Via Slashdot, here is a link to an interview on digital IP issues with Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Senior IP Attorney Fred Von Lohmann, conducted by TechFocus. Topics covered include Kazaa, DVRs, the impact of the DMCA and the need for legislative reform of the act, and balancing fair use with the rights of authors. Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2003
E-Commerce Taxation Resource
Professor Annette Nellen of San José State University has created an extensive, well documented and up-to-date resource on net taxation issues: E-Commerce Taxation – Guide to Understanding the Current Discussion & Debate + Links. She includes the full-text of her own work on e-commerce issues, as well as annotated links to government reports (GAO, CRS,… Continue Reading
Federal Gov't and States Different Approach On Net Taxes
Declan McCullagh reports on new legislation, The Internet Tax Non-Discrimination Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Chris Cox and Sen. Wyden. Although not mentioned in Declan’s article, the bill numbers for the new legislation are S. 52 and H.R 49, and appear in the January 7, 2003 Congressional Record. The bills seek to “permanently extend the moratorium… Continue Reading
Surveillance of Kids Net Use
Privacy has been a hot button issue since 9/11, but now it would appear that government surveillance is being joined by another twist on snooping: parents aggressively monitoring their kids’ activities on the Web. This article in today’s WSJ details how parents are using sophisticated new software applications to remotely track how their kids are… Continue Reading
USPTO Lawsuit Stalls Online Transition
The National Intellectual Property Researchers Association (NIPRA), whose members “serve as the world’s main concentration point for IP information disseminated by the USPTO,” have sued the USPTO in District Court for the ED of Virginia. Their action was precipitated by the USPTO’s project to transition from a paper document collection to an online access system.… Continue Reading
FTC's New Fraud Website
The FTC announced the launch of a new website on cross-border fraud. The site states, “This website has information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid cross-border fraud. You also can review the Federal Trade Commissions recent law enforcement actions against cross-border scam artists, and learn how the agency is working with law enforcement agencies… Continue Reading
Praise for the Relaunched HotBot Search Engine
Poynteronline’s two part review of the new HotBot is worth noting. Part I is here, and Part II is here. The author praised the new engine’s capabilities, and feedback from readers championed Google as far superior. Continue Reading
Teen Found Not Guilty in DVD Case
On January 7, teenager Jon Lech Johansen was acquitted by a Norweigan criminal court of charges related to creating a utility (DeCSS) that descrambled the code for DVD players, and publishing it on the Web. For other articles on this decision, see CNN, The Register, BBC, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Continue Reading
New Operator for Top Level Domain
ICANN announced that effective January 3, 2003, the non-profit Public Interest Registry (PIR) is now the registry operator for the important .org domain. Continue Reading
Boucher First to Intro Tech Bill in 108th Congress
Rep. Boucher of Virginia was the first to introduce a tech-related bill in the 108th Congress. The bill, called the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act (H.R. 107), is a twin to H.R. 5544, which he introduced on October 3, 2002. See my previous posting for a section-by-section description of H.R. 5544. H.R. 107 amends sections… Continue Reading
White House Scales Back CyberSpace Plan
According to this AP report, via ABCNews.com, there is a new draft of the White House National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace (first draft from September 18, 2002 is here) circulating among a group of government officials and “industry executives,” and of course AP has a copy too. Apparently, it was ‘leaked’ by the administration to… Continue Reading
California Privacy Bill's Long Reach
A new California law, SB 1386, that takes effect July 1, 2003 (highlighted in my previous posting here), reaches beyond the state of California. According to this SecurityFocus article, the ABA Cybersecurity Task Force and industry groups discussed the ramifications of the law that requires businesses maintaining personal data on California citizens to report security… Continue Reading
