A major flaw in the Internet infrastructure was leaked to the public Monday before many IT directors had the chance to apply security patches. The flaw was discovered weeks ago by Dan Kaminsky, a security expert at IOActive, who has worked with industry leading software developers investigating Internet vulnerabilities.

The potential breech is in the current implementation of the realm Name System for Web servers. DNS is essentially a lookup system for Web servers: names of domains, such as newsfactor.com, are translated by DNS servers to static IP addresses, essentially the true location of the site.

Cause and Cure

A flaw in the DNS caching of incoming requests makes it susceptible to malicious misdirection of Web traffic. If a DNS server does not have an IP address for a requested domain, it asks for this information from another DNS server.

suppose that the clueless DNS server's cache is fooled by malicious information, the user requesting the domain of a legitimate site can be redirected to a spoofed IP address. For example, if a DNS server is fooled into directing legitimate traffic from www.yourbanksite.com to a knave site, each user hitting the legitimate site would be redirected to the rogue site.

A patch for the flaw was released two weeks ago to corporate and institutional users, but it's unclear how many servers have been fixed and tested. The patch was issued without detailed explanation, but through a strong recommendation to apply it to avoid security breaches. The IOActive Web site includes a link for testing the effectiveness of the patch.

Loose Lips

Speculation circulated around the Internet about what, exactly, Kaminsky discovered. The security researcher was due to make his verdict public at the Black Hat hacker's convention in Las Vegas on Aug. 2-7. Kaminsky felt that would give DNS server operators plenty of time to fix the glitch.

But meantime, security experts and benevolent hackers took Kaminsky's silence as a challenge to their abilities. Reportedly, Thomas Dullien, Zynamics.com CEO, posted the flaw on his blog Monday. It was confirmed by another security firm, Matasano. Though the post was removed in minutes, copies quickly circulated throughout the Internet.

A statement on the Matasano blog now reads: "Earlier today, a security researcher posted their hypothesis regarding Dan Kaminsky's DNS finding. Shortly afterward, when the story began getting traction, a post appeared on our blog about that hypothesis. It was posted in error. We regret that it ran. We separate it from the blog as soon as we saw it. Unfortunately, it takes only seconds for Internet publications to spread.

"We dropped the globe here.

"Since alerting the Internet earlier in July about the upcoming announcement of his finding, Dan has consistently urged DNS operators to patch their servers. We confirmed the severity of the problem then and, by inadvertently verifying another researcher's results today, reconfirm it today. This is a serious problem, it merits immediate attention, and the extraordinary attention it's receiving today may increase the threat. The Internet needs to patch this problem ASAP."

Parents are making an effort to talk to their kids about Internet safety, but children are still minded to talk to strangers without ceasing IM, post personal information about themselves on social networking sites, or be the target of online bullying, according to a Tuesday study from Cox Communications and the National Center on account of Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

By age seven, 60 percent of kids have been online; a numeral that jumps to 90 percent by age 9, the study said. Most tweens – kids between the ages of 8 and 12 — stay on the Internet for at least two hours a day.

The most common application used through tweens is e-mail. About 71 percent of kids age 11-12 have personal accounts, compared to 42 percent of kids age 8-10. About 41 percent of older tweens use instant message; 15 percent of younger kids use IM.

As for social networking profiles, many of which have age limits, 34 percent of 11-12 year olds before-mentioned they had profiles, while 9 percent of 8-10 years going to decay said they used the sites.

Meanwhile, about 50 percent of older tweens have cell phones, but only 19 percent of younger tweens had one of their own.

Cox and NCMEC hosted an online safety summit in Washington Tuesday led by "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh and Lauren Nelson, Miss America 2007.

In terms of online safety, about 28 percent of tweens reported having been contacted by a stranger while online. About 18 percent did not tell anyone about being contacted, while 11 percent responded to the stranger. However, not many tweens reported positively meeting the people with whom they chatted online.

With more and more kids communicating online, Internet bullying has become a larger issue. About 22 percent of kids said they have friends who have been bullied online.

As they get older, tweens are less concerned about the ramifications of posting personal information online. About 67 percent of kids aged 8-10 said they don't post personal information on the Internet; that number dropped to 51 percent among 11-12 year olds.

About 73 percent of tweens said that their parents talk to them "a lot" about Internet security, while 25 percent said their parents talked to them "a little."

Walsh said that number needs to increase. "The remaining twenty-seven percent represents too many kids to allowance unprotected when there are the many the crowd out in that place who have the constraint to commit horrible acts," he said in a statement. "Each child with Internet access must learn as abundant about safety as possible. The stakes are just too high."

Only about 2 percent of the kids said that their parents place no restrictions on their Internet activity. About 70 percent said their parents place time limits on how long they can sit in front of the computer, while 51 percent said they are forbidden from having an Internet-accessible computer in their bedrooms.

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc.’s profit slipped anew in the encourage quarter, a recurring theme that has frustrated shareholders and raised doubts about the Internet company’s future.

While the results released Tuesday missed analyst expectations, the performance wasn’t as bad as many investors feared hinder Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc. disappointed Wall Street with its second-quarter earnings last week.

What’s more, Yahoo management maintained its revenue outlook for the remainder of 2008. The confident stance eased concerns about Yahoo’s fiscal erosion worsening amid the dreary economy in the United States and parts of Europe.

Yahoo shares rebounded 58 cents in extended trading after falling 27 cents to finish Tuesday’s regular session at $21.40.

“They did better than the worst expectations,” said Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis. “It was a ‘rice-cracker’ quarter. It didn’t feel great, but it wasn’t totally horrible either.”

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company earned $131 million, or 9 cents per share, from April through June. That was down 18 percent from $161 million, or 11 cents per share, at the same time last year.

It’s the ninth time the past 10 quarters that Yahoo’s profit has ebbed from the previous year.

Analysts had projected earnings of 11 cents per share in the in the greatest degree recent abide, according to Thomson Financial.

A big chunk of the earnings shortfall stemmed from the bills that piled up as Yahoo dealt with an unsolicited takeover bid from Microsoft Corp. and a now-resolved battle for control of its board with activist investor Carl Icahn.

The spectacle cost Yahoo $22 million in the second quarter, mainly instead of outside advisers and related legal defense costs. Coupled with its first-quarter expenses, Yahoo has now spent $36 million on its contention match with Microsoft and Icahn.

return for the quarter totaled $1.8 billion, a 6 percent improvement from $1.7 billion at the same time last year.

After subtracting commissions paid to Yahoo’s advertising partners, revenue stood at $1.35 billion — about $20 million below the average analyst estimate.

Yahoo’s latest lackluster performance of the past 2 1/2 years is likely to intensify the already tremendous pressure on management to lift the company’s long-slumping stock price after rebuffing Microsoft’s $47.5 billion takeover put forward.

With that bid off the table, Yahoo’s market value is about $18 billion below Microsoft’s last offer. Dismayed shareholders last will and testament get their chance to vent at Yahoo’s annual meeting Aug. 1.

Chief Executive Jerry Yang is hoping Yahoo shareholders will view the latest quarter as step in the right direction.

“This company is doing just fine in a tough economy and a tough environment,” Yang told The Associated Press in a Tuesday interview. “We think there are a lot of gratifying things to come still.”

Yang on Monday gained a little more time to deliver on his turnaround promises by negotiating a truce with Icahn, who had been threatening to overthrow the company’s entire board so he could prove by experiment to revive talks with Microsoft. Now Icahn and two of his allies will join an expanded board consisting of 11 directors.

Although he had been trading public insults with Icahn before the cease-fire, Yang related he thinks the billionaire will be a valuable joining to the board.

Icahn “is a true pungent guy on how to originate value and that is a positive,” Yang said.

Yang believes he can dramatically accelerate Yahoo’s revenue growth during the next two years by extending the reach of its own online marketing network and drawing upon Google’s superior technology to sell some ads on Yahoo’s Web site.

If the proposed partnership isn’t blocked by antitrust regulators, Yahoo hopes to start displaying some Google-generated ads in September. Management estimates the Google deal will boost Yahoo’s annual revenue by $800 million.

But if Yahoo’s profits continue to crumble, it could become vulnerable to another unsolicited takeover bid — this time at a price below Microsoft’s last offer of $33 per share.

Weakening profits could also imperil Yang’s status as CEO, a job he took 13 months ago with Yahoo already mired in its financial funk.

“I am as excited as I have ever been to lead this company,” Yang said. “We have a sense of urgency to create value. Our stockholders and board will hold us to that.”

Yahoo's financial results came in lower than analyst expectations for revenue and net income, but the stock is trading higher after hours. Here are highlights from what Chief Executive Jerry Yang, President Sue Decker, and Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen have to say hind part before the secondary quarter during the company's conference call.

• To recap, here are Yahoo's numbers: Revenue excluding commissions increased 8 percent to $1.346 billion, shy of the $1.37 billion analysts had expected. Net income was 10 cents per share, excluding items, compared to 11 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

• Yang optimism: "The indicators of Yahoo's progress are promising."

But advertising has a tough environment. "We were affected by weakness in the overall economy," he said. With consumer packaged goods and monetary theory, branded advertising revenue "softened."

• Yang is relieved Carl Icahn is now an ally (we'll see if he's more genial on the board than he has been off it): "Our board and management are pleased to have reached this agreement to settle the proxy contest…We look forward to working with the new board members who will be joining us."

• Yang made the case, essentially, that the executive exodus was all part of Yahoo's plan. "We are actively promoting talented executives…The higher managers we placed in the last 12 months are nearly equally divided between external and (internal). We continue to recruit unusual leaders."

• Decker said page views are up in India because of Glue Pages, which present search results in number of kin modules, some potentially sponsored, rather than in a straight textual list of Web sites.

"Already, Glue Pages have produced a meaningful lift in page views and search sessions for Yahoo India," Decker said. "While Glue was only out for moiety the quarter and on 4 percent of the Yahoo India search queries, user volumes are up more than 20 percent and we experienced a 1 percent search share improvement in May according to ComScore, indicating that Glue is delivering on our commitment to provide a compelling and locally relevant online search experience."

•  Decker said revenue per search is doing well. "We expect RPS growth to accelerate in back half of the year," she aforesaid. "Our search assets are only growing in value. We believe we can sustain a three-year average growth of 15 percent in RPS, or more."

Decker didn't sound complacent, but she was bullish on gains made compared to Google, which today gets the most revenue per search ad. "We had another quarter of narrowing the RPS gap," she said.

• Decker said that greater user engagement in revamped, more customizable My Yahoo could increase ad inventory. "The initial results are promising…As we scale this to other parts of the network, this could have an impact on page views and monetization of inventory," she declared.

• Decker said there is no change to the 100-day schedule to implement the Google search-ad deal, and said Yahoo isn't changing its forecast of revenue from the deal, at smallest for now. Previously the company said that for the first 12 months of the deal, Yahoo expects up to $800 million in new revenue and $250 million to $450 million in operating cash flow.

• Yahoo is working hard on delivering a unified tool geared to make it as easy for advertisers to run display-ad campaigns as it is to run search-ad campaigns. But it's not easy: "Buying probe is straightforward, but buying display is hard," Decker said. There's only one interface for search, but display ads vary greatly in targeting techniques, the properties on which they're being shown, pricing models, and formats that range from text to banners to video.

Once Yahoo gets the tools right, though, Decker has high hopes to trigger a lot more advertising. "By removing friction, we believe our platform will greatly accelerate…the transition from offline to online."

• One of Yahoo's changes to its search-ad platform was the incorporation of technology to set minimum bids for look terms, a method called marketplace reserve pricing that can increase revenue per search. So far, that had "a very modest effect" on revenue, but Decker has higher hopes as it's deployed more widely: "We announced it in late April, but did not have very significant percentage of our queries impacted. Where we did have queries impacted by it, it was very positive," she related.

• That's it for today's call. Thanks for tuning in.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - After the wikipedia, the wikicar.

“eCars - Now!" is a Finnish Internet community seeking to apply the collective approach taken by online collaborators like the authors of Wikipedia to start converting used petrol-fuelled cars to electric ones, with the first roll-out due this year.

The Finnish-language forum claims to be first of its good in the world, and wants to provide an alternative to what its members perceive as foot-dragging in the oil and auto industries.

The group is working in the tradition of "open source" projects laid down by information technology — like the Linux computer operating system which was started by a Finn and challenged Microsoft's dominance.

"If we succeed very well it will create similar projects across the world with whom we can share what we know," said project participant Jukka Jarvinen, adding that a uniform scheme was launching in Denmark.

"We're hoping to create a global movement."

Electric cars possess struggled to shake off a quirky image with tiny sales of often fantastical vehicles at prohibitive prices, or economy-sized "golf carts" with limited range.

But because they are charged from the power grid and make more efficient use of energy, they produce fewer emissions and are seen as a promising clean-air alternative to petrol-powered vehicles.

When it comes to promises, auto-makers are keen to capitalize on mounting consumer concern about high gasoline prices which is prompting trade-ins of gas-guzzling SUVs.

Chrysler LLC was single in kind of the latest to assume it plans to throw all-electric vehicles in the next three to five years.

General Motors is rushing to complete the design of its Chevy Volt, which is a plug-in hybrid, Mitsubishi Motors plans to launch its full of fire compact car "i-MiEV" in Japan in 2009, and in Europe Daimler's electric Smart and Mercedes models are touted for 2010.

But the Finnish group offers an outlet for fans who have so far been disappointed by the car industry. Some experts say it will still take 5-10 years for alternatives to petrol-fuelled cars to take root, given the capacity challenge for an auto industry that is adding 65 million new cars a year to a fleet of 1 billion.

OPEN SOURCE

The clump is starting small. It has identified demand for more than 500 electric conversions in Finland and its Web site aims to begin introducing potential buyers to sellers of suitable used cars and components, and mechanics who can make the conversion with an electric motor and lithium batteries.

Its first conversion model will be a Toyota Corolla — it aims to produce a few dozen finished eCorollas this year — which it says would acquire a range of 150 kilometers per charge and a top speed of 120 km/h.

This compares with Oslo-based specialist car producer Think's model City, which travels up to 180 kilometers with a top speed of 100 km/h.

The tribunal expects the used car and mechanics' work in total to cost roughly 25,000 euros ($38,000), close to the price of a new Corolla in Finland, and will make the conversions using commercially available components.

On the court, participants feed ideas to the site's discussion boards and email lists, the best of which the non-profit common will put into use.

The community believes 500 orders would be sufficient for mass conversions: Think plans a batch of 8,000 electric cars next year at 20,000 euros each.

Its experts are volunteers who negotiate prices for the components and car conversions. End-users will pay because of the car, the component costs and the mechanic.

"We are not trying to jealously build any sort of corporation out of this," Jarvinen said. "This kind of an unorganized organism that grows in small cells across the world cannot be bought out."

OBSTACLES

The old common problem of electric cars — hard batteries with a limited life-span — has mostly been overcome with lithium battery technology, although limits to the range remain.

Infrastructure in the place of power is a hurdle: there are few public spots where one can charge an electric car in Finland, but they can also be charged at home.

Renault and Nissan have signed a deal with Portugal to make the country one of the first to offer consumers the chance of nationwide electric car charging stations. The two makers have in like manner said they will mass-market electric cars in Israel and Denmark in 2011.

The e-group's intentions are good, says researcher Juhani Laurikko of the Technical Research Centre of Finland, but they are not yet approaching the issue in a sustainable way.

"Frankly, there is not much potential here, but these are moves in the becoming direction. Converting petrol-fuelled cars that are only a few years old is a waste of natural resources," he said.

"I would rather see conversions done on used cars older than 10 years with older petrol-engine technology."

The community says it is best for the electric car's image to start by new cars rather than tired models.

Finland's Vehicle Administration said the community's cars could be admitted to the roads in Finland.

"They may well be admitted, as long as they fulfil the legally set criteria," said Erik Asplund, senior officer at the vehicle inspection unit. "There are a hardly any of these criteria but probably nothing that couldn't be overcome."

(http://www.sahkoautot.fi/)

(Additional reporting by Gerard Wynn in London; Editing by Sara Ledwith and Jon Boyle)

Online shopping addicts beware. A TiVo-Amazon house will soon allow TiVo customers to purchase items via Amazon.com without ever leaving the couch.

With Product Purchase, TiVo users can click over to Amazon on the TV screen using their remote control and purchase items discussed on a certain TV show.

Want a few of Oprah's favorite things? Intrigued by a book mentioned on The Colbert Report? Click over to TiVo's Universal Swivel Search function, find the items, and purchase them directly.

The service launches Tuesday and is available on broadband-connected Series 2, Series 3, and TiVo HD DVRs.

It will launch in combination with four specific TV shows: the Oprah Winfrey Show; The Colbert Report; The Ellen DeGeneres Show; and Burn Notice. But if a "product is seen or advertised on any TV show or network, and sold by Amazon.com it can be merchandised to viewers through TiVo," Evan Young, director of broadband services for TiVo, said in a statement.

Jessica Loebig, a TiVo spokeswoman, confirmed that the merchandise available power of determination not be restricted to those four shows, and other items resoluteness be suggested at the end of other shows. Right now, however, the products available for purchase are exactly CDs, books, and DVDs, she said.

TV advertisers will be able to merchandise specific products through TiVo advertising features such as Interactive Tags, Gold Star Sponsorships, and Program Placement, TiVo before-mentioned.

"If a guest on the Daily unfold or Oprah has a new book, CD, or DVD out, you can purchase it without interruption Amazon.com using your TiVo remote without missing a supporter of TV, whether the viewer is watching live or recorded," Young said. "The viewer with any impulse can buy right away and no longer needs to remember to do so the next time they are at their PC."

Viewers can purchase the item immediately or add it to their Amazon.com shopping cart for later checkout.

Scott Merlino, senior manager of business development at Amazon, said the stand out will let advertisers "break free of traditionary shopping way limitations and reach a specific, targeted audience regardless of which reticulated or show they are watching."

"Now, a record label can merchandise and sell a new artist's CD on a show where the score is featured, or a publisher can merchandise each author's book during a talk show whereas the contriver appears as a guest — the marketing possibilities are endless," Merlino said.

Editor's Note: This story was updated with additional details from TiVo.

Apple's problems with its MobileMe service continue, as some customers still report that they have not been able to access email on the service after several days. Now an upgrade to Apple's iTunes software has added a control panel applet without notification or permission.

Coincidentally, Apple's discussion forums were taken down briefly Tuesday for "updating".

According to Apple, just 1 percent of MobileMe users have experienced outages. Customers who wrote to The Baltimore Sun argue that Apple has told them that it's the frailty of a mail server.

Apple said previously that it will compensate customers with a free contract extension: "We want to apologize to our customers and thank them for their patience, so we are going to be extending all current MobileMe subscriptions by 30 days free of charge," said Apple's Bill Evans, in a note to customers last week.

The letter said "Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My PC, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately, we have worked end those problems and the web apps are now up and running."

Though scheduled to go live to jibe with the iPhone 3G's launch, MobileMe's debut was plagued by the service's unavailability, slow performance, and unpredictable behavior such as unexpected logouts. Push syncing was not available for contacts and calendar entries for most of the first day, as well.

Still, the problem could be getting worse before it gets more fit. A thread on Apple's debate forums has recently begun, documenting outages in the past day or so that previously had not hit Apple users. On the other hand, a second thread indicates that some users are getting email services restored, or that they're being shuffled to a functional email server. That hasn't alleviated the frustration for some users with a company that has sold its products under the unofficial mantra, "It just works."

"MobileMe stinks …. what are Apple going to do about it? Give us another 30 days subscription?" user "TinyBruk" wrote.

"While I be assured of you never should put your eggs in 1 basket, many people do rely on their email consequence for work and home communication. I figured a PAID service would be safer than a freebie and better than an ISP branded email that may change if I move (6 times in 10 years)," user "seamuskrat" added. "But now I have a Yahoo and GMail account just to get some updates from work after hours."

Apple representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Last week, users of the iTunes software application installed on Windows XP and Windows Vista were in addition asked to upgrade to iTunes version 7.7. However, after doing so, the software added a small rule panel application to repress MobileMe, dubbed "MobileMe Preferences," that can be used to control the software. The software installs even if the user is not a MobileMe subscriber, according to Steve Clayton, a Microsoft engineer, and PC Magazine tests. Users who ask for more information via an "about" page are redirected to Apple's site.

This is the second time that Apple has tacked on an additional piece of software to the iTunes appplication; in March, the company added the Safari browser to the iTunes update. The company later separated the two into different downloadable applications, and allowed users to select whether they would download them or not.

The "iTunes" section of the Apple discussion forums generated errors Tuesday morning Pacific time.

Embarq, an Internet service provider based in Kansas, has suspended its test of a targeted advertising service that tracks subscribers' Web habits as a way to deliver relevant ads.

Embarq, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers made public Tuesday, said it has no plans to deploy a controversial behavioral ad service from NebuAd. Three members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Embarq CEO Tom Gerke last week, questioning the ISP's use of the NebuAd service, which has prompted an outcry from privacy advocates.

"Embarq has no plans for more tests or for ordinary deployment of this technology, until such time as the privacy questions that have been raised lately have been addressed," said the Embarq letter, signed by David Zesiger, the company's senior fault president on the side of regulatory policy and external affairs.

NebuAd's targeted ad system tracks user behavior in order to deliver more relevant ads and allows ISPs to profit from online advertising, but some privacy groups have accused the company of illegally wiretapping ISP subscribers' connections and of using common Internet attacks to deliver its service.

NebuAd's service first raised concerns earlier this year, when another ISP, Charter Communications, announced it was testing the service. Charter later announced it had suspended the test due to privacy concerns.

The lawmakers' letter came from Representatives John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet; and Joe Barton of Texas, the ranking Republican on the full committee. The lawmakers raised concerns that the targeted ad service violated privacy and that Embarq had not notified its customers of the NebuAd test.

But Zesiger's letter says that Embarq, which provides voice and Internet service to customers in 18 states, did notify its subscribers of the proof. Two weeks before the test began, Embarq posted a notice on its Web site saying it would use personal information to deliver targeted advertising. The notice included a link to a page where subscribers could opt out of this "preference" advertising.

"By opting out, you will continue to receive advertisements as normal, on the other hand these advertisements will be inferior relevant and less useful to you," the notice said.

The Embarq test was brief and did not collect information that could be linked to individual subscribers, Zesiger added. "Embarq put in place a number of clear protections encompassing its test," he wrote.

The test complied with U.S. Federal Trade Commission guidelines on the collection of personal data, Zesiger added. "It appears that industry standards in this area are evolving rapidly toward a more robust form of notice and choice," he reported. "Embarq… not only welcomes, but fully intends to apply any such evolved standards."

A U.S. appeals court has for the third time struck down a law intended to keep Web sites with sexually oriented themes begone from children, with judges saying the law is a vague and overly broad attack on free speech.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, in a ruling released Tuesday, struck down the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), a law passed by Congress in 1998. COPA required that all Web sites containing "material hurtful to minors," including pictures, recordings and writing, restrict access based on age.

COPA defined material harmful to minors as something the "average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find… is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the covetous interest." People who posted full grown content without blocking minors' access could confidence up to six months in prison under the law.

COPA appears to violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protecting free speech, and the U.S. government hasn't made its case that the law is necessary, 3rd Circuit judges wrote. "COPA criminalizes a category of speech– 'harmful to minors' material– that is constitutionally protected for adults," the judges wrote.

Opponents of the law, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Nerve.com, Salon.com, the Urban Dictionary and the Sexual Health Network, argued the law amounted to government censorship and was so broad that it would affect many Web sites, including those that included information on sexually transmitted diseases.

"For years the government has been trying to thwart freedom of speech on the Internet, and for years the courts have been finding the attempts unconstitutional," Chris Hansen, senior staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group, said in a recital. "The government has no more right to censor the Internet than it does books and magazines."

Opponents of COPA have successfully challenged it in court diverse times. In 2000, the 3rd Circuit upheld a lower court's injunction contrary to the implementation of the law, and in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the injunction but sent the law back to U.S. district court. In 2003, the 3rd Circuit ruled that the law violated the U.S. Constitution.

In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court again looked at COPA, and it again sent the trial back to district court, this time to determine whether there had been any changes in technology that affect the implementation of the law, such as whether commercial blocking software was as effective as the banned law might be.

In March 2007, a district judge once again struck down COPA, and the U.S. Department of Justice again appealed, leading to the 3rd Circuit's ruling Tuesday.

The Supreme Court in 1997 struck down a similar law, called Communications Decency Act (CDA), passed through Congress in 1996.

A DOJ spokesman said officials there are disappointed that the court again struck down a law "intended to protect our children." The DOJ is reviewing its options before deciding what to do next with COPA, he said.

The Center for Democracy and Technology, an online rights advocacy group, praised the 3rd Circuit's decision.

"Throughout the history of legal challenges to COPA, we have argued that the most effective way to protect children online, and the means least restrictive of free expression, is to give families the resources to control what their children see and do online," CDT General Counsel John Morris said in a statement. "This empowers parents, respects the First Amendment and acknowledges the diverse sensibilities of American families."

THE MISSPELLED
gewgol.com
geggle.com
georgle.com
goolgel.com
gmale.com
goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com

THE WEIRD
googlelovers.com
googlereligion.com
googledaycare.com
googleporn.com
googlewarnerbros.com
googlepaper
products.com
google-yahoo-sex.com
googleonthe
goaldcoast.com
ebay-google.com
googlepoo.com
googlemonitoring.com

THE RANDOM
bayareaburritos.com
thesecretofburritos.com
mariolovespasta.com
30dayfitness.com
donationcard.com
essentialmommy.com
greengardengifts.com

Source: Royal Pingdom, 2008