Hallelujah! FTC Puts Spammers in the Pokey. Yesterday, April 29th marks an important day in the fight against digital piracy. For the first time, the U.S. Government has made arrests under the CAN-SPAM act (See http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/04/040429canspam.htm). The alleged spammers, accused of routing mails through intermediate computer servers to cover their tracks, were located in Detroit and were released on bond after having their assets frozen. SPN has been calling for "digital parity" for some time, believing that the government to prosecute online crimes with the same vigor as their offline equivalents. We think this is an important first step.

Of equal significance, but receiving less news attention, was the FTC's decision to go after Australia-based Global Web Promotions Pty Ltd, which required the cooperation of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the New Zealand Commerce Commission. This gives lie to one of the arguments against anti-spam legislation in general, which is the apparent futility of pursuing spammers who can move their operations offshore. Let's hope the joint operation with the folks down under become a model for future international anti-piracy efforts beyond our shores. Spammers pirate computer resources around the world, and kudos to the FCC for this bold new initiative.

"Gmail: the Next Gator?" Not event close! We've been critical of Google of late, and as the putative gateway to all human information, Google deserves the extra scrutiny it has been receiving from all quarters. The attacks on its new Gmail free e-mail service, however, are starting to stretch things a bit. So for a change, SPN is going to rally to the Google flag in their defense.

In a recent article, Pamela Parker posits "Gmail: the Next Gator?" Claria Corporation, nee Gator, is an adware company that performs contextual analysis on publisher's content and then pops ads up over that content. SPN has argued emphatically that Claria's behavior is piracy. Ms. Parker compares Google's Gmail to Gator, since it also displays targeted ads based on content. At first glance, the analogy seems sound, but it should collapse under closer examination for two reasons: (1) Adware/Spyware is almost always non-consensual to the consumer; most of this class of software is installed behind the scenes without adequate disclosure whereas Gmail, accessed remotely, requires a consumer to affirmatively log in; and, (2) Adware/Spyware almost always trespasses by popping up OVER someone else's copyrighted publication; we're eternally at a loss why people don't understand why the act of popping-OVER is distinct from other forms of display ads, but in Gmail's case, the ads are displayed alongside the content, and thus don't interfere the reading of the content in the center. Like all other display ads since the dawn of time, consumers can just tune them out.

We're still troubled by the parsing of copyrighted content for use in ways that the copyright holder doesn't authorize, but that'll have to be a subject for another post. We'll give Google the benefit of the doubt...for now.

FTC Takes On Spyware. http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3342261, by Janice Mara.

Article of note. Google Shifts Trademark Policy, at ClickZ.com. The pressure for every increasing profits has apparently gotten the better of a company that once thrived on its do-good image of an honest company founded by 2 tech-loving college guys. This piece of news comes on top of a privacy firestorm over Google plans to read people's e-mails to target ads. Google is SPN's favorite search engine, so we offer a piece of friendly and heartfelt advice: Yahoo once had a do-good image image of an honest company founded by 2 tech-loving college guys. Then they started to get into e-mail. Then they started pursuing profits ahead of principle. Now they have no brand focus and no credibility. Google, don't be a Yahoo!

Spyware goes the way of polygamy. Spyware joins the roll of things illegal in Utah, which has the distinct honor of being the first state to ban spyware! SPN cannot be happier. Of particular interest is that the Utah legislature recognized that the secret transmission of data is a problem requiring redress. SPN has been contending for some time that the re-transmission of web site content back to a central server for contextual analysis is a violation of copyright, and we're thrilled to see Utah begin to recognize the problem. Kudos to Governor Walker, who signed the bill into law March 23rd.

There's some great articles and discussion about the issue online. For more information and discussion, try LWN.net and Ben Edelman's site.

Recent Additions. We added the Yahoo/Inktomi axis to our Piracy Hall of Shame for their money-grabs that undermine the credibility of search results for consumers. We added a definition of Spim to our growing piracy glossary page.