Officials announced new rules aimed at controlling the way Chinese Internet users post messages on social networking sites that have posed challenges to the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda machinery. For many users, the most striking of the new rules requires people using the sites, called microblogs, or weibo in Chinese, to register with their real names and biographical information.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office planned to announce the indictment of 55 people who it said stole over $2 million as part of a cybercrime ring. Some of the ring’s major targets were donors to UJA-Federation of New York, including some of the city’s top philanthropists, whose financial information was stolen by an employee of the nonprofit organization, according to a person with direct knowledge of the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In a case with potentially far-reaching consequences for freedom of expression on the Internet, a federal judge dismissed a criminal case against a man accused of stalking a religious leader on Twitter, saying that the Constitution protects “uncomfortable” speech on such bulletin-board-like sites. The government had accused William Lawrence Cassidy of harassing and causing “substantial emotional distress” to a Buddhist religious leader named Alyce Zeoli.
Some of the original engineers of the Internet called for lawmakers to scrap anti-piracy bills, saying the proposals would pose major technological barriers for the Web and stifle new innovations. The letter comes as House Judiciary committee members debate the Stop Online Piracy Act introduced by Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) that has drawn impassioned support from media firms but opposition by Web firms and some public interest groups.
Facebook Inc. is rolling out a technical fix to try to block software that disrupts the site's advertising business and irritates users. The social-media site said that it was reviewing legal and technical options to address the software, which inserts an additional layer of ads on Web pages, pushing down content and ads sold by Facebook.
Two of the world's largest record companies joined a lawsuit against Grooveshark, an online music service they say infringes on their copyrights. The music companies, Sony Corp.'s Sony Music Entertainment and Access Industries Inc.'s Warner Music Group, joined in an amended complaint to a suit filed last month by Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Federal investigators are probing allegations that Carrier IQ software found on about 150 million cellphones tracked user activity and sent the information to the cellphone companies without informing consumers, according to government officials. Executives from Carrier IQ traveled to Washington and met with officials at the Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for protecting consumers and enforcing privacy laws.
The European Union’s competition regulator ended an antitrust investigation into International Business Machines after the company agreed to modify the way it supplied parts and information to rivals. The commission said it had accepted IBM’s offer to supply some spare parts and technical information to companies that service and maintain IBM mainframe computers on nondiscriminatory terms for five years.
Two bills, broadly supported on both sides of the political aisle, aim to cut off the oxygen for foreign pirate sites by taking aim at American search engines like Google and Yahoo, payment processors like PayPal and ad servers that allow the pirates to function. Naturally the howls of protest have been loud and lavishly financed, not only from Silicon Valley companies but also from public-interest groups, free-speech advocates and even venture capital investors.
HTC Corp, the world's No.4 smartphone maker, said that a U.S. court has further postponed a final ruling on its lawsuit against Apple Inc. An HTC official said the International Trade Commission, a U.S. trade panel that investigates patent infringement involving imported goods, would deliver its ruling on December 19.
Companies that missed the chance to register their trademarked names as ".xxx," a new Web domain, may find that others picked them up instead. And those who bought previously trademarked domain names may not find riches they're hoping for.
Apple Inc., fighting to protect sales of the iPhone worldwide, was sued by a U.S. company contending its products infringe two patents for caller-identification technology. Cequint Inc. of Seattle, a unit of data-network servicer TNS Inc. of Reston, Virginia, seeks unspecified damages and a court order to stop Apple’s use of the inventions, according to a complaint in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.
A Connecticut man affiliated with the Anonymous hacking group has been arrested on federal charges for an attack on a website belonging to Kiss bassist Gene Simmons. Kevin Poe, of Manchester, Conn., was indicted in Los Angeles on two counts: conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer.
Facebook is making it easier for people who express suicidal thoughts on the social networking site to get help. A program enables users to instantly connect with a crisis counselor through Facebook's "chat" messaging system.
By Brooke Donald
Associated Press Posted: 12/13/2011 08:25:13 AM PST Updated: 12/13/2011 10:46:56 AM PST
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MENLO PARK -- Facebook is making it easier for people who express suicidal thoughts on the social networking site to get help.
A program launching Tuesday enables users to instantly connect with a crisis counselor through Facebook's "chat" messaging system.
The service is the latest tool from Facebook aimed at improving safety on its site, which has more than 800 million users. Earlier this year, Facebook announced changes to how users report bullying, offensive content and fake profiles.
"One of the big goals here is to get the person in distress into the right help as soon as possible," Fred Wolens, public policy manager at Facebook, told The Associated Press.
Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) have long provided the phone number to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline as the first result when someone searches for "suicide" using their sites. Through email, Facebook also directed users to the hotline or encouraged friends to call law enforcement if they perceived someone was about to do harm.
The new service goes a step further by enabling an instant chat session that Advertisement experts say can make all the difference with someone seeking help.
"The science shows that people experience reductions in suicidal thinking when there is quick intervention," said Lidia Bernik, associate project director of Lifeline. "We've heard from many people who say they want to talk to someone but don't want to call. Instant message is perfect for that."
How the service works is if a friend spots a suicidal thought on someone's page, he can report it to Facebook by clicking a link next to the comment. Facebook then sends an email to the person who posted the suicidal comment encouraging them to call the hotline or click on a link to begin a confidential chat.
Facebook on its own doesn't troll the site for suicidal expressions, Wolens said. Logistically it would be far too difficult with so many users and so many comments that could be misinterpreted by a computer algorithm.
"The only people who will have a really good idea of what's going on is your friends so we're encouraging them to speak up and giving them an easy and quick way to get help," Wolens said.
There have been high profile incidents of suicidal expressions on Facebook.
Last month, authorities in Pittsburg said a man posted a suicide note on Facebook before he killed his wife and in-laws then himself.
In July, police in Pennsylvania said they believed they were able to help prevent a man's suicide after the man's friend in California alerted police about a distraught Facebook posting. Police met with the man, who was committed to a hospital.
Nearly 100 Americans die by suicide every day, and 36,035 a year, according to U.S Surgeon General Regina Benjamin's office.
"We have effective treatments to help suicidal individuals regain hope and a desire to live and we know how powerful personal connections and support can be," Benjamin said in a statement. "Facebook and the Lifeline are to be commended for addressing one of this nation's most tragic public health problems."
The Lifeline currently responds to dozens of users on Facebook each day. Crisis center workers will be available 24 hours a day to respond to users selecting the chat option.
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Microsoft Corp. purposely duped a Utah company into believing its writing application would be included in the Windows 95 rollout, then pulled the plug so Microsoft could gain market share with its own product, an attorney said in closing arguments of a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit against the software giant. "It was purely a predatory action," Novell Inc. attorney Jeff Johnson told jurors.
European antitrust regulators have suspended their investigation into Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a maker of smartphones, until Google provides additional evidence in the case, the European Commission said. Google needed to supply “certain documents that are essential for the evaluation of the transaction,” Amelia Torres, a spokeswoman for the commission, said.
As few as 12 different Chinese groups, largely backed or directed by the government there, commit the bulk of the China-based cyberattacks stealing critical data from U.S. companies and government agencies, according to U.S. cybersecurity analysts and experts. The aggressive but stealthy attacks, which have stolen billions of dollars in intellectual property and data, often carry distinct signatures allowing U.S. officials to link them to certain hacker teams.
Indian authorities are investigating a computer server in Mumbai for links to the Duqu malicious software that some security experts warned could be the next big cyber threat. Web Werks, a Mumbai-based Web-hosting company, said it had given an image of the suspicious virtual private server to officials from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), after security firm Symantec Corp found the server was communicating with computers infected with the Duqu virus.
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.
The European Union should help teach bloggers living under oppressive regimes how to communicate freely and avoid detection, and develop technology to help them, the bloc's digital affairs commissioner said. Speaking at an online free speech conference, Neelie Kroes said digital dissidents need tools that are "simple and ready-made."
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