Internet Law and Business Blog

According to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell (FCC Commissioner: Return of Fairness Doctrine Could Control Web Content), there’s a danger that Congress bringing back the Fairness Doctrine would hurt bloggers by hindering their free speech rights.

In the current political climate, Democrats in Congress and presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama support bringing back the Fairness Doctrine as a means to neutralize the effectiveness of conservative talk radio. Regardless of the underlying political agenda or your personal political party affiliation, the Fairness Doctrine is a horrible idea for free speech rights.

If the doctrine is revived, Read the rest

Because it is an election year, Congress is making moves to protect “the children” and the “consumer” once again in order to win more votes in November. In the consumer protection category of legislative nonsense comes Web Privacy on the Radar in Congress.

Here’s what to expect.

1. Because of partisan bickering, don’t expect a major overhaul of U.S. Internet privacy laws to be passed in this Congress. There will be a lot of holier-than-thou pronouncements by politicians (smoke but no fire).

2. Due to abuses of private information by Read the rest

In an unusual copyright infringement case, a defendant (Denise Barker) admits that she engaged in downloading copyrighted materials using Kazaa’s peer-to-peer (P2P) network. What makes this case unique is that the defendant is challenging the constitutionality of the damages music companies are trying to extract from her in the lawsuit.

As I’ve discussed in this blog previously, RIAA (and the MPAA) have abused copyright law to financially destroy individuals. Guilty or not, defendants are forced into settlements rather than fight teams of entertainment and intellectual property (IP) lawyers with the likelihood of being hit with Read the rest