U.S. AGENCIES TOLD TO BE BRAND NEUTRAL

The White House has told U.S. federal agencies to stop specifying brand names in procurement contracts, a practice it says leads to higher prices for everything from paper clips to personal computers and hurts the livelihood of smaller vendors. The memorandum from the White House's budget office was hailed on by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. which has complained to governments around the world that contracts specifying computers made with Intel chips have led to higher PC prices for taxpayers. Last year, the European Union charged France, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden with violating the law by favoring Intel chips when they buy computers. Governments are big spenders when it comes to technology. The U.S. Office and Management and Budget sent the memo on April 18th to all federal purchasers, reminding them of regulations that forbid brand-name specification, with rare exceptions. Further information may be found at http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~97602,00.html

On April 8th, #1 search engine Google filed a 68-page complaint against Froogles.com in the Eastern District Court of New York. The complaint alleges that Froogles.com proprietor Richard Wolfe, a New York state resident, illegally traded on Google's famous name and search brand for profit with a "nearly identical" mark. Google asked the court to shut down its rival and order transfer of the domain name. The proprietor of Froogles.com registered the Web address in December 2000, according to the filing, but did not use the domain for business until July 2002. Google claims that this was four years after it had secured rights to its Google trademarks. Froogles.com registered for a trademark for e-commerce related marketing services in September 2003. For its part, Google filed a trademark application for Froogle in November 2002, and was granted the mark in February 2004. The complaint in the case may be found at http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/googlevfroogles.pdf

On April 11th, Microsoft announced that it has agreed to pay Gateway $150 million over four years to settle their legal disputes and the companies will work together on the marketing and development of Gateway personal computing products. As part of the settlement, Gateway will release all antitrust claims against Microsoft based on past conduct. Gateway expects to use the funds for marketing initiatives, including advertising, sales training and consulting, as well as for the research, development and testing of new Gateway products that can run current Microsoft products and Microsoft's next-generation operating system and productivity software. Further information may be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/apr05/04-11GatewayPR.asp

On April 8th, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the addition of .jobs and .travel domains to the group of top level domains. ICANN granted approval to requests from Tralliance Corp. to operate the .travel domain and from Employ Media LLC to operate the .jobs domain during the 22nd ICANN International conference in Argentina. Registration for names in both domains should start in several months and the domains should be online by year's end. Employ Media said in its ICANN application that the .jobs domain will be promoted to human resources professionals. Companies that have job openings will be able to operate a .jobs Web sites, such as companyname.jobs, to advertise their job openings. Tralliance will aim the .travel domain at the travel industry. Registration for .travel domain names will be restricted to applicants authenticated by independent third parties, including industry associations. Registrants will also be limited to using Web site names that they already use or have rights to. Further information may be found at http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-08apr05.htm

On March 23rd, a settlement reached in a class-action online publishing lawsuit will ensure that freelance writers will be eligible to get their portion of $18 million dollars from major media companies, once a court approves. The suit was filed to secure remuneration for writers for publication of their works in online databases without their approval. Plaintiffs, who filed on behalf of thousands of freelance writers, included the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Authors Guild, the National Writers Union and almost two dozen freelance writers. The suit was filed against several media companies, including Time, Knight Ridder, Reed Elsevier (of which LexisNexis is a division) and The New York Times Company. Under the terms of the settlement, freelance writers who had work published between August 1977 and December 2002 will be eligible to fill out a form, online or by mail, which will entitle them to money for works to which they had not signed away their rights to electronic publication. A site called FreelanceRights.com has been set up to help disseminate information about the agreement. The site may be found at http://www.freelancerights.com

On March 31st, Microsoft announced that it had filed 117 civil lawsuits against unnamed individuals in federal district court in Seattle, hoping to learn the identities of those behind a flood of fraudulent e-mail messages identified over the past six months that specifically targeted customers of Microsoft's MSN Internet and Hotmail e-mail services, seeking to secure their personal information. Microsoft's lawsuits were brought under the Lanham Act, a federal trademark protection law that carries a maximum of a $1 million fine per violation. The so-called "John Doe" suits are generally used when the plaintiff does not know the names of the defendants. Further information may be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/mar05/03-31AprilPhoolsPR.asp

On March 28th, major global telecommunications companies, ISPs and network operators announced they will begin sharing information on Internet attacks as members of a new group called the "Fingerprint Sharing Alliance." The companies, including EarthLink, Asia Netcom, British Telecommunications and MCI will share detailed profile information on attacks launched against their networks. Information to be shared will include the source of attacks. The alliance will make it easier for ISPs and network operators to crack down on global Internet attacks more quickly. The Fingerprint Sharing Alliance uses technology from Arbor Networks called Peakflow to spot network attacks and automatically generate a profile, or "fingerprint" of the attack in a standard data file format called PCAP. That fingerprint information is passed along to other service providers closer to the source of the attack, which can then block the source of the traffic. Further information may be found at http://www.arbor.net/fingerprint-sharing-alliance.php

On March 29th, Microsoft announced that it had agreed to make all of the major changes to the version of Windows without Windows Media Player (WMP) requested by the European Commission. The changes to the newly-entitled "Windows XP Home Edition N" and "Windows XP Professional N" software include removing all references from retail packages and supporting documents that certain programs won't work with the Media Player-free version of Windows, and development of a software package that will allow consumers to restore the Windows Media functionality if they so desire. The Commission ruled in May 2005 that Microsoft had abused its dominance in the desktop software market to gain advantage in other related markets, such as media players. As part of the antitrust sanctions, the regulator ordered Microsoft to distribute a version of Windows in Europe without WMP. Microsoft agreed to name the WMP-free versions "Windows XP Home Edition N" and "Windows XP Professional N" at the Commission's request, after its chosen name, "Windows XP Reduced Media Edition," was rejected by the regulator as unappealing. Further information may be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/mar05/03-29EUComplianceStatementPR .asp

On March 28th, Immersion Corp. announced a federal court ruling by U.S. District Court Claudia Wilken that orders Sony not to manufacture, use, sell or import into the United States PlayStations that incorporate so-called force feedback technology developed by San Jose-based Immersion Corp. Immersion won an $82 million judgment plus an $8.7 million pre-judgment interest against Sony over the use of Immersion's patented technology that makes game controllers shake and vibrate to enhance realism. Although Wilken stayed her order while Sony appeals, the threat of halting the flow of one of Sony's most lucrative products (PlayStation accounted for 32% of Sony's operating income last quarter) has caused consternation. Immersion acquired the two patents at issue in the Sony case through its purchase of Virtual Technologies Inc. in August 2000. Although the patents were not granted until 2001 and 2002, Virtual Technologies had filed for them in 1996 and published them in 1997, before Sony put its disputed technology into the PlayStation consoles, controllers and games. Further information may be found at http://immr.client.shareholder.com/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=158652

The United States has claimed victory yesterday in a closely watched international trade case challenging the U.S. ban on Internet gambling. On April 7th, a World Trade Organization (WTO) appeals panel accepted the U.S. claim that its ban on Internet gambling "was necessary to protect public morals or maintain public order." However, the other party in the case, the Caribbean nation of Antigua, also claimed victory, and some WTO critics said that the ruling could have troubling implications for the United States by encouraging foreign challenges to state lotteries and Indian casinos. Antigua, a nation of 68,000 that has developed a thriving Internet gambling industry, argues that the U.S. prohibition against online betting violates international trade rules because it discriminates against foreign gambling operations while allowing Americans to gamble at domestic casinos. The United States counters that WTO rules allow countries to bar activities that threaten public morals and says that Internet gambling poses such a threat because it would enable children to wager. A WTO panel had ruled in Antigua’s favor in November 2004, raising the prospect that the Geneva-based trade body would effectively be mandating that the United States change its gambling laws. Many experts think that the most important part of the decision was the panel's finding that the United States had put its gambling sector under WTO rules 10 years ago as part of a global trade agreement. That might mean that we will see cases by other foreign governments against the states that have lotteries or contracts with Indian groups for casinos alleging that they discriminate against foreign competition. Under WTO rules, the United States can unilaterally proclaim that its gambling sector isn't covered by the trade body's rules, but if it does so it may have to offer some kind of compensation to other member nations. The decision in the case may be found at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/285abr_e.pdf

On April 7th, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had accelerated its campaign against fraud in the nation’s E-Rate program, having filed a 22-count indictment against six companies and five individuals. The indictments follow two convictions for fraud and two settlements last year in the $2.25 billion program that helps schools and libraries connect to the Internet. The indictments by a San Francisco grand jury charge the companies and the individuals with wire fraud, collusion, aiding and abetting, and conspiracy in connection with E-Rate projects. The DOJ alleges the defendants entered into various schemes to defraud the government on E-Rate projects at 11 school districts in California, Michigan, South Carolina, Arkansas and Wisconsin from 1998 to 2003. According to the indictment, the wire fraud counts stem from the defendants hiding the cost of equipment and fees not covered by the program within the cost of covered equipment. The indictment says the defendants then misrepresented to the school program administrator the amount of matching funds the schools needed in order to apply for program funds. The collusion counts allege that on the 1999, 2000 and 2003 E-Rate Projects, the defendants allocated and rigged bids for the charged projects. The indictment further alleges that the defendants conspired to violate the mail and wire fraud statutes in applications made to the E-Rate program for the 2003 projects. Companies named in the indictment include Video Network Communications of Portsmouth, N.H.; Howe Electric of Fresno, California; Sema4 and Digital Connect Communications of San Juan Capistrano, California; Expedition Networks of North Hills, California; and ADJ Consultants of Temecula, California. Further information may be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/April/05_at_169.htm

On April 7th, Microsoft announced that it had designed a system to help law enforcement share information when tracking online predators. The Child Exploitation Tracking System, or CETS, was fashioned in collaboration with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Toronto Police Service and already has resulted in the November 2004 arrest of one alleged Toronto child pornographer. He was identified and targeted during beta testing of the database and investigation system. Microsoft described CETS as "a security-enhanced database that can run on a variety of computer systems and uses open standards to allow computer systems from different countries and with different technologies to communicate with one another." Further information may be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2005/apr05/04-07CETS.asp

On April 6th, it was reported that PlayStation maker Sony Corp. has been granted a patent for beaming sensory information directly into the brain. The technique could one day be used to create videogames in which you can smell, taste, and touch, or to help people who are blind or deaf. The U.S. patent, granted to Sony researcher Thomas Dawson, describes a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce "sensory experiences" such as smells, sounds and images. According to New Scientist magazine, the first to report on the patent, Sony's technique could be an improvement over an existing non-surgical method known as transcranial magnetic stimulation. This activates nerves using rapidly changing magnetic fields, but cannot be focused on small groups of brain cells. Further information may be found at http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/article/42081.html

GOOGLE INTRODUCES SATELLITE MAPS

Online search engine megastar Google has unveiled a new feature that will enable its users to zoom in on homes and businesses using satellite images, an advance that may raise privacy concerns as well as intensify the competitive pressures on its rivals. Google began offering the satellite technology on April 4th, which was part of the package that Google acquired when it bought digital map maker Keyhole Corp. for an undisclosed amount nearly six months ago. A more traditional map will continue to be the first choice offered by Google's search engine. Users will have the option of retrieving a satellite picture by clicking on a button. Keyhole has said that there is little reason for people to be paranoid about the satellite maps because the images generally are six to 12 months old. Google thinks people will use the service as a way to determine a hotel's proximity to the beach for a possible vacation or to evaluate the neighborhood where an apartment is for rent. Google's free satellite maps initially will be limited to North America, with images covering roughly half the United States. The Google site may be found at http://maps.google.com/

On April 6th, it was reported that an Arkansas gift shop that advertises on the Internet had filed a lawsuit against America Online, Google, Yahoo and other companies alleging they knowingly overcharged the shop and other companies for pay per click advertising. Lane's Gifts and Collectibles alleged in a suit filed in Miller County, Arkansas, that the Internet companies charged the shop for advertising traffic not generated by bona fide customers. Lane's Gifts hopes to represent numerous other companies in a class-action lawsuit against the Internet companies. Lane's filed the lawsuit February 4th and the defendants on March 30th asked that the venue be changed to Federal court. The plaintiffs are expected to oppose the motion. Lane's said ads are often clicked only to generate a bigger bill for advertisers, not by someone truly seeking more information. In an Associated Press story in February, Google and Yahoo acknowledged the perils of click fraud but said they believed improved internal controls and the increased vigilance of advertisers would prevent the problem from escalating. Further info may be found at http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/business/2005-04-06-payperclick-ad- suit_x.htm

On April 4th, a federal appeals court ruled that a man can disparage a hair-restoration company on a website using the company's name without violating copyright law. Bosley Medical Institute in Seattle sued former client Michael Kremer after he created a website in 2000 in a "bald-faced effort to get even" with the company, according to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Kremer, who had been unhappy with the outcome of his hair restoration, used the company's name in the Web site address, www.bosleymedical.com. The company claimed his use of the name was trademark infringement. The appeals court disagreed, saying the site was not created to make a profit or to confuse Bosley's customers and potential clients. There were no links on the site to other hair-restoration providers, the court noted. The appeals court, however, reinstated part of the lawsuit in which Bosley alleged that Kremer is violating a so-called cybersquatting law by allegedly attempting to sell the site to Bosley in exchange for removing the disparaging material. Kremer created a Web site in 2000 at www.bosleymedical.com, using the trademarked name of the hair company. The decision in the case may be found at http://caselaw.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0455962P.pdf

On April 6th, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Swiss bank UBS AG to pay a former employee $29.2 million in damages for sex discrimination and illegal retaliation. In addition, plaintiff Laura Zubulake, accused the Zurich-based firm and its UBS Warburg subsidiary of firing her after she filed a discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and destroying e-mail evidence of bias. UBS denied the claims and said it plans to appeal the decision, which awarded Ms. Zubulake $9.1 million in compensatory damages and $20.1 million in punitive damages. The large punitive damages award is thought to be closely related to the spoliation of electronic evidence. Further information may be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1454896,00.html

On April 12th, data broker LexisNexis said that personal information may have been stolen on 310,000 U.S. citizens, nearly 10 times the number found in a data breach announced last month. An investigation by the firm's Anglo-Dutch parent Reed Elsevier determined that its databases had been fraudulently breached 59 times using stolen passwords, leading to the possible theft of personal information such as addresses and Social Security numbers. LexisNexis, which said in March that 30,000 people had been potentially affected by the breaches, will notify an additional 280,000 individuals whose data may have been stolen. LexisNexis has thus far found no cases of identity theft, such as using a stolen Social Security number to apply for a credit card. The information breached included names, addresses, Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers, but not credit histories, medical records or financial information. Further information may be found at http://www.lexisnexis.com/about/releases/0789.asp

In a move to deter phishing crimes and make them easier to prosecute, Virginia lawmakers have categorized the practice as a felony and in July phishing may result in punishments of up to five years in prison and $2,500 in fines. The state is also cracking down on people who sell or distribute phished information, identifying those people as felons even if they didn't actually steal the information they're passing. Virginia has added the phishing statute to its Computer Crimes Act, defining the practice as fraudulently obtaining, recording or accessing from a computer any number of sensitive data points, including a person's Social Security, driver's license and bank account numbers. New Mexico has also enacted a law that in July will make phishing a felony. That state defines phishing as the use of computers and electronic equipment to defraud or otherwise steal an individual's personal or financial identifying information and then use that information to strip the victim's assets or destroy his or her credit rating. The Virginia statute may be found at http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?051+sum+HB2304

On April 20th, an Oakland County probate court in Michigan ordered Yahoo to give the contents of his son’s e-mail account to the father of Justin Ellsworth, 20, who was killed in November 2004 by a roadside bomb in Fallujah. Yahoo complied with the mandate Thursday, despite the company's policy of not giving e-mail passwords to anyone other than the account holder. Experts say there has yet to be a definitive court ruling on the status of e-mail as to whether it is an extension of the deceased's estate at the time of his or her passing. But, they say, it would stand to reason that e-mail account information and the data within the account would be treated equally to other possessions. Privacy experts say ISPs are within their rights to ask the courts to make such a ruling. Some e-mail providers, such as America Online, allow next-of-kin to access e-mail accounts of the deceased by submitting documents proving the relationship and by faxing a copy of the death certificate. AOL does not require loved ones to go through the courts. Yahoo's terms of service prohibit the company from disclosing private e-mail communications. Yahoo will turn over an account to family members only after they go through the courts to verify their identity and relationship to the deceased. Further information may be found at http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0502/p12s02-usju.html

On April 21st, the Department of Justice announced that Hynix Semiconductor has agreed to plead guilty to criminal antitrust violations over DRAM price fixing and pay a $185 million fine. Hynix is the latest DRAM maker to reach a settlement with the Justice Department, as part of its ongoing investigation into price fixing in the dynamic random access memory industry. Hynix's fine also marks the third-largest monetary penalty assessed in the Justice Department's history. Hynix had been charged with conspiring to eliminate competition via price fixing of DRAM between July 1999 and June 2002. The Justice Department said Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, IBM and Gateway were hurt by Hynix's actions. Details of the plea agreement will be made public a few days in advance of a court hearing before U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in San Francisco, which could take place in May. No individuals were charged in the documents made public but it is possible that individual charges may come. Hynix is also fighting class-action charges that are pending in federal court. Further information may be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/April/05_at_207.htm

On April 20th, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it had shut down a major Internet drug ring run from Philadelphia by two foreign university students who allegedly sold millions of doses of controlled narcotics, steroids and amphetamines online without prescriptions. Officials said 20 people have been arrested so far this week in the United States and abroad in what they called the first Internet drug bust involving an international supplier. More than 200 Web sites allegedly got their drugs through the ring. Further information may be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr042005.html

On April 19th, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, which was signed into law on April 28th. Under the Act, file-swappers who distribute a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet can be imprisoned for up to three years. The bill is written so broadly it could make a federal felon of anyone who has even one copy of a film, software program or music file in a shared folder and should have known the copyrighted work had not been commercially released. Fines of up to $250,000 can also be levied. Penalties would apply regardless of whether any downloading took place. The text of the Act may be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:S.167:

CONNECTICUT COURT REJECTS USING GPS TO MONITOR SPEEDING

On April 12th, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that American Car Rental, Inc. levied an illegal $150 fine against car renters that drove their car over 79 mph. The global position systems installed in all of American’s rental cars were programmed to fax the agency notice any time a car was driven at 80 mph or more for two minutes or longer. For each occurrence, the car agency charged the patron $150, usually levied immediately against whatever credit or debit card they had used to secure the rental. The decision in the case may be found at http://www.jud.state.ct.us/external/supapp/Cases/AROcr/CR273/273CR53.pdf