An influential congressional committee is once again showing support for using U.S. antitrust laws to force broadband providers to treat network traffic in a nondiscriminatory manner. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), chairman of the antitrust task force and the House Judiciary Committee, said he believes antitrust laws should be used to stop broadband providers from exercising business models that give "favored treatment" to certain Internet content.
YouTube Not Liable for Punitive Damages to Viacom
A U.S. District Court judge ruled that Viacom Inc. may not seek punitive damages in a $1 billion copyright infringement suit filed last year against Google Inc. Viacom sued Google in a New York court roughly one year ago, alleging "massive" copyright infringement because of the frequent appearance of Viacom-owned shows such as those on its Comedy Central network on Google's popular YouTube video sharing service.
EU Regulators OK Google-DoubleClick Acquisition
European Union regulators cleared Google's $3.1 billion bid for online ad tracker DoubleClick, saying the acquisition won't curb competition for online ads. The U.S. Department of Justice signed off on the deal in December, meaning Google has cleared its last major hurdle before acquiring DoubleClick.
Paramount Pictures to Let Movie Clips Be Used Online
Paramount Pictures will become the first major studio to make clips from thousands of its movies available for use on the Internet. The unit of Viacom Inc. is teaming with Los Angeles-based developer FanRocket to launch the VooZoo application on Facebook.
R.E.M. to Debut Album Online -- for Free
Forget the traditional radio premiere: R.E.M.'s new album, "Accelerate," is set to debut on the social networking application iLike. The roll-out, the first of its kind for a major act, will allow fans to stream and share "Accelerate" in its entirety beginning March 24, a week ahead of the album's April 1 U.S. release date.
Judge Orders Online Tobacco Seller to Pay Fine
A judge in Boise has ordered an Internet tobacco seller to pay a $163,225 fine for violating state cigarette-sales laws. Scott Maybee, of Salamanca, N.Y., was accused of violating state law by selling cigarettes not listed on an Idaho directory and by selling cigarettes at retail without obtaining a tobacco permit from the Department of Health and Welfare.
NATO Official Warns of Cyber-Attack Consequences
NATO's cyber defence chief has warned that computer-based terrorism poses the same threat to national security as a missile attack. Suleyman Anil, head of NATO Computer Incident Response Capability Co-ordination Centre, said a determined cyber attack on a country's online infrastructure would be "practically impossible to stop."
Europe Opens Probe of U.S. Laws on Internet Gambling
The European Union launched an investigation into U.S. laws on Internet gambling, after European betting companies complained that Washington's actions against them were infringing world trade rules. The investigation could lead the 27-nation EU to file a complaint at the World Trade Organization in the latest international tussle over a growing business worth more than $15.5 billion a year.
Dutch Court Sentences Three for E-mail Extortion
A Dutch court sentenced three members of a Nigerian gang to up to four years in prison for extorting tens of thousands of euros from victims who answered e-mails promising a stake in unclaimed inheritances. A spokeswoman for the Haarlem court said judges sentenced one man to four years on charges of fraud, money-laundering and membership of a criminal organization, while two others were sentenced to 18 months and 13 months respectively.
Cell Phone Spam Text Messages a Growing Problem
The spam messages that have long plagued e-mail inboxes are now finding victims through a much more personal route: the cellphone. U.S. consumers are expected to receive about 1.5 billion spam text messages this year, up from 1.1 billion last year and 800 million in 2006, according to Ferris Research, a San Francisco market research firm.
Companies Gathering More Personal Data Online
A new analysis of online consumer data shows that large Web companies are learning more about people than ever from what they search for and do on the Internet, gathering clues about the tastes and preferences of a typical user several hundred times a month. These companies use that information to predict what content and advertisements people most likely want to see.
FCC Chairman Hints at Comcast Penalty for Net Neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission is edging toward taking action against cable operator Comcast for monkeying with its customers' peer-to-peer traffic, according to several news reports. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin indicated during a speech at Stanford University's Law School that the commission may take action against the cable operator, which has been accused of blocking or slowing down the peer-to-peer file sharing service BitTorrent on its broadband network.
Data on 5,000 MTV Employees Illegally Accessed
Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks became the latest victim of data theft after someone hacked into its computers and stole confidential information about its employees. In an e-mail to staff, MTV Networks said data relating to some 5,000 employees had been illegally accessed, including names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and in some cases, salaries.
Intel Fighting European Commission Rebate Charges
Chipmaker Intel Corp. will fight European Commission charges that it abused its dominance and gave illegal rebates to drive a smaller competitor from the market at a two-day closed hearing. Intel has its logo on four-fifths of the central processing units that run the world's 1 billion personal computers and servers, the rest made by U.S. rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Norwegian Antitrust Officials Review Microsoft Purchase
Microsoft's proposed $1.28 billion purchase of Norway's Fast Search & Transfer is the subject of a stepped-up antitrust probe by Norwegian regulators. The Norwegian Competition Authority began a 25-day review of the deal Feb. 25 and will make a ruling by April 3, said Ronny Turoy, a spokesman for the agency.
U.S. Government to Test Response to Cyber Attacks
The U.S. government will conduct a series of cyber war games to test its ability to recover from and respond to digital attacks. Code-named 'Cyber Storm II,' this is the largest-ever exercise designed to evaluate the mettle of information technology experts and incident response teams from 18 federal agencies, including the CIA, Department of Defense, FBI, and NSA, as well as officials from nine states, including Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Chinese Hackers Claim Pentagon Was Target
The Pentagon said computer networks in the United States, Germany, Britain and France were hit last year by what they call "multiple intrusions," many of them originating from China. David Sedney, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, says, "The way these intrusions are conducted are certainly consistent with what you would need if you were going to actually carry out cyber warfare."
Judge Praises Microsoft for "Dramatic" Changes
The judge presiding over Microsoft's U.S. antitrust compliance commended the company for recent steps designed to make its documentation more accessible to open-source programmers. At a periodic court hearing with company and government attorneys, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she found the changes "very interesting" and "dramatic."
MobiTV Trying to Shut Down Howardforums.com
MobiTV, which provides TV services on Sprint Nextel cellphones, is trying to shut down a Web forum that is carrying instructions on how to get access to its channels for free. MobiTV sent a letter to Howardforums.com, asking the site to take down links that provide MobiTV streams from Fox News, MSNBC, Animal Planet and other networks when entered in the Web browsers of certain phones.
Man Sues Students Who Sued Him Over Postings
A University of Pennsylvania law graduate who lost a lucrative job offer after he was linked to Web sites that crudely discussed female law students has countersued two of the women subjects. Anthony Ciolli's libel suit charges that the Yale Law School students sued him although they knew he did not control the message boards at either AutoAdmit.com, where he was an editor, or at a now-defunct site that ranked the looks of top women law students.
