Ali Jahanshahi, a young, tech-savvy British-Iranian, quit his job selling computers to come to New York with the ambitious goal of ousting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. More than just protesting Ahmadinejad's presence at the U.N. General Assembly, Jahanshahi said he came to trade know-how with other young Iranians who are using Internet "hacktivism" to send messages, videos and information to opposition sympathizers in Iran.
Google Outages Raise Cloud-Computing Concerns
Gmail's outage affected only a small percentage of users, but in the wake of the Google News outage the lack of reliability from Google isn't helping justify the business case for embracing the cloud.
Lawmakers Question ICANN on Plan for New Domains
Several U.S. lawmakers urged the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to back off on a plan to offer an unlimited number of new generic top-level domains until concerns about trademark protections and other issues can be addressed. Members of a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee questioned ICANN Chief Operating Officer Doug Brent about why the organization continues to move forward with its plan to sell new generic top-level domains, or gTLDs.
Twitter Users Report Phishing Scam in Direct Messages
A wave of Twitterers are reporting that they have been hit by a phishing scam. The scheme is going after Twitter users via direct message, a feature of the service that allows users to send private messages to one another.
Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Word Patent Case
A federal appeals court heard arguments over whether to uphold an injunction that would ban sales of Microsoft Word in its current form. Microsoft is appealing a jury's ruling that a custom XML feature in recent versions of Word infringes on a patent held by I4i, a Canadian software company.
Industry Group Says Apple Can Block Pre from iTunes
Apple appears to have clearance from an industry group to block rival Palm Inc.'s Pre phone from connecting with iTunes software. The $200 Pre was launched in June as a direct competitor to the iPhone, and became the first non-Apple device that could directly connect to iTunes.
British Finance Bill to Contain Broadband Tax
A controversial broadband tax should be law before the next election, according to Minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms. The 50 pence a month tax will apply to everyone with a fixed line telephone.
Google Asks Court to Delay Books Settlement
The parties involved in the Google Book Search settlement have asked a federal court to postpone an October hearing to approve the proposed settlement while they work out a new deal. When the Department of Justice made it clear last Friday that it could not support the settlement as written -- which would give Google unique rights to scan out-of-print books still protected by copyright law -- it said the parties were in talks to amend the settlement.
EU Legal Adviser Supports Google on Keyword Sales
A legal adviser to the European Union’s top court sided with Google on in a high-profile trademark case, saying that the company should be allowed to sell brand names like Louis Vuitton or Coca-Cola as advertising keywords on its search engine. The legal opinion recommends that the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg clear Google of trademark infringement in several lawsuits in France that were brought by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and other brand owners.
Indian Portal Sues Google for Trademark Keyword Sales
Google has been sued for trademark infringement by an Indian portal company, Consim Info, which claims that the search company uses its trademarks to drive business to its competitors. When a user does a search on Google for BharatMatrimony.com or related matrimonial sites of the company, the user is served up advertisements of its competitors, said Consim CEO Murugavel Janakiraman.
EU Publishes E-mails in Intel Antitrust Case
The European Union published e-mail excerpts from computer makers and Intel to show that Intel pressured chip buyers into choosing Intel over rival Advanced Micro Devices. Intel was hit by a record EU antitrust fine of euro1.06 billion ($1.45 billion) last May for what the EU said were strong-arm sales tactics -- payments, rebates and threats to withhold supplies -- to squeeze out AMD.
Facebook Gives Users in Golan Heights a Choice
Logging onto Facebook as a resident in the Golan Heights, should you enter Syria or Israel as your home country? Decades of war and occupation have not provided an answer to that question -- but the social networking Web site now permits both options, sparking fears about an anti-Facebook cyber-war.
Trademark Suit Against Twitter Over Name Settled
One day after natural gas distributor Oneok sued social networking site Twitter More about Twitter for trademark infringement, the company said the issue has been resolved and it will drop the lawsuit. Oneok filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tulsa, saying San Francisco-based Twitter wrongly allowed an anonymous customer the user name "ONEOK."
FCC Chairman Outlines Rules for "Net Neutrality"
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission outlined rules that would prohibit Internet providers from selectively blocking Web content and applications. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said his proposal would formalize the concept of "Net neutrality."
French Court Finds eBay Liable for Counterfeits
A French court has found eBay responsible for brand counterfeiting and ordered the online marketplace operator to pay the luxury group LVMH 80,000 euros ($118,000) compensation for damages caused to famous perfume brands like Christian Dior and Kenzo. The Paris-based LVMH conglomerate had sued eBay, accusing the San Jose company of using its brands as keywords in Internet searches.
Google Says Keywords Meta Tag Irrelevant in Rankings
Google is telling the world what every seasoned webmaster and search marketer should already know: The keywords meta tag has no impact whatsoever on how Google’s search engine ranks pages.
FCC Plans to Adopt Net Neutrality Rule
The top U.S. communications regulator plans to unveil proposals for ensuring Web traffic is not slowed or blocked based on its content, sources familiar with the contents of the speech said. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will announce plans to ask his fellow commissioners to adopt as a rule net neutrality and four existing principles on Internet access issued by the agency in 2005, one of the sources said.
Facebook Settles Class-Action Suit Over Beacon
It's finally over for Beacon, the ill-fated advertising program that the social network initially launched with splashy Madison Avenue fanfare nearly two years ago. The social network has settled a year-old class action lawsuit that targeted the social network's alleged failure to provide adequate information and privacy controls to users with regard to Beacon, which shared information about users' information on third-party partner sites in Facebook news feeds.
Justice Dep't Asks Judge to Reject Google Books Deal
The Justice Department urged a federal judge to reject a controversial settlement between Google Inc., the Authors Guild and the American Assn. of Publishers, citing concerns that the agreement could run afoul of antitrust, class action and copyright laws. At the same time, Justice officials proposed modifications that would make the settlement pass muster, saying the proposal should not be entirely derailed because it has "potential for important societal benefits."
Lawsuit Accuses Scribd of Copyright Infringement
A legal complaint seeking class-action status accuses social-publishing site Scribd of egregious copyright infringement. Scribd managers have "built a technology that's broken barriers to copyright infringement on a global scale and in the process have also built one of the largest readerships in the world," the attorneys representing the class wrote in the complaint.
