“Spammers are criminals, plain and simple”
Ridiculous article in BBC lamenting that 1/3 of email users have responded to spam and 10% have bought products from spam. The article portrays this as “bad e-mail behaviour” because, as every anti-spam scaremonger is quick to assert, responding to…
AFP v. Google News Update
AP story recapping AFP v. Google, quoting Zittrain and von Lohmann (among others). Contrary to some popular press reports, it appears that AFP is pressing on with the lawsuit despite Google’s redoubled efforts to kick them out of Google News….
SPY BLOCK Act Reintroduced
Burns and Wyden have reintroduced the SPY BLOCK Act in the Senate (S 687). Initial text here. This is the Senate complement to the SPY Act in the House (HR 29).
Utah Amends Spyware Control Act
Last week, the Utah governor signed HB 104, the amendment to Utah’s Spyware Control Act. The amendment is, in fact, a nearly complete rewrite of the prior law. I blogged on the proposed law last month, and since then further…
Utah Governor Signs HB 260
Not a surprise, but today the Utah governor signed HB 260, the ridiculous Internet service provider-as-filterer law. See my earlier critique (I think there are other objectionable aspects of the bill; I tried to control myself). Anyone want to make…
ZoomInfo and Egosurfing
Just-launched ZoomInfo aggregates web information about individuals into a single profile. The business model is a little opaque. The website offers a subscription service for “recruiting, sales intelligence and other markets”, and the article says that “the free “people search”…
ACLU Mini-Movie on Privacy
The ACLU has put together a humorous (?) look at the possible consequences of a National ID number and widespread data sharing. But the satire partially backfires; I actually wish that vendors offered some of the depicted services! And if…
Initial Assessment of AFP v. Google
Lots of buzz about AFP’s lawsuit against Google for displaying AFP’s headlines and photos in Google News. Personally, I think Google News is great, and I use it often. However, we can’t let our love for Google blind us to…
Batzel v. Smith Dismissal
Politech reports that Batzel v. Smith has been dismissed for procedural reasons. See multi-page TIFF here (I had problems viewing this with my browser–if anyone has a cleaner version, please advise). UPDATE: Evan Brown of InternetCases.com converted the TIFF to…
EFF Against Trademark Dilution Act
The EFF has come out against the Trademark Dilution Revision Act. UPDATE: The law has passed. My comments on the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006 as passed.