Roy Mark

Armed with new rules to supplement the Can Spam Act, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has won a court order to temporarily halt a pornography-related spam ring that stretches from Las Vegas to Latvia. According to the FTC, the network spammed “hundreds of thousands” of consumers with sexually explicit or sexually suggestive e-mails, all without […]

In an acquisition that makes it the nation’s fifth-largest wireless carrier, Alltel is acquiring Western Wireless in a stock-and-cash deal valued at $6 billion. The Little Rock, Ark.-based Alltel gains approximately 1.4 million domestic wireless customers in 19 states, which gives the company 10 million domestic customers. The deal also brings Alltel 1.6 million international […]

The Pew Internet & American Life Project, in conjunction with Elon University, surveyed an array of tech leaders, scholars, industry officials and analysts about the future of the Internet. Although the report covered many topics, some 66 percent of them agree on one prediction: “At least one devastating attack will occur in the next 10 […]

Lawmakers who will be shaping the technology agenda for the 109th Congress will be in Las Vegas this weekend for their annual roundtable appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). At least one of the panelists says the message will be simple: don’t tax broadband. In a telephone interview from the CES, George Allen (R-Va.) […]

U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R.-Fla.) has introduced a bill that would define all IP-based communications as interstate services, the first attempt at telecom reform in the 109th Congress. The Stearns legislation (H.R. 214) creates a new definition of services covering all IP-based technologies that would be under the exclusive regulatory control of the Federal Communications […]

U.S. Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) wasted little time this week in re-introducing her anti-spyware legislation, filing the bill on the first day of the new 109th Congress. In October, Bono’s Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (SPY ACT) passed the House on a 399-1 vote but failed to gain approval in the Senate. The […]

A federal appeals court rejected for the second time the music industry’s attempt to use a clause in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to bypass the traditional subpoena process in its ongoing legal war against peer-to-peer (P2P) file swappers. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis and the U.S. Court of Appeals […]

A New Hampshire man accused in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) first spyware case has agreed to stop secretly installing adware, spyware and other unsolicited software programs on users’ computers until the FTC’s suit against the company is resolved. The deal, ordered by a New Hampshire federal district court in December but not publicized by […]

The 109th Congress convenes at noon today facing the same technology policy questions the 108th Congress was uninterested, unable or unwilling to render judgments on. Leftovers from the last session include the regulation of IP-based network services, stock option expensing and providing more spectrum for commercial wireless broadband providers. The new, two-year Congress will also […]

Despite the fact that 62 percent of all Internet users say they still do not know what a blog is, readership of the personal online postings took a dramatic leap in 2004, at least partially driven by the national elections. According to the latest findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, blog readership […]

Lawmakers and U.S. regulatory officials wrestled with a packed IT agenda this year, setting a policy course on a number of important and complex issues. Voice over IP , online fraud, spam and international trade are just a few of the hot topics that flashed across their plates this year. Here is a look at […]

Web auctioneer eBay continued its expansion into classified listings late Thursday with the acquisition of Rent.com for $415 million in cash and stock. According to eBay, Rent.com, the most visited apartment-listing site in the United States, will continue to operate as a separate unit. The terms of the deal include $30 million in cash and […]