It puts civil libertarians in a difficult position, but the fact is privacy rights and freedom of speech often end up colliding with each other.

Comments on the FTC's proposed behavioral targeting and privacy guidelines are due today, and a broad array of online companies, advertisers and advocates are weighing in with suggestions.

From the moment Microsoft went public with its $31 a share bid for Yahoo on Feb. 1, it was obvious the online ad industry was about to undergo a major transformation, but no one knew at the time exactly how it would play out. Now, nine weeks later, we're still no closer to knowing whether we'll end up with MicroHoo, Yahoo-AOL, Yahoo-MySpace, or still some other combination.

Hollywood and record company execs want Net service providers to prevent users from grabbing copyrighted material, but a new study has found that filters are indeed fooled by encryption techniques.

There's been a lot of debate about whether IP addresses should be considered personally identifiable information, but that issue now appears to be settled in Europe -- and the answer is yes.

There's been a lot of debate about whether IP addresses should be considered personally identifiable information, but that issue now appears to be settled in Europe -- and the answer is yes.

Is Web video company Joost floundering? The U.K.-based Sunday Times says yes, but the company's CEO insists all is well at the start-up.

When Google decided four years ago to allow trademarked names to trigger paid search ads, the company had to have anticipated that litigation would result. And it has. American Airlines, insurance giant Geico and computer services company Rescuecom are among those that have sued Google for trademark infringement. They've all complained that Google allows their rivals to bid to appear as a sponsored link when users type their names into the query box.

MySpace today said it will enter the increasingly crowded digital music business with a new service, MySpace Music, that will offer free streams and sell downloads of tracks without digital rights management software.

EMI has poached Google's vice president of engineering, Douglas Merrill, to head digital operations for the Big Four record label. With Merrill, EMI is getting an executive who comes from a culture of envelope-pushing on copyright issues.