Suits Against Anti-Cult Blogger Provide Test for Online Speech.

Lawsuits are occupational hazards for anti-cult blogger Rick Ross.

Sued a half-dozen times during the past decade for his public pronouncements, especially on the Internet, he's managed to win all but one case, with the help of pro bono counsel. His latest close call came in December when Landmark Education, a promoter of self-help seminars, withdrew with prejudice its federal suit in Newark alleging defamation.

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Internet puts privacy on line.

Sony-BMG Music Entertainment surreptitiously places software on consumers' computers. Microsoft closes down a personal blog in China over concerns about potential lost revenue. Other firms trade in people's supposedly private information.

These may look like unconnected events, but each is an example of how private companies are increasingly using technology to intrude upon our lives.

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New Law Prohibits Anonymous Cyberstalking.

A tiny provision of a Department of Justice appropriations bill may end up becoming a major battleground over First Amendment rights on the Internet.

The provision, designed to prevent anonymous harassment and stalking via e-mail or the Web, is so broadly worded that many fear it could chill other forms of speech.

The "Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act" for fiscal year 2006 contains one section entitled "Preventing Cyberstalking." Under the new law, the rules passed in the Communications Decency Act (CDA) to prevent harassment by telephone were extended to Internet communications as well.

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Create an e-annoyance, go to jail.

Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

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Computer chips get under skin of enthusiasts.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Forgetting computer passwords is an everyday source of frustration, but a solution may literally be at hand -- in the form of computer chip implants.

With a wave of his hand, Amal Graafstra, a 29-year-old entrepreneur based in Vancouver, Canada, opens his front door. With another, he logs onto his computer.

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Chat Room Chatter Draws Lawsuit.

Do the courts have jurisdiction over what people say in Internet chat rooms?

That question is being played out in what some lawyers claim is a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in Ohio, where a man claims he was humiliated online in an Internet chat room, and has filed a lawsuit over the incident.

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Your phone records are for sale.

The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone -- for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts.

Criminals can use such records to expose a government informant who regularly calls a law enforcement official.

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Changeable Fingerprint.

Your fingerprints are yours and yours alone, and that makes them a useful tool for confirming the identity of people doing things like conducting secure banking transactions or passing through corporate security checkpoints.

Trouble is, it's theoretically possible for a hacker to break into the software of, say, an employer, steal a copy of your stored fingerprint, and later use it to gain entrance.

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Cyberstalkers beware: New toolkit nabs online predators.

Researchers at Florida State University are developing a computer system designed to help law enforcement agents thwart cyberstalking.

Computer science Professor Sudhir Aggarwal and members of the Florida Cybersecurity Institute have built a hardware and software prototype called the Predator and Prey Alert (PAPA) system. The forensic toolkit is designed to provide high-quality evidence for the prosecution of cyberstalking cases.

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Microsoft reveals 'severe' security flaw in Windows.

A previously unknown flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system is leaving computer users vulnerable to spyware, viruses and other programs that could overtake their machines and has sent the company scrambling to come up with a fix.

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Beware skeletons in Web closets.

OTTAWA — Bloggers cannibalizing one of their own by exposing the offensive Internet musings of a Liberal Party executive during a contentious federal election campaign should be a lesson to politicians and parties alike, says one expert.

What's written in the far, dark reaches of cyberspace is often more permanent — and damaging — than you think.

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