Ieleen

Protecting email communications may seem like a no brainer. After all, it is illegal in most jurisdictions to eavesdrop on telephone conversations or to open another person’s mail.
However, the concept that the protection offered to these forms of private communication has been extended to email was severely harmed in a recent decision by the US Courts. Read More.

In a big setback for the music and movie industries, a federal appeals court upheld an earlier decision that said operators of online swap networks aren’t liable for their users’ actions. In essence, the ruling says file-sharing software is legal. That sets the stage for a potential showdown before the U.S. Supreme Court and more lobbying for legislative solutions.
Read More.

Laura Miller writes…
“An avid reader growing up, I decided that there were two types of children’s books: call it ”Little Women” versus ”Phantom Tollbooth.” The first type was usually foisted on you by nostalgic grown-ups. These were books populated by snivelers and goody-two-shoes, the most saintly of whom were sure to die in some tediously drawn-out scene. When the characters weren’t dying or performing acts of charity or thawing the hearts of mean old gentlemen, they mostly just hung around the house, thinking about how they felt about their relatives.” Read More. [registration required]

In England, the ridicule invariably heaped on those who suggest that Shakespeare was someone other than the venerated Stratford-on-Avon native is usually enough to stifle discussion of the subject. But now, a high-profile forum for study of the authorship question has emerged right at Shakespeare’s Globe, that nucleus of Shakespeare performance and education in London modeled on the renowned theater where the author’s plays were produced and performed in his lifetime. Read More.

The mayor of Phoenix, AZ, and a coalition of city council members are going up against the First Amendment to restrict library Internet access to pornography. City leaders want to restrict library patrons’ ability to view pornography through libraries’ publicly provided Internet access following the arrest last week of a child molester who viewed kiddie porn on library machines. According to one official, “The fact that it is legal for someone as an individual to view pornography doesn’t mean that there is a constitutional obligation for the city, as a public entity, to provide everyone access to it.” Read all about it.

College, as we all know, costs a frightening amount of money, the tuition, the new wardrobe, the shower flip-flops. Even cheating, that historically thrifty task of rifling an upperclassman’s desk drawers, runs college kids a steep tab. These days, stressed-out perfectionists and lazy no-goods alike can Google their way to an astounding array of plagiarism Web sites. Many companies sell term papers, essays and book reports by the thousands, for as much as $250 a pop, all just a click and Mom’s credit card away, and all in the privacy of an undergraduate’s dorm room. Read More. [requires subscription]

It’s been a cornerstone in Savannah (GA) history for ninety years. The Carnegie Library was once in danger of closing, but on Saturday it reopened its doors to the community. “It’s an honor to be back in our neighborhood and our library,” said U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas. It is a building that continues to build dreams for future generations. “I don’t know what it would be like if it wasn’t for the library. I can read books, go online, read up on issues. It’s a very important part of my life,” exclaimed fifteen year old David Smith. Read all about it.

Affirming a lower court decision, a federal appellate court ruled Thursday that the distributors of software used by millions of people to exchange music files over the Internet cannot be held liable for aiding copyright infringement. The decision gives distributors of peer-to-peer file-sharing software a significant victory in their long battle with the record and movie industries, legal experts said. The plaintiffs in the case, the music and movie industries, have argued that file-sharing networks are forums for mass copyright piracy. The software of both companies, which can be downloaded over the Internet, allows users to share music, video and other digital files that they store on their computers. Ninety percent of the files shared, according to music and movie industry executives, include copyrighted material. Read More.

Classroom Web logs, or blogs, many of which got their start in the last school year, are becoming increasingly popular with teachers as a forum for expression for students as young as the second-grade level and in almost any subject. In the blogs, students write about how they attacked a tough math problem, post observations about their science experiments or display their latest art projects. For teachers, blogs are attractive because they require little effort to maintain, unlike more elaborate classroom Web sites, which were once heralded as a boon for teaching. Read More. [subscription required]

Some are born to rule, others to ridicule, is a worthy reminder to U.S presidential hopefuls struck by an endless arsenal of satirical barbs on the Web.

A host of cybercynics take aim at President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry in fake news reports, multimedia presentations and childlike artwork online, offering comic relief from blood-boiling political debate.

But unlike their more famous peers on television or in other media, Web satirists grapple with few limits of time, space or good taste. Read More.