Google Renews Expansion in China Despite Censorship

Google Inc., which pulled its Web-search engine out of mainland China two years ago after a confrontation with Chinese authorities over censorship, has renewed its push to expand there, in an acknowledgment that it can't afford to miss out on the world's biggest Internet market. The search giant is hiring more engineers, salespeople and product managers in China and working to introduce new services for Chinese consumers, according to Daniel Alegre, Google's top executive in Asia.

Software Ass'n Seeks Trademark Help for Domains

As the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers moves forward, despite ongoing concerns, with its decision to launch a program to sell new generic top-level domains, the organization should take new steps to protect trademarks and other intellectual property, a U.S. software trade group said. ICANN should react to problems it sees developing as applications come in for new gTLDs, said the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), a trade group that has questioned the need for a new gTLD program.

Israel Discourages Hackers from Being Vigilantes

Israel called on computer hackers not to take the law into their own hands to avenge attacks on Israeli credit card companies, and said the authorities were capable of countering all cyber threats. "We call on Israeli citizens to abide by (the law). Just as the Israeli government has found answers for terrorism, we will find answers to this challenge... we call on Israeli citizens not to... act as vigilantes," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a statement.

Dutch Cable Companies Must Block Access to Pirate Bay

Two Dutch cable companies were ordered by a court to block access to the website The Pirate Bay to prevent the illegal downloading of free music, films and games in a case brought on behalf of the entertainment industry. In Sweden, where the website was founded, Pirate Bay’s owners have been prosecuted and the website has been banned, but the popular site is still available online around the world.

U.S. Official Approves of ICANN's Domain Expansion

Calls for the U.S. government to halt a plan by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to offer new generic top-level domains are shortsighted because they could lead to other countries attempting to exert control over ICANN, a U.S. government official said. ICANN's plan to begin accepting applications for new gTLDs should move forward, even though there are major concerns about the gTLD plan, said Lawrence Strickling, administrator at the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Memo on Indian Cyber-Attack Called Fake

A memo that triggered a U.S. investigation into a possible cyber-attack by Indian military intelligence is probably a fake, but it is clear from leaked documents that serious security breaches did take place. A little-known hacker group, 'Lords of Dharmaraja', began posting the documents last year, but only drew widespread attention after the anti-virus software firm Symantec confirmed that a segment of its source code had been accessed by the group.

Homeland Security Monitors Facebook, Twitter, Others

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document. A "privacy compliance review" issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a "Social Networking/Media Capability" which involves regular monitoring of "publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards."

CEO Says ICANN Ready for Domain Name Expansion

Companies and law enforcement agencies nervous about a huge expansion in Internet domains -- adding to .com, .net and others -- will have many ways to protect trademarks and identify website owners, the head of the organization that organizes the Internet said. Following complaints from the Federal Trade Commission and others that registries of website owners were sometimes poorly maintained, making it difficult to shut down scams, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom pledged that the top executives of all new registrars would undergo criminal background checks.

Lawsuit Accuses Symantec of Scaring Customers

A lawsuit filed against Symantec Corp. claims that the software maker seeks to persuade consumers to buy its products by scaring them with misleading information about the health of their computers. The complaint alleges that Symantec distributes trial versions of its products that scan a consumer's system, then invariably report that harmful errors, privacy risks and other problems exists on the PC, regardless of the real condition of the machine.

HarperCollins Sues Publisher Over E-Book Edition

A legal battle between HarperCollins Publishers Inc. and a company run by one of its former chief executives is putting the spotlight on a key issue in book publishing today: Who owns the e-book rights to decades-old titles? Two days before Christmas, HarperCollins filed a copyright-infringement suit against Open Road Integrated Media Inc. in federal court in New York, seeking to block Open Road from selling an e-book edition of Jean Craighead George's 1972 children's novel "Julie of the Wolves."

FBI Issues Warning on Financial Phishing Scheme

The FBI issued a warning on one such new Internet blight called "Gameover," which, once ensconced on your PC, can steal usernames and passwords and defeat common methods of user authentication employed by financial institutions. The FBI said it has seen an increase in the use of Gameover, which is an e-mail phishing scheme that invokes the names of prominent government financial institutions -- the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), the Federal Reserve Bank or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Financial Firms Work Together on Cybersecurity

Rising cybersecurity threats are pushing big banks to do something that doesn't come naturally for these secrecy-steeped institutions: share information with one another. This month, security officials from Wall Street financial firms, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., are expected to meet with researchers from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University to discuss the creation of a new type of center that would sift through mountains of bank data to detect potential attacks, people familiar with the situation said.

Lawmakers Want More Privacy Answers from Facebook

Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Tex., lashed out at Facebook for failing to clearly explain how -- and why -- the social networking giant systematically compiles tracking data on its 800 million members, and millions more non-members. Markey and Barton were left unsatisfied by a six-page explanation they recently received from Erin M. Egan, Facebook's Chief Privacy Officer.

Amazon, Indiana Reach Sales Tax Agreement

Amazon.com and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels unveiled an agreement that may mean that the world's largest Internet retailer starts collecting sales tax in the state in 2014. Amazon will voluntarily begin collecting Indiana sales tax on Internet purchases on Jan 1, 2014, or 90 days from any federal online sales tax legislation that may pass before that time, according to a statement from Daniels' office.

Group Wants ICANN to Block Trademarks in New Domains

A Web-expansion program that may add hundreds of top-level domains such as .apple and .nyc to the Internet needs a “Do Not Sell” list to protect brand names, an advertising group said. Companies and organizations should be able to register their brands at no cost on a temporary list in a first round of applications for new domains beginning Jan. 12, the Association of National Advertisers wrote in a letter to the nonprofit group that manages the Internet’s address system.

Actress Identified in Age Suit Against Movie Site

An actress who filed an anonymous lawsuit against Amazon.com and its Internet Movie Database for revealing her age identified herself in a federal court filing. Huong Hoang of Texas (better known by her stage name, Junie Hoang) filed a million-dollar claim against Amazon last fall, saying the company mined her IMDb account to learn her age, 40, and then posted it on her profile -- causing her offers for roles to dry up.

Debate Flares Over 'Stop Online Piracy Act'

Members of Congress may be on vacation, but that hasn't calmed critics who say an effort to stamp out online piracy would create an unprecedented threat to free speech on the Internet. Far from fading from memory, the Stop Online Piracy Act (along with a related Senate bill) has become a rallying point for Web freedom advocates in a debate that has pitted Hollywood and other business interests against some of the biggest titans of the technology world.

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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.