Senators introduced an Internet privacy bill that would create first-time rules for Facebook, Google and other Web firms that thrive by collecting information about users. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said their measure aims to protect Internet users by forcing companies to explain how they collect information and what they do with it.
Walker Digital, a research and development laboratory for technology patents, filed 15 lawsuits against more than 100 companies including Apple, Microsoft, eBay, Amazon and Google for unauthorized use of its intellectual property rights. Walker Digital, a Stamford, Connecticut-based company that includes Priceline.com founder Jay S. Walker as its chairman, filed the lawsuits in a Delaware court alleging that some of the biggest names in technology are using inventions created and owned by Walker Digital.
E-mails allegedly written by Facebook Inc. co-founder Mark Zuckerberg are cited in a new court filing by Paul Ceglia as proof of his claim that he’s entitled to 50 percent of the company under a 2003 contract. The revised complaint, filed in federal court in Buffalo, New York, includes new allegations supporting Ceglia’s claim to own part of Palo Alto, California-based Facebook, the world’s biggest social-networking site, including that Zuckerberg sent numerous e-mails discussing the terms of the contract and the early development of “The Face Book” with Ceglia.
A Democratic senator is preparing to introduce legislation that aims to end the golden era of tax-free Internet shopping. The proposal -- expected to be made public soon after Tax Day -- would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the ability of Americans to shop at Web sites like Amazon.com and Overstock.com without paying state sales taxes.
The Huffington Post is the target of a multimillion dollar lawsuit filed in United States District Court in New York on behalf of thousands of uncompensated bloggers. The suit seeks at least $105 million in damages for more than 9,000 writers.
Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that it has settled its contentious suit against infamous hacktivist George Hotz, aka GeoHot. For those who haven't been keeping up, Hotz hacked Sony's PlayStation 3, jailbreaking it to run non-Sony-approved software and, potentially, pirated games.
Chinese telecommunications hardware maker ZTE Corp. filed a lawsuit in China against a unit of Swedish rival Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson over alleged patent infringement, said Wang Haibo, ZTE's intellectual-property director. The move escalates a legal battle that began when Ericsson said earlier this month it filed patent-infringement lawsuits against ZTE in the U.K., Italy and Germany, and highlights ZTE's growth overseas in competition with Western rivals.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss -- the former Harvard University classmates of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg -- can't undo their settlement over the social networking site. The appeals court ruled that the twins were savvy enough to understand what they were agreeing to when they signed the agreement in 2008, a deal that called for a $20 million cash payment and a partial ownership of Facebook.
Google falsely claimed that a version of its hosted services for government agencies was certified under a government security standard, according to court documents. Microsoft noticed the false claim in a court filing and quickly pointed it out on its legal and government affairs blog.
Government officials are imposing significant conditions on Google Inc. as they allowed the Internet search leader to proceed with its $700 million purchase of airline fare tracker ITA Software. The purchase will establish the Internet search giant as a key player in online travel.
Federal securities regulators are weighing demands to make it easier for fast-growing companies to use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to raise money by tapping thousands of investors for very small amounts of shares. The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at adapting its rules to encourage Internet-age techniques for small companies raising capital.
The House of Representatives voted to reject Internet "neutrality" rules that were adopted last year to keep big Internet service providers from blocking certain traffic. House Republicans, in a 240-179 vote, pushed through a measure disapproving the Federal Communications Commission's rules.
Public interest groups are keeping the option of lawsuits against the Federal Communications Commission on the table to fight for stronger Internet "neutrality" rules, an executive at a public interest law firm said. So-called net neutrality rules adopted by the FCC in December would prevent network operators from blocking lawful content but still let them ration access to their networks.
The ongoing fight between Time Warner Cable and Viacom over whether the former has the right to include Viacom channels on their iPad app is getting more serious... and more litigious. TWC has filed a request that a New York District Court rule its existing carriage agreement with Viacom allows it to stream Viacom's channels on the iPad.
Convicted hacker Albert Gonzalez, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the massive hacks at TJX, Heartland and numerous retailers, now claims that he thought he was authorized and directed by the government to carry out the illegal activities. In a petition filed last month, first reported by Wired, Gonzalez informed the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts that he would like to withdraw his guilty plea and asked the court to vacate its sentence.
The U.S. Justice Department dismissed as "absurd" any privacy and free speech concerns about its request for access to the Twitter accounts of WikiLeaks volunteers. In a 32-page brief filed in federal court in Virginia, prosecutors characterized their request for a court order as a "routine compelled disclosure" that raises no constitutional issues.
Hewlett-Packard sued a former high-ranking executive who had left to join rival Oracle to stop him from sharing hundreds of documents HP claims he stole from the company. HP claims Adrian Jones, its former head of enterprise sales for the Asia region, stole documents and e-mails on a USB device which contained proprietary and valuable information about HP's products and customers.
Time Warner Cable sought a court ruling affirming its rights to deliver programming of Viacom over its cable systems, according to a lawsuit. The lawsuit said Viacom had threatened legal action against TWC for transmitting Viacom services to TWC cable subscribers who wish to use iPads in their homes as an additional screen to watch their cable service.
Google Inc. and the Justice Department are close to agreeing a legal settlement to avert a court challenge to the company's $700 million acquisition of flight-data company ITA Software, according to people familiar with the matter. Though it isn't finalized, the proposed agreement would allow some government antitrust monitoring of its operations for the first time, potentially setting a benchmark for any future acquisitions by Google.
Social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter can be valuable assets for law enforcement agencies, helping them alert the public, seek information about crimes and gather evidence about the backgrounds of criminal suspects. But the Internet can also get police departments into trouble.
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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.