About one in 10 videogame players show signs of addictive behavior that could have negative effects on their family, friends and school work, according to a new study. Researchers at Iowa State University and the National Institute on Media and the Family found that some gamers show at least six symptoms of gambling addiction such as lying to family and friends about how much they play games, using the games to escape their problems and becoming restless or irritable when they stop playing.
Opposition Growing to Google's Book-Scanning Settlement
With a May 5 deadline for filing objections to the Google books settlement looming, opposition to and criticism of the settlement continues to cement. The Internet Archive, which is currently working to match Google’s effort to digitize millions of books from major libraries, has filed a motion to intervene in the case.
South Korean Economics Blogger Acquitted of Charges
An economic commentator on the Internet who criticized and angered the South Korean government but commanded a huge following was freed from jail after a court acquitted him of charges of using the Web to maliciously spread false information. The arrest of Park Dae-sung in January and his trial on charges of spreading false data in public with a harmful intent -- a crime punishable by as much as five years in prison -- prompted debate about how much freedom of expression should be tolerated in cyberspace in this extensively wired country.
College Student Charged in Craigslist Murder
A 22-year-old college student in Boston, Massachusetts, has been charged with murder in connection with the death of a woman who may have been contacted through a Craigslist ad, police said. Philip Markoff, a pre-med student at Boston University, also was charged with the armed robbery and kidnapping of another victim, Police Commissioner Ed Davis announced.
Swedish Court Conicts Men in Pirate Bay Case
A court in Sweden convicted four men linked to the notorious Internet file-sharing service The Pirate Bay of violating copyright law, handing the music and movie industries a high-profile victory in their campaign to curb online piracy. The court found that the men had aided copyright infringement by operating the site, which provides links to thousands of songs, films, video games and other material, and helps users download them.
White House to Get Report on Cybersecurity Status
President Barack Obama will soon receive the results of a 60-day review of cybersecurity that should weigh in on whether he should name a cybersecurity czar, the White House said. The review could also make recommendations on how much should be budgeted to prevent potential hacker attacks on critical infrastructure and fight widespread Internet fraud.
FBI Used Spyware in Online Investigations
The FBI has used a secret form of spyware in a series of investigations designed to nab extortionists, database-deleting hackers, child molesters, and hitmen, according to documents obtained by CNET News. One suspect used Microsoft's Hotmail to send bomb and anthrax threats to an undercover government investigator; another demanded a payment of $10,000 a month to stop cutting cables; a third was an alleged European hitman who was soliciting for business from a Hushmail.com account.
Sentencing Commission Drops Plan on Proxy Servers
The U.S. government has dropped -- for now -- a plan to classify the use of "proxy" servers as evidence of sophistication in committing a crime. he Washington-based U.S. Sentencing Commission was considering a change to federal sentencing guidelines that would have increased sentences by about 25 percent for people convicted of crimes in which proxies are used to hide the perpetrators' tracks.
Don Henley Sues to Stop Candidate's YouTube Video
YouTube has become the battleground in a copyright fight between singer Don Henley and a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in California. Henley, one of the founders of rock group The Eagles, has filed a lawsuit accusing Senate candidate Charles DeVore of violating his copyright. DeVore allegedly used two of Henley's hit songs "The Boys of Summer" and "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" in two YouTube campaign videos without authorization.
German Composer Sues Google Over YouTube Videos
German composer Frank Peterson has filed a lawsuit at the Higher District Court in Hamburg against Google/YouTube, claiming that his music videos and other audiovisual repertoire were used illegally. He states that more than 125 million streams of his productions -- of which he owns the copyrights and master rights as author, publisher and producer -- have been viewed, for which he never received payment from Google/YouTube.
Court Won't Allow Online Streaming of Music Case
Oral arguments in a music downloading lawsuit filed by the recording industry against a Boston University student can't be streamed online, a federal appeals court ruled. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous decision that allowed online streaming and said it was "bound to enforce" rules that close federal courtrooms in Massachusetts to webcasting and other forms of broadcast.
Electronic Security Breaches Skyrocketing
There were more electronic security breaches last year than in the previous four years put together and the financial sector suffered the biggest rise in attacks from hackers looking for big stashes of consumer data, according to a report from Verizon Communications. The retail sector was still the most often targeted by hackers, accounting for a third of all cases, but the sharpest rise was in financial services, which doubled its share of attacks to 30 percent of the total, Verizon said.
Phishing Scams Growing More Sophisticated
Phishing scams have grown up from the unsophisticated swindles of the past in which fake Nigerian princes e-mailed victims, who would get a big windfall if they just provide their bank account number. Even as authorities try to stamp out that con and other e-mail and online scams, scammers are getting more wily and finding new loopholes to exploit.
Microsoft Agrees to Extend Government's Oversight
In a filing with the judge presiding over its antitrust case, Microsoft agreed with a government request to extension of federal oversight by another 18 months. Combined with a two-year extension already granted to the Department of Justice last year, that will take the oversight of Microsoft's behaviors -- particularly in providing accurate documentation to licensees -- out to May 12, 2011.
Facebook Lets Users Vote on New Terms of Service
Following Facebook's privacy debacle earlier this year, the social-networking site is encouraging users to vote on whether a proposed terms of service culled from user feedback should replace the existing terms of service.
U.S. Bill Would End Tax-Free Shopping on Internet
If a little-known but influential alliance of state politicians, large retailers, and tax collectors have their way, the days of tax-free Internet shopping may be nearly over. A bill expected to be introduced in the U.S. Congress would rewrite the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a "loophole" that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes.
Many Data Breaches Linked to Few Organized Crime Gangs
A string of data breaches orchestrated principally by a handful of organized cyber-crime gangs translated into the loss of hundreds of millions of consumer records last year, security experts say. The size and scope of the breaches, some of which have previously not been disclosed, illustrate the extent that organized cyber thieves are methodically targeting computer systems connected to the global financial network.
Report Gives Details on Carbon Footprint for Spam
The mere act of people around the world deleting spam and searching for legitimate e-mail falsely labeled as junk creates the annual energy consumption equivalent in the U.S. of 2.4 million homes using electricity and the same greenhouse gas emissions as 3.1 million passenger cars using two billion gallons of gas. That's according to "The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report" conducted by climate-change consultants ICF and commissioned by security vendor McAfee.
Amazon UK Blocks Phorm Ad-Targeting System
Amazon has said it will not allow online advertising system Phorm to scan its web pages to produce targeted ads. Phorm builds a profile of users by scanning for keywords on websites visited and then assigns relevant ads.
AOL Asks Court for Ruling on Yahoo Patents
Time Warner's AOL has asked a federal court to rule that it is not infringing patents held by Yahoo. The request, in the form of a complaint seeking declaratory relief, cites an ongoing intellectual property dispute between Yahoo and Quigo, an online advertising company that AOL acquired for $340 million in 2007.
