>From Benton Communications: Issue: Privacy
A change in America Online's privacy policy reveals that, for the first time, the ISP plans to begin using Web bugs and cookies to target advertisements to its members. Web bugs are invisible files hidden on Web pages to help marketers determine who has seen their ads. Cookies are tiny text files placed on an Internet user's computer that can be used to store information such as passwords, preferences or Web-surfing habits. A spokesman for AOL stressed that the bugs and cookies would not be used to track member's surfing habits and would not be linked to personally identifiable information, unless members voluntarily provided the information. A definition of what would constitute "voluntarily provide" was not provided. [Source: Washington Post Newsbytes, AUTHOR: Newsbytes Staff] (http://www.washtech.com/news/media/12924-1.html) CYBERLAW FLORIDA COMMUNITY CAN'T SHUT DOWN 'VOYEURDORM' Issue: Internet Law Cities for years have relied on zoning laws to keep adult entertainment businesses and their patrons far from residential areas. But Tampa, Florida's suit against against a Web sited called "Voyeur Dorm" has shown that traditional zoning laws may be ineffective in regulating business which occurs in cyberspace. Municipal officials in Tampa have tried for years to relocate a company that operates the Voyeur Dorm Web site. The company's location is a house in an upscale neighborhood in Tampa. The dwelling consists of college-age female residents and dozens of live Web cams that transmit their images 24 hours a day to tens of thousands of subscribers. In what some believe to be the first appellate decision addressing residential zoning and Internet pornography, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta ruled that Tampa's anti-adult business zoning ordinance does not apply to Voyeur Dorm. The opinion is also notable because it suggested that the Internet is a place that, in some cases, may be beyond the reach of local government regulators. "The residence of 2312 West Farwell Drive provides no 'offer[ing] [of adult entertainment] to members of the public,'" wrote Judge Joel F. Dubina a unanimous three-judge panel, referring to the zoning law's language. "Look, the Eleventh Circuit recognized that there is another place out there that is not in Tampa, that is not anywhere, but is where these people are offering services," said David Post, a law professor at Temple University who specializes in Internet law. "The way the court talked is meaningful." [SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Carl S. Kaplan] (http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/05/technology/05CYBERLAW.html) (Registration Required) -- -Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have - -happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ -Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- -individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question? [EMAIL PROTECTED] [ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body "unsubscribe man-bytes-dog" (the subject is ignored).]
