Reuters reports that ICANN announced during their December 15 meeting that there will be new topic/area specific domains added to the roster that includes .com and .org, in 2003. Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: December 2002
Antitrust Suit Filed Against Amazon and Partner Borders
A number of news sources just reported on a class action suit filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, on October 29, 2002 by Amazon.com customer Gary Gerlinger. The source of the information apparently originates from a 12/11/2002 Form 10Q filing by Borders Group, Inc. The following statement appears in the filing:… Continue Reading
EU Commission's Quality Criteria for Health Websites
The EU Commission issued a press release indicating the importance of setting standards for health related data on the web, as “Europeans access more than 100,000 health websites, making such websites amongst the most frequently used.” The Commission recommended the adoption of 6 criteria for such sites: “transparency and honesty, authority, privacy and data protection,… Continue Reading
Comments Filed with FCC on Copyright Protection
The non-profit Center for Democrary & Technology is involved in keeping discussions of digital copyright issues front and center. The organization filed comments with the FCC concerning the escalating controvery over proposed copy protection systems for digital TV broadcasts for coypyright holders. They support the position that there must be a balance of the discretionary… Continue Reading
Patent Office Works on Transition to E-Records
As I reported in November, the USPTO has undertaken an ambitious plan to transition to a paperless public access system. However, this new agency announcement indicates that there is now a greater understanding of the tremendous challenges inherent in this project, and the need to ensure that paper copies continue to be available to prevent… Continue Reading
Increased Suveillance By U.S. Gov't
This New York Times article, New Tools for Domestic Spying, and Qualms, provides important perspective on the increasingly contentious issues associated with domestic surveillance and civil liberties in the post 9/11 world. Data on citizens who use public services such as libraries, and a range of commercial services, such as flight training schools and scuba… Continue Reading
Feds Launch Science.gov
From the press release: “Fourteen scientific and technical information organizations from 10 major science agencies have collaborated to create Science.gov, the “FirstGov for Science” web site. Science.gov is the gateway to reliable information about science and technology from across Federal government organizations.” Continue Reading
Liability on the Internet Goes Global
The High Court of Australia issued a ruling on December 10 in the Internet defamation case Dow Jones and Company v. Gutnick. The case may have global implications for the increasingly wired publishing world. It stipulates that Web publishers of any description (be they huge corporate entities or individual weblogers) can be sued anywhere in… Continue Reading
CourtEXPRESS Announces an Upgrade to CaseTracker
From the CourtExpress.com press release: “Attorneys can now choose from three levels of detail when receiving information on tracked cases. Users have the option to receive the entire docket, only new case activity, or entries that match the keyword they specify.” Continue Reading
Web Filters Block Health-Care Sites
The Kaiser Family Foundation issued a study, See No Evil: How Internet Filters Affect the Search for Online Health Information. The focus of the study was how the choice of the ‘least’, ‘intermediate’ or ‘most’ restrictive web filtering options available through six high profile systems (8e6, CyberPatrol, N2H2, Smartfilter, Symantec and Websense), impacted access to… Continue Reading
Online Banking Report
According to this new Pew Internet Project report, Online Banking: A Pew Internet Project Data Memo, there has been huge surge in consumer adoption of online banking, with a “164% increase…since early 2000.” Approximately 37 million Americans currently perform their banking transactions online. Continue Reading
The Future of the Internet
Thought I would mention what looks to be an interesting conference in London on February 5., 2003: The Politics of Code: Shaping the Future of the Next Internet. Speakers, including Larry Lessig and Esther Dyson will address issues such as privacy, open source, digital rights, id theft, other legal-tech topics. Continue Reading
