The Mishpat-Update #5




Welcome to the fifth issue of the weekly Mishpat-Update, Law on the

 net from http://mishpat.net 



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 In this issue: 



 1. Introduction

 2. Award Winners

 3. Cyberlaw News



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 1. Introduction

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 I would like to welcome you all to the fifth issue of the Mishpat

 Update and wish those of you celebrating Easter or Passover (Pesach)

 happy holiday. This week's update, as well as next week's issue will

 be short due to the Passover holiday, and will focus on bringing you

 the latest news in cyberlaw.



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 2. Mishpat Award winners

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 Mishpat-Net has chosen the three first winners of the Mishpat Award

 for legal sites. The March 1999 winners are:



 1. ABA Project on Internet Jurisdiction (sponsored by Chicago-Kent

 College of Law and the Section of Business Law of the American Bar

 Association).

 http://www.kentlaw.edu/cyberlaw/



 2. Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn (one of Michigan's largest law

 firms).

 http://law.honigman.com/



 3. Der virtuelle Rechtsvergleicher (International private law in

 German, English version available).

 http://viadrina.euv-frankfurt-o.de/~dvr/



 Detailed reviews of these sites, along with the reasoning for choosing

 them, will be posted in the coming issues of the Mishpat Update.



 To apply for this award, or view the winners list go to

 http://mishpat.net/awards





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 3. Cyberlaw Updates

 #################### 



 Each week the Mishpat-Update brings you the latest news about online

 and computer law, with links to the full reports available on the web. 



 A hebrew version, updated biweekly is available at:

 http://mishpat.net/cyberlaw-update/heb.html 





 * Domain names are property *

 A Virginia court has ruled that Domain names are property just like a

 house or car and they can be garnished to pay off a debt. This ruling

 stems from a trademark suit filed by the sport manufacturer Umbro,

 against a Canadian company that registered the domain name umbro.com

 and asked Umbro to pay 100,000 the rights over the domain name.

 Umbro won default judgment and was awarded 25,000 attorney fees.

 Since the defendant had no US tangible assets, Umbro asked the court

 to garnish 27 other domain names owned by the defendant and sell them

 to the highest bidder. The Virginia court agreed and granted Alston &

 Bird (the law firm representing Umbro International) rights to the 27

 domains. 

 http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,1087,3_85661,00.html

 http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,34329,00.html?st.ne.ni.lh



 In a related case, Networks Solutions Inc. (the company that assigns

 Internet domain names), is asking a federal judge to undo an order

 that not only required it to unregister a name that violated a

 trademark, but also barred it from ever assigning any similar name to

 anyone else, claiming that it is not the Internet domain name police.

 http://www.lawnewsnet.com/stories/A385-1999Mar30.html





 * eBay named in patent suit *

 Network Engineering Software filed a patent infringement lawsuit

 against online auctioneer eBay (http://ebay.com). The patent deals

 with automated online information service and directory, particularly

 for the Web.

 http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,34271,00.html





 * Microsoft settlement talks *

 As reported in Mishpat Update #4, The American Justice Department

 (DOJ) and Microsoft have started negotiations toward an (unlikely at

 this

 point) settlement.

 Microsoft's relationship with the US P.C. makers will be the main

 topic of discussion between the two sides, even though the P.C.

 manufacturers are not represented in these talks.

 http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/biztech/articles/29soft.html

 (Free subscription to the NY Times required).

 The trial, now in recess, was scheduled to continue on April 12. But

 Judge Jackson is presiding over a drug trafficking trial that he said

 is taking longer to complete than anticipated. The judge set May 10,

 as the earliest date for the Microsoft case to resume. 

 http://www.lawnewsnet.com/stories/A408-1999Mar31.html

 This leaves Microsoft attorneys and antitrust prosecutors plenty of

 time to continue settlement talks.

 http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C34440%2C00.html?dd.ne.txt.0331.04





 * Scientology church settles legal battle *

 The Church of Scientology International has settled a legal battle to

 repossess about 2,000 unpublished and copyrighted documents from a

 nonprofit group called FACTNet, and keep them from being accessed by

 computer users. 

 http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,34410,00.html





 * Australia's domestic spy agency, allowed to hack into computers *

 Australia's domestic spy agency, ASIO, will be given sweeping powers

 to hack into computers and place tracking devices on people and cars.

 While cryptography effectively protects data in transit, the relative

 vulnerability of the common Wintel PC and other computers the end

 points of a crypto link make them an obvious target for eavesdroppers

 foiled by cryptography.

 The changes will allow ASIO officers, with ministerial approval, to

 gain access to data stored in computers by "remote access" - commonly

 referred to as hacking.

 http://www.smh.com.au/news/9903/26/pageone/pageone3.html





 * Cyberlaw Professor sues for 7

 David J. Loundy a well known Cyberlawyer created an international

 legal incident over his rebuffed attempt to buy a CD at its listed

 price from a UK Web site. The sum in dispute is small but raises

 questions about remedies available in the global market.

 Among other things, Loundy said that :"It will make a great case study

 for my class." 

 http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/cyberlaw/26law.html

 (Free subscription to the NY Times required).





 * ICANN extends domain registrar deadline *

 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

 granted firms wishing to compete with Network Solutions (NSI) in

 registering ".com" addresses have an extra week (Until April 8 1999)

 to submit applications.

 http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C34362%2C00.html?dd.ne.txt.0329.08

 (A detailed review of the reform in domain registration was published

 in Mishpat Update #4).





 * French Senate holds Cyber meeting *

 A special session of the French Senate hosted more than 200

 cybersenators in a parliamentary session. Chief on the agenda was

 discussion of a proposed "Law of the Internet.

 http://www.loi-internet.org/ 

 (In French, an English version is also available)





 * UK ISP liability judgment available online *

 The full judgment of the Demon Internet ISP Defamation case, finding

 the service provider responsible for a defamatory posting posted on

 his servers (as reported in Mishpat Update #4) has been published

 online at:

 http://www.courtservice.gov.uk/godfrey2.htm





 * New attempt to pass Federal Anti-Spam bill *

 A new federal legislation might help diminish the cost of Spam Email.

 http://www.news.com/News/Item/0%2C4%2C34461%2C00.html?dd.ne.txt.0331.10





 If you know of any cyberlaw updates please send them to

mailto:news@mishpat.net 



 That's all for this time,

 see you next week



 Yedidya M. Melchior 

 Editor
The Cyberlaw Informer
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