A court in the United Kingdom has ruled Google isn't on the hook for defamatory information in its search results, saying the company facilitates access to the information but isn't a direct publisher. The High Court judge, David Eady, offered his conclusion in a case pitting Metropolitan International Schools, a distance learning company, against Google UK and its U.S. headquarters.
Europe Plans Hearing on Google Books Database
The European Commission is to hold a hearing on September 7 for interested parties to comment on Google's deal with publishers to make millions of books available online and its impact on EU writers' rights. The European Union executive had said in May it would study Google's book deal after Germany complained the company had scanned books from U.S. libraries to create its Google Books database without prior consent of rights holders.
Falun Gong Wants U.S. Help to Defeat Censors Online
Ten years after a government crackdown drove it underground in China, Falun Gong is trying to position itself to get U.S. government funds to help defeat Internet censors worldwide. The spiritual group's efforts to stay in contact with its members in China spawned a sophisticated effort to evade Chinese censors, which has now expanded enough that it was used by Iranian protesters to get around government controls in June.
Amazon Deletes Two Books from Users' Kindle Devices
In a move that angered customers and generated waves of online pique, Amazon remotely deleted some digital editions of the books "1984" and "Animal Farm" from the Kindle devices of readers who had bought them. An Amazon spokesman, Drew Herdener, said in an e-mail message that the books were added to the Kindle store by a company that did not have rights to them, using a self-service function.
Online Forum Racist, Police Officers Say in Suit
A group of black Philadelphia police officers filed a federal lawsuit against their department, alleging an online forum geared toward city police is "infested with racist, white supremacist and anti-African-American content." The suit alleges white officers post on and moderate the privately operated site, Domelights.com, both on and off the job.
BlackBerry Maker to Pay Visto $267.5 Million
Research In Motion agreed to pay rival Visto $267.5 million to license and buy patents, settling a long-running legal battle. As part of the deal, RIM received a perpetual and fully paid license on all Visto patents and acquired some Visto intellectual property.
Computer Companies Sued Over Patent on Touchpad
Apple, LG, Microsoft, and 20 other companies are being sued for patent infringement by a Texas firm that claims to have invented the touchpad. Tsera LLC, a Texas business that's apparently named after a defunct Native American tribe, filed the suit in the U.S. District Court, Eastern Texas Division.
Report Cites "Serious Privacy Gaps" at Facebook
The popular social networking site Facebook is not doing enough to protect the personal information it gets from subscribers, and it gives users confusing and incomplete information about privacy matters, Canada's privacy commissioner said. "It's clear that privacy issues are top of mind for Facebook, and yet we found serious privacy gaps in the way the site operates," Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said in a report on an investigation into Facebook.
Apple Asks Microsoft to Stop Running Some Ads
Apple Inc. legal representatives asked Microsoft Corp. recently to "stop running" advertisements suggesting Apple's computers are expensive, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said. The interaction has emboldened Microsoft, which plans to continue with its "Laptop Hunter" marketing campaign after learning, however indirectly, how effective the advertisement's underlying message is in rankling Apple.
Microsoft Sues Over Instant Messaging Scams
Microsoft filed a civil lawsuit in King County Superior Court in Seattle against Funmobile, Mobilefunster, and several individuals, who Microsoft says is responsible for the intentional misuse of the service to gain the personal information of its users. In the suit, Microsoft cites a multitude of attacks including IMs that appear to be coming from users they know, as well as phishing attacks that mimic the look and feel of an outside service, or an official Microsoft support page.
Google Tells Newspapers How to Avoid Indexing
In a post written by Josh Cohen, senior business product manager, Google said newspaper publishers can easily tell search engines to take a hike. All it takes is a two-line piece of code, which he helpfully included in his post. Tuck that on your website, and no search engine will crawl it; the stories won't show up when people look for content using search engines.
Music Industry Seeking Money from Pirate Bay Sale
The music industry will attempt to seize money paid to acquire the Pirate Bay, according to a high-level music industry source and a spokesman for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the trade group representing the music industry worldwide.
Security Breaches at Twitter Expose Lapses
Twitter's latest security hole has less to do with its users than it does with its staff, but lessons can be learned on both sides. In the case of Jason Goldman, who is currently Twitter's director of product management, the simplicity of Yahoo's password recovery system was enough to let a hacker get in and gain information from a number of other sites, including access to other Twitter staff's personal accounts.
Amazon.com Sued Over Broken Device Cover
Amazon.com has been sued by a user of its Kindle electronic reader who claims the device's cover, which is sold separately, can break the screen and make the device inoperable. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, where Amazon is based, claims the covers designed and sold by Amazon to protect the device often end up cracking the Kindle screens due to pressure on the hinge.
Blogger Who Leaked Songs Gets Home Confinement
A Los Angeles blogger who leaked new Guns N' Roses songs on the Internet before their official release on the band's first new album in 17 years, was sentenced to two months of home confinement. Kevin Cogill also received one year's probation and must appear in an anti-piracy commercial under the terms of his plea deal with federal prosecutors.
Javascript Vulnerability Found in Firefox 3.5
There is a critical JavaScript vulnerability in the Firefox 3.5 Web browser, Mozilla has warned. The zero-day flaw lies in Firefox 3.5's Just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compiler.
Cybercriminals Attack Users of Microsoft Office
Microsoft warned that cybercriminals have attacked users of its Office software for Windows PCs, exploiting a programing flaw that the software giant has yet to repair. The world's largest software maker issued the warning as it released patches to address nine other security holes in its software.
Company Settles Claims of Posting Fake Reviews
Lifestyle Lift, a cosmetic surgery company, has reached a settlement with the State of New York over its attempts to fake positive consumer reviews on the Web, the New York attorney general's office said. The company had ordered employees to pretend they were satisfied customers and write glowing reviews of its face-lift procedure on Web sites, according to the attorney general's statement.
Woman Tweets About Bank Heist, Gets Criticized
A rather unusual Twitter thread -- a bank heist, or at least its immediate aftermath, in 140-character-or-less updates -- unfolded as a Manhattan bank was robbed of $500. The woman posting the tweets was criticized online by folks who apparently thought she should have been alerting police or doing something else -- anything -- rather than tweeting.
Patent Office Rejects More Claims in Rambus-Nvidia Case
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has initially rejected an additional eight Rambus claims that Nvidia challenged, according to Nvidia. This follows the USPTO's rejection last month of 41 other claims in seven patents that Rambus had asserted, Nvidia said.
