A subpoena for information regarding Amazon.com customers and used book purchases as part of a criminal investigation into Robert D’Angelo has been withdrawn after withering criticism from the presiding judge.

Many companies like to inflate the number of users they claim to have.  Not Google.  Although Orkut used to accidentally overstate communities’ membership counts, the social network is now working to correct the problem.

At first glance, this looks bad: New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram has subpoenaed Facebook and asked that the social network identify registered sex offenders who have become members.  Depending on what happens, “bad” could become an understatement.

A revived squabble between two recreational flooring companies has resulted in Google being subpoenaed for some of its keyword purchase data. The full implications of the order are not yet known, but third parties are nervous about being pulled in, and others worry about competitive data being de facto purchased through the courts.

As part of its legal fight against publisher and author groups suing it over its book-scanning practices, Google sent subpoenas to Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Yahoo to gather information about their participation in similar book-archiving operations.

Earlier this year, the US gov’t subpoena’d various search companies to get supporting data for a proposed revived Child Online Protection Act.

The US Department of Justice harassed more than the major search engines for information to support its case for the Child Online Protection Act. A Freedom of Information Act request by Information Week revealed that the DOJ also sought evidence from nearly three dozen ISPs, search engines, and security companies.

An excerpt of a copyrighted training video that showed up on Google Video has led American to demand the identity of the uploader via a subpoena.

If Google does not succeed in fending off Gonzalez v Google, the ACLU said it would have to ask for the same information the government requested.

Third parties that received subpoenas from AMD for its antitrust case against Intel had been reluctant to comply, citing non-disclosure agreements with Intel.

…and what does this move mean for online advertisers?

It’s time to say a few words about why the government’s request for search query data bothers me. As he so often does, Danny summarizes a controversy nicely.

Warner Music Group has gotten another subpoena From New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.