Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) is an XML standard that describes the privacy and/or user preference policies for a Web site. The P3P vocabulary allows Web site owners to describe what information is collected on their site and how it is used. Without P3P implemented, some users must set their security settings to a lower level when submitting forms or browsing sites utilizing cookies. Using P3P allows agents to be built that will act on behalf of the user's interest. This article outlines the process of using P3P.

Newsbytes - Privacy Fight Centers On Ad Zapper.

"It's a convergence of all the major issues involved in the digital age that are coming to bear," said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a public-interest law firm that specializes in intellectual-property issues.

A coalition of movie studios and TV networks, which includes Viacom Inc., the NBC television network, Walt Disney Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc., has asked a federal court in California to order ReplayTV's parent company, SonicBlue Inc., to stop selling the device. They contend that the machine makes it so easy to acquire and repackage TV series, movies and other content that it effectively violates copyright law.

Because ReplayTV stores programs digitally, users can jump past a commercial in much the same way a computer user can jump from one part of a document to another with the click of a mouse. The device also allows users to send a program over the Internet as if it were e-mail.

To prove that copyright laws are being violated, the entertainment industry is seeking proof of what users of the device are watching. Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Eick in Los Angeles ordered SonicBlue to hand over records detailing what shows users watch, when they watch them and even whether they skip commercials. The users would not be identified.

The ruling nevertheless brought protests from privacy advocates who said consumers should not have to reveal such information.

SonicBlue executives said the company does not even collect the information the court is demanding and will be forced to distribute new software to comply with the judge's order.

"The court basically ordered us to go ahead and violate the privacy of our customers and effectively spy on them," said Ken Potashner, SonicBlue's chief executive.

Business Journals- Big Brother pulls up a chair in workers' cubicles: Employee surveillance software gets smarter -- and sneakier This link is an indirect one via Moreover.com - Registration is so I can't provide any interesting pull quotes from the article.

Medical Technology News from Wired News - Ethical Concerns at the DNA Bank. Would you trust someone with your DNA?

For half a million Britons such an ethical dilemma has come more sharply into focus with the announcement of £45 million in funding for the world's largest medical research gene bank.

[ ... ]

"Unless the ethics are sorted out before the study is agreed, they are building a house of cards," Dr. David King of HGA said. "They seem to think that ethics is just window dressing. There has been no serious public consultation or parliamentary debate on this project. This kind of arrogance is no longer acceptable."

HGA said that it is particularly concerned that donors will be required to give unconditional consent for the use of their genetic data.

"This raises a lot of potential problems," King said . "People might be happy to have their genetic data used for medical research into cancer or heart disease, but less so for studies into human behavior or intelligence. With the current protocol, they have no opt-out option. Nor is there any guarantee that genetic data contained in the databases won't be used as the basis for patents by private companies."

Biobank's backers, however, insist that data will not be made available to insurance companies, as some critics feared, and that information released for scientific or medical analysis will not pinpoint individuals. While private companies will have access to the database, Dr. Shaun Griffin of the Wellcome Trust said that strict controls would be in place to safeguard personal privacy.

Slashdot | LSU Law School Sues Student Over Website.

New York Times - free registration required Welcome to Our Law School, Young Man. We'll See You in Court.

A Louisiana law school is giving one of its students an unusually comprehensive legal education. In addition to offering him the standard classes and exams, it is suing him.

The dispute centers on a Web site maintained by Douglas Dorhauer, a student at the Paul M. Herbert Law Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. The site is called lsulaw.com, and it includes a school calendar, law-related links and comments by Mr. Dorhauer, some of them critical of the law school.

These days it also includes copies of cease-and-desist letters from the school's lawyers and the trademark infringement suit Mr. Dorhauer received last month, two days before his second-year final exams.

The lawsuit says Mr. Dorhauer is trading on the school's good will and confusing people. It asks that he be prohibited from using the site's name and requests an unspecified amount of money and the law school's legal fees.

[ ... ]

Mr. Dorhauer has studied the law of domain names and said he was confident he would prevail. Legal experts who have inspected his Web site said he had a good case.

"There is definitely a fair use defense that applies to criticism and commentary, and that's definitely what's going on here," said Marjorie R. Esman, the chairwoman of the New Orleans Bar Association's intellectual property committee.

Jeffrey D. Neuburger, a New York lawyer specializing in Internet law issues, largely agreed.