================================================================= COMPUTER LAWYER E-NEWS Issue #006 May 4, 1996 News and views on new media, telecommunications and computer law for legal practitioners. ================================================================== IMPORTANT NOTICE: Unfortunately, due to other commitments, I will not be issuing the next edition until sometime in August. ================================================================== SOURCE CODE AS SPEECH A California court has denied a US government motion to dismiss and ruled that a cryptographic algorithm, known as "Snuffle", is speech that is protected from prior restraint by the First Amendment. The case involves a lawsuit that the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) acts as a prior restraint on speech and is therefore overbroad and vague. http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/Bernstein_v_DoS/Legal/Decision_041596/ STATE OF GEORGIA ATTEMPTS TO REGULATE USE OF TRADEMARKS ONLINE Georgia Bill 1620 contains a number of restrictions on the use of the Internet. It makes it a crime to use someone else's trademark in a username or domain name. Under current trademark rules, a number of different companies can use nearly identical trademarks as long as they are in different fields. If this Bill becomes law, it would essential grant the first company to use a particular term or name online with the right to prohibit other owners of legitimate similar marks from using such marks online. DIGITAL I.D.s PLEASE (c) Songline Studios, Inc. 1996 With Digital I.D.s you'll know who's really behind that other computer. Full Story at http://webreview.com/96/04/30/news/id2.html YAHOO! INVADES PRIVACY (c) Songline Studios, Inc. 1996 San Jose, CA -- When Yahoo! introduced its People Finder service it didn't know it was blowing a lot of private people's covers. Full Story at http://webreview.com/96/04/29/news/yahoo2.html FREE RADIO SPECTRUM, OR SELL OUT? (c) Songline Studios, Inc. 1996 Washington, DC -- Either the FCC is handing the public a gift or a sop with its recent announcement that it might approve some limited unregulated, free radio spectrum. Did the FCC sell out to the big telecommunications companies? Full Story at http://webreview.com/96/04/26/news/radio2.html VOICE OVER THE NET COALITION FORMED TO FIGHT ACTA PETITION A special web site has been set up by the Voice Over the Net Coalition. The purpose of the group is to fight ACTA's petition to the FCC requesting regulation of voice-over-the-internet type products. For further information visit VON at http://www.von.org/ =============================== CYBERSPACE LAW SEMINAR - NOTICE =============================== The cyberspace law seminar itself is still aimed to start in April or May. In the meantime, we already have over 8000 subscribers, and hope to get many thousand more. We attach another copy of our e-flyer, in case you'd like to pass it along to people. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD Prof. Larry Lessig, University of Chicago Law School Prof. David Post, Georgetown University Law Center and Prof. Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law and the Cyberspace Law Institute and Counsel Connect present: ************** CYBERSPACE LAW for NONLAWYERS **************  a FREE e-mail Internet seminar  (one message every 2-3 days)  Over 8000 subscribers already * Learn the basic principles of (and unlearn some common myths about ) - - copyright law, - - free speech law, - - libel law, - - privacy law, - - contract law, and - - trademark law as they apply on the Net, from three of the top experts in the law of cyberspace. * The seminar is aimed at educated laypeople, not primarily at lawyers. Low on legalese and Latin. * This is a low-traffic distribution list, NOT a discussion list. Subscribers will get one message (a few paragraphs long) every few days. * The seminar will start in April or May, but you should sign up now -- send a message with the text SUBSCRIBE CYBERSPACE-LAW yourfirstname yourlastname to LISTPROC-REQUEST@COUNSEL.COM ----------------------------------- Upcoming Conferences ----------------------------------- University of Dayton School of Law Seventh Annual Advanced Computer Law Seminar Computer and Cyberspace Law June 14, 1996 - Dayton, Ohio (513) 229-2367 The Computer Law Association, Inc. Multimedia and the Internet: Global Challenges for Law June 27-28, 1996 - Brussels, Belgium ------------------- Administrivia ------------------- (c) 1996 by Alan Gahtan (http://www.io.org/~agahtan). Copyright and responsibility for content in individual submissions remain with the author. The information contained in this publication does not constitute legal advice. Information contained may not be applicable to all jurisdictions. To start a new subscription, send an e-mail to "majordomo@io.org" with a message text containing "subscribe legalnews-l". To unsubscribe send a message text of "unsubscribe legalnews-l". Further information and back issues of Computer Lawyer News are available at http://www.io.org/~agahtan/cln/ News summaries, short articles and announcements for inclusion in the next issue are welcome and appreciated. Have you put up a new article or memo on your Web site that might be of interest. Feel free to send an announcement. Please send submissions to "legalnews-l@io.org".