The state of New York has reached a settlement with Microsoft regarding a dispute over software prices. The class action lawsuit settlement would reward each New Yorker to $12 for each computer they purchased from 1994 until 2004. No questions will be asked for people claiming less than 5 computers. Payment will not be in cash, but rather coupons to be used towards the purchase of any type of tech product at just about any retailer. Microsoft will also pay out $5 for purchasers of their software, which includes Word, Excel, and other Office products, during the given timeframe.

Link goes to settlement website. This offer is for New Yorkers only. If you are not a New Yorker and you want money from Microsoft, elect an attorney general like Eliot Spitzer (soon to be governor), instead of the corporate pawns most states select. He may be a thorn in the side of big businesses that cheat, but he's got my vote.
Microsoft New York Class Action Settlement

A federal judge seems to think Google should be forced to do the work of the Department of Justice by handing over collected data about its users. The DoJ wants the info as part of its effort to revive a controversial law that makes it a crime to make adult content easily available to children. With the way search engine spiders crawl the internet for new data, this law really makes no practical sense. Implementing it would require something close to shutting down the internet. I guess that's probably what some lawmakers had in mind when they passed it. Orrin Hatch may want everyone to turn off their computers and TVs and pick up a Bible, but the Constitution does give us some rights, no matter how annoying that can be for Republicans.
Judge may force Google to give up info - Yahoo! News

Here's an interesting bill I just heard about. Apparently someone in Congress thinks it would be a good idea to force all webmasters to erase all visitor data that is not required by legitimate business practices. I have no idea what is considered legitimate, and I'm not sure why websites should have to cover up its user's tracks. Even bloggers would have to abide by this law, although I'm sure many of them lack the technical know-how to implement a script that continually deletes old user data.

I didn't even realize there was a problem with user data being stolen from websites. I know bank sites have lost credit card lists, but we're talking about things like name, birthday, and email address here. The worst someone could do with that information is spam the user who was stupid enough to give it away to every website they visit. Free email addresses are available all over the place, so it's not like it's terribly difficult to have one address used just for public disclosure. I think this congressman just gave his email out to one too many "escort" rings and now he's getting spammed constantly with emails offering to help "make him bigger."
Delete web server logs, or get fined by the Feds? Ed Markey's new bill [Politech]

Somebody is standing up and challenging a new law that is supposed to punish people for "annoying" internet practices, but might make it illegal for people to do things like write posts of an inflammatory nature in a forum. This law shows how far behind modern legislators are. They pass laws that seem to make sense, but they do not use the technology enough to understand how far-reaching the particular law can be, making criminals out of possibly tens of millions of America's internet users.
Lawsuit challenges law targeting Internet "annoyances" [Politech]