Registrar Sues for Whois Spam Privacy from Companies8/4/2000; 8:29:58 AM 'In a dispute that could test the legal limits for how of personal information stored on publicly available websites is used, a domain name registrar has filed suit against a firm it claims illegally used its customer contact information in an aggressive marketing campaign of unsolicited email and phone calls.'Register.com, a New York company that registers Internet domain names, filed suit this week against Verio Inc., a Colorado website developer and hosting firm, charging that the company engaged in "unauthorized commercial use of Register.com's Whois database."'This registration information is public knowlege, I'm just surprised it took this long for a major suit to emerge over somebody misusing it.
TheStandard.com: Privacy Report Criticizes 'Infomediaries' Privacy from Companies8/3/2000; 9:16:41 AM 'A new report released by Internet security firm Interhack, based in Columbus, Ohio, warns that the practice of outsourcing data collection on the activities of Web site visitors creates significant potential for privacy breaches. 'The report takes several e-commerce Web sites to task, as well as Coremetrics, the firm that collects and analyzes their customer information. But concern about outsourced data collection is applicable to any company that serves as an "infomediary" between the customer and the Web site.'Links The Standard Didn't Think You'd Need:
In particular, the response contains important clarifications of what Interhack was trying to say. In light of the response, I have to agree with the point Interhack was trying to make: Only our trust in CoreMetrics prevents them from perform exquisitely detailed tracking... and many people are forced to so trust them against their knowlege.Reform Voting Evokes E-Votes
Political Speech
8/3/2000; 8:47:53 AM '[Reform] Party officials say that the contest between Patrick Buchanan and John Hagelin for the Reform Party presidential nomination will be settled through a unique "mixed-media" election, giving voters the option of voting either through a mail-in paper ballot or on the Web over a three-day period prior to the party's Aug. 10-13 national convention.'
'The entire voting process -- electronic and postal -- is being handled by eBallot, a relatively new entrant into the raucous electronic voting industry, in which upstart companies are tripping over each other to get valuable commissions from national organizations.'
EBay Accused of Monopolization Content Integrity8/2/2000; 2:11:02 PM 'The judge in the eBay v. Bidder's Edge case has refused to throw out antitrust allegations leveled by the auction listing re-aggregator against auction giant eBay. 'Bidder's Edge contends that eBay behaved anticompetitively and that therefore the company is guilty of monopolization or at least attempted monopolization.'Mmmmmm... "anticompetitively" because eBay won't let Bidder's Edge use a substantial portion of eBay's bandwidth for reasons that eBay will find possibly economically damaging? I'm having a hard time with this "we have the right to access eBay's data and do whatever we want with it, and if they don't let us, it's anticompetitive" argument coming from Bidder's Edge. Flip it around... why is eBay obligated to let Bidder's Edge in?
'Uncle Spam' wants you!
Spam & E-Mail
8/2/2000; 2:02:48 PM 'Uncle Sam could become "Uncle Spam" if the government follows through with plans for creating an "official U.S. e-mail box" for every address in America, say industry executives briefed on the proposal.'
Is a Stitch Online a Crime? - Napster Case More Then Music Misc.8/2/2000; 12:31:16 PM 'If the $40-billion global music business thought it had problems with the emergence of a revolutionary Internet tool called Napster, consider the now-terrified needlepoint industry. 'For years, grandmotherly hobbyists, hungry for doily-and-swan patterns, have forked over $6 and $7 for them. Without a peep of complaint, they have provided a steady stream of revenue to pattern publishers such as Cross My Heart and Pegasus Originals. ...'As the clash continues, people on both sides of the pattern debate say they are closely watching the Napster case unfold in San Francisco. Their future, they say, is ultimately tied to the fate of a technology start-up that has wrestled control over distribution from major entertainment conglomerates.'
"If You Can Put It On A T-Shirt, It's Speech" DVD & DeCSS8/1/2000; 1:32:46 PM 'We got word last night that Copyleft has joined the ranks of the named defendants in the DeCSS suit - they received their subpoena yesterday, because they "distribute" the DeCSS source code - on t-shirts.'I suppose this is their reward for being used as an example by Touretzky.It's the logical conclusion of the testimony. What's interesting to me is that this is almost an implicit admission by the MPAA that there are indeed speech issues involved... since it nearly torpedos their case to admit that, it's wierd that they'd do this. Yet I suppose they had to, since they can't afford for this 'loophole' to remain open. I suspect they are doing this with heavy hearts, knowing this is probably the loss of the case for them either way...
Market researcher sues AOL, others for blocking email Spam & E-Mail8/1/2000; 1:03:18 PM 'Harris Interactive said it is suing Internet service providers including America Online for blocking the online market researcher's email from reaching registered participants.'Also named in the suit are Microsoft's HotMail, Qwest Communications International and other Internet service providers. Harris said its email is being blocked even though it contacts only those who have registered to take part in its surveys. It doesn't send unsolicited mail.'Keep an eye on this case, it's another one that will probably be under-reported because the implications are too subtle to be seen immediately by the press.This is similar in many senses to the eBay cases (filter on eBay if you have IE5+ or Mozilla M16+)... do I have a right to access your computers for communicating to others, which is then violated if you block me? Also, the Yesmail vs. MAPS that has been left unresolved touches on many of the same access issues.
Net marketing firm receiving personal information
Privacy from Companies
8/1/2000; 12:56:50 PM 'Columbus, Ohio-based Interhack founder Matt Curtin said he found four sites that forwarded personal information to Coremetrics, despite the companies' privacy policies: toy retailer Toysrus.com and its babies' products site, Babiesrus.com, and sportswear sites Lucy.com and Fusion.com.'
Napster Press Room Music & MP38/1/2000; 12:41:15 PM Not much going on today or yesterday, but I wanted to point to this earlier, except my machine wouldn't read the PDF.In Napster's Press Room, in the legal section, is the document requesting a stay of last Friday's injunction, straight from the horse's mouth.In particular, I've heard a lot of people saying "Napster didn't have to come down, they were just ordered to remove all copyrighted material from the server." This document counters that claim (with credence added by the fact that the injunction was indeed stayed) by pointing out that when pressed, even the labels are unable to determine the copyright status of any given piece of music in any sort of timely fashion, or on a bulk scale. This is not make-believe, they really tried and failed. The only choice Napster would have, in light of the number of songs the service indexes, would be to come down entirely.Note that the percentage really didn't matter. Even if only .01% of the songs on the service were in violation of copyright, Napster would still have had to come down, because ferreting out those songs (and filtering through and proving that the rest were OK) would still have been impossible.If the labels can't even do it, how can Napster, or, indeed, Napster's users?