The giant chip maker Intel, facing antitrust challenges around the world, announced that it would pay $1.25 billion to settle its long-running disputes with its smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices. The settlement, covering both antitrust and patent claims, ends the computer industry's most bitter legal war.
FDA Hearing Focuses on Drug Promotions Online
Drug makers, Internet companies and nonprofits called for clarity on what is a gray area for U.S. health regulators: how drug promotion on Twitter, Wikipedia, blogs and other social media can be regulated. The two-day Food and Drug Administration hearing aims to find out if the agency needs to specifically regulate how drugs and medical devices it oversees are promoted on the Internet.
Verizon to Start Sending Copyright Notices for RIAA
Verizon, the second-largest phone company in the United States, is expected to begin issuing "copyright notices" on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America to those accused of illegally downloading songs from the Web, according to sources with knowledge of the agreement. The move is significant for the music industry because among Internet service providers, Verizon has typically been among the most reluctant to intervene in copyright cases on behalf of entertainment companies.
China Boosting Cyberspace Intelligence Capabilities
China is significantly boosting its capabilities in cyberspace as a way to gather intelligence and, in the event of war, hit the U.S. government in a weak spot, U.S. officials and experts say. Outgunned and outspent in terms of traditional military hardware, China apparently hopes that by concentrating on holes in the U.S. security architecture -- its communications and spy satellites and its vast computer networks -- it will collect intelligence that could help it counter the imbalance.
German Murderer Sues Wikipedia to Remove His Name
Wikipedia is under a censorship attack by a convicted murderer who is invoking Germany’s privacy laws in a bid to remove references to his killing of a Bavarian actor in 1990. Lawyers for Wolfgang Werle, of Erding, Germany, sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding removal of Werle's name from the Wikipedia entry on actor Walter Sedlmayr.
Robbery Suspect's Facebook Alibi Gets Charges Dropped
A defense lawyer for a man accused of robbery told a Brooklyn assistant district attorney about his client's Facebook entry, which was made at the time of the robbery -- which led to the charges being dropped. "This is the first case that I'm aware of in which a Facebook update has been used as alibi evidence," said John Browning, a lawyer and member of the Dallas Bar Association who studies social networking and the law.
Court in Azerbaijan Sentences Opposition Bloggers
A court in Azerbaijan sentenced two opposition bloggers to jail terms in a case that has stirred international concern over freedom of expression in the oil-producing Caspian Sea state. Adnan Hajizade, 26, was sentenced to two years in prison and Emin Milli, 30, to two years and six months over an incident in a cafe in Baku, a member of their defense team told Reuters.
Russian Policeman Fired After Blogs on Corruption
A former Russian policeman, who accused officers in his home town of corruption in blogs that had more than one million Internet hits, said he wanted to discuss the affair with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Major Alexei Dymovsky was fired after he posted two video clips on YouTube in which he appealed to Putin to rein in senior officers who he accused of pressuring subordinates to charge innocent people to meet statistical targets.
First Virus Reported on "Jailbroken" iPhones
A 21-year-old Australian claims to be the first hacker in the world to infect the iPhone with a virus. It spreads between phones with each call but the damage extends to changing the device's wallpaper -- to a photo of Eighties pop star Rick Astley famous for his hit Never Gonna Give You Up.
Group Takes Over Facebook Pages to Show Security Threat
An anonymous group calling itself "Control Your Info" has taken over hundreds of Facebook groups to highlight what it claims is a major security weakness on the social networking site. Facebook downplayed the incident and said no hacking or confidential information was involved.
Indictment Says $9 Million Stolen from Credit Card Processor
Several eastern Europeans and an unidentified accomplice were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly hacking into a computer network operated by the Atlanta-based credit card processing company RBS WorldPay and stealing $9 million. The indictment alleges that the group used sophisticated hacking techniques to compromise the data encryption that was used by RBS WorldPay to protect customer data on payroll debit cards.
RealNetworks Appeals Ruling Against DVD Software
RealNetworks has filed an appeal of a federal judge's decision to halt the sales of its DVD-copying software, RealDVD. Real said in documents that San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel erred when she placed a preliminary injunction on the sales of RealDVD in August.
EU Regulators Move Toward Blocking Oracle-Sun Deal
Now Oracle may be about to get a taste of its own medicine, after EU regulators took a big step toward blocking its $7.4 billion deal to buy an ailing computer giant, Sun Microsystems. Oracle has spent much of the past decade lobbying to get European Union regulators to force one of its biggest competitors, Microsoft, to loosen its iron-like grip on software code and other intellectual property.
Social Security Numbers Exposed on University's Website
Human error is to blame for the accidental exposure of more than 4,500 Chaminade University student's Social Security numbers on the private Catholic college's official Web site. University officials discovered the snafu Wednesday and quickly removed the obscure but accessible links from the Web site.
Celebrity Home Website Raises Privacy Debate
A website boasts that users "will be able to see behind the tall hedges, big gates and security systems" and "get unprecedented access to the sort of lifestyle your favorite celebrity can afford." To a lot of stars and their lawyers, that's a big problem.
Judge Says Spectators Can't Tweet from Court
Twittering from court is prohibited, according to a federal judge in Georgia who banned spectators from sending live updates from a criminal trial. U.S. District Judge Clay Land in Georgia wrote that Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure should be interpreted to ban Twitter.
Cyberwarfare Remains Top Priority for Obama
Ten years ago, we were told that before too long it might be possible for a hacker with a computer to disable critical infrastructure in a major city and disrupt essential services, to steal millions of dollars from banks all over the world, infiltrate defense systems, extort millions from public companies, and even sabotage our weapons systems. Today it's not only possible, all of that has actually happened, plus a lot more we don't even know about.
Tagged.com Settles Suits Over E-mail Messages
Tagged.com, the San Francisco-based social network that was criticized earlier this year for deceiving people into signing up for the service, has settled two separate lawsuits with the attorneys general of New York and Texas. From April to June of this year, the site sent 60 million messages to Internet users with personal entreaties to join the social network (e.g., "Brad has posted a private photo on tagged.com").
Murdoch Vows to Pull News Articles from Google
Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google's search index as a way to encourage people to pay for content online. In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire -- including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal -- would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web.
Pharmaceutical Group Wants FDA to Adopt Online Safety Symbol
A drug industry group urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to adopt a universal safety symbol for Internet content containing FDA-approved information about a medicine or medical device. The proposal from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents some of the biggest drug makers in the world, came ahead of an FDA public meeting on how FDA-regulated prescription drugs and medical devices are promoted in social media and on the Internet.
