An associate who was fired from Kirkland & Ellis in 2004 after admitting he attempted to arrange a meeting "to engage in an oral sexual act" with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl has been suspended from practicing law in New York for three years. In a rare 3-2 decision in a disciplinary matter, a five-judge panel of the New York Appellate Division, 1st Department, agreed that Steven J. Lever "brought shame to himself and to this State's Bar" by using the Internet "to prey on minors for purposes of sexual gratification."
Facebook Sues Website for Allowing Portal Access
Facebook filed a complaint against Power.com in United States District Court in San Jose, Calif., accusing it of copyright and trademark infringement, unlawful competition and violation of the computer fraud and abuse act, among other things. Power.com is a start-up company based in Brazil that aims to be the portal through which people reach all of their favorite social networking sites.
Facebook Deleting Some Breast-Feeding Photos
Facebook is standing firm on a policy that has led to the removal of some photos posted by women that show breastfeeding. The deletions have spurred Facebook members to stage protests both online and offline.
California Joins More States Against Cyber-Bullying
California becomes the latest state to tackle the issue of cyber-bullying by allowing schools to suspend or expel students who commit the act. The law also singles out such harassment as a subject to be addressed by school officials.
RIAA Stops Working with Internet Music Tracker
In another sign of the music industry's recently announced retreat from a five-year-old antipiracy strategy, the Recording Industry Association of America has dumped the company it used to help it gather evidence for mass lawsuits it filed against people it claimed were illegally uploading copyrighted music. The RIAA long used a company called MediaSentry to troll the Internet in search of people who uploaded large amounts of music.
Commerce Official Questions ICANN's New Domain Plan
A proposal to create hundreds of new Internet domain names as alternatives to ".com" has suffered a setback as a key U.S. government agency warned that the plan might not benefit consumers or promote competition. In a letter sent to ICANN, a top Commerce Department official, Meredith Baker, said it wasn't clear "whether the potential consumer benefits outweigh the potential costs."
Verizon Wins $33 Million Award in Cybersquatting Case
Telecommunications giant Verizon has won a record $33.15 million judgment against Internet domain registrar OnlineNIC for cybersquatting. OnlineNIC had registered at least 663 domain names that were either identical to, or confusingly similar to, Verizon trademarks, and the court concluded that this had been designed to attract people trying to access Verizon's Web sites.
Researchers Show Weaknesses in Net Infrastructure
An international team of computer security researchers demonstrated a key weakness in the Internet infrastructure that could let hackers launch virtually undetectable attacks aimed at intercepting secured online communications when consumers visit bank and e-commerce Web sites. Academic and private security and cryptography experts from the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States said they have found a way to mimic the digital identity and authority assigned to RapidSSL, a company that helps Internet users correctly distinguish legitimate Web sites from counterfeit or hostile sites.
Music Industry to Stop Suing Individual File-Sharers
After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy. The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003.
Chinese Counterfeiters Get 6 1/2 Years in Jail
The alleged ringleaders of a Chinese counterfeiting gang that sold at least $2 billion worth of bogus Microsoft software were sentenced to prison terms of up to 6 1/2 years, in what is believed to be the harshest penalties yet under China's tightened piracy laws. The punishments meted out against the 11 defendants, and announced by the software company, could help China improve its image as a country that doesn't crack down hard enough on copyright violators, though technology and entertainment industries still say China has a long way to go.
Chamber of Commerce Opposes Net Neutrality
Broadband development should not be stifled by federal regulation that intends to make networks more "neutral," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is arguing through two papers. The papers, the first in a series of five that will examine the impact of broadband on certain user groups and for certain purposes, argue that the federal government's current loose regulatory structure has enabled broadband to become a "life-altering tool" both for the general population and for senior citizens specifically.
Publisher Sues New York Times Over News Links
A publisher of mostly small, local newspapers has sued the New York Times Co. over its aggregation of news headlines on Boston.com, challenging the practice many sites use of linking to other sources. In its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on Monday, Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse Media, which publishes more than 100 papers in Massachusetts, accuses the Times of violating copyright by allowing its Boston Globe online unit to copy verbatim the headlines and first sentences from articles published on sites owned by GateHouse, including the Newton Tab.
S.F. Computer Engingeer Faces Trial for Tampering
A judge has ordered a computer engineer to stand trial on tampering charges for allegedly taking over the cyberspace network he designed for the city of San Francisco and refusing to reveal the passwords to access the system. After an eight-day preliminary hearing, Superior Court Judge Paul Alvarado ruled that prosecutors had produced enough evidence of Terry Childs' probable guilt to hold him for trial on four felony charges of tampering with a computer network, denying other authorized users access to the network and causing more than $200,000 in losses.
Apple Faces Patent Suit Over Apple TV Technology
A maker of wireless set-top boxes has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company hired away three employees with knowledge of technology that would be included in Apple TV. In a six-page complaint filed with the Illinois Northern Federal District Court, EZ4Media claims that Apple TV, AirPort Express, and Macintosh computers infringe on patents owned by the set-top box maker.
Vietnamese Ministry Bans Subervise Blogs
Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communication, which regulates the Internet in the country, has banned blogs that are subversive or reveal state, security or economic secrets, a newspaper reported. Blogs should facilitate connectivity and information sharing, follow the traditions and laws of Vietnam, and be written in "clean and wholesome" Vietnamese, the newspaper Hanoi Moi quoted a ministry circular issued as saying.
Sex Offenders Must Disclose Passwords Under Ga. Law
A new law in Georgia requires registered sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords and screen names. While federal law requires authorities to track Internet addresses, Georgia goes further and wants passwords too.
Pro Sports Leagues Fighting Pirated Games Online
After years of focusing on the pirating of highlight clips and photos on the Web, the major professional sports leagues are finding that pirated feeds of live games are now common and becoming a menace to their businesses, especially at a time when leagues are trying to build their own businesses offering live games on the Internet for a subscription fee.
Hate Group Uses MLK's Name in Popular Website
A website at martinlutherking.org is run by a white supremacist group called Stormfront, described by one watchdog organization as the largest "hate group" online. It has used King's name for its Web address since 1999.
Judge Denies RIAA's Appeal in Copyright Case
A federal judge has denied the Recording Industry Association of America's request for an appeal of an earlier decision to grant a retrial in its copyright infringement case against Jammie Thomas. A jury had found that the Minnesota woman had violated copyright laws by illegally sharing more than 1,700 songs.
Chinese Woman in Porn Video Detained
A Chinese woman who became an online sensation after posting a homemade pornographic film of herself on the Internet has been detained in Shanghai, according to state media. The 12-minute-video showed the woman, surnamed Huang, performing "sex acts," the official China Daily said, without elaborating.
