The Office of the United States Trade Representative has placed Russia and China at the top of its “priority watch list” for copyright violations in recently issued report. Joining China and Russia on the “priority” watch list are Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. Nations placed on a “lower level” watch list were Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Read More
Microsoft Prevails in Software Patent Dispute with ATT
Microsoft prevailed in its defense of a patent infringement claim by AT&T related to copies of the Windows operating system sold overseas. The matter is Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp., No. 05–1056. The technology at issue was codecs, which is software used to compress speech signals into data, in copies of Windows shipped and sold overseas. AT&T claimed that the codec infringed on its registered Read More
Women Bloggers Sexual Targets
A recent article explains the increased levels of anonymous sexual threats that women bloggers are receiving online. Like any other entity with power, prestige or wealth, women in the blogosphere are becoming targets of stalkers and other predators. Threats received by women are sexual in nature up to 25 times those received by men, according to the University of Maryland. This issue brings Read More
Seeking Facially Obvious TLDs
In recent years, ICANN has been introducing and maintaining numerous generic top level domains (gTLDs or TLDs). These are the suffixes on many popular domain names, and include the names .aero, .biz, .cat, .com, .coop, .info, .jobs, .mobi, .museum, .name, .net, .org, .pro, .tel and .travel. Currently up for public comment as to its renewal is the “.coop” TLD. This domain suffers from an Read More
Harvesting Anti-Spam Suit Filed
A new suit is expected to be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The suit, in the name of “Project Honey Pot,” an entity owned by Unspam Technologies, seeks to discover the identity of the organizations that “harvest” e-mail addresses from the web in order to resell them to marketers, typically unsolicited bulk e-mailers. A “honey pot” in the information Read More
Presidential Hopefuls in Cyberspace
A combination of Yahoo, Slate, and the Huffington Post will present joint online-only primary presidential debates this fall for candidates from both parties. There will be one debate for Republican hopefuls and one debate for Democrats. The candidates will participate remotely from any location they choose and attendees to the online debate will be able to ask questions of the candidates. The Read More
DoubleClick + Google: Part II: Privacy
While Microsoft has raised its concerns about antitrust considerations in the Google acquisition, a prominent privacy group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has raised concerns about the privacy implications. While the antitrust issues are less concerning, the privacy issues are of greater worry. The privacy concerns are present whether the acquisition is approved or not, but the Read More
DoubleClick + Google: Part I: Antitrust
The recently announced proposed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google has caused Microsoft to note its concerns about privacy and the possibility of anti-competitive results in online advertising. Microsoft has two primary concerns: (1) potential market domination by the new entity and (2) privacy concerns. We address the antitrust issues. When thinking about antitrust issues, there are several Read More
Boring Spammers to Stop Spam?
New technological methods of retarding spamming efforts are currently being implemented by a Canadian ISP. The system works by retarding the communications between incoming mail servers and incoming messages. While most mail servers accept messages almost instantaneously, the technology, dubbed “Traffic Control,” artificially extends the time between the time the incoming mail message seeks to be delivered, Read More
FCC Limits Pretexting Practices
Taking action that will lead to greater protection for consumers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced new rules designed to protect consumers from pre-texting as a means to invade the privacy of telephone consumers. According to the FCC “pretexting” is the practice of pretending to be a particular customer or other authorized person in order to obtain access to that customer’s call Read More
