After a two-year battle, record labels and online radio stations agreed on new royalty rates that cover music streaming. The new agreement treats sites differently depending on their size and business model.
Microsoft Discussing Antitrust Settlement with EU
Microsoft Corp., which has been fined $2.34 billion in European Union antitrust cases, is in preliminary talks to settle two additional probes before EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes leaves office, four people familiar with the negotiations said. Any agreement would have to resolve a case over Microsoft’s Internet browser as well as a separate investigation into word processing and spreadsheet software, said the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are confidential.
U.K. Football Association Wins Some Claims Against Google
A U.S. judge dismissed some damages claims in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google and its video-sharing Web site YouTube.com but left open the possibility that non-U.S. based rights owners could seek damages for live broadcasts, if they prevail. A group of sports and music copyright holders, led by the UK-based Football Association Premier League, had argued that foreign works were exempt from any registration requirements under the U.S. Copyright Act.
More Spam Messages Using Shortened URLs
In yet another piece of anecdotal evidence of the increasing threat from shortened URLs, e-mail security provider MessageLabs said it saw a dramatic spike in the number of spam e-mails that include truncated Web addresses.
La Russa Drops Suit Against Twitter Over Name
Score one for Twitter in the legal battle over who is responsible for stopping social media imposters. After initially reporting that Twitter was going to reach a settlement with Tony La Russa, the baseball manager's lawyer filed a short statement in court on June 26 saying that he had dropped the suit -- and that Twitter made no payment to him.
Music Industry Wants to Block Woman from Downloading
Attorneys for the recording industry are asking a federal judge to bar Jammie Thomas-Rasset from downloading music, sharing music files and distributing songs to the public. The attorneys also want a judge to order that Thomas-Rasset destroy all copies of recordings that she has downloaded without authorization.
China Clamps Down on Internet User After Riots
China clamped down on the Internet in the capital of China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, in the hope of stemming the flow of information about ethnic unrest which left 140 people dead. The government has blamed riots in Urumqi -- the deadliest unrest since the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy demonstrations -- on exiled Muslim separatists.
Judge Refuses to Protect Blogger with Shield Law
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.
