STOP PRESS - LEGAL WEB SURVEY UNDERWAY Legal New Media, the publishers of this ezine, have begun their Legal Hit List survey of the busiest legal market web sites in the UK for the period Q1/2001. Since their launch last year, the Legal Hit List chart has become the definitive guide to web traffic figures in the UK legal sector and is open to both law firm web sites and commercial portals.

DATA PROTECTION - COULD LAWYERS STRANGLE ASPs AT BIRTH ?
In recent issues we have reported a number of stories relating to the generally poor prognosis the ASP (application service provider) industry is currently receiving. And now there is even more bad news - according to the ASP world's own industry body ASPIC (the ASP Industry Consortium) "lawyers could grind the entire industry to a halt".

Well actually it is not the lawyers who are to blame but the ASPs themselves who appear to be getting in a muddle when it comes to data protection legislation and the different privacy rules in operation in different countries - a particular problem for any ASP involved in cross-border operations. ASPIC is now calling on the EU to create a central European data protection authority and to amend existing EU privacy directives to exclude corporate data. And, its also suggesting that its own members familiarise themselves with local data protection laws.

In a related development, the American online auction site eBay has just announced a change in its privacy policy. With effect from 15th May, eBay is reserving the right to share its database of user information with the new owner of the business, should the company ever be sold.

COOKIES - COURT SAYS THEY ARE OK
The placing of cookies on a computer user's hard drive by an web ad agency to track user names, email addresses, searches performed, and web sites visited is not an invasion of privacy, a New York District Court judge said last Wednesday. In dismissing "with prejudice" a class action suit against DoubleClick, Judge Naomi Buchwald ruled the company was not invading the privacy of individuals or engaged in the secret collection of private and personal data from internet users in contravention of a number of state and federal laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Wiretap Act and the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act.

The judge added that DoubleClick's use of cookies was now well known to web users and web site operators alike - however the company still faces similar class actions in California and Texas state courts. DoubleClick has also admitted that it suffered "minimal disruption" last week when hackers attacked its systems. The company declined to comment on whether the hackers had been able to access any of the consumer information gathered by its cookies but said PriceWaterhouseCoopers had been hired to conduct a security audit of its computer systems.

Interestingly, a survey published earlier this week by a Californian company called WebSideStory.com reckons that over 99 percent of internet users accept cookies without question - that or they don't know how to change their browsers preferences to reject cookies. According to the statistics, out of a sample of one billion page views in February, cookies were found to be rejected only 0.68 percent of the time.

MP3 MUSIC DOWNLOADS - THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann, EMI and RealNetworks this week announced a new service they hope will jump-start demand for online music subscriptions. Under the agreement, the companies will each own a minority stake in the venture - called MusicNet - with each separately licensing music to MusicNet on a nonexclusive basis. MusicNet will operate as a standalone independent company.

RealNetworks says it currently has 190 million registered users of its RealPlayer audio software. The fact that its software is not associated with widespread music piracy over the internet - as distinct from the position with peer-to-peer such as Napster - appears to be one of the reasons why the music industry finds it a more palatable partner.

Meanwhile, as reported in the last issue, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed a complaint in court alleging that Napster has failed to comply with the recent injunction ordering to block access to thousands of songs owned and named by record companies. The record industry papers claim the procedures Napster implemented to block unauthorized music are almost completely ineffective.

One of the problems appears to be the widespread use of slight variations on the correct titles of tracks. For example the old Eurythmics track "Sweet Dreams" may be blocked by Napster but there are apparently at least a hundred variations of the title, such as "Sweet Dreamz". The next court hearing is scheduled before Judge Marilyn Hall Patel on 10th April when lawyers for the RIAA will argue for stricter sanctions against Napster because of its alleged "bad faith" in implementing the terms of the original injunction.

And, in a related development, a number of US singer-songwriters, including ex-Eagles drummer Don Henley and Alanis Morissette have been in Washington giving evidence to a US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into the legal issues associated with digital entertainment media. The artistes are claiming that the interests of composers and musicians had been obscured in the larger battle between the recording industry and online music trading service Napster. Rather like the spectre at the feast, Napster representatives have also attended these hearings to argue for legislative changes to make the online music industry more commercially viable.

JUPITER MEDIA FILES PATENT LAWSUITS
Jupiter Media Metrix, the biggest measurer of online activity, has reached an out of court settlement in a patent infringement case which effectively forces one of its competitors - PC Data - to pull out of trhe internet usage tracking market. PC Data has now transferred all rights relating to its internet tracking software to Jupiter. Jupiter has now filed lawsuits against two other competitors - NetValue and NetRatings.

Jupiter's patent - which involves the controversial legal concept of patenting business processes - covers a system whereby a panel of several thousand internet users have a special software application installed on their PCs to track their online activities. Both NetValue and NetRatings say they will fight the Jupiter claims.

VODAFONE UK TO TRIAL MOBILE E-COMMERCE SIGNATURES
Vodafone UK will this month start testing what is believed to be the world's first secure mobile electronic signature system. It is hoped the trials, which are being conducted in conjunction with a Department of Trade & Industry agency, will help establish the viability of the technology needed to support m-commerce.

The system makes use of special information stored on the SIM card present in all GSM mobile phones so that, when prompted, users will enter a PIN number to release a cryptographic signature that ensures the integrity of the data being signed. Patricia Hewitt, the UK minister for e-commerce said legally recognisable signatures were fundamental for any mobile e-commerce strategy.

PIONEER ISP HEADING FOR BANKRUPTCY
PSINet, which way back in 1989 was one of the first organisations to start providing ISP services for the business community, has warned that it is running out of cash, would be delaying filing its year 2000 annual results for an 15 days and may have to file for Chapter 11 protection under US bankruptcy rules.

By 1995 PSINet could claim to be the largest independent ISP in the United States and subsequently opened operations in 27 other countries around the world. However a combination of a high cash burn rate and debts of approximately $4.6 billion have seen its share price fall in 12 months from $30 a share to just 19 cents shortly before its shares were suspended on NASDAQ.

IR35 BECOMES A POLITICAL ISSUE
Earlier this week in the High Court in London, Mr Justice Burton ruled that IR35 tax regime - which has been widely criticised by the IT industry for having an onerous impact on computer programmers, consultants and similar self-employed contracting staff - did not constitute illegal state aid, a restriction on movement and/or an unreasonable confiscation of property under the Human Rights Act.

Although it would have been surprising it the judge had ruled against the Inland Revenue, he nevertheless made some scathing criticisms of the taxman, pointing out that the Inland Revenue could have avoided a lot of the controversy if its guidance notes had been clearer and more helpful. He also said the "colourful language" the Revenue used to describe the opponents of IR35 "was wholly regrettable and unnecessary".

In the aftermath of the ruling, the Revenue had the decency to admit it needed to improve the quality of the information is supplied to contractors however this may not be enough as the leading opposition party spokesman Michael Portillo has now said that, if the Conservative Party wins the upcoming June general election, one of its first acts would be to repeal IR35 as it showed an "alarming naivety and a lack of understanding of the knowledge based economy. This tax will clobber bright young people, who can easily fly off to find work elsewhere where taxes are less punitive. As a result Britain's competitive advantage in the IT sector is being put at risk."

GROSS AND GROSSER
The following collection of stories can - unfortunately - only add fuel to the argument that the internet is out of control and should be more strictly regulated by governments...

- According to Wired magazine, the Florida-based Entertainment Network Inc (ENI) web site is planning to sue the US Federal Bureau of Prisons if it is denied permission to webcast the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. ENI claims that under the First Amendment it has a right to deliver information to the public and should be allowed to broadcast the execution, which is scheduled to take place on 16th May. The Bureau has refused to consider the request as federal regulations prohibit the audio or visual recording of executions to maintain prison security, respect the privacy of the prisoner and prevent all from sensationalizing the event.

- A US federal court has ruled that The Nuremberg Files, a web site engaged in anti-abortion campaigning, has the right to publish online the names and personal details of doctors practicing abortion. Opponents of the site claim that the propaganda and availability of the doctors' information on the site have led to the murder of seven doctors and another 17 attempted murders. However the judge upheld the site's right to post the details, stating that violence has become a part of modern movements - and that the site was not responsible if its "statements merely encouraged unrelated terrorists."

- And, from Australia we hear that while it may be "inappropriate" it was not a criminal offense for public servants in the Australian government's Office of the Employment Advocate to send each other short films featuring bestiality. The OEA, incidentally, was set up to provide guidance on creating the model workplace.

AUTHORS WIN DOMAIN NAME RIGHTS - AND PARODIES
In the first of a series of cybersquatting domain name rights cases brought by the UK's Society of Authors, a WIPO arbitration panel has ruled that Mark Hogarth and the Old Barn Studios had to return domain names registered in the names of various authors, including the novelist Julian Barnes and the historian Antony Beevor. WIPO will be hearing cases from the writers Joanna Trollope and Margaret Drabble in the weeks to come.

London law firm Denton Wilde Sapte, who is acting for the authors, said that after registering the various domain names, Hogarth had offered to sell them back to the authors in return for a three percent royalty on the 1999 book sales. Hogarth was last in the news in May 2000 when he lost a similar dispute with the writer Jeanette Winterton - on that occasion WIPO ruled that the domain names had been registered in bad faith.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in New York has dismissed a copyright infringement claim brought by software developers against the author of a book who allegedly relied on the software to generate ideas expressed in a best-selling book "The Bible Code." The judge ruled that matrices produced using the computer software could not be protected under copyright law, even though the software itself could be copyrighted.

The idea behind the book is that the Torah - the Jewish version of the Bible - contains a hidden text which, if you know where to look, reveals important messages relating to both the meaning of life and world events. The author of the book used a computer application, which generates a matrix for reading the hidden messages and the developers of the software claimed this infringed their rights. The best analogy for explaning the judge's ruling is that just because someone uses the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to create a money making investment scheme, Microsoft is not entitled to claim a share of the scheme's profits.

Finally, to end on a lighter note, the US publisher of a new book "The Wind Done Gone" - which is described as the story of Scarlett O'Hara's out-of-wedlock mulatto sister Cynara - is currently in court arguing that the work is a parody of "Gone With the Wind" and protected under the First Amendment. However the trustees for the estate of Margaret Mitchell, author of the original work, says the new novel is plagiarism and should be stopped with a restraining order.

ELAW.COM AND LAW FIRMS TO BUILD ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICE LIBRARY
The US-based eLaw.com service has just announced that law firms Crowell & Moring LLP, Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe, McKenna & Cuneo, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, Thompson Hine & Flory and the UK's Eversheds are providing legal documents for eLaw.com's new environmental practice area law library.

Firms contributing content to eLaw.com will have an opportunity to showcase their expertise to potential clients as well as gain a useful marketing opportunity. The environmental library will offer memos, briefs, agreements, correspondence, forms, and other relevant practice resources created and contributed by the leading firms listed above. Subscribers to the library will be able to perform full text searches to locate relevant materials, preview the complete documents on the eLaw.com web site, and then have the documents delivered via e-mail in Microsoft Word format. eLaw.com expects the library to be officially launched in the second quarter of this year.

LEGAL TECHNOLOGY NEWS.COM - FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF LEGAL TECHNOLOGY INSIDER. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST LEGAL IT JOBS, EVENTS DIARY AND ADDITIONAL NEW MEDIA LAW REPORTS. NEXT ISSUE - 19.04.2001