Companies that violate the rather easy-to-follow requirements associated with free software licenses requirements do so out of ignorance about the rules of engagement. But many companies using free software fear that open-source supporters will become more aggressive and pursue large payments over possible violations.
A Spanish court sided with Google in a dispute with the broadcaster Telecinco, saying Google’s online video-sharing service, YouTube, did not have to screen television clips for potential copyright violations before posting them on the site. The decision, by a commercial court in Madrid, follows a similar ruling in the United States in June, when a judge rejected copyright infringement claims against YouTube by the media company Viacom.
In his first hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, new U.S. Cyber Command head Gen. Keith Alexander offered a troubling window into the threats that Pentagon networks face at the hands of terrorist and criminal syndicates, foreign intelligence organizations, and “hacktivists” intent on infiltrating power grids and financial networks.
The Federal Communications Commission approved the use of unlicensed broadcast airwaves known as "white spaces" that the agency hopes will amount to better quality and longer-range Wi-Fi-like connections for mobile devices. In a unanimous vote, the five-member FCC said the airwaves -- unused channels between TV stations -- will be used for mobile broadband services.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee grappled over the best path forward toward modernizing the Electronics Communications Privacy Act, CongressDaily reported. "No one would quibble with the notion that ECPA is outdated," Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at a hearing, but, he added, "The question of how best to update this law has no simple answer."
Apple has been hit with a patent infringement lawsuit by a privately held New Jersey company called Multi-Format Inc. The company claims that Apple violates 20 claims of a particular patent by offering downloadable video content from iTunes.
The sharp growth in extremist websites is making recruitment much easier for al-Qaeda, according to Interpol head Ronald Noble. "The threat is global, it is virtual and it is on our doorsteps," he said.
Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said an investigation into the way Facebook’s third-party applications obtain user data is over and that her office was “pleased” with the social networking site’s move last May to make its privacy settings simpler and easier to understand. But the office is still reviewing other complaints that the Internet giant has made some user information available too broadly on the Web.
The Czech Office for Personal Data Protection, or UOOU, reiterated its refusal to allow Google to collect personal data for its Street View mapping service citing legal hurdles and the intrusive nature of the service. "A data [collector] seated outside the European Union is obliged to appoint a representative on the territory of the Czech Republic. Google Inc, an American entity, has failed to do this," Igor Nemec, UOOU chairman, told reporters.
Google filed a civil lawsuit in a court in San Jose, Calif., against rogue advertisers who market prescription pharmaceuticals online in violation of the company's policies. The company alleges that Omar Jackman, of Brooklyn, New York, an individual identified only as "Simon" in Manhattan, New York, and an indeterminate number of individuals to be identified later, used deliberate misspellings of pharmaceutical names to bypass Google's efforts to flag and review ads promoting online pharmacies and prescription drugs through its AdWords advertising program.
Cyber-bullying may be even harder on the victims than physical beatings or name-calling, U.S. researchers reported. And unlike traditional bullies, cyber-bullies seem to be less depressed than their prey, the team at the National Institutes of Health found.
India is in talks with Research In Motion to gain access to BlackBerry corporate e-mails after securing access to instant messages sent via the devices, a senior government source said. India, which along with several other countries has expressed concerns that BlackBerry services could be used to stir political or social instability, had threatened RIM with a ban if it were denied access to data.
Google planned to introduce a new tool called the Transparency Report that publishes where and when Internet traffic to Google sites is blocked, and the blockages are annotated with details when possible. For instance, the tool shows that YouTube has been blocked in Iran since the disputed presidential election in June 2009.
Facebook and Twitter users should get ready for spikes of spam -- like the surge that disrupted Twitter -- to become a recurring experience. The more new features Facebook and Twitter add, the more spammers can be expected to search out fresh security holes -- and exploit them until technicians respond, cybersecurity experts say.
The use of so-called Flash cookies are leading to an increasing number of federal lawsuits against media and technology companies and growing criticism from some privacy advocates who say the software may also allow the companies to create detailed profiles of consumers without their knowledge. Unlike other so-called HTML cookies, which store Web site preferences and can be managed by changing privacy settings in a Web browser, Flash cookies are stored in a separate directory that many users are unaware of and may not know how to control.
Hewlett-Packard Co. and Oracle Corp. said they resolved litigation over the appointment of Mark Hurd as a president of Oracle and reaffirmed the long-term partnership between the two companies. As part of the resolution of the legal dispute, Hurd and HP agreed to modify terms of his separation agreement from HP, including waiving his rights to 330,177 performance-based restricted stock units granted in January 2008, HP said in a regulatory filing.
Stephen Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, said that police are close to wrapping up their investigation into the sale last spring of a prototype iPhone 4 and could forward their final report to his office within the next few weeks. Wagstaffe will then review the information and determine whether to file criminal charges.
Key Senate lawmakers planned to introduce legislation aiming to curb the growth of online piracy and counterfeiting. The bill gives teeth to the Justice Department for enforcement by expediting the process for cracking down on websites that are dedicated to making infringing goods and services available.
German officials met Internet firms to try to reconcile Germany's strict data protection rules with programs like Google's "Street View" mapping system, as calls for regulation intensify. Consumer Protection Minister Ilse Aigner, who has clashed with social networking site Facebook over its handling of user data, told a newspaper she expected tougher legislation to rein in some ambitions of Google, the world's No. 1 search engine.
Piracy proponents created distributed denial of service attacks against music and film websites in the United States over the weekend, and threatened to launch a similar attack in the United Kingdom. The Motion Picture Association of America -- the major lobbying arm of the film industry and one of the most vocal foes of illicit file sharing of entertainment materials -- was down for most of a day, according to piracy blog Torrentfreak.
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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.