Lawsuits Called of Limited Value Against Piracy

Lawyers representing independent filmmakers, including the studio that produced Oscar-winner "The Hurt Locker," might learn something from a document filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce by music, television, and film industry trade groups. "The role of lawsuits in solving the online theft problem is clearly limited," wrote the coalition that included the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

Dutch Prosecution Website Blocked in WikiLeaks Protest

Cyber activists attacking organizations seen as foes of WikiLeaks briefly blocked a Dutch prosecution website after a 16-year-old suspected of involvement in the campaign was arrested in the country. The activists also tried to block the website of online payment firm Moneybookers, but denied their attacks were intended to create business turmoil or badly disrupt online Christmas shopping.

ICANN Delays Approval of New Domain Name Process

Internet regulatory body ICANN postponed approval of a mechanism to let groups apply for and manage new Internet domain extensions called generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), such as the existing .com and .net. More time is needed to work through some remaining issues, the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers board said in a resolution approved at a meeting in Cartagena, Colombia.

Connecticut Attorney General Seeks Data from Google

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal issued the equivalent of a subpoena, demanding access to personal data improperly collected by Google Inc. for its Street View mapping service. Blumenthal said in a statement that his office has issued a civil investigative demand in cooperation with the Department of Consumer Protection, as a result of Google's refusal to provide access to e-mails and other data that the company has said was collected inadvertently.

Winklevoss Twins Seek More Money from Facebook

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, famously portrayed by Armie Hammer in The Social Network, aren't finished with their legal action against Facebook. The 29-year-old twins, seemingly unsatisfied with their $65 million they won in 2008, are embroiled in ongoing litigation against Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming that they were lied to about the company's value, according to recently leaked court documents.

Drudge Report Sued by Righthaven Over Photo

Las Vegas copyright enforcement company Righthaven LLC filed its second copyright infringement lawsuit over Denver Post material, this time suing a big target: Drudge Report operator Matt Drudge. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada, charges a Nov. 18 Denver Post "illustration" called "Transportation Security Administration agents perform enhanced pat-downs" was posted without authorization the same day on the Drudge Report website as well as the drudgereportarchives.com site.

U.S. Government Sees Rise in Cyber Attacks

A senior Department of Homeland Security official said that the U.S. government is seeing a rise in cyber attacks aimed at taking over control systems that operate critical infrastructure, such as industrial facilities and pipelines. Greg Schaffer, assistant secretary for the DHS Office of Cybersecurity and Communications, said the government is tracking more and more cyber attacks that have a greater level of sophistication and are tailored to target specific types of industrial infrastructure, such as power grids.

China Arrests Housewives Smuggling iPads, Phones

Customs officials in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city just across the border from Hong Kong, recently caught 14 housewives trying to carry 88 iPads and 340 mobile phones into China, in a bust worth 950,000 yuan, or roughly $143,000, the Guangzhou Daily reported. One woman had 65 mobile phones strapped around her waist and over 20 more in a handbag, according to the newspaper.

Intellectual Ventures Files Three Patent Lawsuits

Intellectual Ventures, the big investment firm that has bought up 30,000 patents and headed by Microsoft's former chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, filed three separate patent infringement suits against nine companies. The three suits cover security software, standard memory and flash memory chips, and field-programmable gate array chips (specialized chips used in products including cellphones, aerospace and defense weaponry, and medical imaging equipment).

EU Fines Companies for Fixing LCD Panel Prices

The European Commission imposed fines on five South Korean and Taiwanese companies for fixing the prices of liquid crystal display panels in popular devices like flat-screen televisions, computers and notebook devices. The fines, totaling €649 million or $859.6 million, were related to violations dating back to 2001, when the companies started meeting to fix prices of LCD screens.

Hackers Attack Sites That Thwarted WikiLeaks

A small army of activist hackers orchestrated a broad campaign of cyberattacks in support of the beleaguered antisecrecy organization WikiLeaks, which has drawn governmental criticism from around the globe for its release of classified American documents and whose founder, Julian Assange, is being held in Britain on accusations of sex offenses. Targets included Mastercard.com, which stopped processing donations for WikiLeaks; Amazon.com, which revoked server space from the group; the online payment service PayPal, which cut off its commercial cooperation; the lawyer representing the two Swedish women who have accused Mr. Assange in the sex case; and PostFinance, the Swiss postal system’s financial arm, which closed Mr. Assange’s account after saying he provided false information by saying that he resided in Switzerland.