Wednesday, March 26, 2003

The Left Hand Doesn't Know What the Right Hand is Doing... The Chronicle of Higher Education has a report on a recent letter from the Consortium of College and University Media Centers to the Copyright Office, in which the Consortium warns of potential conflicts between the Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") and seeks clarification of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions.

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Boon for Personal Privacy? The New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled that an Internet data broker can be sued by the family of a stalking victim. The victim's stalker was able to purchase her home address, Social Security number, and work address from on-line data broker Docusearch.com. The court held that, given the prevalence of stalking and data theft, Docusearch.com had a duty to the victim to insure that her personal information was sought for a legitimate purpose.

Thursday, March 06, 2003

For All You Star Trek Fans Cnet has a report on the libel case brought by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine cast member Christianne Carafano, a/k/a Chase Masterson, against the dating site Matchmaker.com. As the article notes, the district court's ruling, if allowed to stand on appeal, could potentially restrict the protections afforded to internet companies by the safe harbor provisions of the Communications Decency Act.
Follow Up on CIPA Oral Arguments Slate has this report. Link courtesy of How Appealing.
Priceless Donna points to this link in her column today. Of course, my headline may have just cost you $3.65.

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

He's Clearly a Glass Half Full Guy Reuters is reporting that Grokster president Wayne Rossco has described the recent lawsuit by the entertainment industry against his file sharing network as good for business. Who needs an advertising budget when you have the RIAA?
ACLU Argues Right to Chat Anonymously The AP is reporting on oral arguments before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in an appeal from a lower court's ruling that AOL must turn over the identity of an anonymous chat room participant.
Follow Up to Fed Domain Name Raids The AP has a follow up story about the recent seizures of certain domain names by the federal government.
High Court to Hear Arguments in Filtering Law Case The AP has a story on oral arguments scheduled for today in the Children's Internet Protection Act case. Reuters' take on the story, complete with references to on-line "smut."

Tuesday, March 04, 2003

Supreme Court Hands Down Ruling in Victoria's Secret Case MSNBC is reporting that the Supreme Court has sided with the owners of Victor's Little Secret, finding that the name of the Kentucky sex shop did not dilute the famous trademark Victoria's Secret. Justice Stevens, writing for the unanimous Court, held that the federal Trademark Dilution Act requires a showing of actual dilution, not merely the possibility of dilution. The Court's opinion can be found here, and Justice Kennedy's concurrence can be found here. Added Later You can read Marty's take on the opinion here.
Static Control Seeks DMCA Exception Law.com is reporting that Static Control has sought the Copyright Office's help in its ongoing litigation with Lexmark, asking the Copyright Office to exempt from the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions computer programs that are embedded in computer printers and toner cartridges.