RealNetworks failed to convince a district judge to lift a restraining order and allow the company to start selling RealDVD again until she learns from experts, including the court's, how the DVD-copying software functions. That means RealDVD, a software that enables users to copy a DVD and store it on their hard drive, is unlikely to reappear in the marketplace for at least another month and perhaps longer.
American Airlines to Filter Porn Sites In-Flight
American Airlines says it will filter an in-flight Internet service to block pornography sites, reversing course after complaints from flight attendants and passengers. American said it was working with technology provider Aircell to allow filtering of its nascent Internet service.
Data Mining to Find Terrorists Called Not Feasible
The most extensive government report to date on whether terrorists can be identified through data mining has yielded an important conclusion: It doesn't really work. A National Research Council report, years in the making, concludes that automated identification of terrorists through data mining or any other mechanism "is neither feasible as an objective nor desirable as a goal of technology development efforts."
Report Finds Record Number of Data Breaches
U.S. corporations, governments and universities reported a record 516 consumer data breaches in the first nine months of this year, incidents prompted chiefly by hackers and employee theft, according to a report by a nonprofit group that works to prevent fraud.
Jury Rules for Cox in Patent Case Against Verizon
Cox Communications did not infringe patents owned by Verizon Communications, a jury in Virginia decided. Verizon had accused Cox of infringing six patents related to Internet telephony, but a jury at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia decided against Verizon on all six patents.
Internet Drug Videos Called Threat to Teens
The director of the White House war on drugs said that Internet videos that show people getting high pose a dangerous threat to teenagers by encouraging them to use drugs and alcohol. John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, spoke as his office released a study about drug-related videos on popular sites such as MySpace.
RealNetworks Suspends Sales of DVD-Copying Software
RealNetworks suspended selling its RealDVD software in response to the request of a judge who needed time to review the legal issues involving the software, the company confirmed. In U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Tuesday, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel will take up two lawsuits involving the software, which allows users to copy DVDs to their computer hard drives.
Laptop Stolen from McCain's Field Office
Republican campaigners in Missouri are beefing up security after a laptop containing "strategic information" was stolen from a campaign field office of presidential contender Sen. John McCain. The theft occurred at a campaign office in Independence, Missouri, according to Tina Hervey, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Republican Party.
Spammers Use Obama, Palin to Lure Victims
Spammers are using junk e-mail mentions of the Democratic candidate for U.S. president and Republican Party running mate Sarah Palin more often than their opponents, according to Secure Computing Corp., a provider of enterprise security solutions.
Magazine Industry Settles Copyright Suit with Site
The magazine industry has settled its copyright-infringement lawsuit against the operators of a fledgling Web site that encourages people to copy and upload current issues of popular magazines. Terms were not disclosed.
Two Europeans Indicted in U.S. for 2003 DoS Attack
Two Europeans, one of whom is English, have been indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in connection with a 2003 distributed denial-of-service attack that is the focus of a major FBI investigation. The two men, who are not in custody, were indicted as part of the FBI's Operation Cyberslam, initiated in 2003 following a series of crippling distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks on a large Los Angeles vendor of digital recorders.
Google, Yahoo Agree to Delay Advertising Deal
Google and Yahoo will delay implementation of their joint advertising deal to give antitrust lawyers at the Justice Department more time to review the agreement, the companies said. The additional delay will be less than a month, said a source close to negotiations who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Congress Lets Lawmakers Post on Outside Sites
Members of Congress can finally use Web sites like YouTube, after committees in both the House and Senate adopted new rules allowing members to post content outside of the .gov domain, as long as it is for official purposes. "In addition to their official (house.gov) Web site, a member may maintain another Web site(s), channel(s) or otherwise post material on third-party Web sites," the new House rules read.
Study Finds High Cyberbulling, Low Reporting
Research indicates that as many as 75 percent of teens have been bullied online, but only one in 10 have reported the problem to parents or other adults, a new study shows. The study, published in the September issue of The Journal of School Health, is the latest to sound the alarm about so-called cyber-bullying, which can occur on social networking sites and in e-mail and text messages.
"Mafiaboy" Hacker Writes Book About Famous Attack
Canada's most notorious hacker, Mafiaboy, has written a tell-all book about his Internet attack of 2000 when he paralyzed the Web sites of CNN, Yahoo, eBay and other businesses for several hours. In it, the infamous hacker, now 23, explains that he was not a computer whiz kid but quickly gained knowledge of computers and got to know other young hackers.
Copyright Royalty Board Freezes Rate for Downloads
The Copyright Royalty Board froze the rate that digital-music stores such as iTunes and RealNetworks' Rhapsody must pay music publishers. The three-member board that sets statutory copyright licenses e-mailed the Digital Media Association (DiMA), the National Music Publishers' Association, Apple, and other download stores with its decision, according to sources.
Skype Says Chinese Venture Stored Text Messages
Skype, eBay's Web communications unit, admitted that TOM-Skype, its China venture with TOM Online Inc, had been monitoring and storing some of its users' text messages without Skype's knowledge. Skype apologized after a report revealed that the Web service monitors text chats with politically sensitive keywords and stores them along with millions of personal user records on computers that could be easily accessed by anybody -- including the Chinese government.
Judge Dismisses Copyright Suit Against Music Site Founder
A federal judge has dismissed a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by EMI Group against Michael Robertson, founder of MP3tunes, MP3.com and Linspire. The bad news for Robertson is the judge allowed EMI, one of the four largest recording companies, to continue to pursue the copyright claims against MP3tunes, court documents show.
World of Warcraft Creator Getting Up to $6 Million
World of Warcraft creator Blizzard looks set to get $6 million from the makers of a software "bot." Blizzard embarked on the case against MDY claiming that the World of Warcraft Glider software produced by the company infringed its copyright.
ICANN Told It Needs to Be More Accountable
ICANN needs to take steps to ensure it cannot be taken over by governments and other outside entities, and it needs to create more ways to be held accountable to Internet users, constituents of the nonprofit organization said. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization overseeing the Web's top-level domain naming system, heard several concerns during a meeting focused on improving confidence in ICANN.
