News & Opinion

Privacy Groups Call for Microsoft Investigation

Privacy groups have asked Congress to investigate Microsoft in the wake of a Wall Street Journal investigation of Web tracking and targeting. News Broadcasting and Cable August 6, 2010 By John Eggerton Led by the Center for Digital Democracy, a half-dozen consumer watchdog groups sent letters to the heads of the relevant Senate and House oversight committees calling for an investigation of Microsoft’s decision to require users of its 2008 iteration of Explorer to have

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Free speech: Federal court rules woman obstructed police through profanities

The 8th Circuit appeals court ruled that a woman’s profanities obstructed officers in their quest to arrest her son when her words distracted police dogs searching the son’s truck. -db Courthouse News Service August 5, 2010 By Matthew Reynolds (CN) – The 8th Circuit has reinstated a Springfield, Mo., ordinance allowing police officers to jail a mother for berating them as they arrested her son outside her home. The ordinance banned people from resisting or

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Free press: Judge bans Los Angeles Times photographer from publishing courtroom photos

A judge approved a written request to photograph a murder suspect but when reminded in court about a prior order banning photography ordered the photographer not to publish his photos. -db Los Angeles Times August 5, 2010 By Andrew Blankstein A judge issued an unusual order Wednesday in which she told a newspaper photographer not to publish pictures after granting him permission to take them. Legal experts said prohibiting publication of an image that a

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Lawmakers Seek Answers on Online Tracking

U.S. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, are seeking information about the privacy practice of the 15 websites that the Wall Street Journal has identified as installing the most tracking technology on their visitors’ computers. The Wall Street Journal Blog August 5, 2010 By Julia Angwin The representatives, who co-chair the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, sent letters on Thursday to 15 websites saying they were “troubled by the findings in this report, which

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New Law Shields Online Media from Foreign Judgments

With passage of the Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage Act, or theSPEECH Act, media companies will be protected against U.S. enforcement of foreign libel judgments when such judgments would conflict with First Amendment protections. Television and Broadcast August 5, 2010 WASHINGTON: The bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). The House passed its version of the SPEECH Act, sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), in

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