A Web site that satirizes news can run a fictional story about a giraffe attack at Global Wildlife Center, a state district judge ruled. After a two-hour hearing, state District Judge Beth Wolfe struck down a temporary restraining order signed March 2 that had called for the removal of the story from the site, Hammond Action News.
Google should obey Chinese government rules even if it decides to retreat from the country over hacking and censorship complaints, a Chinese government spokesman said. "On entering the Chinese market in 2007, it clearly stated that it would respect Chinese law," the spokesman, Yao Jian, told reporters in answer to a question about Google.
Apple's decision to limit nudity in iPhone apps worries some German publishers. Why should a technology company in California be allowed to decide what is objectionable to the rest of the world, they ask.
The FBI and other federal agencies are going undercover on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and other social networks with phony profiles to gather information and communicate with suspects, according to an internal Justice Department document. The document says Facebook is "often cooperative with emergency requests" from federal investigators while Twitter's lawyers demand a warrant or subpoena before it will turn over customer information.
Copyright holders have given up legal efforts to force Norwegian ISP Telenor to block file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, one of the parties to the case said. The copyright holders, led by Norway's performing rights society TONO and by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Norway (IFPI Norge) Norway have lost two rounds in the Norwegian court system, and have now decided against appealing the case to Norway's supreme court, the organizations said.
The use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by militant and hate groups grew by almost 20 percent in the past year, a report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center found. The study, using research by the center and tips from the public, found more than 11,500 social networks, websites, forums and blogs promoting violence, anti-Semitism, homophobia, hate music and "terrorism," an increase from 10,000 last year.
At a time when Classmates.com and parent company United Online are already mixed up in a congressional investigation, Classmates.com is attempting to settle a lawsuit that accuses the company of sending e-mails that duped users into believing the messages had come from old high school chums. E-mail recipients only learned the truth after paying for upgrades to their membership, according to court documents.
The Federal Communications Commission released a set of goals to modernize high-speed Internet access for Americans, including plans to free up more airwaves for mobile services. The plan aims to have 100 million American households get Internet speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) by 2020, compared with the current average speed of less than 4 Mbps.
Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd presented a pretty bleak picture of how privacy and publicity is managed online in her SXSW Interactive keynote. Targeting Chatroulette, Facebook, and Google Buzz as examples, Boyd says consumers have no idea what they are sharing online, and that the businesses that build social networks don't either.
China and Iran are among the world's top "Internet enemies" tagged by Reporters Without Borders for restricting Internet freedom. But even democratic countries like Australia and South Korea are raising concerns.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who is criticized by media freedom groups, called for regulation of the Internet and singled out a website that he said falsely reported the murder of one of his ministers. "The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. Every country has to apply its own rules and norms," Chavez said.
Nike Inc. is seeking to wrest control over 66 Internet domain names it says are hawking counterfeit goods. The athletic footwear and apparel giant filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Virginia against the domain names, all of which are registered to entities in China.
Reported losses from Internet fraud more than doubled in 2009, with scams that falsely used the FBI's name generating the most complaints, the law enforcement agency said. The total dollar loss rose to $559.7 million last year from $264.6 million in 2008, based on amounts reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.
Iran has arrested 30 people suspected of belonging to a U.S.-linked cyber network gathering information on Iranian nuclear scientists and sending people abroad for training, a news agency reported. It said the group sought to recruit people through the Internet for training in Iraq with the People's Mujahideen Organization, a leftist exile group which launched attacks on the Islamic Republic from Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Just before wrapping up its meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board voted to postpone any decision about a proposal to create a ".xxx" top level domain for adult Web sites. The matter is scheduled to be taken up again at its June meeting in Brussels.
The Federal Communications Commission is proposing an ambitious 10-year plan that will reimagine the nation’s media and technology priorities by establishing high-speed Internet as the country’s dominant communication network. The plan is likely to generate debate in Washington and a lobbying battle among the telecommunication giants, which over time may face new competition for customers.
Google, seemingly torn between Chinese censorship and Chinese opportunity, is now "99.9 percent" certain that it will shut down its Chinese search engine, Google.cn. According to a Financial Times source "familiar with the company's thinking," the search giant, having reached an apparent impasse with the Chinese government officials, has drafted detailed plans to close the Chinese search business, though it remains optimistic about finding a way to maintain its overall operations in China.
Sarah Palin and her husband Todd will testify in the federal case against a Tennessee man who allegedly accessed Palin's private e-mail account during the 2008 presidential race, Palin's attorney said. The case involves University of Tennessee student David C. Kernell, the 22-year old son of a Democratic state representative.
Although Google, Facebook and their rivals have enjoyed a relatively "safe harbor" from prosecution over user-generated content in the United States and Europe, they face a public that increasingly is more inclined to blame them for cyber-bullying and other online transgressions.
Many governments have used the Internet to curtail freedom of expression at home, the U.S. state department says in its latest annual human rights report. In many cases new forms of electronic communications are restricted to control domestic dissent, it says.
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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.