So, a while ago, we posted an article about RapidShare's data breach and then noted the fact that RapidShare did not have a privacy policy....RapidShare apparently got the hint and has since published a privacy policy linked right at the top of their website. As of June 23, 2009, you can find that privacy policy here: http://rapidshare.com/privacypolicy.html.  But since we are here and there is so much interest in it, we decided to do a little privacy policy analysis.

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The European Union has been fairly aggressive and proactive in its approach to Privacy Law.  In 1995 the European Union (EU) passed a Data Protection Directive protecting personal information and harmonizing privacy laws among its member states.

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The Federal Trade Commission (the "FTC") has perked its little ears up and noticed that Bloggers are often times being compensated for the reviews of products they write.  Out of concern for fear of disingenuousness to the public and perhaps biased reviews and information being presented to consumers, they have issed a proposed "Guide Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

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Privacy with social networks and websites has become more and more complicated, confusing, and so dissimilar from one website to anothat I don't think any user of the internet (including myself) can make heads or tails of what the various privacy policies mean, how often they change, and what it means to you. Fortunately, most websites don't take enough personal data for anyone to really care.  But Social Networks take a lot of personal data....pictures, family relationships, addresses, contact info, phone numbers....and more.  Fortunately, someone over at the Univeristy of Cambridge decided to weed through the proverbial jungle and doa  bit of an analysis......its a good read, and highly recommended.

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It's 2009, the amount of people and countries that are connected to and have access to the Internet increases on a daily basis by thousands, if not tens of thousands, or milliions. (Although millions might be a stretch.).  With all of that said, cybersquatting is still a big problem.  People are still finding infringers of their Intellectual Property rights, trademarks, and related on the Internet with domains. For some reason in my mind, the idea of someone cybersuqatting at this point and time would have been unheard of, and all the domains available on the internet (at least those related to a protected name or trademark) would have been sent to their rightful owners and everyone would have moved along.

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The European Commission announced on May 27 that there was a monumental breakthrough in online music licensing.  Although it seems sometimes difficult to American consumers to accept the fact that their music does not travel as they do, and that the recordings they have and own are only technically legal to be distributed in the United States, the transborder nature of travel is even more prevalent in the EU.

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Since the advent of email, and the prevalence of doing business over email, the disappearance of mail and the fax machine, everyone wonders and hopes that they can do business faster, more efficiently, and with less paper! (I'm not sure this has anything to do with the environment, but if it saves the environment at the same time, I don't think anyone will complain!)

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Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, could become the first justice with a background in Intellectual Property law, as well as a history of precedent-setting rulings on cyberlaw issues. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Sotomayor was a private IP lawyer, and her cyberlaw decisions ranged from copyrights in a digitized world to warrantless computer searches, so-called click-wrap agreements and the Patriot Act.

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This brief analyzes more than 40 United States Breach Notification laws, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and compares those requirements with EU Directives 2002/58/EC, 2002/21/EC, and the Data Protection Working Party Opinion 1/2009 on 2002/58/EC proposed amendments. This brief does not address individual EU member states' implementations of EU Directives 2002/58/EC and 2002/21/EC.

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Rapidshare under the copyright law of Germany, specifically § 101 Anspruch auf Auskunft, shared user information with copyright holders of users who uploaded infringing content.  Although German law allows for the sharing of personally identifiable information to copyright holders, you have to think about the rights of internet users around the world.

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