A former Philadelphia CBS anchor Larry Mendte pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to hacking into the personal e-mail of onetime colleague Alycia Lane. He was fired in June, three and a half weeks after FBI agents seized his home computer during an investigation.
Man Charged with Botnet Affecting 100,000 PCs
A Brazilian man has been charged in connection with operating a botnet composed of more than 100,000 computers infected with malicious software allegedly designed to send spam, the U.S. Department of Justice said. A federal grand jury in New Orleans handed down an indictment charging Leni de Abreu Neto, a 35-year-old from Taubate, Brazil, with one count of conspiracy to cause damage to computers worldwide.
Calif. Bill Would Limit Texting While Driving
California could outlaw text-messaging while driving under a bill that's headed for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk. The state already requires adult drivers to use handsfree devices for cell phones. It bars 16- and 17-year-olds from using any device to talk or text while driving.
Ruling Supports "Fair Use" in DMCA Notices
A federal judge gave more weight to the concept of "fair use" when he threw a lifeline to a Pennsylvania mother's lawsuit against Universal Music. The judge refused to dismiss Stephanie Lenz's suit claiming that Universal abused the Digital Millennium Copyright Act when it issued a takedown notice to YouTube over a 30-second video of Lenz's baby dancing to a Prince song.
Chinese iTunes Users Reporting Problems Downloading
The downloading of music for iPod players has hit a mysterious glitch in China, stumping scores of users and raising fears the government has blocked Apple's iTunes site over pro-Tibet lyrics, analysts said. More than 60 people have posted messages in an Apple discussion forum complaining that they could not download songs for use on Apple's iPods.
Woman Sues Apple for iPhone's Perfomance Woes
With all the griping going on by a subset of iPhone 3G users, it was inevitable that someone would seek redress through the law. The first someone was Jessica Alena Smith, a Birmingham resident who filed her complaint in U.S. District Court in Alabama.
FCC Requires Comcast to Disclose Practices
The Federal Communications Commission finally released the text of its 3-2 ruling saying Comcast violated the law when throttling BitTorrent transfers, marking the first time any broadband provider has been found to violate Net neutrality rules. Comcast will be required to take these steps in the next 30 days: disclose "the precise contours" of its current and future network management practices, and submit a "nondiscriminatory network management" compliance plan so government regulators can decide whether they approve.
British Firm Vows to Pursue Thousands of File-Sharers
Thousands of people suspected of sharing music, films and games over the Internet will be pursued through the courts for damages, lawyers for entertainment companies said. London-based law firm Davenport Lyons said it would apply to the High Court to force Internet service providers to release the names and addresses of 7,000 suspected file-sharers.
Company Asks ITC to Stop Import of Wii Remotes
Hillcrest Labs announced that it has filed a complaint for patent infringement with the U.S. International Trade Commission, as well as a separate patent infringement suit in a U.S. District Court in Maryland regarding Nintendo's video game console. Hillcrest is asking the ITC to stop the import of Wii consoles into the U.S., and is requesting that the U.S. District Court award unspecified monetary damages.
Google Seeks Support for Internet on TV Spectrum
Using YouTube videos and old-fashioned lobbying, Google launched a campaign to mobilize public support for opening up unused portions of the TV spectrum for unlicensed Internet devices and expanded broadband access. Google executives and community activists said the online campaign is designed to enlist consumers in what has been a largely technical debate, with billions of dollars at stake, over how to use valuable chunks of "white spaces" on the spectrum when TV broadcasting shifts entirely to digital in February.
Hacking Concerns Lead to Abandoned Voting Machines
The demise of touch-screen voting has produced a graveyard of expensive corpses: Warehouses stacked with thousands of carefully wrapped voting machines that have been shelved because of doubts about vanishing votes and vulnerability to hackers. What to do with this high-tech junkyard is a multimillion-dollar question.
Judge Lets Gag Order on Subway Hacking Expire
Three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students are free to spread the word about the Boston transit system's inadequacies after a judge lifted a gag order that prevented the trio from presenting their findings at the Defcon conference.
German Officials Seek Stronger Online Privacy Laws
German politicians called for tougher privacy laws after officials revealed personal and financial information on millions of Germans was readily available for cash on the Internet. The scandal over the illegal trading of bank account and phone data came just months after snooping cases at some major German corporations raised alarms.
Verizon CTO Defends Need to Control Traffic
Verizon's chief technologist took a swipe at Net neutrality advocates, saying the concept has become overly politicized and important engineering details have been overlooked in Washington debates. "We need to guard against turning technical and business decisions into political decisions," Verizon's Richard Lynch said at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's technology policy conference.
Woman Ordered to Pay Damages for Sharing Game Online
A British woman who put a game on a file-sharing network has been ordered to pay damages to the game's creator. Topware Interactive has won more than £16,000 following legal action against Isabella Barwinska of London, who shared a copy of Dream Pinball 3D.
Free Music Site Shuts Down Due to RIAA "Problem"
Free music mixtape service Muxtape has temporarily been shut down due to pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America.
Internet Security Experts Warn of Attack on U.S.
The next large-scale military or terrorist attack on the United States, if and when it happens, may not involve airplanes or bombs or even intruders breaching American borders. Instead, such an assault may be carried out in cyberspace by shadowy hackers half a world away.
IOC Retracts DMCA Takedown Notice to YouTube
The International Olympic Committee has retracted a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown request it sent to YouTube over a Tibetan protest video. According to Corynne McSherry, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the IOC requested that YouTube remove the video called "Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony."
Pedophile Arrested in British Child Abuse Ring
A pedophile who acted as a "librarian" for a global Internet child abuse ring was jailed after one of the biggest undercover police investigations into online abuse in Britain. Unemployed Philip Thompson, 27, amassed nearly a quarter of a million indecent pictures of children, including thousands in the two most serious categories.
McCain Releases Details on Technology Platform
John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, has released his technology platform. Among the highlights: antipiracy measures, tax credits, and a formal federal policy of avoiding "unnecessary regulation."
