E-Commerce Blog

She wasn’t the first person to be sued by the music industry for illegally sharing digital music files, but Jammie Thomas was the first to go to court in the ongoing battle over copyrights, consumers and charges of piracy. The 30-year-old single mother from Minnesota lost the first round last October, but Wednesday a federal judge threw out her conviction and granted a new trial while also raising the bar on burden of proof for the Recording Industry Association of America.

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The Verdict Is Out in Jammie Thomas Case

Cooperation between law enforcement agencies is essential in the fight against online sexual predators, the U.S. attorney general said Tuesday. Michael Mukasey announced the signing of an agreement between four federal agencies to share criminal intelligence on child predators. “The Internet child predator does not stand on the street corner like a drug dealer,” he said. “He can’t be chased down by a cop on the beat. Catching him requires sophisticated tools, technical know-how, and the partnership and expertise of law enforcement at all levels.”

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Feds Aim to Tighten Net Around Online Predators

Two technology associations with significant clout on Capitol Hill are in talks to combine forces. The two organizations, the AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association, and the ITAA, or Information Technology Association of America, began merger discussions several months ago. “The real synergy between our two organizations is that [the ITAA] is particularly strong when it comes to IT contractors who depend on the government procurement business,” said ITAA CEO Phil Bond. “The AeA is strong in the commercial sector.”

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Tech Trade Groups May Join Forces to Create Powerful DC Lobby

Yahoo’s plans to boost its profits in an online advertising partnership with rival Google could be moving into the crosshairs of the U.S. Justice Department, which has hired an antitrust litigator to review evidence for a possible legal challenge to the deal. Sanford Litvack, a former vice chairman at Walt Disney Co. and chief of the Justice Department’s antitrust division during the Carter administration, is reviewing evidence the department has gathered in what could become an antitrust case focused either on Google itself or on its partnership deal with Yahoo.

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DoJ Interest in Google-Yahoo Deal Intensifies

With a gavel instead of a wand, New York District Judge Robert Patterson on Monday found publisher RDR Books and Steven Vander Ark guilty of infringing the copyrights of
J.K. Rowling and moviemaker Warner Brothers Entertainment. At issue was RDR’s attempt to market and distribute a definitive lexicon or encyclopedia on Rowling’s famed series. The Harry Potter Lexicon would include a compendium of information on Harry, Hogwarts, Hermione’s spells, Hagrid’s pets and Professor Snape’s potions, along with many selections from the seven books.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Derivative