MySpace shouldn’t be required to reveal the identities of anonymous authors of MySpace profiles criticizing a municipal leader in Illinois, the Electronic Frontier Foundation told the Cook County, Ill., Circuit Court. EFF filed an amicus brief Thursday on behalf of MySpace, citing constitutional and statutory protections for anonymous speech and electronic records.
Facebook faces a complaint filed Friday with the Canadian Privacy Commissioner by the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. CIPPIC charges Facebook with violating the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, including not fully disclosing how the social networking site uses personal data it collects and shares, not deleting personal material automatically when an account is closed and lack of transparency on how user data are tracked by or shared with advertisers.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a press release announcing that the U.S. has requested World Trade Organization dispute settlement consultations with the European Union regarding the duties they are imposing on certain products that should be duty-free under the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA).
DHS Official Testifies that Administration Change in 2009 Will Have Minimal Impact on its Operations
In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee, Department of Homeland Security acting Deputy Secretary Schneider stated that the change in administration in 2009 will have a minimal impact on DHS' day-to-day operations or its ability to respond in the event of a national incident.
The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday declined to hear an appeal by T-Mobile that raised the issue of whether federal law preempts state laws that block carriers from prohibiting their subscribers from banding together to pursue class- action lawsuits. As a result, the litigation will continue. The decision also means that all carriers will need to review the arbitration clauses in their customer service agreements and revise them as needed to comply with the requirements of California state law, officials said.
Online video streamer Virtual Digital Cable largely called it quits in March after struggling to enlist new programmers and keep the ones it had, said co-founder Scott Wolf. VDC.com charged a monthly fee for a package of linear pay-TV networks delivered online, tagging itself a multichannel video programming distributor under federal rules. It filed a complaint asking the FCC to enforce program-access rights with Time Warner (CD Jan 22/07 p14). That request and a complaint against CBS survive, though the company’s service no longer is available. “I feel like we deserve a response,” Wolf said.
Online video streamer Virtual Digital Cable largely called it quits in March after struggling to enlist new programmers and keep the ones it had, said co-founder Scott Wolf. VDC.com charged a monthly fee for a package of linear pay-TV networks delivered online, tagging itself a multichannel video programming distributor under federal rules. It filed a complaint asking the FCC to enforce program-access rights with Time Warner (WID Jan 22/07 p7). That request and a complaint against CBS survive, though the company’s service no longer is available. “I feel like we deserve a response,” Wolf said.
The U.K. government continues to resist legislators’ calls to hold ISPs and software vendors liable for Internet security lapses but agreed Tuesday that its handling of e- crime need updating urgently. A Science and Technology Committee hearing in the House of Lords followed a scathing 2007 report on personal Internet security accusing government, ISPs and others of a laissez-faire attitude on the issue (WID Aug 10 p2). October’s government response to the report was “a little bit bland,” a legislator said Tuesday.
Promotion of child pornography doesn’t have to be commercial to be illegal and the images don’t need to be genuine, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2. It overturned an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals holding that a federal “pandering” law is overbroad and impermissibly vague (WID April 12/06 p1). The PROTECT Act of 2003 bars the promotion of “visual depictions” of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct if the promotion is done “in a manner that reflects the belief, or that is intended to cause another to believe” that the material is “obscene” or includes an “actual minor.” The lopsided majority hadn’t seemed a sure thing. Several justices questioned the law’s scope in oral argument (WID Oct 31 p3).
Charter Communications shouldn’t act on reported plans to use its broadband subscribers’ Web surfing habits to deliver more targeted online ads via the firm NebuAd, House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey, D-Mich., and House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Joe Barton, R-Texas, said in a letter to Charter CEO Neil Smit. “Any service… that can result in the collection of information about the web- related habits and interest of a subscriber, or a subscriber’s use of the operator’s service, or the identification of an individual subscriber, without the ‘prior written consent or electronic consent of the subscriber’ raises substantial questions related to Section 631 [of the Communications Act of 1934],” they said. Charter is open to talking with Barton and Markey, a spokeswoman said. “Our goal is to bring an enhanced Internet experience to our customers while meeting all privacy requirements,” she said. “We believe we have done this but are pleased to discuss this matter with the Chairman and the Congressman.”