An article from MediaWeek brings up some interesting statistics about FCC indecency complaints. According to their report, the number of indecency complaints has soared from 14,000 in 2002 to over 1 million this year. More interesting is the claim that of the approximately 500,000 complaints that did not …

An interesting article (thanks to Tim for pointing it out) appears in the Washington Post about the constitutionality of government-mandated, privately-funded speech. It appears that "Got Milk?", "Beef-It's what's for dinner", "Pork: the other white meat", and "Cotton: the fabric of our lives" are all embroiled in a set of …

An article from InfoWorld notes that the FCC has approved (PDF) Friday a software defined radio made by Vanu.. The radio is for use as a cellular base station for GSM and will be capable of handling a variety of frequencies (important for GSM, since Europe uses 900MHz and 1 …

NPR had a segment this morning called "Misunderstanding the First Amendment", where it speaks directly to an issue that I think more people need to think about: what is the First Amendment. Mark Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down, makes the point that too many people (especially celebrities) are …

Well, the younger Powell and his crew were busy yesterday. Rulings were made about cell phone spam and digital broadcast reproduction. On cell phone spam: you can't send it via email... which isn't surprising, but the CAN-SPAM act will now have a registry of domains for wireless providers that can't …

According to an article from CNet, Marybeth Peters, the Registrar of Copyrights, is set to endorse the INDUCE act (written about here in a previous article). In the history of bad technology legislation, this act is set to be rivaled only by the DMCA in terms of its chilling effect …

OK, I'll admit that this one may be even a bit far fetched for me, but take a look at the information and tell me if it doesn't look like a good deal for Sony. According to reports from a number of locations, including CNet, Sony has settled with European …

Often, these days, I find myself looking at web sites about politics, finance, and government and saying, "wow! that's cool... but what is its effect?" Fundrace.org is one such site. It's worth a look, because with it you can see what your neighborhood's politics look like. However, don't be …

Timing is everything. When I read this article from the New York Times this morning, it was a slam-dunk for publishing a pointer to it here (thanks, Amanda, for the pointer). The article is about privacy, and talks about how medical privacy laws are being pushed to (or perhaps beyond …

There's a lot of spam out there these days, and not a small amount of it relates to the enlargement of certain parts of the anatomy. Well, the Denver Post is reporting that Jeffrey Horton of California is suing a number of the fraudsters because their products don't work. For …

SCO's lawsuit against IBM expanded from $3B to $5B this week, through the addition of copyright infringement claims. It appears that most of the new claims come from IBM's sale of their AIX operating system after the folks at SCO told them they were no longer licensed this summer. An …

Wired reports that Friday of last week a Federal Judge has declared unconstitutional portions of the USA Patriot Act that ban providing "expert assistance" to groups declared as terrorist organizations. The provision was struck down as being too vague and flying in the face of the First and Fifth Amendments …

In the world of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt), it appears that SCO's CEO Darl McBride is planning on being right up there with certain political figures in his tactics. In a letter sent by SCO and later published on the OSAIA (Open Source and Industry Alliance) web site, McBride …

Technical and legal experts from California (which has some stringent anti- spam laws of its own) are weighing in on the CANSPAM act, passed by congress and signed into law in December by President Bush. The word... well, with it you Can Spam. I'm reminded of the faux advertisement for …

According to an article from CNet, SCO has filed a lawsuit against Novell in an attempt to get Novell's much- talked-about remaining UNIX copyrights. In yet another round of the near-never-ending SCO vs Linux saga, SCO has decided to attack Novell's claims of UNIX ownership head-on by asking the court …

Starting in 2005, children conceived with donor sperm or eggs will be able to track down the donor. According to an article from BBC News, the new law will allow 18-year-olds to find out who the donors are. The new law doesn't change the treatment for sperm or eggs already …

In a well-watched privacy case, the RIAA has been handed a defeat in its contest with Verzion over releasing personal information about subscribers. According to an article from USA Today, the US District Court of Appeals overturned the ruling and sided with Verizon (and the customers). This now throws into …

According to a story on CNet, the Library of Congress has issued the new exemptions to the DMCA and they are minimal. The exemptions allow for the removal of copy protection systems in four specific cases: obsolete software that requires security dongles, e-books that don't provide for handicapped access (specifically …

An article from the Washington Post tells the unfortunately not-quite- unbelievable story of a judge in Nebraska who ordered a father "not to speak the Hispanic language" around his daughter. At the crux of the case is the defendant's relationship with his 5-year-old daughter from his girlfriend. It appears that …

In a setback for regulators and an advancement for competition on Voice-over- IP telephone services, Vonage has prevailed in a case against the State of Minnesota Public Utility Commission, according to an article from Wired. The decision from the US District Court for the district of Minnesota on October 16th …