A federal judge in New York ordered the video-sharing site YouTube, the world's third-most-visited Web site, to release data on the viewing habits of its tens of millions of worldwide viewers. The ruling, which amounted to only seven paragraphs in a 25-page opinion that was mostly about programming code and other matters, alarmed privacy advocates, who said it ignored laws meant to protect peoples' viewing habits.
Google Adds Link to Privacy Policy on Home Page
Google has made a minor change to its home page, adding a link to its copyright line that leads to its Privacy Center. Google's decision, noted in a corporate blog and a public policy blog, was an attempt to quell a controversy over the posting of its privacy policy.
Judge Delays Trial in RIM-Visto E-mail Patent Case
Research In Motion won a delay in a patent-infringement case filed by Visto regarding wireless e-mail technology. The judge said a postponement was warranted until the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office re-examined the four disputed patents.
Google Agrees to Help Fight Child Porn in Brazil
Internet search company Google signed an agreement with Brazilian public prosecutors to help combat child pornography on its social networking site Orkut, an accord that the company believes is the first of its kind internationally. Under the agreement, Google will use filters to remove and prevent illegal content on Orkut, which has about half its users in Brazil.
Baby Offered for Sale on eBay as Joke Returns Home
A baby boy removed from his parents' custody after they offered to sell him on eBay for just a euro -- $1.59 -- as a joke is back at home, a prosecutor said. The parents maintained that the posting was just a joke gone awry.
Police Encourage Text Messages to Report Crimes
Police in the 1970s urged citizens to "drop a dime" in a pay phone to report crimes anonymously. Now in an increasing number of cities, tipsters are being invited to use their thumbs -- to identify criminals using text messages.
Justice Department Probing Google-Yahoo Ad Deal
The Justice Department’s antitrust division has begun issuing civil subpoenas as it probes further into whether a planned Google-Yahoo partnership in search advertising is anticompetitive, a person close to a company that received a subpoena confirmed. The subpoenas are being issued not only to Google and Yahoo, but also to Microsoft, an Internet search rival, and other companies including advertisers and media companies, said the person, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak.
Google Wins Ruling Against Viacom in YouTube Case
Google won a legal ruling that allows it to keep secret from Viacom the source code central to search functions on YouTube. A federal judge ruled that the search giant doesn't have to turn over the code to Viacom, which filed a $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against Google in 2007.
Missouri Governor Signs Online Harassment Law
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law a measure targeting stalking and harassment on the Internet, just two miles from where a teenage girl killed herself in 2006 after receiving cruel messages online. The bill revises the state's harassment law by including telephone and electronic communication.
Child Predators Use Video Games to Lure Victims
Sexual predators are using gaming consoles such as the Wii, PlayStation and Xbox to meet children online. "Child predators are migrating from traditional methods to alternate media," says Detective Lt. Thomas Kish of the Michigan State Police.
Number of Data Breaches Reportedly Rise 69%
Businesses, governments and universities reported a 69 percent increase in data breaches in the first half of 2008 compared with a similar period in 2007, according to a study by a nonprofit group that works to prevent fraud. The Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego tracked 342 data breach reports from Jan. 1 to June 27.
Oudated Browsers Pose Security Risks for Millions
A group of researchers said 637 million Web users are surfing with outdated Internet browsers and therefore at greater risk of Web-based attacks. Using data collected from Google Web searches and security firm Secunia, the researchers analyzed the browsers used in a new report.
Unprotected Surfing Quickly Leads to Spam Overload
Surfing the web unprotected will leave the average web user with 70 spam messages each day, according to an experiment by security firm McAfee. It invited 50 people from around the world to surf without spam filters.
Judge Refuses Akamai's Request to Block Limelight
A U.S. federal judge has denied Akamai Technologies Inc.'s request that she permanently ban Limelight Networks Inc. from selling services that a jury ruled violates an Akamai patent, Limelight said. A U.S. District Court jury in Boston had awarded Akamai $45.5 million in February after determining that Limelight's services infringe upon Akamai's intellectual property.
Facebook Finalizing Settlement with ConnectU
The legal spat is winding down between Mark Zuckerberg and the former college classmates who accused him of stealing Facebook's business plan from them. The two sides will be in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., to iron out the details of a settlement between Facebook and ConnectU, founded by Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra.
French Court Orders eBay to Pay $61 Million to LVMH
A French court ordered the online auction giant eBay to pay 38.6 million euros, or $61 million, in damages to the French luxury goods company LVMH, in the latest round in a long-running legal battle over the sale of counterfeit goods on the Internet. LVMH, a maker of high-end leather goods, perfumes and other fashion and luxury products, successfully challenged eBay for a second time in the French court, arguing that 90 percent of the Louis Vuitton bags and Dior perfumes sold on eBay are fakes.
Turkish Group Says It Hijacked ICANN Domain Names
The domains used by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, were hijacked. A Turkish hacking group known as NetDevilz claimed responsibility. There is no word on how the hijack was accomplished.
"Mini-Me" Actor Gets Sex Tape Taken Offline
Actor Verne Troyer, best known for his portrayal of Mini-Me in the "Austin Powers" films, successfully shut down, for now, the distribution of a sex tape featuring him and a former girlfriend. The celebrity Web site TMZ posted a 25-second snippet of the video but pulled the clips after a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order requested by Troyer's attorneys.
Competitor Sued for Placing Ads on Google, Yahoo
In a case that spotlights the growing importance of search engines to commerce, NameSafe has sued a competitor, LifeLock, for trademark infringement involving ads placed next to search results. NameSafe, which like LifeLock sells services designed to protect customers against identity theft, alleged its rival used NameSafe's name in deceptive search ads on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines.
Court Fines Software Company for Ticketmaster Usage
A federal court has slapped RMG Technologies with an $18 million fine to be paid to Barry Diller's Ticketmaster and permanently banned the software company from using its products to procure tickets. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California had issued a temporary ban in October 2007.
