Reuters reports that the January 7, 2003 decision from the Oslo, Norway Court of First Instance, acquitting teen Jon Johansen of criminal charges related to creating a utility (DeCSS) that descrambled the code for DVD players, has been appealed. The new trial is scheduled for Fall 2003. See my previous posting on the case here.
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Monthly Archives: February 2003
Update on Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act
From Rep. Boucher’s website, this Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act Supporter List (H.R. 107). On 2/14/2003, the bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. Continue Reading
Review of Airline Booking Sites
Consumer Reports published a new survey of the top six online travel booking websites. Sites are scored for credibilty, usability and content, and include CheapTickets, Expedia, OneTravel.com, Orbitz, TravelNow.com and Travelocity. Continue Reading
Library Net Filters
A new bill introduced in the Oregon Senate on February 25, Senate Bill 656, “Directs public libraries to install filtering software on computer terminals that provide access to Internet in children’s areas or near children’s areas.” Continue Reading
Blogger FAQ on Google Purchase
The “Blogger Team” responds to some of the many questions received as a result of the announced acquisition of their company by Google. Continue Reading
TIA Database Mining Contracts Awarded
EPIC’s continuing efforts to ensure public accountability for the Total Information Awareness program through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit has yielded the release of 180 pages of important documents, most in PDF (of variable copy quality). The documents supplied include the names, addresses and contacts for the companies that applied for Total Information Awareness… Continue Reading
Top Web Scams
The National Consumers League, Internet Fraud Watch published two surveys on Web e-mail scams: Top 10 Internet Scams 2001 (includes data on Type of Complaint, Percentage of Total Complaints and Average Loss), and Ages of Consumers Who Filed Complaints, 2001 (includes Percentage of Total Complaints). The surveys are available in tabular format on this webpage.… Continue Reading
FTC Settles COPPA Cases Over Kids Privacy
The FTC announced individual settlements with Hershey Foods Corporation and Mrs. Fields Cookies for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. Specifically, the sites did not “obtain verifiable parental consent prior to collecting, using, and/or disclosing personal information from children.” The documents in these cases are available as follows: United States of… Continue Reading
Gartner Analysis of Credit Card Theft
The Gartner Group released a news analysis on February 20, Stolen Credit Card Case Should Prompt Card Companies to Act, in reponse to the recent hacking of a database containing millions of credit card records. Their conclusion: “The theft of 8 million credit cards reveals serious flaws in card companies’ disclosure processes. Credit card issuers… Continue Reading
Google Obtains Patent on Search Results Ranking
Google obtained its first patent from the United States Patent Office, on February 25, for a “method of identifying documents relevant to a search query.” The patent (6,526,440), abstract states, “A search engine for searching a corpus improves the relevancy of the results by refining a standard relevancy score based on the interconnectivity of the… Continue Reading
DOJ Seizes Websites For Piracy and Drugs Sales
The DOJ announced Monday that ‘Operation Pipe Dreams’ had resulted in the seizure of domain names that were a conduit for the sale of “illegal drug paraphernalia.” Yesterday, the DOJ announced it had taken control of the website and domain for www.iSONEWS in accordance with a plea agreement on criminal copyright charges against the site’s… Continue Reading
SEC Files Charges Against Web Spammer
This Securities and Exchange Commission press release states that the agency filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against Samuel Aaron Meltzer (“Meltzer”), referred to as a “professional Internet spammer,” for committing securities fraud via the Web (SEC v. Meltzer, E.D. N.Y., Action No. CV 03 770, Judge… Continue Reading
