Wired is reporting that a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision has cleared the way for many of us who publish information on a small scale (and who mostly point to other media for source material) to gain some protection against libel. The protection seems to stem from an interpretation …

Do not wait for the movie, go to the FTC's Do Not Call site and get your numbers in there. The site went live on Friday and anyone who signs up before the end of July should stop getting calls starting the first week of October. The longer you wait …

Not that anyone wants to read this page-turner in an electronic format, but if you did, then CNet is reporting you could find copies on the internet as people have scanned them (all 850+ pages) and put them into electronic book formats. Industry analysts point out that this isn't yet …

CNet is reporting that a New Jersey man who posted a digital copy of The Hulk to the internet is being charged with copyright infringement and faces up to three years in jail and a $250,000 fine. This one seems pretty blatant. He had no rights to what he …

I was quite happy to see a mainstream media outlet (the Washington Post) with a concise, thought-out piece on DVD copy protection and how overboard the motion picture industry is going. Rob Pegoraro does a good job of arguing for restraint among lawmakers at preventing users from fair use of …

A bill sponsored by two Washington state Democrats (Brian Baird and Jay Inslee) will make its way in to the US House of Representatives aimed at auditing the controversial ICANN and putting a decision by the organization to give Verisign a monopoly on "wait listing" domains on hold. An page …

From the man who brought us "There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws" and "If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize" the errors of their ways, now comes "that's ironic …

The four people whose names were given up by Verizon (under court order) and one person who subscribes to Earthlink (which did not fight the request by the RIAA) have been sent letters by the RIAA. According to an article from CNet, the RIAA didn't say anything other than they …

Wired reports about an FTC hearing on personal information privacy. As would be expected, various groups showed up to complain about too much and too little information being available. Privacy groups such as EPIC argued that companies should ask for less information and keep to just what they need to …

An article from afterdawn details the goings-on in Sweden where they are preparing an implementation of the EUCD (European Union Copyright Directive). The proposed legislative implementation of the EUCD is considered one of the most prohibitive that has been proposed to date. Among the provisions are: An additional tax on …

A story from CNet details a new e-commerce security service from Verisign (corporate press release also available) that aims to pair your credit card information with the location of the network address that you are coming from. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea: if you have a …

The heck with due process, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), powerful head of the Senate Judiciary Committee has come out in favor of destroying the computers of people who swap files on the internet. I'd love to say that this AP article (from Yahoo!) was taken out of context, but the …

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) has issued new guidelines for consumer protection, and they include some references to spam. CNet has an article pointing out some of the specifics, but the gist is that they are encouraging the use of new electronic systems to share information about …

In a new twist reported by BBC News, a recent virus (called the AVF Virus) is finding its way around the net that opens up a back door for spammers to send their spam from infected machines. The virus appears to be a classic Trojan horse program, but in an …

If the Council of Europe were to have its way, they would be able to create a direct link from my story here to an article on their site, rebutting it. Further, they might be able to require me to put actual content on my site if they so choose …

An article from Newhouse News Service is reporting that a recent case involving speeding and vehicular manslaughter was won by the State of Florida with the help of the Electronic Data Recorder (EDR) in the perpetrator's car. Based on the fact that accident investigators believed the care was going at …

Wired has an article indicating that the TSA has suspended testing on the controversial CAPPS II airline security system. Although the suspension is temporary, it does give some hope that there may be thinking going on in the government that privacy may be a good thing.... perhaps. Under the system …

An article in the Washington Post details some of the requests from the FTC for new authorities requested in the fight against spam. The requests may go to far, though, when they ask for criminal penalties for forging email addresses. In the typical governmental hyperbole, Orson Swindle of the FTC …

All of this discussion about nearly-flawless DRM, GPS-based tax programs, and travel restrictions makes me wonder what happens as technology makes it more possible to locate and cite every transgression and whether that means we need to be changing the underlying laws. Imagine this: you are driving down a country …

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald describes the surprise of a British citizen who received a nasty letter from the MPAA over his domain RatedNC-17.com. The MPAA says they are trying to prevent him from diluting their trademark. The current owner is confused, because RatedR.com has a …