A judge in Freehold, N.J., ruled that a Washington state blogger who posted comments about the pornography industry is not covered by shield laws that protect newspaper reporters and can be sued for defamation. Acknowledging that he was wading into largely uncharted legal waters, Superior Court Judge Louis Locascio said Shellee Hale's message board postings last year about a Freehold-based computer software company were nothing more than the rants of a "private person with unexplained motives for her postings" and cannot be given the same protections as information compiled though the process of news gathering.
Michael Jackson Memorial Ticket Holders Go Online
Craigslist and other sites were adorned with many of those lucky to have won tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial service celebrating their good fortune -- by trying to sell the free tickets. Michael Roth, a spokesman for AEG, the company that was organizing Jackson's 50 London concerts and is organizing the service, was quoted as saying: "Several apparent ticket holders posted intentions to sell the tickets on eBay, but Roth warned that the security system in place will prevent anyone from doing so."
University Sued by Blind Groups for Using Kindle
The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind are suing Arizona State University for its use of the Amazon Kindle to distribute electronic textbooks to students, saying the device cannot be used by blind students. The groups say the Kindle has text-to-speech technology that reads books aloud to blind students, but that the device’s menus do not offer a way for blind students to purchase books, select a book to read, or even to activate the text-to-speech feature, according to a joint statement by the two groups.
Jay Leno Wins Rights to thejaylenoshow.com Domain
Comedian and talk show host Jay Leno has won a cybersquatting case against a Texas man found by a U.N. agency to have misused the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to direct Internet users to a real estate website. In a ruling, the World Intellectual Property Organization said Leno had common law trademark rights to his name after a 30-year career in entertainment, even though Guadalupe Zambrano registered the site in 2004.
Internet Advertising Industry to Allow Opting Out
The digital ad industry planned to announce sweeping new self-policing guidelines aimed at providing consumers with options for how they want to interact with online ad businesses that gather data about them. The $8.5 billion ad industry is hoping to ease consumer privacy concerns and give people more choices, including an "opt-out," about what is known as behavioral advertising.
U.S. Cybersecurity System Delayed by Glitches, Concerns
The flagship system designed to protect the U.S. government's computer networks from cyberspies is being stymied by technical limitations and privacy concerns, according to current and former national-security officials. The latest complete version of the system, known as Einstein, won't be fully installed for 18 months, according to current and former officials, seven years after it was first rolled out. This system doesn't protect networks from attack.
DOJ Confirms Antitrust Probe of Google Books Deal
The Justice Department confirmed that it was conducting an antitrust investigation into the settlement of a lawsuit that groups representing authors and publishers filed against Google. In a letter to the federal judge charged with reviewing the settlement, the Justice Department said it was reviewing concerns that the agreement could violate the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Court Says MySpace Not Liable for Sexual Assault
Internet servers like MySpace cannot be held liable when minors are sexually assaulted by people they first meet on a website, a California appeals court ruled in an opinion. The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles is consistent with federal appeals court rulings.
Ascentive Sues Google for Allowing Keyword Purchases
Google has been sued again by a company mad over the use of its trademarks as keywords, but this one comes with a twist. Ascentive, the company behind those incessant "Finally Fast!" PC support ads, became the latest Google advertiser to sue the company for allowing advertisers to purchase ads using trademarks they do not own as search keywords.
Nude iPhone App Raises Questions About Approvals
A photo ostensibly showing a 15-year-old nude girl has turned up in an iPhone app, highlighting Apple’s inability to safeguard its application store from prohibited content. The image appears in the free app BeautyMeter, which enables people to upload photos that are then rated by others, who assign a star-rating to members’ body parts and clothing.
Judge Kozinski Cleared of Wrongdoing in Website Sex Case
Ninth Circuit chief judge Alex Kozinski has been cleared of wrongdoing by a panel of judges from the Third Circuit. The panel investigated allegations that Kozinski had a Web site that contained obscene images; allegations which were made by a disgruntled litigant.
Facebook Seeks to Revamp Privacy Policy Notices
Revamped privacy settings are coming soon to Facebook. The social network's privacy controls had gotten so sprawling that they were distributed across six separate pages and 40 different settings, according to a conference call.
Overstock Drops Affiliates in Four States in Tax Fight
Overstock.com Inc. informed its marketing affiliates in four states -- California, Hawaii, North Carolina and Rhode Island -- that it is ending its business with them to avoid collecting sales tax. Lawmakers in the states have passed or are preparing to pass legislation that would require companies to collect sales tax if they have marketing affiliates in the state.
Twitter "Uncomfortable" with Developer's Use of "Tweet"
A developer building an application using Twitter's API was told via e-mail that Twitter took issue with the user interface of his application, allegedly very similar to Twitter's own, as well as his use of the word "tweet" in the application's name. The developer forwarded the e-mail to TechCrunch: "Twitter, Inc., is uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own."
White House Sets Rules for Broadband Stimulus Funds
The Obama administration published the criteria it will use to hand out billions of dollars in stimulus funds aimed at developing the infrastructure to deliver broadband Internet access to areas that are underserved or without access. The Commerce and Agriculture departments will consider projects that provide wired or wireless access starting at low-end DSL speeds, but will give priority to ones promising higher speeds. An area will be considered "underserved" by broadband, and thus eligible for grants, if half or fewer of the households can get wired broadband today, among other criteria.
Chinese Web Users Celebrate Halt to Filtering Software
Chinese Web users flooded to a trendy art zone cafe to celebrate a last-minute halt to a rollout of government-sponsored filtering software, and make a stand for freedom of expression in the Communist-run state. Dressed in t-shirts mocking the Green Dam program, about 200 Beijing residents had arrived by mid-morning to eat a traditional Chinese breakfast, denounce censorship and prepare for a day-long party.
Internet Scams Linked to Michael Jackson Proliferate
Online scams related to the death of Michael Jackson started cropping up almost instantaneously as the singer's death was still hitting the news. As days have gone by, they've gotten more sophisticated -- and dangerous.
Secret Service, Europe Joint to Fight Computer Crimes
The U.S. Secret Service planned to unveil plans for a pan-European task force charged with preventing identity theft, computer hacking and other computer-based crime. The unit will be based in Rome, teaming up with an Italian anti-cyber-crime police unit and the Italian post office Poste Italiane SpA, which has developed software that can track electronic payments as it moves beyond traditional mail delivery.
China Delays Enforcement of Internet Filtering Rule
Facing strong resistance at home and abroad, China on delayed enforcement of a new rule requiring manufacturers to install Internet filtering software on all new computers. The delay by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was announced through Xinhua, the official news agency, one day before the July 1 deadline for the software to be installed on all computers sold in China.
RIAA Prevails in Copyright Suit Against Usenet
The Recording Industry Association of America has prevailed in its copyright fight against Usenet.com, according to court documents. In a brief note posted to RIAA.com, the trade group for the music industry said: "We're pleased that the court recognized not just that Usenet.com directly infringed the record companies' copyrights but also took action against the defendants for their egregious litigation misconduct."
