It's been almost two years since the Recording Industry Association of America said it would stop bringing lawsuits against individual non-commercial file-sharers, but winding down the cases already in the pipeline has proven fairly complicated. The major reason: Judges are struggling to figure out what kind of monetary damages are appropriate when individuals might have shared music, but did so without a profit motive. Early next month, the RIAA and Jammie Thomas-Rasset are scheduled to face off in court for the third time, but this trial, unlike the prior two, will focus solely on how much Thomas-Rasset should pay for …

Turns out Facebook's data leakage to advertisers could be even more of a problem than first thought. A new report shows that Facebook's targeting systems enable marketers to learn the identity of users who fall into specific categories -- including ones as sensitive as sexual orientation.

A blogger who used eight sentences of a 30-sentence Las Vegas Review-Journal article has prevailed in a lawsuit brought by copyright enforcement outfit Righthaven.

The revelation this week that app developers are sending Facebook users' names to advertisers -- in violation of the social networking sites' terms of service -- has already resulted in litigation, international headlines and an inquiry by Congress. But for all the turmoil, news of the data leakage raises more questions than it answers.

Adding a new wrinkle to debates about Internet policy, Fox this weekend reportedly temporarily blocked Cablevision users from accessing certain Fox-owned Web sites. While Fox's actions probably didn't violate neutrality principles as currently defined by the Federal Communications Commission, the network's decision nonetheless could prove instrumental in shaping new rules. T

This week, reports from two different sources appeared detailing how information that users put online on social networking sites is being mined. The Electronic Frontier Foundation released records showed that the government gathers intelligence by scouring social networking sites, and The Wall Street Journal published a report examining how marketing companies, data brokers and others are using automated scrapers to collect data about Web users.

Ninety-five percent of U.S. households currently have access to broadband lines, but prospects for rolling out high-speed lines to those who currently lack high-speed connections are dim without government intervention, according to a new report.

As election season heats up, so too do questionable complaints about politicians' online ads. Last week, the Center for Democracy & Technology released a report outlining some of the more doubtful takedown notices sent to YouTube and other online sites. The CDT concluded that bogus copyright claims are silencing political speech. Since then, it's safe to say that the situation hasn't gotten any better.

The Writers Guild of America East, which has long supported net neutrality principles, has now joined the roster of groups expressing concern about a proposal put forward by Google and Verizon to allow broadband providers to prioritize certain material.

In March of 2005, ad technology company United Virtualities boasted that it could track Web users through a "pie," or persistent identification element" -- a Flash cookie that would remain on people's computers even if they deleted their cookies. Today, dozens of companies are facing potential class-action lawsuits for allegedly circumventing people's privacy choices by using Flash to create erased HTTP cookies. But even as lawmakers and other officials investigate the 5-year-old pie, new tracking technology is emerging that could prove even more controversial.