The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission appears to have the votes he needs to pass a framework for net neutrality rules. Net neutrality -- which broadly speaking is an effort to ensure open access to Web sites and online services -- is on the agenda of an FCC meeting Tuesday in Washington.
When federal authorities shut down five Web sites last month on suspicion of copyright infringement, they gave no warning and offered no details of their investigation, and they have not filed any criminal charges since. But after the seizure warrant used in the operation was released, the operators of several of the sites said in interviews that they were innocent of infringement, and criticized the investigation for misrepresenting how their sites worked.
Gawker Media has implemented a number of changes to tighten security, according to a staff memo posted online on a Poynter Institute blog. The changes follow a recent hack that compromised user passwords and corporate communications.
Britain's minister for culture, communications and creative industries is taking aim at all three areas by asking the nation's Internet service providers to block porn from going to home Internet users. The 3-C minister, Ed Vaizey, told the Sunday Times that according to the proposal, home Internet users would have to ask their ISPs for access to porn, which seems hugely embarrassing, demeaning and a violation of free speech.
Microsoft has killed an anti-piracy service that checked whether customers were running legal copies of Office, saying that the program had "served its purpose."
Personal data collected by Google's UK Street View cars has been deleted. The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which has been criticised for not taking a more hardline stance against Google, confirmed the deletion.
Journalists can now post live updates on Twitter Inc. social-networking service from within U.K. courtrooms, allowing news organizations to provide immediate information about ongoing court proceedings such as last week's bail request by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Igor Judge, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, said in a guidance document that "live text-based communications" such as mobile e-mail and social media can be used by reporters during hearings.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by contact lens retailer 1-800-Contacts alleging that its trademark was infringed by competitor Lens.com's search ads. Lens.com and its affiliates allegedly arranged for its ads to appear in search engines' sponsored results in response to searches for 1-800-Contacts and variations of that term.
Online stores that sell fake drugs or pills without prescriptions are being targeted by the U.S. government. It has set up an initiative that will try to shut down the web stores and educate people about the dangers of buying drugs from such places.
Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner's real name -- even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off. These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
Intel Corp.'s $7.68 billion deal to buy security-software specialist McAfee Inc. is running into close scrutiny by European officials that could at least delay completing the high-profile transaction. The European Union's antitrust regulator has privately expressed concerns during its preliminary review of the deal, which could prompt the regulator to submit the deal to a lengthy examination, people familiar with the matter said.
A Japanese woman is suing Google for displaying images of underwear hanging on her washing line on its Street View function. The woman, who has not been named, is suing the Internet giant for 600,000 Yen, claiming the images caused her psychological distress, according to Japan's Mainichi newspaper.
Connecticut's attorney general said his office may take legal action against Google Inc. after the Internet company rejected his request to turn over personal data it inadvertently collected from wireless networks. The attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, and the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection last week issued a civil investigative demand -- the equivalent to a subpoena -- for data collected by Google's Street View vehicles.
Google said it will begin alerting users of the world's most popular search engine websites that may have been hacked. Cyber criminals break into websites and change their content to target users with spam messages or trick them into sharing personal and credit-card information, according to Google.
European Union authorities have broadened their investigation of Google by accepting two complaints from Germany, one involving a powerful group of newspaper and magazine publishers and the other, a mapping company, officials said. Joaquin Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, announced the opening of a broad case against Google at the end of November, saying his investigators would focus on whether Google gave preferential treatment to its own services when ranking search results, and whether it discriminated against competitors.
Several high-profile technology giants including Apple Inc. and Oracle Corp. have been identified as members of a Microsoft Corp.-led consortium buying 882 patents from Novell Inc., though it's unclear why the traditional rivals have banded together to buy the massive trove of intellectual property. When Novell's sale to Attachmate Corp. was announced last month, the business software developer also disclosed the sale of the patents for $450 million to CPTN Holdings LLC, which was described only as "a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft."
Twenty-nine GOP senators are urging FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski not to proceed with his Dec. 21 vote on enforceable "network neutrality" rules barring anticompetitive behavior by communications companies that serve as gateways to the Internet. Among the signatories of a Dec. 15 letter to the agency chief are Senate Commerce ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce communications subcommittee, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
A Commerce Department task force, seeking to develop a framework for online privacy that would benefit both consumers and businesses, called for the creation of an office within the department that would work to strengthen privacy policies in the United States and coordinate initiatives with other countries. The Privacy Policy Office, proposed by the department’s Internet Policy Task Force, would work with the administration, the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies on issues surrounding international and commercial data privacy issues.
Nokia Corp. is suing Apple Inc. in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands for allegedly infringing its patents with technology used in the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The complaints, filed in October through December, follow earlier lawsuits by Nokia claiming that a broad swath of Apple products violate its patents.
The House cleared two technology-related bills including one that aims to crack down on firms that engage in deceptive online marketing tactics. By voice vote, the House passed a Senate bill known as the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act.
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