Yahoo admits anticompetitive partnership?

On June 8, we met with Yahoo in San Jose, and Jerry Yang, the CEO of Yahoo, looked across he table, looked us in the eye and said, “Look, the search market today is basically a bipolar market.” He said, “On one pole there’s Google, and on the other pole there are Yahoo and Microsoft both competing with Google.” He said, “If we do this deal with Google, Yahoo will become part of Google’s pole.” And Microsoft, he said, would not be strong enough in this market to be a pole of its own.

- Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith in a hearing with the Senate antitrust committee

(LA Times “Microsoft: Yahoo’s Yang admitted a Google ad deal would hurt competition”)

issues in online copyright

The Associated Press filed several takedown requests to require social news site the Drudge Retort to remove quotes from their stories. According to the AP, the excerpts violate fair use laws; Drudge Retort owner Rogers Cadenhead disputes this claim. Many other bloggers have removed AP quotes out of fear of litigation.

Director of Harvard’s Citizen Media Project David Ardia said courts look at whether an excerpt harms the original content. “Not only is it not cutting into the market for the Associated Press’s articles, but it is actually driving traffic to sites,” Ardia said. “That’s what’s so strange from a legal and policy standpoint.”

(Source: MediaPost “Drudge Retort Considers Lawsuit Against AP”)

NY seeks online regulation

New York is attempting to pass a law requiring that “no online publishers or ad networks may collect personally identifiable information in order to send targeted ads to users without their consent.” The term is identified as “data that ‘by itself can be used to identify, contact or locate a person,’ including name and address.” The legislation would also call for advertisers and publishers to allow al users an “opt-out” option for all retargeting.

The IAB is drastically reducing its rates (from up to $5000 to $500) for small companies to join their fight against the legislation.” The New York legislature’s session will end June 23, so any action must be taken by then.

(Source: MediaPost “IAB Strikes Back at Empire State”)