After complaints from the City of Austin and the Texas attorney general's office, the social networking site Twitter has shut down a fake account that pretended to issue Austin Police Department bulletins with official-sounding messages that included "warming up my radar gun for SXSWi." The page now states that the account "has been suspended due to strange activity."
ACLU Sues Over Prosecutor's Threats for "Sexting"
The American Civil Liberties Union sued a Pennsylvania prosecutor over his threats to charge three teenage girls with child pornography for allowing themselves to be photographed partly clothed with cellphone cameras. The case involves the growing practice among teens of "sexting," a play on the term texting, in which nude or semi-nude photos are sent on cell phones or posted on the Internet.
Security Experts Trying to Stop "Conficker C" Worm
A computer-science detective story is playing out on the Internet as security experts try to hunt down a worm called Conficker C and prevent it from damaging millions of computers on April Fool's Day. The anti-worm researchers have banded together in a group they call the Conficker Cabal.
Google Claims China Blocking YouTube Website
Google said that its YouTube video-sharing Web site had been blocked in China. Google said it did not know why the site had been blocked, but a report by the official Xinhua news agency of China on Tuesday said that supporters of the Dalai Lama fabricated a video that appeared to show Chinese police officers brutally beating Tibetans after riots last year in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.
Trading Child Porn Online Grows Despite Enforcement
Over the past decade, agents and computer experts have gone after hundreds of people who solicit sex from kids or trade child pornography online. Despite the publicity, the bad guys haven't gone away, as trading child porn online and grooming underage targets in chat rooms has exploded nationwide.
Ga. Court Revives Suit Against Net Travel Companies
The Georgia Supreme Court revived a hotly contested lawsuit by the city of Atlanta against online travel companies that claims the firms are illegally pocketing millions of dollars in hotel tax revenue. The city filed suit in 2006 against 17 Internet travel reservation companies, including Expedia, Travelocity.com, Hotels.com, Priceline.com and Obitz.
U.K. Group Files Complaint Over Google's Street View
A formal complaint about Google's Street View has been sent to the Information Commissioner. Drawn up by lobby group Privacy International, it cites more than 200 reports from members of the public identifiable via the service.
White House Sides with Music Industry in P2P Case
The Obama administration has sided with the recording industry in a copyright lawsuit against an alleged peer-to-peer pirate, a move that echoes arguments previously made by the Bush administration. A legal brief filed in a case that the Recording Industry Association of America is pursuing in Massachusetts argues that federal copyright law is not so overly broad and its penalties not so unduly severe that they count as "punitive."
Defunct Payment Server Exposes 19,000 Credit Cards
A defunct payment gateway has exposed as many as 19,000 credit card numbers. The discovery by an Australian IT industry worker was made by mistake.
China, U.S. Debate WTO's Ruling on Software Piracy
China and the United States traded blows over entertainment and software piracy as the World Trade Organization formally ruled some Chinese practices were illegal but exonerated it of other complaints. But the comments also showed that major trading powers were still ready to work within the international rules-based system to resolve rows even if the economic crisis is increasing protectionist pressures.
YouTube-Warner Music Impasse Leads to Takedowns
Countless amateur musicians have been ensnared in a dispute between Warner Music and YouTube, which is owned by Google. The conflict centers on how much Warner should be paid for the use of its copyrighted works -- its music videos -- but has grown to include other material produced by amateurs that may also run afoul of copyright law.
Software Group Wants U.S. to Share More Info on Threats
The U.S. software industry is pushing for a greater role as government officials develop a policy to ward off attacks on the nation's communications infrastructure, a trade group said. The Business Software Alliance, which represents companies including Microsoft Corp and Dell Inc., told White House officials the government should share more threat and attack information with the industry.
Bill Would Create Cybersecurity Office at White House
Forthcoming legislation would wrest cybersecurity responsibilities from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and transfer them to the White House, a proposed move that likely will draw objections from industry groups and some conservatives. CNET News has obtained a summary of a proposal from Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) that would create an Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor, part of the Executive Office of the President.
Google Removes Some Photos from U.S. Street View
Google has removed dozens of photos from its new U.K. Street View service. The street-mapping facility launched amid a fanfare of publicity but now the firm has been forced to pull some of the images after complaints.
Group Criticizes Australia's List of Banned Sites
A whistle-blower organization claims a secret list of websites that Australian authorities are proposing to ban includes such innocuous destinations as a dentist's office. Australia's government denied that the list -- published by renegade website Wikileaks.org -- was the same as a blacklist run by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA.
Louis Vuitton Argues Google Case at EU's Top Court
Louis Vuitton told the European Union’s highest court that Google Inc. doesn't have the right to sell trademark-protected names to advertisers that trigger "sponsored links" when the name is used in an Internet search. Google, owner of the world's most-used Internet search engine, and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA have been locked in a six-year fight over Internet searches that link users to sites selling counterfeit fashion accessories. Google is appealing a 2006 ruling by a Paris court that it breached Louis Vuitton's trademark rights.
Cyberattacks Costly But Not Well Known, Experts Say
The U.S. economy is suffering massive losses every year due to cyberattacks, yet most Americans are not aware of the gravity of the problem, cyber experts told Congress. Without more federal funding for educational reforms and basic research to promote cybersecurity, the nation will regularly suffer from attacks of serious consequence, they said.
Users Expect Unrestricted Net Access, Survey Says
Nine in 10 people expect their Internet service providers to offer open and unrestricted access to the Web, a survey showed. The survey, commissioned by Google, Yahoo and Web telephone company Skype, came as the European Parliament and EU states hold talks on a joint deal to reform the bloc's telecoms rules to boost competition.
Telecoms Oppose Broadband Speed Requirement
Telecom companies vying for $7.2 billion in broadband funds included in President Obama's economic stimulus plan urged regulators not to mandate a super-fast Internet speed as a criterion for winning the money. Critics of this approach, though, say no government standards led to the United States lagging its industrialized peers in average broadband speed, viewed as a key driver of economic development.
Many DMCA Take-Down Notices Not Valid, Google Says
As part of a plea to lawmakers in New Zealand to overturn a new pro-copyright law, Google claims that most takedown notices are bogus. According to a story in PC World, Google says 57 percent of the takedown notices it has received under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act were sent by businesses trying to undermine a competitor.
