the addition of new subscriptions models, expanded advertising campaigns and the collection of more customer personal data for marketing purposes by third parties.
Trademark Decision from Supreme Court Impacts Domain Names
On March 4, the Supreme Court released a unanimous decision in Moseley et al., dba v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc., et al., No. 01-1015, a trademark dilution case (Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 (FTDA) at Section 43(c) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1125(c). According to Declan McCullagh’s article on the decision, “the justices …
News from AllThe Web, Northern Light and Google
AllTheWeb has redesigned their site, and added a new feature, AlltheWeb URL Investigator. See the company press release, and a review of the changes by Greg Notess. In other search engine news, Northern Light News No Longer Updating, and Google moves into a new arena, Google Content-Targeted Advertising. See Danny Sullivan’s commentary, Google Throws Hat …
Supreme Court to Hear Library Net Filtering Case
On March 5, the government will argue before the Supreme Court that the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) should be applied and that federally funded libraries must filter Internet access to patrons. See my previous posting on this case here, as well as recent topical articles from the USAToday, Case tests Congress’ ability to make …
Inexpensive Options to Create PDF Documents
This article reviews two applications, RoboPDF 2.0 ($50) and pdfFactory ($50), that offer a low-cost alternative for attorneys currently using Adobe to create database repositories of documents.
Copyright Office Posts DMCA Comments
The Copyright Office has now posted all the public comments received on DMCA exemptions to the proposed rulemaking on anticircumvention as it applies to copyrighted works. See my previous posting here.
File Swapping and Free Speech on College Campuses
From Findlaw’s Writ, the author of Should Universities Crack Down On Illegal Swapping? champions the position that “universities should take the lead in mounting free speech and “fair use” challenges to the application of NETA and the DMCA.” See also my February 27 posting on this issue, P2P File Sharing on Campuses.
Law Firm Leverages E-Documents
From the March 2003 issue of AmLaw Tech, this article on a customized electronic discovery application called Patterns, developed for Preston Gates, is described as “a search engine on steroids.”
Questions About Bush Cyberspace Strategy
From Slate, this commentary on the recently released National Strategy To Secure Cyberspace contends that the report seeks to engender unfounded fears about cyberterrorism.