Miscellaneous IT Roundup

The new issue of Vince Polley’s excellent but really badly titled Miscellaneous IT Related Legal News (MIRLN) is out.  Some highlights:

* A study suggests that buyers on eBay saved about $19 billion in 2007 over what they would have been willing to pay for the same goods elsewhere.

* Digital music sales are up, but they’re not making up for the collapse of the CD market, causing falling profits for music publishers.

* Peer-to-peer lending over the Internet is booming as new technology allows borrowers to bypass traditional lenders.

* A lawyer’s misdirected e-mail may have inadvertantly made public a proposed confidential $1 billion litigation settlement.

* U.S. colleges are getting a failing grade over security of student data, but it sounds more like incompetence than hacking.

* The popular website Facebook.com turns out to be an online version of the Hotel California — you can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.

[Frank Snyder]