- Harvard Internet Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain’s take on the Google – Verizon Net Neutrality Proposals is here.
- CNET reported on a lawsuit alleging how several major websites have broken the law by secretly tracking user activities on other sites using Flash Cookies.
- In an interview, Google’s Eric Schmidt said he believes every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrassing photographs and material stored on their friends’ social media sites.
- Google is trying to line up content owners for its new Google TV software.
- One of the hottest issues in the content licensing space: What’s a “mobile device”?
- Domain Name Wire reports on Paris Hilton’s recent legal action against cybersquatters.
- The Washington Post reports that some luxury hotels are now offering eReaders as perks to hotel guests.
- The FCC has launched a new Help Center to help consumers learn about the agency’s work, file indecency complaints, and comment on FCC proceedings.
- The FTC is searching for a browser-level way for consumers to opt out of online behavioral advertising. But no consensus on privacy emerged from the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee’s hearings this week regarding online privacy.
- Goldman Sachs will begin monitoring employee e-mails for profanity.
- The Guardian is displaying a map (powered by Google Maps) of lawsuits currently faced by Google.
- Both Google and the US Intelligence Community are investing in the same startup, a company that monitors web activity in real time .
- Startup Company of the Day: Flipboard.
- U.S. Technology giants are lobbying the EU to streamline privacy rules in order to offer cloud computing services. Currently every EU nation has its own data-protection and retention rules.
- A new class action lawsuit has been filed in federal court against several large media companies regarding their use of Quantcast’s Flash cookies a/k/a “zombie” cookies, technology used by many of the web’s top sites for a variety of purposes. The lawsuit alleges that the companies’ use of such cookies violated eavesdropping and hacking laws. The complaint is available here .
- According to All Things Digital , Apple has yet to allow Time Inc. to sell and manage subscriptions for its iPad apps.
The FTC has extended the deadline to submit comments in connection with its review of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. The Press Release regarding the extension is available here. The COPPA Rule requires that website operators notify parents and obtain their consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. Comments will be accepted until July 12, 2010, and may be submitted using this comment form. You can also view public comments on this site.
Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society recently gave a talk, available here, about how a new range of online platforms are increasingly touching our lives. This new range of projects marshals armies of individual thinkers and makes the application of human brainpower as purchasable over the “cloud” as additional server rackspace. Zittrain’s fascinating lecture provides a glimpse into how these emerging technologies and tools of interactivity are creating positive opportunities for businesses and society, while also revealing their power to be harnessed for purposes antithetical to norms and values traditionally cherished by individuals in free societies.
- Coca-Cola’s superbowl ad plans include social media.
- Is Bloomberg gearing up a new dashboard site initiative that will take on Washington, D.C.-based dailies such as Politico and The Hill?
- Brad Smith, General Counsel of Microsoft, is advocating for privacy legislation for cloud computing, while Chinese media prominently displays Bill Gates’s recent statement, responding to Google’s decision to stop censoring search results in China, that China’s “efforts to censor the internet have been very limited”.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation says that the FCC’s draft net neutrality regulations have a major loophole that would allow Internet Service Providers such as Comcast to theoretically block Bit Torrent traffic.
- The Economist, in its report on social networking, reminds us that if Facebook were a nation, it would be the third largest, behind China and India.
- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched an investigation into the marketing practices of 22 online retailers.
-
The Washington Post
reports that some independent film players at the Sundance Film Festival are backing alternative distribution methods (such as video on demand via cable or Internet) as an alternative to traditional, theater-based distribution. Brook Barnes of the New York Times
weighed in on this topic too, noting that YouTube debuted its long-awaited film rental option ($3.99 apiece) at this year’s festival.
- Will Hulu start charging users to view popular TV shows online?
- The $1.92 million dollar verdict against a Minnesota woman found guilty of sharing 24 songs over the Internet has been reduced to $54,000 by U.S. District Judge Michael Davis.
- ICANN is paving the way for internet domain names to appear in Cyrillic or Arabic by the middle of the year.
- Following the lead of the NY Times, French news sites will begin providing paid-for online content.
The US State Department Web site says that if you text “HAITI” to “90999″ a donation of $10 will go to the Red Cross to help with relief efforts and your donation will be charged to your cell phone bill. For more on how text message services are being utilized to collect donations for the relief efforts, click here.
Seth Godin correctly observes that the Internet has blurred the lines between business roles. For example, it is no longer easy to tell if someone is a journalist or an entrepreneur. Today, everyone is a journalist, and everyone is an entrepreneur (or at least a freelancer). ”Society hates this,” he writes. “It means we need to make up new rules, FTC disclosures, legal principles, safety nets, and more.” So in the new paradigm there’s a premium on people with multiple talents wearing multiple hats complying with multiple new laws. Sounds like eCommerce and technology lawyers will be busy for a long time.
Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain is a leading expert on the intersection of law and the Internet. His recent entertaining talk at TED focused on the many ways people on the Web help each other — for no money and nary a thank you. Wikipedia. Craigslist. Fixing other people’s sites. And why people pass beers at ballgames. It’s all on this 20 minute video that’s worth your time.
The Associated Press is reporting that Internet advertising appears to be making a comeback.
Google and Facebook are wading into the waters of the music business, according to the New York Times.
Comcast subscribers will soon be able to watch popular cable television series such as “Entourage” and “Mad Men” on their computers via the Comcast-owned Comcast.net and Fancast.com — and eventually on the websites of certain cable networks.
Uncategorized | editor | 
August 18, 2010 12:29 pm | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe