Archives for June 2007
The FCC released a report yesterday on broadband competition and network neutrality. In the FCC press release, Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras said the report “recommends that policy makers proceed with caution in the evolving, dynamic industry of broadband Internet access, which generally is moving toward more – not less – competition.”
The complete report, Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy [PDF], is available.
Responses from Ars Technica, Save the Internet, and Hands Off the Internet.
Eric Goldman writes several pieces this week about search engines and keyword advertising.
In FragranceNet.com v. FragranceX.com the 2nd Circuit ruled that buying keyword ads isn’t a trademark use in commerce.
Vulcan Golf v. Google
is a lawsuit involving parked domain names.
And lastly, Goldman posts outtakes from his amicus brief in Rescuecom v. Google.
Columbia Law Prof. Tim Wu is quoted in the New York Times today in an article about intellectual property in the restaurant business. Prof. Wu said the meeting of lawyers and chefs was inevitable, saying “It’s a classic American marriage between food and law.”
Link from Jennifer Lee, who also discusses the IP of food with Prof. Wu.
T-Mobile has just launched a new service called HotSpot@Home, using Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) to allow mobile phones to switch automatically between VoIP on WiFi networks and conventional cell service.
Only two handsets currently support the new service. Older handsets will not work even if they have WiFi capability.
Chicago Law Prof. Randy Picker continues his series on copying on the Internet with a post about spontaneous scale and Harry Potter.
Jonathan Zittrain has responded to Tim Wu’s response to his paper, The Generative Internet. “I appreciate your call for outright warfare rather than compromise …” Zittrain writes, “But I resist your call to reframe my argument in terms of the prevailing debate.”
A group of Internet radio stations will go silent on June 26th to protest rate increases imposed by the Copyright Royalty Board.
CNet News.com reports that efforts to pass the WIPO broadcast treaty have collapsed. The treaty was intended to prevent piracy of broadcast signals but was opposed by fair use advocates and electronics manufacturers.
More at Ars Technica.
In a lawsuit brought against YouTube by a photojournalist, a California judge has denied motions for summary judgment based on 512(c) from both sides. Eric Goldman reports.
Orin Kerr continues his posts on Warshak v. U.S. with this long post about procedural errors he finds in the case.
Two organizations submitted filings about net neutrality to the FCC on Friday, in response to the agency’s Notice of Inquiry. The Consumer Federation, Consumers Union, and Free Press [PDF] supported net neutrality. Hands Off the Internet [PDF] expressed opposition.
The U.S. Copyright office announced that it will begin accepting electronic copyright registration applications starting July 2.
Posted by Colette Vogel at Stanford.
Ethan Ackerman writes about email privacy and Warshak v. US and the difficulty of “having statutory provisions attempt to protect Constitutional rights.”
Stanford Fellow Larry Downes writes for CIO Insight about IP Law Versus Moore’s Law, how information technology clashes with intellectual property laws.
Orin Kerr writes for the Volokh Conspiracy about the 6th Circuit decision in Warshak v. United States. The full decision [PDF] attempts to define how the Fourth Amendment applies to email.
Update June 19: Kerr continues his discussion here and here.
Randy Picker also writes on Regulating the Cloud of data.
Maine became the first U.S. state to pass net neutrality legislation, reports Ars Technica.
The final bill is much more limited than the one originally proposed. The state will monitor and report on net neutrality but will not directly regulate ISPs.
Google has just launched the Google Public Policy Blog where Google employees will write about policy issues that concern the company: privacy, net neutrality, broadband, and the future of the Internet in general.
A May 29th order from Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian requires TorrentSpy to log user data.
TorrentSpy is a search engine for the peer-to-peer BitTorrent network.
Law.com says this ruling effectively means data held only in transient RAM is discoverable.
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) writes for the Save the Internet Blog about the public interest in the 700 MHz spectrum auction. Kerry’s post includes his statement at the Commerce Committee hearing on the auction, in which he says, “the airwaves belong to the American people, and their use should serve the public interest.”
More information on the hearing and archived video are available from the Commerce Committee.
Author and Internet activist Cory Doctorow writes in Information Week that the U.S. made a mistake with the information economy by trying to sell information—with DRM and intellectual property treaties—when technology makes copying that information cheap and easy.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced a new Peer Review program to allow computer experts to submit commentary and technical references on published patents in the computer and software fields.
Eric Goldman writes about Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corp. v. YouTube, Inc., in which the owner of utube.com sued YouTube.com for trademark infringement and trespass to chattels.
Prof. Tim Wu and Henry Lanman have filed their amicus brief in Twentieth Century Fox v. Cablevision. The complete PDF is available. Prof. Wu has also posted the introduction to the brief on his blog.
Deven Desai writes at Madisonian.net about Microsoft’s changing position on software patents as it grew from an upstart to a dominant player. Desai also considers the more general problem of software patents and whether copyright makes them redundant.
Frank Pasquale writes at Madisonian.net about how the limited term of pharmaceutical patent leads to increased drug resistence. Pharmaceutical companies’ need to sell a drug before its patent expires means that they may push doctors to use newer drugs when older ones would suffice. As a result, diseases resistant to the new drugs develop more quickly than they otherwise would.
The WSJ Law Blog’s Peter Lattman reports that Google says Microsoft is violating its antitrust agreements with its new Vista operating system.
More at Ars Technica.
Reportedly, Macmillan Publishers’ CEO swiped two laptops from Google at a trade fair. He later returned them, saying it was “a taste of their own medicine.” Book publishers have strongly opposed Google’s project to scan millions of books, some still under copyright.
Lawrence Lessig responds that publishing executives don’t understand.
Chicago Law Prof. Randy Picker writes about iTunes and Identity-Based Digital Rights Management. Apple’s iTunes store recently began selling non-DRM music downloads but was discovered to be embedding personal customer information in each file.
Anthony Falzone at Stanford writes that Second Life cannot prevent users from suing in court in spite of a contract requiring arbitration.
The Boston Globe reports on services to unlock features in cell phones at take control back from the wireless carriers. They reference Tim Wu ’s paper Wireless Net Neutrality.
Columbia Law Prof. Tim Wu talks to CNET News.com about challenges the Internet presents to China in a “Tech Politics Podcast.”
Columbia Law Prof. Tim Wu has written a response to Jonathan Zittrain’s paper, The Generative Internet. It is forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review Forum, but is available now on his blog as A Tale of Two Platforms.
Eric Goldman writes on the American Law Institute’s suggested laws to govern software contracts, calling their current draft a “thoughtful starting point for discussion on an important topic.”
Eugene Volokh writes that the 9th Circuit clarified its 47 U.S.C. §230 ruling regarding immunity for ISPs.