The iPad is expected to be a target for credit-card thieves and online scammers of all types. Antivirus software company McAfee is already warning consumers not to fall for e-mails or ads promising a free or reduced-price iPad if they enter an address -- and a credit card number.
At a time when the Obama administration is pressing for harsher sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, democracy advocates in Iran have been celebrating the recent decision by the United States to lift sanctions on various online services, which they say only helped Tehran to suppress the opposition. But it is still a long way from the activists’ goal of lifting all restrictions on trade in Internet services, which opposition leaders say is vital to maintaining the open communications that have underpinned the protests that erupted last summer after the disputed presidential election.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has suspended work on parts of its huge computer overhaul, dealing the agency the latest costly setback in a decade-long effort to develop a modernized information system to combat crime and terrorism. The overhaul was supposed to be completed this fall, but now will not be done until next year at the earliest.
VirnetX announced that it has launched another lawsuit against Microsoft, this time claiming that the same patent violations found in Windows XP and Vista from the first suit also exist in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Earlier, a Texas jury ruled against Microsoft in a patent infringement case initiated by VirnetX in 2007. VirnetX, which develops software to secure instant messaging and VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) communications, alleged that Microsoft had violated two of its patents concerning virtual private network (VPN) technology.
Three civil suits have been filed against Yelp in the last month, accusing the company of extorting businesses to advertise. For example, Boris Levitt, the owner of a San Francisco furniture-restoration company, alleges in a complaint in California Superior Court that Yelp retaliates against businesses that don't choose to advertise by negatively skewing their ratings and reviews on the site.
A Manhattan federal judge barred the financial news service Theflyonthewall.com from issuing immediate news about analyst research from several Wall Street banks, often before recommendations are shared with clients. Ruling in favor of Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit, Barclays Plc and Morgan Stanley, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said Theflyonthewall.com engaged in "systematic misappropriation," essentially getting a "free ride" from its quick publication of upgrades and downgrades that can move stocks higher and lower.
Less than a year before Viacom filed a $1 billion copyright claim against Google and YouTube, the parent company of MTV and Paramount Pictures was interested in acquiring the video-sharing site, according to claims made by Google in court documents. "We believe YouTube would make a transformative acquisition for MTV Networks / Viacom that would immediately make us the leading deliverer of video online, globally," according to a internal Viacom slide that Google filed with the court.
Canon announced it intends to be the first company to say goodbye to .com and buy its own top-level domain, taking advantage of ICANN’s decision to broadly widen the number of top-level names. If successful, the global electronics giant, perhaps best known for its digital SLR cameras, will open the .canon global Top Level Domain, or TLD, as soon as late 2011.
After reviewing objections, a San Jose federal judge has approved a $9.5-million settlement of a class-action lawsuit over social networking site Facebook's Beacon program that published what users were buying. Facebook denied any wrongdoing but agreed to end the Beacon program last November.
Facebook is considering installing a "panic button" on its site to allow users to report suspected pedophiles, it has confirmed. In a meeting with the British home secretary, at which "frank views" were exchanged, the social networking site also defended its current reporting system.
Two weeks after Apple filed suit against HTC for patent infringement, HTC said that it disagrees with Apple and intends to "fully defend itself." "HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible," Peter Chou, chief executive at HTC, said in a statement posted to the company's Web site.
The brokers for sex.com announced that the domain name auction has been postponed (though eager individuals can put in an early bid online). At a starting price of $1,000,000, it’s easy to see why — it’s hard to think of an adult company comfortable enough with its recession-hit pocketbooks to go for it.
Amazon.com has threatened to stop directly selling the books of some publishers online unless they agree to a detailed list of concessions regarding the sale of electronic books, according to two industry executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. The hardball approach comes less than two months after Amazon shocked the publishing world by removing the “buy” buttons from its site for thousands of printed books from Macmillan, one of the country’s six largest publishers, in a dispute over e-book pricing.
Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information. The e-mails tell recipients that the passwords on their Facebook accounts have been reset, urging them to click on an attachment to obtain new login credentials, according to anti-virus software maker McAfee Inc.
Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, released a new draft of their legislation aimed at improving the nation's response to cyber attacks. The bill would raise the priority of cybersecurity throughout the federal government and streamline cybersecurity-related functions, authorities and laws.
A judge has awarded a San Francisco attorney $7,000 in damages in a rare trial under California's anti-spam law -- $1,000 for each unsolicited, misleading commercial e-mail he received. Daniel Balsam, who started suing spammers even before he graduated from law school in 2008, filed suit against Trancos Inc., a Redwood City advertising company, over a series of ads that showed up in his personal e-mail in-box in 2007.
Several major U.S. Internet companies, including Google and Facebook, need to "step up" and better protect consumer privacy or face tougher penalties from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, a commissioner said. Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour, who is leaving the FTC next month, ripped into Google for the launch of its Buzz social-networking tool in February, and she complained that many other Internet firms, including Facebook and Microsoft, aren't encrypting the consumer data that lives in their clouds.
A U.S. federal judge has agreed to freeze the assets of a company being accused of manipulating the stocks of 38 companies listed on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange via compromised trading accounts, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said. The SEC alleges in a complaint filed in federal district court in New York that BroCo Investments and its president, Valery Maltsev, gained access to investor accounts using stolen usernames and passwords, and placed unauthorized trades through the accounts.
Google's bid for a trademark on its Nexus One smartphone has been denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which concluded that the name is too similar to a trademark held by Portland-based Integra Telecom. That trademark has been held since 2008 by Integra, which provides phone, Internet and other telecom services to small and midsized businesses.
The U.S. Federal Communication Commission's national broadband plan received generally positive reviews, with some groups calling the plan ambitious and necessary. Other groups suggested the broadband plan would lead to more regulation of the Internet and huge new government programs.
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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.