Utah Governor Jim Huntsman has signed a new Internet pornography law into effect which requires Utah ISPs and other service providers to block pornographic websites upon a user’s request. And just to make sure that no service provider has to do the old “I’ll know it when I see it”…

Talk about adding insult to injury. First Cruise.com, a/k/a Omega World Travel, and run by John Lawless, spams the bejeezus out of anti-spammer Mark Mumma of Oklahoma. Mumma asks Cruise.com to stop spamming him. No relief. He asks them again to stop spamming him. The spam keeps coming. Eventually Mumma…

There has been a lot of chaff flying around the Internet in the past few weeks about whether CAN-SPAM makes it illegal for ISPs to filter or block spam. So here’s the deal: It doesn’t. CAN-SPAM does not, not NOT require an ISP to accept email, CAN-SPAM compliant or otherwise….

They may not know it, but Wisconsin is poised to become the first state to tax downloads on the Internet. The download tax, referred to by some as the iPod tax, hidden away in Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle’s proposed budget, would tax the downloading of books, movies, artwork and songs…

A new Ohio law, already signed and in effect, requires eBay sellers to become licensed, and to post a $50,000 bond. The new eBay auction law was signed by the Ohio governor in February, and will be effective on May 1st. In addition to the license and the $50,000 bond,…

The FCC has spanked an ISP for blocking VOIP calls so that the ISP’s subscribers were SOL. Addressing the SNAFU, the FCC indicated that an ISP blocking its users from accessing VOIP services is FUBAR. (How’s that for MAU? [Maximum Acronym Usage]) Seriously, the decision this week by the FCC…

Remember that guy who used his camera phone to make a video of himself having sex with his girlfriend, (and can you imagine the logistics involved?), only to have the video show up in the corner porn shop, and on an Internet auction site? And the folks who use their camera phones for upskirting and downblousing, courting prison time in the process? We had thought that these were the height of camera phone stupidity – especially the guy who reached out and touched someone while filming it. But noooo…. That dubious honour now goes to…drum roll please…

Do you remember when Aunty told you that ChoicePoint had been hacked, leading to dozens of thousands of people having their private information which had been stored on ChoicePoint’s servers compromised, including credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information? And do you remember Aunty told you that…

Remember when it used to be that “the dog ate my homework”? That didn’t work very well, did it? Well, now it’s “the spam filter ate my court appearance notice”, and guess what! As it turns out, that works pretty well! Attorney Jeffrey J. Stesiak, of South Bend, Indiana, was due to appear at the court for a status conference on December 8th. A status conference is where the attorneys for both sides appear before the judge or another court officer, and tell them the status of the case – is it likely to settle, are they ready to go to trial, etc.. Only, Jeffrey never showed up at the court on December 8th.

Using spyware to spy on your spouse’s activities, even to gather evidence for an upcoming divorce, is not ok. In fact, it’s against the law.

ISP giant Microsoft, and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, have (finally!) teamed up to deliver a one-two punch to those legion of Viagra spammers who are the scourge of the Internet. We have been saying for ages that Pfizer needed to get involved, as in addition to the anti-spamming laws available these…

You know, for a law which people with no legal clue, but a lot of public mouth, continue to claim has been a miserable failure, ISPs like AOL, Microsoft, and Earthlink sure are getting a lot of mileage out of CAN-SPAM. In fact, Earthlink just announced today that is has…

The Register is reporting today that the Recording Industry Association of America has demonstrated that death should be no obstacle to a good lawsuit. Or a stupid one. According to the report, the RIAA has filed an infringement lawsuit against one Gertrude Walton of Beckley, West Virginia, for making hundreds…

The District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) is poised to get a brand new anti-spam law of their very own. Many people don’t realize that Washington D.C., while a “district”, is not, in fact, a state. It is the capital city of the United States, and there have been movements to…

The original makers of spam – and Aunty does mean the meat..well, alleged meat product – Hormel, have lost a trademark law suit against anti-spam software company “Spambuster”. This particular legal case adds several insults to the injury for Hormel. To start with, it is a decision from the hallowed…