Webcasters and Royalty Fees

On October 20, new royalty fees on webcast music will take effect. These fees were determined by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel. The final rule and order from the Copyright Office were published in the Federal Register on July 8, 2002. Details concerning the rates were published in Appendix A and establish a performance fee, …

Subjects: Copyright

The RIAA Battles Verizon Over Customer Data

Unlikely adversaries, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Verizon Internet Services Inc. are tangled in a controversy over alleged music piracy. The RIAA is seeking to enforce a subpoena issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to ascertain the identity of a Verizon customer has allegedly committed copyright infringement …

Subjects: Copyright, Privacy

Proposal and Guidelines For The Domain For Children

NeuStar Inc. was chosen as the manager of the new Congressionally mandated (S. 2537) .kids.us domain, and has been embroiled in a dispute with the government ever since over the company’s quest to include e-commerce/revenue generating applications on the site. NeuStar recently released a report seeking public comment on content “guidelines and requirements” for the …

Subjects: Domain Names

Advocacy Groups Lobby Against Internet Filters

Advocacy groups are lobbying for the repeal of CIPA’s (The Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000) web filtering requirements for public libraries that receive federal funds. An ACLU press release and a preliminary research report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) argue that the use of such filters is ineffective in preventing access to harmful …

Subjects: Internet

Australian Jews Win Landmark Racist Web Site Case

The Adelaide Instituteweb site will be offline in four days in accordance with an Explanatory Memorandum and decision in Jones v Toben by the Federal Court of Australia. The site will continue to be available via the Web Archive, for which I have provided the following link which is illustrative of some of the content …

Subjects: Internet

Third Annual E-Government Study

Darrell M. West, from the Center for Public Policy at Brown University, published a report this week evaluating e-government initiatives on the state and federal level. The report, U.S. State and Federal E-Government, Sept., 2002, is available via Mr. West’s site, Inside Politics. From the press release: “West…. and a team of public policy students …

Subjects: E-Government

State Government and E-Procurement

A new grant report, State Government and E-Procurement in the Information Age: Issues, Practices and Trends, from the PriceWaterhouseCooper’s Endowment for the Business of Government, reviews e-procurement techniques that can save money and develop and speed services to consumers.

Subjects: E-Government

The National Strategy to Secure CyberSpace, For Comment Draft 2002, September 18, 2002.

From the White House, this 65 page PDF draft report is divided into 5 content areas: Home User and Small Business; Large Enterprises; Critical Sectors (federal government, state and local government, higher education and private sector); National Priorities; and Global. Public comments on the Draft Strategy to Secure Cyberspace will be accepted until November 12, …

Subjects: PC Security