Feds Seize Assets from Alleged Movie-Sharing Websites

A week after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden warned that the government would start cracking down on illegal file sharing, the feds swooped in and seized assets belonging to operators of accused movie-pirating sites. The government also took control of at least seven of the sites in question: Movies-Links.tv, Now-Movies.com, TVShack.net, Filespump.com, Planetmoviez.com, ZML.com, ThePirateCity.org, Ninjavideo.net, and NinjaThis.net.

SAP Competitor Files Antitrust Complaint in Europe

Versata Inc., a unit of closely held Trilogy Inc., filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Germany's SAP AG, alleging it has abused its dominant position in the enterprise software market. In the filing, Versata accuses SAP of illegally excluding the U.S. firm's retail pricing software from SAP's widely used enterprise software platform in order to boost sales of its own pricing tool.

Canadian Registrar May Refuse to Sell .xxx Domains

One of Vancouver's leading domain registrars is still grappling with how to approach news that .xxx has been given an official online domain designation for websites carrying pornographic content. Cybele Negris, co-founder and president of Webnames.ca, told BIV via e-mail that the Vancouver company, which doesn’t allow objectionable material on the sites it hosts, likely would not sell sites with the .xxx suffix. But there may be exceptions.

  • Read the article: BIV

Obama to Expand Wireless Spectrum for Commercial Use

The Obama administration is seeking to nearly double the wireless communications spectrum available for commercial use over the next 10 years, an effort that could greatly enhance the ability of consumers to send and receive video and data with smartphones and other hand-held devices. President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum that aims to make available for auction some 500 megahertz of spectrum that is now controlled by the federal government and private companies, administration officials said.

Schools Struggle with How to Address Cyberbullying

Schools these days are confronted with complex questions on whether and how to deal with cyberbullying, an imprecise label for online activities ranging from barrages of teasing texts to sexually harassing group sites. Affronted by cyberspace’s escalation of adolescent viciousness, many parents are looking to schools for justice, protection, even revenge, but many educators feel unprepared or unwilling to be prosecutors and judges.

After ICANN Vote, .xxx Domain Gets Closer to Reality

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, says it will now start the process of registering ".xxx" by making checks on ICM Registry LLC, the company that wants to run it. ICM's founder Stuart Lawley says he thinks the new address could easily attract at least 500,000 sites, making it after ".mobi" the second biggest sponsored top-level domain name -- or TLD, the name for Web address suffixes such as .com or .org.

ICANN Expected to Approve .xxx Domain

The company that oversees Web addresses is expected to give the go-ahead for the creation of a .xxx suffix for websites with pornographic content, company officials indicated. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the Internet on behalf of the U.S. government, has in the past resisted creating a .xxx generic domain name system akin to those for .com and .net.

FCC Commissioners Discuss Internet Regulation Plan

Lawmakers questioned Federal Communications Commission officials about their plans to regulate Internet access, and overhaul an $8 billion federal phone subsidy fund so it can be used to fund new broadband lines. Members of the Senate Commerce Committee questioned three FCC commissioners about FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposal for the agency to assert more control over the way broadband providers manage Internet traffic.

Lawmakers Want Answers from Apple on Location Data

Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) announced that they have sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs expressing their concerns and asking for answers regarding reports that Apple is gathering location information on its customers. "Given the limited ability of Apple users to opt out of the revised policy and still be able to take advantage of the features of their Apple products, we are concerned about the impact the collection of such data could have on the privacy of Apple's customers," the letter reads.

Subscribe

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.