A federal judge has agreed to allow streaming Internet video coverage of a key hearing for the U.S. recording industry's file-sharing $1 million lawsuit against a Boston University graduate. U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner of Massachusetts ruled that existing courtroom cameras may be used to provide a live feed of a January 22 hearing in the Recording Industry of America's case against Joel Tenenbaum and others.
Judge Orders White House to Search for E-mails
With Bush administration White House aides on their way out the door in coming days, a federal judge ordered the president's executive office to undertake a comprehensive search for millions of senior appointees' e-mails that have been inaccessible and possibly missing since 2005. The order reflects a continuing effort by outside groups to ensure that the White House transfers historically significant materials to the National Archives before Bush leaves office, as required by federal law.
Senate Aide Sees Net Neutrality, Copyright, Patent Bills
It may seem as though Congress has completely forgotten about Net neutrality, a topic that has languished in legislative purgatory since mid-2006. But a Democratic aide said that it's likely to come back this year, along with potential alterations of digital copyright and patent law.
Denial-of-Service Attack Hits GoDaddy.com
A distributed denial-of-service attack turned dark at least several thousand Web sites hosted by GoDaddy.com morning. The outage was intermittent over several hours, according to Nick Fuller, GoDaddy.com communications manager.
Second-Richest Man Wins Domain Name Dispute
The world's second richest man, Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim Helu, won control for free on Wednesday of a Web address in his name that an Indonesian had tried to sell him for $55 million. The United Nations' copyright agency WIPO said an arbitrator for the dispute service that it runs on Internet addresses had ruled that the site, www.carlosslimhelu.com, had been registered in bad faith and must be transferred to the businessman.
YouTube Disable Audio on Some Music Videos
Google Inc.'s YouTube has begun disabling the audio on music videos that its users post without authorization of copyright holders, according to numerous reports on Twitter and other online sites. A note appears on the screen that says, "This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders."
Apple Asks Wired to Delete Mac-Hacking Video
Wired has confirmed that Apple contacted the publisher about a blog post with step-by-step instructions on how to get Mac OS X running on a non-Apple Netbook and decided to remove the offending video. Earlier in the day, Brian Chen, who writes for Wired's Gadget Lab blog, posted a message to Twitter spotted by Gizmodo saying "just found out Apple is suing Wired for my video tutorial on hacking Netbooks to run Mac OS X."
Dentist Sues Over Negative Posts on Yelp Review Site
A pediatric dentist in Foster City has sued two people over negative comments about her practice that were posted on the review site Yelp, accusing them of libel. The suit, filed in December in Santa Clara County Superior Court, asks for damages because of the posting, which complained about how Yvonne Wong treated a boy who visited her with cavities.
Telecom Industry Debates High-Speed Net Service
President-elect Barack Obama's plan to give the entire country speedy Internet service while creating thousands of telecom jobs as part of his stimulus package has come up against a seemingly simple but contentious question: How fast is fast enough?
Amazon Loses Fight Against N.Y. Sales Tax Law
Amazon.com appears to have lost the first round in its battle against New York's new tax code. New York has a relatively new law that requires online companies to collect sales tax from New York shoppers.
Report Downplays Sex Risk to Children Online
A high-profile task force created by 49 state attorneys general to find a solution to the problem of sexual solicitation of children online has concluded that there really is not a significant problem, despite years of parental anxieties and media hype. The Internet Safety Technical Task Force was charged with examining the extent of the threats children face on social networks like MySpace and Facebook, amid widespread fears that older adults were using these popular sites to deceive and prey on children.
Teen Convicted of Murder in Video Game Case
A teenage boy in Ohio has been convicted of murdering his mother because she took away his copy of the video game Halo 3, and now faces the possibility of life in prison. Daniel Petric, 17, shot both his mother and father in October 2007 with a handgun after what was potentially "weeks" of planning.
Kentucky Court to Rule on Seizure of Domain Names
The Kentucky Court of Appeals is expected to issue a ruling soon on whether a state court can order the seizure of Internet domain names that are registered in another state or country. The three-judge appeals panel is deliberating over whether to uphold a lower court's approval of a state plan to seize Internet domain names belonging to 141 online gambling sites.
More States Seek to Collect Internet Sales Taxes
With the recession pummeling states' budgets, their governments increasingly want to fill the gaps by collecting taxes on Internet sales, which are growing even as the economy shudders. And that is sparking conflict with companies that do business online only and have enjoyed being able to offer sales-tax free shopping.
Dell to Pay $3.85 Million in Misleading Financing Case
Dell Inc. said it has agreed to a legal settlement with states that claimed the computer company made misleading financing and service offers to PC buyers. Dell will pay $3.85 million to at least 46 states participating in the settlement.
Hacker McKinnon Agrees to Pleady Guilty in U.K.
Self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon has told U.K. prosecutors he will plead guilty to charges in the U.K., a move that could help him avoid extradition to the U.S. McKinnon has been accused by U.S. prosecutors of "the biggest military hack of all time," after entering NASA and Pentagon systems.
China Expands Campaign Against Porn Online
China has expanded its campaign against pornography and vulgar content online, naming more than a dozen Web sites, including Microsoft's MSN, that it says need to clean up. The Web sites contained a large amount of vulgar material that "violated society's morals, and harmed the health of young people," said a notice posted on China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center's Web site.
RealNetworks CEO Expects Victory in DVD-Copying Case
RealNetworks Inc. Chief Executive Rob Glaser is still confident that people will be able to use the company's RealDVD software to copy DVDs to their personal computers -- just not now. In an interview with reporters at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Glaser said he expects that the digital entertainment company will win a suit filed against it in October by six major Hollywood studios.
Security, Privacy Among Reasons Against Obama's BlackBerry
Why can't President-elect Barack Obama keep his BlackBerry? Obama would be an extraordinarily juicy target for hackers, spies and other snoops who could try to exploit any kind of error made in configuring the device or the White House BlackBerry server to read Obama's e-mail.
YouTube Offers Web Pages with Congressional Videos
YouTube, in collaboration with Congress, planned to unveil two new Web pages, one for the House and one for the Senate, where every lawmaker will be able to create a video channel on the site. The pages will include a map of the United States that will allow users to easily navigate to the channel of their elected officials.
