Advertisers and Internet companies have been scrambling to head off regulation they say will hamper growth of online advertising. The pressure is expected to build as lawmakers prepare to announce proposed privacy legislation.
U.S. antitrust regulators are considering an inquiry into whether Apple violates antitrust law by requiring that its programming tools be used to write applications for the popular iPad and iPhone, a source familiar with the matter said. Both the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department enforce antitrust law, and no decision has been made on which would take the probe, said the source, who spoke privately for business reasons.
China's media regulator vowed a crackdown on online crimes and strengthened monitoring to prevent "overseas hostile forces from infiltrating through the Internet," state media said. Wang Chen, head of the Information Office of the State Council, said the country would intensify a crackdown on online crimes as part of an ongoing campaign that he said netted more than 5,510 suspects last year.
A new survey finds that while more than 90 percent of private and public sector security experts say cyber attacks pose a serious threat, they differ on whether each side is doing enough to protect their networks. The poll, released before the start of a worldwide cybersecurity summit in Dallas, found that 70 percent of government officials surveyed said private-sector networks were not secure enough, while only 39 percent of private sector security officials surveyed believed government networks were not secure enough.
A U.S. federal jury found that Novell and Red Hat were not guilty of infringing on user interface patents held by IP Innovation LLC. IP Innovation LLC, a Northbrook, Ill.-based subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation and Technology Licensing Corporation, brought the suit against the two companies in 2007, claiming that they had infringed on three patents.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has indicated he wants to keep broadband services deregulated, according to sources, even as a federal court decision has exposed weaknesses in the agency's ability to be a strong watchdog over the companies that provide access to the Web. The FCC currently has "ancillary" authority over broadband providers such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon and must adequately justify actions over those providers.
Privacy issues have prompted marketers to use online behavioral advertising -- based on tracking a user’s Web browsing habits -- 75 percent less than they would otherwise, according to a report by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy research group. The 90 companies and organizations surveyed curtailed their behavioral advertising, even though they estimated the tracking-based ads were 50 percent more efficient in generating sales than conventional online display ads.
Privacy issues have prompted marketers to use online behavioral advertising — based on tracking a user’s Web browsing habits — 75 percent less than they would otherwise, according to a report by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy research group.
The 90 companies and organizations surveyed curtailed their behavioral advertising, even though they estimated the tracking-based ads were 50 percent more efficient in generating sales than conventional online display ads.
A college student who hacked into Sarah Palin's e-mail account and posted some of its contents on the Internet was found guilty. The jury convicted David Kernell, 22, on two charges: unauthorized access to a computer and obstruction of justice.
Two nonprofit groups with a history of criticizing Facebook's privacy policies put out splashy messages to voice their opposition to the social network's latest changes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation published a timeline of Facebook's privacy policy modifications over the years, and liberal activist group MoveOn.org launched a Facebook group called "Facebook, respect my privacy!" in response to its new "Instant Personalization" option that shares a significant amount of profile data.
The United States placed Russia on its list of countries with the worst records of preventing copyright theft for the 13th straight year, just days after the two nations agreed to intensify talks on Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organization. The U.S. Trade Representative's office also put China on its "priority watch list" for the sixth consecutive year and Canada for the second.
Representatives from three major Internet service providers and five industry trade groups sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to discourage the agency against classifying broadband as a telecommunications service, which would boost the FCC's power to regulate broadband providers. In the letter, AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and other signers pushed back on the argument that classifying broadband in this way would be returning to oversight schemes that existed before the FCC was under the control of the administration of Republican President George W. Bush, which consumer advocates say imposed deregulatory policies.
When Sony nerfed Linux support for the PS3 in early April, we knew it was only a matter of time before someone pulled a pack of lawyers out of their pocket. Sure enough, a complaint filed in San Francisco federal court is after class action status to wring compensation from Sony for yanking what some considered a quintessential feature of the company's flagship games console.
The person who found and sold an Apple iPhone prototype says he regrets not doing more to return the device to its owner, according to a statement provided by his attorney in response to queries from Wired.com. Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, California, says although he was paid by tech site Gizmodo, he believed the payment was for allowing the site exclusive access to review the phone.
Without comment, Judge Gerald Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia threw out a lawsuit filed by language software company Rosetta Stone in a victory for Google before it ever came to trial. Rosetta Stone had originally filed suit hoping to stop Google from selling trademarked keywords to companies that did not hold the rights to those trademarks, a practice which Rosetta Stone argued has confused consumers and harmed its brand.
Google’s plan to offer Street View photo mapping in Germany, which has bumped up against the country’s strict privacy laws, has come in for renewed criticism after regulators learned that the company, a search engine giant, was also archiving the locations of household wireless networks. Google’s Street View technology has been accepted in countries like Britain and France, but has encountered greater resistance in Germany and Switzerland, where data privacy laws are stricter than in the rest of Europe or in the United States.
Industry leaders cautioned federal lawmakers during a hearing not to seek too drastic changes to long-standing rules that govern how websites safeguard children's privacy. While both Microsoft and Facebook argue that recent technological advances, including the rise of the mobile Web, necessitate new protections for children under 13, they signaled that aggressive changes to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) would harm innovation and perhaps even the law's original intent.
Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., attempted to assuage industry concerns over the scope of his panel's cybersecurity bill, saying the legislation does not seek to give the government new emergency powers or the authority to dictate business operations.
Dwight Howard became the latest victim of the National Basketball Association's tough stance against criticizing game officials as the league handed the Orlando Magic center a $35,000 fine. Howard, a four-times All-Star and the first overall pick by Orlando in the 2004 draft, was fined for public criticism of officiating that appeared on his personal blog on April 27, the league said in a statement.
A former San Francisco network engineer was convicted of felony computer tampering after a trial in which prosecutors portrayed him as bent on protecting his "kingdom" -- the city system he created -- by refusing to surrender passwords to his bosses. Terry Childs, 45, of Pittsburg, was found guilty of a felony charge of denying computer access.
Will the next big legal battle be Microsoft vs. Google regarding the search engine giant's Android mobile operating system? Microsoft signed a patent agreement with HTC that provides broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for Android-based HTC phones, but media reports suggest that Microsoft is now publicly asserting that Android infringes on Microsoft intellectual property.
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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.