Off Topic: DHS Considers Stun Bracelets for Air Passengers

July 13th 2008

Its not web law, but still, news of humorous, ill-conceived policies sometimes just deserves posting. According to an article by Jeffrey Denning in the Washington Times, a senior official at the DHS is interested in a “safety bracelet” for air passengers that would serve as a boarding pass, GPS-enabled locator and, yes, STUN DEVICE. The […]

Linkroll: Links to Ideas Worth Knowing

July 12th 2008

TV’s Getting Old: The Christian Science Monitor notes that for the first time, last season’s average viewer was more than fifty years old: “If today’s TV audience were a person, it wouldn’t even be a part of the target demographic anymore.” With games and the Internet, TV simply isn’t the “first screen” for the young […]

Mass. Law Would Ban Tracking Visitors Between Web Sites

July 11th 2008

The Massachusetts House entertained debate of H-4822, which would force third-party ad networks that track visitor behavior between sites to allow visitors to opt out of receiving customized ads. The Cape Code Times provides details. Internet giants such as AOL and Google were represented by the Network Advertising Initiative. Attorney Justin Weiss argued that the […]

Is Your Cell Phone Being Used to Track You?

July 10th 2008

Two hundred million Americans carry cell phones, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU want to know how and when the federal government uses cell-based location services to track people. On July 1, 2008, the EFF and the ACLU sued the government in federal court in Washington under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) […]

Wall Street Journal Simply Reprints Republican Announcement as News (or Commentary)

July 9th 2008

The Wall Street Journal apparently set journalistic duties aside today, and simply reprinted the Republican National Committee’s gleeful take on Obama’s reversal on a promise to oppose telecom immunity. The Journal‘s Marketwatch literally stated, “here’s was the RNC has distributed” and then apparently quoted verbatim the entirety of an RNC statement. Marketwatch classified this post […]

Senate votes to immunize lawbreaking telecoms

July 9th 2008

The Senate today voted 69-28 to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, terminate the pending lawsuits against them, and to grant new warrantless eavesdropping authority to the President.  Senators Dodd, Feingold, Leahy, Bingaman and Specter offered amendments to strip the immunity provision, or delay it pending legal reviews or investigations. Glenn Greenwald notes in Salon: “What is most […]

Silverlight Law Suit Threatens NBC’s Online Olympics Coverage

July 9th 2008

We were describing the need to understand video search as a new arena of legal interest. Gotuit Media Inc., has sued Microsoft, claiming Silverlight infringes on three of its patents that involve making movies searchable. The Gotuit software allows for the insertion of searchable text data into a movie. Silverlight also allows for the insertion […]

Adobe Makes Flash Content SEO-Friendly

July 9th 2008

Editor’s note: Copyright and trademark cases are being defined by evolving search and video capabilities. Anyone interested in online law and search should follow the evolving ability of search engines to consume multimedia content. Flash is a wonderful tool for grabbing attention on the web. It can even be used to construct entire web pages […]

Strong-Arm Tactics Revive Yahoo Deal and Regulatory Concern

July 8th 2008

On the day Microsoft announced its plan to acquire Yahoo back in February, I posted my doubts that Microhoo would be established within a year, which was then the media and company line. While supporting Carl Icahn’s proxy fight and pressuring Yahoo’s board may get a Yahoo deal on the table, this will also underscore the anti-competitive […]

Hooah – Blawg Review Salutes Useful Arts

July 8th 2008

Jonathan Frieden celebrated July 4th by giving this week’s Blawg Review a distinctly patriotic theme. His approach,  “50 Stars of the Blawgosphere” recognizes an influential legal blog from each state, in the order it ratified the US Constitution.   Thanks to John Adams, Massachusetts and our forum is sixth in line.  I’m sure Thomas Paine had in mind persons like the […]