Aug. 18, 2000
8:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 1. |
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| News Briefs |
8/17. U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan (SDNY) released his Final
Judgment and explanatory Opinion
[98 pages in PDF] against the remaining defendants in the DeCSS
case (Eric Corley and 2600),
barring publication of DeCSS information. Corley promises to appeal.
See, 2600 release.
8/17. The National
Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), located at FBI HQ, began tracking the
propagation of a worm entitled VBS/Loveletter.bd, which contains a
password stealing agent. See, NIPC
Alert 00-053.
8/17. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Carol Kenner (Boston) dismissed an agreement
between Toysmart and the FTC. The
agreement had placed restrictions on the sale of personal
information collected by the Toysmart web site under promise to keep
it confidential. See also, FTC's
amended complaint.
8/17. Excite@Home and Cablevision announced
resolution of the lawsuit between Cablevision and Excite@Home and
its cable partners AT&T, Cox and Comcast. The parties agreed to
dismiss Cablevision's claims against Excite@Home and its partners
immediately, and Cablevision has consented to Excite@Home's
completion of the extension of the distribution agreements with
AT&T, Cox and Comcast and the restructuring of its Board of
Directors. See, Excite@Home
release.
8/17. EPIC filed a motion
[PDF] in U.S. District Court in DC in its lawsuit against the FBI to
obtain Carnivore
regards under the FOIA. EPIC seeks
an order establishing a schedule for the FBI's processing of agency
records responsive to its FOIA request. See, EPIC
release.
8/17. The NTIA
requested public comment on a draft statement of work that it
contemplates will be ultimately incorporated into a request for
proposals to manage .us domain space on behalf of the U.S.
government. See, release
and forthcoming
notice in Federal Register.
8/17. MasterCard filed a complaint in U.S. District Court, SDNY,
against Ralph Nader, and his
presidential campaign committee, alleging violation of proprietary
rights arising under copyright and trademark law. See, MC
release. Nader has been running TV and cable ads that mimic
MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign. Quote from Nader ads:
"Grilled tenderloin for fund-raiser: $1,000 a plate. Campaign
ads filled with half-truths: $10 million. Promises to special
interest groups: over $10 billion. Finding out the truth:
priceless." Nader responded to the suit: "lighten
up." See, Nader
release.
8/17. The RIAA announced that
Special Agents from the Arizona Attorney General's Office, with
assistance from the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit, executed two criminal
search and seizure warrants on Aug. 9 on two counterfeit music
operations in Phoenix, seizing illegal production devices and
pirated CDs. See, RIAA
release.
8/16. The USPTO announced
increases in patent fees to take effect Oct. 1, 2000. Most
patent fees will be increased by 2.68%, the current rate of
inflation. See, USPTO
release. The notice
in the Federal Register [PDF] elaborated: "The patent
statutory fees established by 35 U.S.C. 41(a) and (b) will be
adjusted on October 1, 2000, to reflect any fluctuations occurring
during the previous twelve months in the Consumer Price Index for
all urban consumers (CPI–U). ... the USPTO uses the
Administration’s projected CPI–U for the twelve-month period
ending September 30, 2000, which is 2.68 percent. Based on this
projection, patent statutory fees will be adjusted by 2.68
percent."
Editor's Note: This column includes all News Briefs added to
Tech Law Journal since the last Daily E-Mail Alert. The dates
indicate when the event occurred, not the date of posting to Tech
Law Journal. |
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| New Documents |
8/17. Final
Judgment in Universal City Studios, et al. v. Reimerdes, et al.,
U.S. District Court, SDNY, Case No. 00 Civ 0277 (LAK), also known as
the "DeCSS case," and the "DVD hacker case."
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| Quote of the Day |
"Defendants contend ... that the DMCA, as
applied to computer programs, or code, violates the First Amendment.
... But computer code is not purely expressive any more than the
assassination of a political figure is purely a political statement.
Code causes computers to perform desired functions. Its expressive
element no more immunizes its functional aspects from regulation
than the expressive motives of an assassin immunize the assassin’s
action."
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan (from his Opinion
explaining his Final
Judgment against Eric Corley in the DeCSS case). |
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