Yesmail.com versus MAPS: Lawsuit on hold Spam & E-Mail7/27/2000; 1:56:28 PM 'REDWOOD CITY, CA and CHICAGO, IL – July 25, 2000 -- yesmail.com, a leading outsourcer of permission email marketing services and technologies and a majority-owned company of CMGI, Inc. (NASDAQ: CMGI), and Mail Abuse Prevention Systems, LLC (“MAPS”) today announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding which puts the previously reported litigation on hold, lifts the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), and does not list yesmail.

Napster Stopped in Its Tracks Music & MP37/27/2000; 8:53:35 AM 'A federal judge today has ordered the company to stop assisting its users in the downloading of copyrighted music, a broad if surprisingly sudden decision that the popular MP3-swapping startup said would effectively shut down its service. The company vowed to appeal the decision immediately.'This is disappointing. While I don't know how the trial was going to be ruled, I thought the brief would have been enough to stop this on some perfectly legitimate grounds.

Joel on Software Does Issuing Passports Make Microsoft a Country? Privacy from Companies 7/27/2000; 7:30:57 AM 'Am I the only one who is terrified about Microsoft Passport? It seems to me like a fairly blatant attempt to build the world's largest, richest consumer database, and then make fabulous profits mining it. It's a terrifying threat to everyone's personal privacy and it will make today's cookies seem positively tame by comparison.

RealNetworks admits to new spyware bug Privacy from Companies7/26/2000; 3:16:56 PM (Actually, the Register is a little mistaken... it's not a "new" spyware bug... see iRights coverage July 17th, 2000.)'A flaw in RealNetworks RealDownload, Netscape/AOL Smart Download, and NetZip Download Demon, discovered by Gibson Research founder Steve Gibson, appears, at least in the case of RealNetworks, to be the result of ignorance rather than nefarious intentions, according to a FAQ hastily issued by the company.

Ways to Defeat the Snooping Provisions in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill Country Watch: Britain7/26/2000; 3:04:41 PM 'The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill currently going through Parliament will introduce powers to allow a number of UK authorities to intercept Internet communications and to seize encryption keys used for the protection of such traffic and for the protection of stored computer data. Such powers are not limited in their application to those involved in criminal activities and this means that law abiding individuals and businesses may be subject to interception activities as well as demands to hand over their encryption keys.

DVD Update: EFF Detonates Mind Bomb in Court on Final Day of DVD Trial (July 25, 2000) DVD & DeCSS7/26/2000; 2:05:04 PM 'EFF's DVD defense team rested its case on Tuesday in litigation over the movie studios' attempt to ban DeCSS software that enables people to play DVDs on their computers. David Touretzky, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University testified for the defense explaining the inherently expressive nature of computer code.

House Slows Down Speed Bill Free Speech7/26/2000; 1:57:36 PM 'A House committee voted to delete the most controversial sections of an antidrug bill on Tuesday. 'Gone is the most widely criticized portion, which would have permitted police to conduct secret searches of homes and offices....'Civil libertarians and some conservative groups managed to remove restrictions on publishing or linking to information related to illegal drugs or drug advertising.'Excellent! Now I don't have to go to jail for talking about the laws.

French Court Gives Yahoo More Time Country Watch: France7/25/2000; 8:20:29 AM 'A French court has extended its order against Yahoo (YHOO) to Aug. 11, giving the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company three more weeks to either remove Nazi-related items on its auction site or block the access of French citizens to such items. According to the original order issued by Judge Jean Jacques Gomez on May 22, certain items on Yahoo's U.

TheStandard.com: Germany Won't Block Access to Foreign Nazi Sites Country Watch: Germany7/25/2000; 7:55:41 AM 'Germany, which has some of the world's toughest laws banning race hate propaganda, has conceded defeat to the cross-border reach of the Internet and given up trying to bar access to foreign-based neo-Nazi sites.'Deputy Interior Minister Brigitte Zypries, the government's Internet security chief, said this week in an interview with Reuters that it was unrealistic to try to shield Germans from foreign Web sites, even though police do aim to stop homegrown Nazi and other offensive material, such as child pornography.

FBI defends email scanner to House probe Surveillance and Privacy from Government7/25/2000; 7:50:26 AM 'Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., called yesterday's hearings amid concerns from privacy groups about an ordinary computer filled with special software that the FBI calls a "reasonable balance" between privacy and law enforcement in an age where crime has gone online.'"Carnivore raises the question as to whether existing statutes protecting citizens from 'unreasonable searches and seizures' under the Fourth Amendment appropriately balance the concerns of law enforcement and privacy,"