The Supreme Court of Tennessee has disbarred Laurence Canter, an immigration lawyer notorious for spamming, in part for illegal advertising practices. While much attention has been focused on Mr. Canter's spamming, he was also disbarred in part for poor client communication, for charging an improper nonrefundable retainer, and for failing to return a client's file. The bill would also limit liability where access to online materials is blocked because the individual or firm doing the blocking has received notice that the materials are infringing. The World Wide Web Consortium has released draft specifications for HTML 4.0, the successor to HTML 3.2. It provides better forms, tables, and programmability.
Users can now encrypt their messages from within their email client.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released a report on the subject of international guidelines for Internet based transactions. The report opposes any form of bit tax on the grounds that any such tax would slow and distort all forms of digital communications, and would significantly interfere with the development of electronic commerce. The report offers a serious look at privacy in our times, considering both theory and practice, and self-regulation vs. government regulation. Employment in the industry has increased to nearly 3 million, up 6.5 percent from the preceding year. The Policy Oversight Committee includes participants from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the Internet Society, the World Intellectual Property Organization and other organizations involved in Net governance and intellectual property interests.