Digital rights advocates who are wary of a new anti-piracy treaty got an assist this week from two lawmakers. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter this week asked U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab to make sure the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement doesn't create new rules for Internet service providers.

It's now come to light that at least one major U.S. ISP, Cox Communications, has been quietly cutting off some alleged file-sharers for a while. Cox has only done so very rarely -- less than one-tenth of 1% of users have been disconnected, according to a Cox spokesman. Still, it's troubling that Cox has taken it upon itself not only to police the Web, but also play judge and jury and disconnect users who may not have done anything wrong.

Behavioral targeting company Phorm, which just launched another test of its controversial Webwise platform in the U.K., still plans to enter other countries, including the U.S., the company reiterated in a new stock filing.