A controversial proposal allowing the government to pull the plug on Web sites accused of aiding piracy is closer to becoming a federal law. After a flurry of last-minute lobbying from representatives of content providers including the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a Senate committee approved the measure by a unanimous vote.
Warner Bros. is investigating how the first 36 minutes of the newest "Harry Potter" film came to be posted on the Internet, four days ahead of the movie's world-wide theatrical debut. A spokesman for the studio, a unit of Time Warner Inc., declined to say whether it had yet figured out the source of the leak, but said an investigation was underway.
A highly complex computer attack that may have been targeting Iran's nuclear power plants is posing a serious security threat to critical infrastructure worldwide, according to government and cyber-industry experts testifying on Capitol Hill. The computer worm known as Stuxnet was discovered this past July and specifically targets computers that run critical infrastructure such as the electric power grid, water treatment and oil and gas pipelines.
As net-neutrality efforts remain saddled by delay, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski blamed two corporate giants for helping slow down the process: Google and Verizon. Genachowski said that the release of a net-neutrality legislative proposal by the search giant and the telecommunications company helped slow the FCC's net-neutrality efforts, a process that has been dragging along for more than a year.
Google said that it had reached a deal with the publisher Hachette Livre, which has broken ranks with its French rivals and agreed to allow Google to scan thousands of out-of-print books for its digital library project. Under the agreement, which follows a landmark settlement with U.S. publishers last year, Google will be allowed to sell the books it scans as e-books or in other electronic formats.
For about 20 minutes in April, a state-owned Chinese telecommunications firm rerouted massive amounts of Internet traffic, including from U.S. military and government networks, through Chinese servers before sending it on its way, according to a Congressional commission report. Evidence related to the incident does not indicate whether it was deliberate, but computer security researchers have noted the capability could enable "severe malicious activities," said the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in its latest report to Congress.
Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, traveled to Silicon Valley to meet with top executives of several technology firms about a proposal to make it easier to wiretap Internet users. Mr. Mueller and the FBI's general counsel, Valerie Caproni, were scheduled to meet with senior managers of several major companies, including Google and Facebook, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
Even as airline passengers struggle with whether they should have the full-body security scan or go for the "enhanced" pat-down, another potential safety issue has arisen: Does the coming of Wi-Fi service to passengers pose any sort of danger aboard the plane?
The Stuxnet computer worm that infiltrated industrial systems in Iran this fall may have been designed specifically to attack the country's nuclear program, potentially crippling centrifuges used to enrich uranium gas, according to new research.
Android faces a new threat with a lawsuit that Vertical Computer Systems filed against Samsung and LG. Vertical alleges that certain Samsung and LG Android-based phones infringe two of its patents that describe systems for generating applications.
The United States faces a major threat in the future from cyber technologies that will require civil-military coordination to shield networks from attack, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said. "I think there is a huge future threat. And there is a considerable current threat," Gates told The Wall Street Journal CEO Council.
After Facebook's struggle with one privacy issue after another this year, some in the industry are raising privacy questions about Facebook's new messaging system. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the new system at a press conference, he never touched on how the company plans on keeping users' messages private and secure.
Levels of spam have fallen by almost 50% since August 2010, suggest figures. Figures compiled by security firm Symantec show that the amount of junk e-mail messages flowing around the net has dropped 47% in three months.
The U.S., European Union, Japan and other nations resolved the final few issues for an international accord aimed at preventing counterfeiting worldwide, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which would set joint rules for cracking down on the pirating of copyrighted materials, had drawn criticism from companies such as Google Inc., which objected to efforts to export some provisions of copyright law without offsetting protections for the fair use of protected books, music or movies.
A co-chief executive of Germany's SAP apologized to rival Oracle for improperly downloading software files, the first time SAP has apologized in the 3-1/2-year-old case. "I am sorry," SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott said in testimony as SAP kicked off its defense in a software theft lawsuit brought by Oracle in U.S. federal court.
Google urged Western nations to challenge a growing list of Internet restrictions in China and around the world as a violation of global trade rules and to negotiate new trade deals to protect the free flow of online information. "More than 40 governments now engage in broad-scale restriction of online information, a tenfold increase from just a decade ago," the search engine giant said in a policy brief that follows a censorship battle with China this year.
Tweeters have joined forces to support Paul Chambers, the man convicted and fined for a Twitter message threatening to blow up an airport. The Twitter community is angry that the 27-year-old accountant has failed to overturn his conviction.
Saudi Arabia's communications authority unblocked Facebook after shutting down the popular social networking website for a few hours. An official with Saudi's Communications and Information Technology Commission said the kingdom blocked the site briefly because the content had "crossed a line" with the country's conservative values.
Following government requests, YouTube removed videos in which New Mexico-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki urges Muslims to take up arms against the United States. But jihadists -- much like the rest of humanity -- continue to make plenty of use of YouTube.
File-sharing service LimeWire, which last month was shut down by a federal judge, published a notice on its website warning that other applications are using its name.
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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.