Milwaukee Radio Station Settles 47 USC 230 Lawsuit

The Journal-Sentinel reports today that WTMJ-AM settled a libel lawsuit that appeared to be directly covered by 47 USC 230. A talk radio host, Charlie Sykes, received an email from a listener and then reposted the letter on his blog….

Kevin Kelly on the Web’s Past, Present and Future

Kevin Kelly writes a fantastic essay at Wired on the Internet circa 1995, 2005, and 2015. It’s an excellent read, so I won’t spoil all of the fun. However, two passages of particular note. First, he hits the nail on…

Patent Reform Act of 2005–July 26 Draft

A new draft of the Patent Reform Act of 2005 (HR 2795) has been circulated. Among other noteworthy aspects, this draft drops the limitations on injunctive relief–perhaps expedient to move the bill forward, but a disappointing omission IMO nonetheless. At…

Challenge to CDA’s Obscenity Provision Rejected–Nitke v. Gonzales

Nitke v. Gonzales, No. 01 Civ. 11476 (SDNY July 25, 2005). This case involves a challenge to the 1996 Communications Decency Act’s restriction on disseminating obscenity over the Internet. The basic gist is that there are different standards for evaluating…

Surowiecki on the Decline of Brands

Catching up on back reading, I came across James Surowiecki’s Wired article The Decline of Brands from Nov. 2004. If you haven’t read it, I recommend the article highly–it’s provocative and interesting. Surowiecki argues that consumers’ brand loyalty has declined…

Internet Hunting Editorial

On my other blog, I have frequently railed against the regulatory response to Live-shot.com and hunting via the Internet (you can find postings sprinkled throughout this page). I finally organized my thoughts into an editorial that ran today in the…

Bellia on Spyware, and Searcy v. Microsoft

Patricia Bellia of Notre Dame Law School recently posted a paper on spyware and surveillance laws, Spyware and the Limits of Surveillance Law. She challenges those who believe that the Electronic Communications Privacy or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act…

Spyware, the Pew Report, Anti-Terrorism Efforts and Coping with Spam

I’m a little late blogging about the most recent Pew report on spyware. A couple of weeks ago, Pew Internet & American Life Project released its report “Spyware: The threat of unwanted software programs is changing the way people use…

Answer in AFP v. Google

Agence France Presse v. Google Inc., Civil Action No. 1:05cv00546 (D.D.C. answer filed May 19, 2005). Following up on my earlier coverage of AFP v. Google over Google News, I have found the answer and put it online. As is…

eBay, the Search Engine

Is eBay a search engine? Of course it is. eBay is acknowledging as much. As the NY Times reports, “In a conference call, Ms. Whitman also described the importance of improving eBay’s search capability, calling the service as much a…