British Officials Disciplined, Fired for Internet Use

More than 70 staff at the Ministry of Justice and the Metropolitan Police Service have been sacked or disciplined in the past 18 months for misusing the Internet and social networking sites, according to official figures released today in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. The MoJ sacked four officials and issued final warnings to three for misbehaving on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and carpeted more than 40 for internet and e-mail offenses.

China Sees Largest Number of Hacked Computers

More private computers were commandeered by hackers for malicious purposes in China in the last quarter of 2009 than in any other country, including the United States, according to a new study by an Internet security company. These "zombie" computers are often grouped into "botnets," or armies of infected computers that can be used to send spam e-mail or attack Web sites, according to McAfee, a Silicon Valley security firm.

Google's Brin Says He Wants to Continue in China

Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder, speaking publicly for the first time about the hacking attacks on Google in late 2009, said that the company still hoped to find a way to continue operating its Google.cn search service in China, which it has blamed for the attacks. “I want to find a way to work within the Chinese system to bring information to the people,” said Mr. Brin, who was interviewed on stage at the annual TED conference.

Google Makes More Privacy Changes to Buzz

Google isn't wasting any time in responding to user criticism about Buzz and has rolled out another set of changes to further address Buzz's privacy issues. The biggest change involves the automatic follow system: it's now being switched to a suggestion model, where Google will present you with a list of friends it thinks you'd like to follow, but gives you a chance to deselect them before you start using the service.

China's Internet Controls Target U.S. Criticism

In the view of both political analysts and technology experts in China and in the United States, China's attempts to tighten its grip on Internet use are driven in part by the conviction that the West -- and particularly the United States -- is wielding communications innovations from malware to Twitter to weaken it militarily and to stir dissent internally. State media have vented those concerns more vociferously since Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized China for censorship and called for an investigation of Google's claim that its databases had been the target of a sophisticated attack from China.

Google Defends Books Settlement Agreement

Google argued in a staunch and sometimes eloquent brief that an agreement reached with the Authors Guild to digitize millions of books was legal and a contribution to human knowledge. Google's ambitious plan has been praised for expanding access to books but the Justice Department criticized it on February 4 on a variety of grounds, saying it potentially violated antitrust and copyright laws.

Online Movie Takes Aim at Chinese Censorship

The latest battle over Internet freedom in China is playing out in an online movie that pits an armored blue beast and his band of antiauthoritarian rogues against a sinister force called Harmony that seeks to clean up the Web. The video, called "War of Internet Addiction," is a send-up of government censorship starring videogame characters that has become one of the hottest things on the Chinese Internet, epitomizing the unruly spirit that thrives on the Web despite an intensifying crackdown on free expression in China.

French Court Orders eBay to Pay $275,000 in Keyword Case

A Paris tribunal found Ebay guilty of misleading consumers by using misspelt versions of luxury brand Louis Vuitton as search engine key words to redirect users to Ebay website links. The tribunal ordered Ebay to pay 200,000 euros ($275,800) in damages and 30,000 euros in legal costs incurred by Louis Vuitton, a leather bags maker owned by LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods group.

VeriSign Still Plagued by Antitrust Challenge

In recent years, VeriSign Inc. has shed over a dozen businesses, thinned its employee ranks and presented a more disciplined image to Wall Street. But the company's narrowed focus has also made it more dependent on a mainstay Internet domain name operation that is both entirely reliant upon a coveted government contract, and clouded by a stubborn legal challenge.

PayPal Payments Suspended in India Amid "Enquiries From Indian Regulators"

Personal PayPal service is not likely to be restored in India for several months, though the company is taking steps to allow local bank withdrawals during the next few days. PayPal halted personal payments in India amid "questions" from business partners and other stakeholders, a move that also prevented merchants from withdrawing the funds in Rupees to local Indian banks.

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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.