The criminal prosecution of a hard-core pornographer turned into a personal trial for the presiding judge, who called for an investigation into his own conduct over lewd photos and videos stored on his family's publicly accessible Web site. Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, asked an ethics panel of the court to initiate proceedings after the disclosure about his trove of sexually explicit material.
Politician Drops Request to Identify MySpace Poster
Cicero, Ill., Town President Larry Dominick dropped his request for a court to force MySpace to identify the creator of several spoof profiles in his name that he claimed were defamatory. His petition filed last month did not provided details about the profiles and exactly what was defamatory. The pages were removed after Dominick complained.
Ashanti Removes Violent Videos Online After Protests
Blood-splattered videos for R&B singer-songwriter Ashanti's single "The Way That I Love You" sparked a protest by demonstrators in Los Angeles, prompting the artist and Universal Records to remove the clips from the Internet. Led by civil-rights organization Project Islamic Hope and its leader, Najee Ali, more than two dozen parents and religious leaders gathered outside the West Coast Universal/Motown offices to voice their displeasure with the videos.
Judge Orders Fake Online Pharmacy to Pay $15.4 Million
Saying they "dispensed deception," a federal judge in Atlanta has ordered the founders and operators of a now-defunct online pharmacy business to pay the U.S. Federal Trade Commission $15.8 million for fraudulent claims associated with the drugs they peddled. In his order, U.S. District Judge Charles A. Pannell also found Dr. Terrill Mark Wright, a physician associated with the online pharmacies, liable for $15.4 million to compensate consumers for false advertising claims.
Hacker Gets 41 Months in Jail for Creating Botnet
A hacker who hijacked hundreds of PCs to create a botnet has been sentenced to 41 months in jail by a U.S. court. Robert Matthew Bentley of Panama City, Florida, also faces $65,000in fines and will be under supervision for three years on his release.
China Denies Accusations of Hacking by U.S. Lawmakers
China denied accusations by two U.S. lawmakers that it hacked into congressional computers, saying that as a developing country it wasn't capable of sophisticated cybercrime. "Is there any evidence?... Do we have such advanced technology? Even I don't believe it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regularly scheduled news conference.
Red Hat Settles Two Linux Patent Infringement Lawsuits
Linux software provider Red Hat Inc. said it settled two patent lawsuits brought against it by Firestar Software Inc. and DataTern Inc. Red Hat was sued for patent infringement by Firestar in 2006 in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas, for allegedly violating a patent covering a method for interfacing a software application with a related database to facilitate access to that database.
TiVo Settles Patent Suit Filed by Lycos
TiVo, the San Jose digital-video-recorder pioneer, settled a patent-infringement suit filed by Internet search engine Lycos over a feature that provides recommendations to customers for movies or television shows. Financial terms weren't disclosed in a May 30 court filing that said the two sides settled their dispute.
Judge Kozinski Admits Sex Photos on Personal Website
One of the highest-ranking federal judges in the United States, who is currently presiding over an obscenity trial in Los Angeles, has maintained his own publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos. Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged that he had posted the materials, which included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal.
U.S. Government Computers Hacked by Chinese Sources
A congressman said the FBI has found that four of his government computers have been hacked by sources working out of China. Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, said that similar incidents -- also originating from China -- have taken place on computers of other members of the House and at least one House committee.
Man Pleads Guilty to Hacking Anti-Phishing Website
A Fairfield, California, hacker has pleaded guilty to launching a Valentine's Day 2007 computer attack that nearly knocked an anti-phishing Web site offline. Gregory King, 21, pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of "transmitting code to cause damage to a protected computer," for launching distributed denial of service attacks against the Castlecops anti-phishing Web site and Killanet , an online forum for gamers and graphic designers.
Va. Appeals Court Upholds Online Solicitation Law
The Virginia Court of Appeals has ruled that the state law against soliciting a minor for sex over the Internet is constitutional. Dean Robert Podracky was convicted of breaking the law in Virginia Beach. A three-judge panel of the appeals court on Tuesday unanimously rejected Podracky's claim that the law infringed on his free-speech rights.
Spammers Find Most Profit Pushing Fake Drugs
Some of the world's most prolific spammers have found that the most profit and growth potential lies in actually shipping the fake Viagra and other products they're hawking, according to a study by a top security researcher. For consumers, the evolution means that what had been an annoyance and a drag on productivity will get worse.
Google Supports "Comprehensive" U.S. Privacy Law
Google Inc. has told a senior Republican lawmaker concerned about privacy that the Internet search and advertising company supports a federal privacy law. Privacy advocates object to the amount of information that Google, Yahoo and other online companies collect about users.
EU Antitrust Official Pushes Open-Source Software
The EU's top antitrust official called on member governments to use open-source software, an apparent jab at Microsoft Corp.'s proprietary technology. "No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first," European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said at a conference organized by OpenForum Europe, a nonprofit group that advocates open standards.
France to Block Access to Child Porn, Terrorism Sites
France is joining at least five other countries where Internet service providers block access to child pornography and to content linked to terrorism and racial hatred, the French interior minister said. The agreement will take effect in September. A blacklist will be compiled based on input from Internet users who flag sites containing offensive material, Interior Minister Michel Alliot-Marie said.
Acer Settles Patent Suit Filed by Hewlett-Packard
Computer maker Acer said that it has settled a yearlong patent infringement battle with rival Hewlett-Packard. n March 2007, HP sued Acer in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, claiming Acer had violated five patents that cover DVD editing, managing power consumption in portable computers and ways to use multiple microprocessor chips.
Group Sues to Keep Rodeo Videos Online at YouTube
Last December, YouTube removed more than a dozen videos on the site that showed common practices at rodeos, such as tame horses being tasered to make them buck and calves being injured in roping contests and dragged off to die. Although YouTube put them back up after Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) convinced the site that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices were improper, SHARK has now filed a lawsuit to make sure the videos stay online.
French Court Holds eBay Liable for Counterfeit Goods
Online auction giant eBay has been convicted of selling counterfeit goods and ordered to pay 20,000 euro ($32,497) in damages to French luxury group Hermes, Hermes' lawyer said. The ruling, which marks a first in France, found eBay directly responsible for the sale on its website of three Hermes bags including two fakes, for a total of 3000 euro.
Three ISPs Agree to Block Access to Child Porn Sites
Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable have agreed to block access to Internet bulletin boards and Web sites nationwide that disseminate child pornography. The move is part of a groundbreaking agreement with the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, that will be formally announced as a significant step by leading companies to curtail access to child pornography.
