The Electronic Frontier Foundation has called Apple out for not responding fast enough, or at all, to a developing legal situation that's got some iOS developers spooked. In a post on the group's blog, EFF staff attorney Julie Samuels said Apple has put developers in a difficult position by requiring them to use within their apps in-app purchase (IAP), a mechanism that's been targeted by a third-party group that says the technology infringes on its patents.
In an ongoing legal battle over its App Store trademark, Apple has hit back at Amazon.com, denying Amazon's claim that "App Store" is a generic term. In papers filed in federal court, Apple said it "denies that the mark APP STORE is generic and, on that basis, denies that the Amazon Appstore for Android service is an 'app store.'"
U.S. lawmakers, considering legislation aimed at protecting consumers’ online privacy, said the market for smartphone applications needs to be regulated to prevent the inappropriate sharing of user data. As mobile devices “become more powerful, more personal information is being concentrated in one place,” Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, said during a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing in Washington on mobile privacy.
A lawsuit filed against China's government and online search provider Baidu Inc. turned a spotlight on Chinese Internet censorship as Facebook Inc. considers entering the market. Eight New York residents filed suit alleging that China's government and Baidu violated the plaintiffs' U.S. constitutional rights by blocking pro-democracy speech from Baidu search results.
Staff investigators at the U.S. International Trade Commission sided with photography pioneer Eastman Kodak in its patent-infringement battle with smartphone giants Apple and Research in Motion. The third-party investigators at the federal agency, which oversees trade disputes, found that Apple and Canada-based RIM infringed an image-preview patent Kodak obtained in 2001.
A team of computer scientists at two University of California campuses sought a "choke point" that could greatly reduce the flow of spam. And in a paper to be presented at the annual IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in Oakland, Calif., they will report that they think they have found it.
Facebook, the largest photo-sharing site on the Internet, said it has begun to use PhotoDNA to hunt for several thousand registered illegal images among the 200 million images uploaded by its users each day. Facebook will host an online event to explain the initiative, which follows its January move to join the center’s Amber Alert network.
Google confirmed that it's starting to roll out a server-side patch for a security vulnerability in most Android phones that could let hackers snatch important credentials at public Wi-Fi hotspots. "Today we're starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in Calendar and Contacts," said a Google spokesman in an emailed statement.
Google has signaled that the company is prepared to oppose the major film and music companies as well as Congress and the president of the United States on a controversial bill designed to thwart online piracy. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said in London that the company is prepared to go on fighting the bill should it become law, according to published reports.
Britain's 300-year-old copyright laws look set for a shake-up after the government welcomed proposals to put the country on a par with international competitors. Key recommendations of the Digital Opportunity review included the legalization of format shifting -- copying CDs or DVDs on to digital music players or computers for personal use -- which is already legal in all European countries bar Britain, Ireland and Malta.
Sony Corp. said it plugged a new online security hole that could have allowed hackers to gain control of accounts on its PlayStation Network and Qriocity entertainment services. The company said it temporarily took down a Web page that allows people to reset passwords for their PlayStation Network and Qriocity accounts from personal computers after it learned of the security hole, which could allow someone with an account holder's date of birth and email address to gain control of those accounts by resetting their passwords.
When Timi Robertson found out her middle-schooler son was being questioned by the Secret Service and the police at his Tacoma, Wa. school, she says she "just about lost it," -- especially after they told her it was over a Facebook post the boy had written warning President Barack Obama of suicide attacks in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death. By the end of the interview, which occurred May 13, the agent told the boy he was free to go and wasn't in trouble.
Google said the Chinese government is interfering with its email services in China, making it difficult for users to gain access to its Gmail program. Google Inc. said its engineers have determined there are no technical problems with the email service or its main website.
Sony Corp. was unapologetic about its delay in informing the more than 100 million customers of its PlayStation Network whose account information was stolen by hackers last month. In a stark departure from the remorseful tone struck just two weeks ago, when senior executives including heir apparent Kazuo Hirai bowed in apology in Tokyo, Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer fired back at critics of the company's actions that led up to the attack and its response time to the crisis.
Location-based services, the mobile-phone applications that make use of a person’s geographic location, are attracting growing attention in Washington following reports that phone and software companies might have been sharing location information with third parties. To try to help consumers understand and navigate the services and their privacy implications, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission will conduct a public education forum on June 28 at FCC headquarters in Washington, the agencies said.
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy unveiled legislation that would require the government to obtain a search warrant to access location information gathered by companies from their customers' wireless devices. The bill seeks to update the 25-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and wrote the original law.
The vast majority of devices running Google's Android operating system are vulnerable to attacks that allow adversaries to steal the digital credentials used to access calendars, contacts, and other sensitive data stored on the search giant's servers, university researchers have warned. The weakness stems from the improper implementation of an authentication protocol known as ClientLogin in Android versions 2.3.3 and earlier, the researchers from Germany's University of Ulm said.
A federal lawsuit over rights to a Twitter feed might sound like a case of bringing a grenade launcher to a squirrel hunt. But the court fight over OMG Facts reminds that the power of a tweet can extend well beyond 140 characters.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city of Atlanta in a dispute over hotel occupancy taxes owed by online travel companies. In a unanimous decision, the justices agreed with a lower court that Hotels.com LP and other online companies should pay city taxes based on the retail room rate they charge their customers.
A complaint was filed with the Federal Trade Commission alleging that the popular Dropbox file-sharing service has been misleading users about the security and privacy of their files. Dropbox offers cross-platform file synchronization and online backup.
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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.