Amazon.com, the largest global online retailer, plans to start selling U.S.-produced wine on its website within the United States by early October, wine industry insiders said. To avoid the confusing legal issues over the interstate sale of wine that vary from state to state, Amazon will be working with New Vine Logistics, a Napa, California-based company dealing in wine fulfillment that can deliver to up to 45 states.
Drug Trafficking Online Gets More Popular, Experts Say
Drug trafficking on the web has soared as Internet use has become commonplace, presenting far more challenges and dangers than traditional trafficking, experts warned at a conference in Stockholm. Internet drug buyers are primarily people under the age of 30 who are open to new experiences and are web savvy.
Employers Using Social Networking Sites to Screen Applicants
Written references could become old hat for hiring managers with one in five saying they use social networking sites to research job candidates -- and a third of them dismissing the candidate after what they discover. A survey by online job site CareerBuilder.com of 3,169 hiring managers found 22 percent of them screened potential staff via social networking profiles, up from 11 percent in 2006.
GMAT Scores Thrown Out After Website Posts Questions
The publisher of the graduate business school entrance test said it has thrown out the scores of 84 prospective students after shutting down a website they used that posted exam questions. The Graduate Management Admission Council said it had notified 84 people about the cancellation of their scores from the Graduate Management Admission Test.
Jobs, Others Settle Apple Backdating Lawsuit
Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs and several other senior executives and board members have agreed to settle a lawsuit that claimed the company was damaged by their role in Apple's mishandling of stock option awards. Because of the structure of the lawsuit, insurers representing Apple's directors and officers will pay the iPod and Macintosh maker $14 million.
Google Promises Privacy Protection for Chrome Users
Google, whose new, faster Web browser Chrome has raised privacy concerns on both sides of the Atlantic, said it was taking steps to mask the identities of people who use the tool. The move comes as privacy advocates here and in Europe expressed concern that the browser had the potential to give Google a way to track even more of users' online behavior and create rich profiles of them.
Google to Limit Data Retention to Nine Months
Under pressure from European regulators, Google is halving the amount of time its stores Internet Protocol addresses. In a blog post, Google said it would keep IP addresses on its server logs for 9 months before anonymizing them, down from the 18 months it had previously stored the data.
DOJ Hires Lawyer for Possible Google-Yahoo Challenge
The U.S. Justice Department hired lawyer Sanford Litvack for a possible antitrust challenge to Google Inc.'s proposed partnership with Yahoo! Inc. Litvack, the Justice Department's antitrust chief under President Jimmy Carter, will provide advice to the government, Yahoo spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said.
Reviewers Criticize DRM System on Spore Game
Hundreds of people have complained about the copyright protecting system on the long-awaited game Spore. Scathing criticism of the Digital Rights Management system have been posted by reviewers on Amazon.com.
Blogger Jailed for Disrespecting King in Morocco
A blogger who accused Morocco's monarchy of encouraging a culture of dependency where loyalty is rewarded with favors has been jailed for showing disrespect for King Mohammed, his family and rights groups said. Mohamed Erraji, 29, wrote in online newspaper Hespress that the north African kingdom had been destroyed by the practice of handing out charity or gifts such as taxi licenses to a lucky few, which encouraged people to beg.
RealNetworks Software Makes "Legal" Copies of DVDs
RealNetworks launched new software called RealDVD that lets people save DVDs to their PCs and create film libraries for watching any time, without needing the disc. The company says the software is "legal," but acknowledges that people will be able to make digital copies from any DVD, even if rented, because the software can't distinguish between rented and owned DVDs.
Advertisers Cite Antitrust in Opposing Yahoo-Google Deal
The Association of National Advertisers announced it sent a letter to the head of the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice, citing its opposition to the controversial Yahoo-Google search advertising deal. The ANA, a powerful group of more than 400 companies that spend more than $100 billion in marketing and commercial advertising, said it conducted a comprehensive and independent analysis of its members and held in-person discussions with both companies before sending the letter to Thomas Barnett, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's antitrust division.
Professor Urges Tough Laws on ISP Surveillance
Even though Congress has growled loudly enough to get Internet service providers to back off their plans to sell information about their customers’ Web surfing to advertising companies, one prominent legal expert argues that the law governing the issue should still be made tougher. The issue was examined in a new paper, "The Rise and Fall of Invasive ISP Surveillance", by Paul Ohm, a former Justice Department official who now is a professor of law at the University of Colorado.
South Korean Police Arrest Four in Large Data Theft
South Korean police arrested four people over the theft of data on 11 million customers of a local oil refiner in what is being called the country's largest-ever data leak. The four, including two employees of a subsidiary of refiner GS Caltex, the country's second largest, are accused of violating laws on protecting personal information online, the National Police Agency said.
Google Reworks Chrome License on Ownership Rights
Google has rescinded an article of the user agreement for its new browser, Chrome. The initial agreement claimed rights over "any Content which you submit, post or display on or through" the browser, but Google reworded the agreement, leaving those rights in the hands of Chrome's users.
Company Postpones Plan for Controversial Ad System
Tech firm NebuAd has put on hold plans to widely deploy an online advertising technology that tracks consumers' every Web click while Congress reviews privacy concerns associated with the technique. The Silicon Valley company announced that founder and chief executive Bob Dykes was resigning. His departure comes as a number of Internet companies have suspended or canceled trials of NebuAd's controversial tracking technique, known as deep-packet inspection, marketed to companies seeking to target ads to Web users.
Phishing "Gang" Adds State-of-Art Technology
The Rock Phish gang -- one of the net's most notorious phishing outfits -- has teamed up with another criminal heavyweight called Asprox in overhauling its network with state-of-the-art technology, according to researchers from RSA. Over the past five months, Rock Phishers have painstakingly refurbished their infrastructure, introducing several sophisticated crimeware packages that get silently installed on the PCs of its victims.
Judge Says Law Protects Comments on Newspaper Site
A District Court judge found that the Montana shield law that protects reporters from disclosing anonymous sources also protects the identity of anonymous commenters on a newspaper's Web site. Judge G. Todd Baugh granted a motion filed by The Billings Gazette to quash a subpoena that sought information that may lead to the identity of those who post comments on the newspaper's online edition.
Comcast Sues to Stop FCC Ruling on Net Speed
Comcast Corp., the second-biggest U.S. high-speed Internet service provider, asked a court to overturn a Federal Communications Commission ruling that it violated policies intended to keep the Internet open. The FCC on Aug. 1 found Comcast had improperly blocked peer- to-peer programs such as BitTorrent that are used to share videos and other files, and told the company to stop.
Facebook Agrees to Test New "Report Abuse" Icon
The popular social networking website Facebook has agreed to test replacing its own link for reporting abuse with a bigger one developed by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office. Under the agreement, Facebook will display a "Report Abuse!" icon on a small fraction of its pages that display videos instead of its own link for reporting objectionable material.
