Faced with boycott threats, domain registrar GoDaddy said this afternoon that it no longer backs the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act. "Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation -- but we can clearly do better," CEO Warren Adelman said in a statement.

The prospect of "WiFi on steroids" took a big step forward today with the Federal Communications Commission's approval of the first database and first device for "white spaces," or the unused spectrum between TV channels.

The Federal Trade Commission said today that it finalized a settlement with ScanScout for allegedly using Flash cookies to track Web users. The deal calls for ScanScout to give users an easy way to opt out of the collection of many types of data, including IP addresses. The company is still allowed to collect data from opted-out users for some purposes, including frequency capping, fraud prevention and age verification.

Facebook's recent privacy settlement with the Federal Trade Commission isn't sitting well with everybody. UC Berkeley law professor Chris Hoofnagle, for one, thinks the terms aren't stringent enough.

Record labels have made no secret of their distaste for cyberlockers like Megaupload which, the labels argue, contribute to piracy by making it easy for people to share music. So Universal Music Group couldn't have been thrilled when a clip showing celebrities like Will.i.a,m, Sean Combs and Kim Kardashian endorsing Megaupload went live on YouTube earlier this month. Even so, it was surprising to learn that Universal demanded the clip's removal shortly after it appeared online.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee decided this afternoon to delay voting on the controversial anti-piracy bill Stop Online Piracy Act until at least next week. As of now, the committee is scheduled to resume the markup on Wednesday.

Executives from Carrier IQ met with officials from the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission this week to discuss allegations that the company's software can be used to snoop on users. The talks -- first reported on Wednesday by the Washington Post -- mark the latest development in the controversy that has surrounded Carrier IQ since last month, when researcher Trevor Eckhart posted a video showing how the company's software can log keystrokes. Carrier IQ's software currently is installed in around 150 million phones.

A coalition of nine of the largest Web companies are backing the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act -- an anti-piracy proposal unveiled last week by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif).

Copyright enforcer Righthaven suffered another blow this week, when U.S. District Court Judge Philip Pro in Nevada granted a request to auction off the company's assets -- including its portfolio of copyright registrations for newspaper articles.

Web user Kevin Low has revised his complaint against LinkedIn, in a last-ditch attempt to keep alive a lawsuit accusing the social networking company of violating his privacy by "leaking" information about him to advertisers.