A year after iTunes began offering music without copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring DRM-free songs, according to two music industry sources. The talks are still preliminary and no deals have been finalized, but one source said one of the major labels is close to a final agreement.
Jury Selection Begins in MySpace Suicide Case
Jury selection began in the case against a Missouri mother accused of taking part in a MySpace hoax that allegedly led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide. Questionnaires completed by prospective jurors prompted an attorney representing Lori Drew to question whether his client could receive a fair trial.
Court Stops Sales of Keylogger Spyware in FTC Suit
A U.S. District Court has temporarily halted the sale of RemoteSpy keylogger spyware at the request of the Federal Trade Commission, which claims the software violates the FTC Act. The FTC filed a complaint against Florida-based CyberSpy Software on November 5, alleging the company has violated the FTC Act by selling software that can be deployed remotely by someone other than the owner or authorized user of a computer, can be installed without the owner's knowledge, and can used to surreptitiously collect and disclose personal information.
U.K. Consumer Warning Site Hit by DDoS Attack
A British Web site that warns consumers about online financial scams was taken down by a distributed denial-of-service attack. Bobbear was being overwhelmed by a "huge" botnet with "over half a million recorded zombie hits from midnight to 8 a.m. today (GMT)," Bob Harrison, administrator of Bobbear, told security firm Sophos.
German Wikipedia Back Online After Complaint Dropped
The German-language version of the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia is back online after a left-wing lawmaker dropped a legal complaint. Luebeck state court had ordered the site shut down after Left Party lawmaker Lutz Heilmann claimed the entry about him contained false allegations.
Judge Dismisses Psystar Antitrust Suit v. Apple
A federal judge has tossed out Psystar's antitrust lawsuit against Apple, one of its most important avenues to remaining in business. Judge William Alsup of the U.S. Federal Court for the Northern District of California rejected Psystar's argument that Apple uses anticompetitive practices to prevent companies from selling computers that run Mac OS X, according to court documents spotted by AppleInsider.
Tennessee to Filter University Networks for Music
Tennessee has agreed to filter computer networks for unauthorized music downloads at the state's colleges and universities. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen signed into law a bill designed to thwart music piracy at the state's campuses, the Recording Industry Association of America said on its Web site.
Judge Gives Preliminary OK to Google Book Settlement
Google won preliminary approval of a settlement of copyright lawsuits by publishers and authors in which it will pay $125 million to resolve claims over the company's book-scanning project. U.S. District Judge John Sprizzo in New Yorkissued the order tentatively approving the deal and scheduled a hearing for June 11, 2009, when he will further consider the pact's fairness.
Tech Community Awaits Obama's Details on CTO Job
Barack Obama has given no specifics about the job for the the nation's first chief technology officer, leaving the tech community to speculate about the role and who might fill it. The Obama camp isn't talking, but during the campaign it proposed using technology to, for example, make government records more accessible, increase network security and digitize health records.
Advocacy Group Seeks to Shape Privacy Standards
A group of privacy scholars, lawyers and corporate officials are launching an advocacy group designed to help shape standards around how companies collect, store and use consumer data for business and advertising. The group, the Future of Privacy Forum, will be led by Jules Polonetsky, who until this month was in charge of AOL's privacy policy, and Chris Wolf, a privacy lawyer for law firm Proskauer Rose.
Company Sues Samsung, Seeks to Ban Memory Chips
Spansion, a struggling Silicon Valley maker of flash memory chips, filed a pair of sweeping patent infringement suits against Samsung of South Korea, the world’s largest producer. In a complaint to the International Trade Commission in Washington, Spansion is seeking to bar the import into the United States of more than 100 million music players, cellphones, cameras and light laptop computers that use Samsung’s flash memory chips.
EBay Bans Sales of Tickets to Presidential Swearing-In
If you are one of the few to land a ticket to the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama, don't think about hawking it on eBay. The online auction site is banning such postings after a U.S. senator said she was crafting a bill to make the sales a federal crime.
Online, Age-Verification Proves Challenging
Performing so-called age verification for children on the Internet is fraught with challenges. The kinds of publicly available data that Web companies use to confirm the identities of adults, like their credit card or Social Security numbers, are either not available for minors or are restricted by federal privacy laws.
Google Encounters Privacy Challenges in Europe
Almost five years into its expansion into Europe -- where it has a headquarters in Dublin, large offices in Zurich and London, and smaller centers in countries like Denmark, Russia and Poland -- Google is getting caught in a web of privacy laws that threaten its growth and the positive image it has cultivated as a company dedicated to doing good.
Microsoft Asks Court to Invalidate WebXchange Patents
In a new lawsuit, Microsoft asks a San Francisco court to declare invalid several patents assigned to an online transactions company in hopes of defending customers who have been sued by the patent holder, WebXchange. WebXchange earlier this year filed lawsuits against Dell, Allstate and FedEx in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, charging patent infringement.
Obama Expected to Stop E-mailing as President
Before he arrives at the White House, President-elect Barack Obama will probably be forced to sign off. In addition to concerns about e-mail security, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts his correspondence in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas. A decision has not been made on whether he could become the first e-mailing president, but aides said that seemed doubtful.
Obama Expected to Push for Net Neutrality
It is widely expected that President-elect Barack Obama will make net neutrality and access to broadband Internet connections in rural and poor areas a key part of his agenda to close economic divides and help spur job creation. The task of putting net neutrality -- the notion put forth by academics that network operators should be banned from selectively slowing, blocking or altering Internet content and technologies -- into practice would probably fall to the Federal Communications Commission, business leaders and analysts said.
Facebook Removes Pages Used by Italian Neo-Nazis
Facebook said it had removed several pages from its site used by Italian neo-Nazis to incite violence after European politicians accused the Internet social networking site of allowing a platform to racists. Seven different group pages had been created on the site with titles advocating violence against gypsies.
Privacy Groups Want Info from Google on Flu Trends
Google's recent announcement that it may have found a way to predict U.S. flu trends has led to the inevitable expressions of concern from some privacy groups. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and Patient Privacy Rights sent a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt saying if the records are "disclosed and linked to a particular user, there could be adverse consequences for education, employment, insurance, and even travel." It asks for more disclosure about how Google Flu Trends protects privacy.
Trial Delayed for Alleged Palin E-mail Hacker
The trial of 20-year-old college student accused of hacking into Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account has been delayed until May 2009. A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee moved the trial of David Kernell from December to May 19, 2009 after the government said it needed more time to sift through the evidence.
