Cyberspace Wins Free Speech Ruling
Free Speech
11/28/2000; 11:41:21 PM

''Cyberspace Communications, Inc., and several other plaintiffs won a favorable ruling in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals recently in the Cyberspace v. Engler lawsuit to overturn an unconstitutionally broad Internet censorship law. The 2 page ruling affirms an injunction against enforcement of the law while the case is tried.''

The "Engler" in question is Governer Engler of my home state of Michigan. From the lawsuit info page:

Yahoo! Nazi tech expert backtracks
Country Watch: France
11/28/2000; 5:23:37 PM

'One of the three Internet experts that decided it was technically possible to prevent French users from accessing parts of Yahoo! US' auction site has posted an apology on his own Web site, saying that the solution is "half-assed and trivially avoidable". '

BT still chasing cash for hyperlink patent Patents11/28/2000; 5:09:31 PM

'BT is still trying to extract megabucks from US ISPs following the telco's patent claim to hypertext links - and it's prepared to taken legal action if those fingered don't cough up. 'The telco also refuses to discuss the cases of others who believe they created hypertext before BT patented its version in 1976, despite film footage which many believe undermines BT's claim....

PA Court Establishes Protections For Online Critics
Free Speech
11/28/2000; 4:11:49 PM 'In a ruling that establishes new protections for anonymous online authors, a state court judge here said today that public officials and others cannot use frivolous defamation lawsuits to ferret out the identity of their critics....

'"Until today, a public official or employer claiming defamation could get a court to disclose the name of an anonymous Web author simply by filing a lawsuit," said ACLU National Staff Attorney Ann Beeson, who litigated the case along with attorneys from the ACLU of Pennsylvania's Greater Pittsburgh Chapter.'

Judge Orders Sex.com Returned
General IP Issues
11/28/2000; 1:57:40 PM

'Adding a definitive chapter to one of the seamiest and steamiest disputes in Internet legal history, a federal judge ordered the domain name sex.com be returned to the man who registered it six years ago.'

The most fascinating domain theft story finally comes to a close... hopefully.

Bertelsmann Eyes Napster Pact
Music & MP3
11/28/2000; 1:48:22 PM 'German media giant Bertelsmann said on Monday it had begun talks with other music majors on a business model for its song-swap partner Napster and was hopeful they would join the ground-breaking alliance.

'"It's all worked out. We have a model," Bertelsmann eCommerce Group chief executive Andreas Schmidt said. "We are bringing it forward now to the other parties ... hearing their concerns, getting their input."'

Should ISPs Be Allowed To Delete Your MP3s?
Free Speech
11/24/2000; 7:26:27 PM A slashdot article.  Can ISPs unilaterally delete your information from their servers without even notifying you, even if there's nothing whatsoever illegal about it, simply because... it makes them nervous?  Well, today, the answer seems to be yes.  I think this is a perfect example of what you get when you start holding ISPs responsible for what their customers do.

Online ad companies hit with privacy suits
Privacy from Companies
11/24/2000; 12:12:09 AM

'Web advertisers Avenue A and MatchLogic, an Excite@Home subsidiary, were hit with separate complaints in federal court Monday for allegedly tracking customers without their permission. Both companies declined to comment on the suits.

''Plaintiffs allege that (the defendant) has covertly, without consent or authorization, planted 'cookies' upon Internet users' computer hard disk drives and secretly tracked their movements across the Internet," the plaintiffs charged in a filing in Denver, Colo.'

Emusic Tracks Napster Naughties... Or Does It?
Music & MP3
11/22/2000; 10:27:37 AM

'Emusic engineers have developed a tracking system that can identify infringing materials on Napster -– something the file-trading company said was impossible.'

Ok, so how are they doing it...?

'By tracking the MD5 checksum, which uniquely identifies the original source of a song, Hoffman said that Emusic would be able to track files that were being made available from one individual to other Napster users.'

Europe Votes Against Software Patents
Patents
11/22/2000; 10:16:58 AM

From the Slashdot article:

'The text of that article is in German, but thanks to Sebastian Bunka of Austria for providing me this translation: "On the CONVENTION ON THE GRANT OF EUROPEAN PATENTS all 20 memberstates have decided to not change the regulations to the patentability of software and to allow by this basically no patents on software." Else, you can check the fish, but the above is a better translation.'