Politics and Law

The press coverage of this year's campaign season can appear endless, but the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama are giving readers suggestions for which stories to follow on Google's Power Readers in Politics site, launched Monday.

The two campaigns, along with a handful of political journalists, have created lists on Google Reader of the sources they subscribe to. Users can subscribe to their lists, see what stories the politicos are sharing, and read their comments.

The journalists included on the Power Readers site include Mike Allen of the Politico, Chuck DeFeo of Townhall.com, John Dickerson … Read more

ASPEN, Colo.--Recording industry and motion picture lobbyists are renewing their push to convince broadband providers to monitor customers and detect copyright infringements, claiming the concept is working abroad and should be adopted in the United States.

A representative of the recording industry said on Monday that her companies would prefer to enter into voluntary "partnerships" with Internet service providers, but pointedly noted that some governments are mandating such surveillance "if you don't work something out."

"Despite our best efforts, we can't do this alone," said Shira Perlmutter, a vice president for … Read more

John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, has released his technology platform. Among the highlights: antipiracy measures, tax credits, and a formal federal policy of avoiding "unnecessary regulation."

These aren't much different from the responses the Arizona senator gave us during the primary season, but they do expand on what a McCain administration might do in practice.

McCain shares some views--like making the R&D tax credit permanent--with his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. (This is no surprise. For a politician, supporting the R&D tax credit is the tech-policy equivalent of kissing babies.)

The differences are … Read more

Dell's attempt to trademark the term "cloud computing" faced another setback last week after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sent the company a "non-final" refusal of its application.

The PTO informed Dell on August 12 that its registration of the trademark for the term "cloud computing" was refused because "the applied-for mark merely describes a feature and characteristic of applicant's services...In addition to being merely descriptive, the applied-for mark appears to be generic in connection with the identified services and, therefore, incapable of functioning as a source-identifier for … Read more

With its tagline, "upload. share. archive.", it may have been inevitable that the magazine-sharing Web site Mygazines.com would face allegations of copyright infringement.

Mygazines, which announced its launch in late July, allows users to upload and share magazines. Digital copies of the magazines on the site are easy to read, and users can comment on them, leave ratings, and use articles to create their own "custom" magazines.

The site is free to join, and there are no advertisements, but that hasn't allayed concerns of magazine publishers.

Dawn Bridges, a spokeswoman for Time Warner's … Read more

Fliers are asked to dump out their beverages, take off their shoes, and go through a number of other time-eating security procedures at the airport--but at least some travelers may not have to unpack their laptops, the Transportation Security Administration announced Friday.

Starting August 16, travelers will not have to remove laptops from bags that are deemed "checkpoint-friendly." This category includes "butterfly style," "sleeve style," and "trifold style" bags. These styles were chosen after the TSA asked bag manufacturers to design bags that would not obstruct the image of a laptop when … Read more

The International Olympic Committee has retracted a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown request it sent to YouTube over a Tibetan protest video.

According to Corynne McSherry, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the IOC requested earlier this week that YouTube remove the video called "Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony." The video, posted by Students for a Free Tibet, is a montage of scenes from Tibet protests around the world. The Olympic rings are shown in the video briefly a couple times.

YouTube initially removed the video, but subsequently questioned whether the IOC could truly file a DMCA claim … Read more

Rich Peters of Iowa City, Iowa, explained why he's a Democrat in a simple video with a few scene changes, a dog as a prop, and straightforward analysis-- and now YouTube will fly Peters to the Democratic Convention in Denver to present his video and travel with the press pool for a day.

Viewers chose Peters' video out of five finalists presented in YouTube's video contest posing the question, "Why are you a Democrat in 2008?" The Democratic National Convention Committee picked the five finalists from hundreds of submissions. The Republican National Committee is hosting a … Read more

Mel King is a Boston-area community organizer locally famous for a housing sit-in, an almost-successful mayoral campaign, and the South End Technology Center, which provides low-cost computer training.

King, born in 1928, has long been a critic of telecommunications companies and an advocate of strict Net neutrality laws. He participated in an activists' "technology convening" in 2006 that fretted "companies who own the 'pipes' will control who gets on and what they can say." He joined a pro-Net neutrality coalition that opposed federal legislation backed by broadband providers.

Yet King placed his name on an opinion article … Read more