The Communications Decency Act (CDA) has long been unjustly applied by courts all over the nation. Now, the Ninth Circuit may have finally construed the hot-button statute (almost) correctly in its opinion in Fair Housing Council v. Roomates.com. As the court notes: The touchstone of section 230(c) is that providers of interactive computer services are immune from liability for Read More
New Top Level Domains on Deck
ICANN has announced a new opportunity for public comment on new generic top level domains (gTLDs). Top level domains are the suffixes on domain names, such as .com, .net, .tv, .info and similar. The idea of having more TLDs is attractive to many because there are more options to register and market the best name for a particular registrant. In addition, one of the primary motivations for making Read More
NBC Joins Fray Against YouTube
In a case fast approaching being titled “The Entire World v. YouTube,” NBC has announced plans to file an amicus brief in the suit alleging copyright infringement against YouTube for allowing users to upload copyright protected content. YouTube is a popular video-sharing site that was recently purchased by Google for $1.65 billion dollars. This matter features two interesting subplots. First, we Read More
TSA Suit Reminder of Security Concerns
The union representing most of the airport safety screeners of the nation have filed a class action suit against the Transportation Security Administration for its negligence in allowing an external hard drive to be stolen from TSA Headquarters. The hard drive contained 100,000 records of past and current employees, including social security numbers, banking details and other sensitive data. The Read More
Supreme Court: Obvious Patents Under Siege
The Supreme Court recently handed down its opinion in KSR International v. Teleflex. The matter involved an adjustable pedal system for cars, which allows drivers to adjust the position of the gas and brake pedals themselves. KSR developed a model adjustable pedal and was selected by General Motors Corporation to supply the parts. Teleflex, who had previously registered a license for “a position-adjustable Read More
Nations Placed on US Copyright Watch List
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
