A person briefed on the negotiations says Google Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are close to finalizing a proposal for so-called "network neutrality" rules, which would dictate how broadband providers treat Internet traffic flowing over their lines.
The Internet giant Google said that it would change its search policy for most of Europe to allow advertisers to buy and use terms that have been trademarked by others as keywords. Previously, brand owners could file a trademark complaint with Google to prevent third-party ads from being returned alongside the results of a search of a trademarked name, such as Louis Vuitton or Prada.
Microsoft said that it has settled a patent dispute with Salesforce.com, with both companies licensing each other's patents and the cloud software firm paying an undisclosed sum to Redmond. Read the article: CNET News
The Federal Trade Commission and Intel announced that they had agreed to settle charges of anticompetitive behavior that the agency claimed stifled competition in the market for computer processing and graphics chips. The settlement prohibits Intel from the practice of paying customers to buy its computer chips exclusively or to refuse to buy chips from other manufacturers.
Several versions of Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch have potentially serious security problems, a German government agency said in an official warning. Apple's iOS operating system has "two critical weak points for which no patch exists," the Federal Office for Information Security said.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will announce a legal settlement with Intel Corp. to resolve charges that the chip maker engaged in a decade-long campaign to stifle competition and strengthen its dominant position in the microchip market.
A newly discovered vulnerability in the software that runs Apple's iPad and iPhone could allow hackers to enslave the popular mobile devices, three security firms said. The flaw affects Apple's iOS, which also runs the iPod touch, and could allow hackers to take complete control of a vulnerable device, according to Symantec Corp as well as privately held Lookout and Vupen.
A top executive of Research In Motion, the Canadian company that makes BlackBerry smartphones, said that his company would not give in to pressure from foreign governments to provide access to its customers' messages. That pressure increased as Saudi Arabia ordered local cellphone providers to halt BlackBerry service because it did not meet the country's regulatory requirements.
A question-and-answer page on Google Hong Kong's website became inaccessible to some mainland Chinese users, underscoring Beijing's sensitivity about the Internet. The Chinese government, obsessed with maintaining social stability and controlling the flow of information, requires all search engines operating on the mainland to self-censor.
The FBI wrote a letter in July to the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, demanding that it take down an image of the FBI seal accompanying an article on the bureau, and threatened litigation. The problem, those at Wikipedia say, is that the law cited in the FBI's letter is largely about keeping people from flashing fake badges or profiting from the use of the seal, and not about posting images on noncommercial Web sites.
A judge's ruling in a pre-trial motion involving a Gaston County murder case affirms that First Amendment protection extends to those who make anonymous comments about stories on news websites. Attorneys for Michael Mead had sought to force The Gaston Gazette to reveal information that could have been used to help reveal the identity of an anonymous commenter on the news organization's website.
Blockbuster Inc., the money-losing movie-rental chain, won a judge's ruling that it doesn't infringe a patent owned by American Patent Development Corp. LLC for video-on-demand technology. The Dallas-based company and its Movielink unit, of Santa Monica, California, were sued in 2007 over the 1995 patent.
Hackers have begun adapting tried-and-true computer infections to work on Internet-enabled smartphones that are all the rage with consumers.
Research In Motion Ltd. issued a statement to its BlackBerry customers assuring them that their data was secure, a day after regulators in the United Arab Emirates said they'd tussled with RIM over access to that data.
In the e-book price wars, Apple and Amazon might be enjoying an unfair advantage, Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said as he announced an investigation of their contracts with book publishers. Blumenthal fired off letters to each company requesting that their attorneys schedule a meeting with his office to discuss their deals with five of the largest e-book publishers in the U.S.: Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and Penguin.
Apple sued companies it said are selling unauthorized electronic accessories such as chargers, speakers and cables for the iPod music player, iPhone and iPad tablet computer. "Many are of inferior quality and reliability, raising significant concerns over compatibility with and damage to Apple's products," Apple said in the complaint, citing a user comment that a charger from one of the companies drained his iPod rather than replenishing the battery.
The banking industry wants consumers to monitor their online accounts for unauthorized transactions on a "continuous, almost daily, basis," says Doug Johnson, the American Bankers Association's vice president of risk-management policy. That's because PCs and smartphones have become "the online bank branch for a lot of individuals," he says.
Two security experts said they released a tool for attacking smartphones that use Google Android operating system to persuade manufacturers to fix a bug that lets hackers read a victim's e-mail and text messages.
The largest U.S. websites are installing new and intrusive consumer-tracking technologies on the computers of people visiting their sites -- in some cases, more than 100 tracking tools at a time -- a Wall Street Journal investigation has found. The tracking files represent the leading edge of a lightly regulated, emerging industry of data-gatherers who are in effect establishing a new business model for the Internet: one based on intensive surveillance of people to sell data about, and predictions of, their interests and activities, in real time.
The UAE said it will block key features on BlackBerry smart phones, citing national security concerns because the devices operate beyond the government's ability to monitor their use. Officials in neighboring Saudi Arabia indicated it planned to follow suit.
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