Senator Wants Answers on Domain Name Seizures

A sudden move to return a hip-hop site to its owner after it was seized and held by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a year has renewed criticism of the agency's domain confiscation program called In Our Sites. Since its launch in June 2010, the initiative, spearheaded by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) directorate, has seized hundreds of websites for alleged intellectual property violations, including a raid on "Cyber Monday" that shut down 150 websites for selling or distributing counterfeit goods.

"This we will not do"

Convicted Murderer Gets New Trial After Juror's Tweets

The Arkansas Supreme Court tossed out a death row inmate’s murder conviction and said he deserves a new trial because one juror slept and another tweeted during court proceedings. Erickson Dimas-Martinez’s attorneys had appealed his 2010 murder conviction because a juror sent tweets despite the judge’s instruction not to post on the Internet or communicate with anyone about the case.

Indonesia Threatens to Block BlackBerry Services

Research in Motion Ltd. said it has fulfilled its commitments to improve its operations and cooperate with authorities in Indonesia this year so it doesn't understand why some local officials are again threatening to block its services. Some Indonesian telecommunications officials have revived threats of blocking the popular email and instant messaging functions on RIM's BlackBerry devices, saying it hasn't gone far enough to satisfy demands made early in the year.

Bill Would Amend Video Privacy Protection Act

Netflix is backing a bill in Congress that would amend the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 law that requires a video services company to get a customer’s written consent when it seeks to disclose that client’s personal information, such as rental history. The new bill, passed by the House, would allow consumers to give one-time blanket consent online for a company to share their viewing habits continuously.

Russia, U.S. Plan to Cooperate on 'Technical Threats'

Russia and the United States are planning a regular exchange on "technical threats" that appear to come from computers in each other's territories, a White House spokeswoman said, even as bilateral ties have come under growing strains. A range of mechanisms aimed at confidence building and crisis prevention are being planned to cope with alarming events in cyberspace, said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.

Australian High Court Lets Samsung Sell Tablet

Samsung Electronics Co. can get its rival to Apple Inc.’s iPad 2 on Australian store shelves before Christmas after the country’s highest court denied the U.S. company’s bid to maintain a ban on Samsung Galaxy tablets. Chief Justice Robert French, on behalf of the three-judge High Court panel, said that Apple failed to persuade them that it could win on appeal and denied the company a hearing. He reinstated an appeal court judgment lifting the ban on the Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Australia.

Clinton Urges Countries to Fight Censorship Online

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other international leaders urged countries and private businesses to fight increasing efforts to restrict access to the Internet by repressive governments and even some democratic ones. Opening a two-day conference on digital freedom here sponsored by Google and the Dutch government, Mrs. Clinton warned that restrictions on the Internet threatened not only basic freedoms and human rights, but also international commerce and the free flow of information that increasingly makes it possible.

Judge Says Blogger Doesn't Qualify as Journalist

A U.S. District Court judge in Portland, Ore., ruled that a blogger who wrote about an investment firm that subsequently accused her of defamation must pay the company $2.5 million because she's a blogger who doesn't legally qualify as a journalist. Crystal Cox, whose blogs are a mixture of fact, opinion, and commentary, wrote several posts that were critical of Obsidian Finance Group and its co-founder, Kevin Padrick.

Justice Dep't Investigating E-Book Pricing

The U.S. Justice Department confirmed that it is conducting an antitrust investigation into the pricing of electronic books, the latest antitrust watchdog to probe whether there was improper collusion by publishers and Apple Inc. to prevent discounting. At a congressional hearing, Sharis Pozen, the Justice Department's acting antitrust chief, said: "We are also investigating the electronic book industry, along with the European Commission and the states attorneys general."

RIM Drops 'BBX' Name After Losing Trademark Ruling

Research In Motion has unceremoniously dumped the "BBX" brand name it had chosen two months ago for its new BlackBerry operating system after a U.S. court embarrassed the beleaguered smartphone maker by slapping a temporary ban on its use. In yet another public relations debacle for a company that has suffered through a series of them recently, the court said RIM could not use the BBX name until it could sort out copyright infringement allegations.

Yahoo Spammers Face $610 Million Judgment

Nigerian and Thai scammers who spammed Yahoo! customers about a fake lottery must act now on a $610 million default judgment against them, a federal judge ruled. For several years, the spammers flooded inboxes with millions of emails about a Yahoo! lottery, which a fraud, promising large cash awards for sweepstakes the email customers had not entered.

India, South Korea Seek Greater Internet Monitoring

Two of Asia's largest democracies, India and South Korea, are trying to beef up monitoring of the Internet and social-networking sites as they try to reconcile the demands of free speech with government interest in policing potentially offensive content. Kapil Sibal, India's minister of communications and information technology, said that the government is pushing for a framework to prevent content deemed offensive to religious communities and other groups from appearing online.

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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.