Companies Take Extreme Steps to Protect Data Abroad

What might have once sounded like the behavior of a paranoid is now standard operating procedure for officials at American government agencies, research groups and companies that do business in China and Russia — like Google, the State Department and the Internet security giant McAfee. Digital espionage in these countries, security experts say, is a real and growing threat — whether in pursuit of confidential government information or corporate trade secrets.

Apple Sues Motorola Over iPhone 4S License Agreement

Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit against Motorola Mobility Inc., saying Apple's iPhone 4S is protected under a license agreement from Qualcomm Inc. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, is the latest maneuver in a series of legal battles between smartphone makers that include litigation between Apple and Motorola in Germany.

Hackers Take Down CIA, Other Government Websites

Websites affiliated with the CIA, Mexico's mining ministry and the state of Alabama were down, allegedly done in by hackers, government officials and a well-known hacking group reported. A message on a Twitter page and Tumblr feed affiliated with the hacking group known as Anonymous celebrated that the Central Intelligence Agency's website had been taken down.

Friday on a Twitter page and Tumblr feed affiliated with the hacking group k

New York Settles Antitrust Suit Against Intel

In a deal resolving one of the last remaining governmental antitrust actions against chip giant Intel, New York's Attorney General has settled its suit against the Santa Clara company, which has agreed to pay $6.5 million to cover some of New York's legal costs in the dispute. Intel didn't admit wrongdoing in the agreement, which follows a December court ruling that had significantly scaled back the scope of the suit.

Intel settles New York antitrust suit

By Steve Johnson sjohnson@mercurynews.com

Posted:   02/09/2012 03:17:20 PM PST Updated:   02/09/2012 03:17:22 PM PST

In a deal resolving one of the last remaining governmental antitrust actions against chip giant Intel (INTC), New York's Attorney General has settled its suit against the Santa Clara company, which has agreed to pay $6.5 million to cover some of New York's legal costs in the dispute.

Intel didn't admit wrongdoing in the agreement, which follows a December court ruling that had significantly scaled back the scope of the suit. The deal -- which was dated Wednesday but announced by Intel on Thursday -- also does not require the company to alter its business practices, despite New York's claim when it filed the action in 2009 that Intel's marketing practices were unfairly designed to hinder sales of chips by Sunnyvale-based Advanced Micro Devices.

"We have always said that Intel's business practices are lawful, pro-competitive and beneficial to consumers, and we are pleased this matter has been resolved," said Doug Melamed, Intel's general counsel in a statement issued by the company.

Officials with the New York Attorney General's Office could not be reached for comment.

Intel spokesman Sumner Lemon said the only remaining antitrust actions that Intel still faces from governmental regulators is its appeal of a $1.45 billion European fine and a $25 million fine imposed by the Korea Fair Trade Advertisement Commission in 2008.

In 2010, Intel and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission settled an FTC suit accusing the company of a campaign to shut its rivals out of the market. And in 2009, Intel agrees to pay AMD $1.25 billion to settle that company's antitrust and patent disputes.

In 2005, Japan's Fair Trade Commission also accused Intel of violating antitrust regulations. Intel denied the claim but agreed to change its practices.

Some individual consumer suits over Intel's marketing practices also are pending.

Contact Steve Johnson at sjohnson@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5043

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Senate Committee Debates Internet Gambling

A Senate committee debated a controversial Justice Department opinion that some legal experts and gambling supporters say has opened the door for states to begin offering online gambling within their borders and could harm Indian gambling operations. The Senate Indian Affairs Committee examined how any potential expansion of Internet gambling within states could affect Indian tribes that also offer gambling on their reservations.

iPhone App Raises Social Network Privacy Issue

A privacy debate surrounding fledgling social network Path went viral, triggering discussions on blogs and on Twitter about how far social networks can go in using members' private data. Path was sharply criticized in blogs and social media forums after an independent software developer revealed that Path's Apple iPhone application uploaded users' address book data to its own servers without permission.

Justice Dep't Expected to OK Google-Motorola Deal

The U.S. Justice Department is poised to clear Google Inc.'s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter, giving Google a powerful armory of technology patents to deploy in the smartphone wars. However, antitrust enforcers in the U.S. and Europe remain concerned about Google's commitment to license Motorola patents to competitors on fair terms, those people said, and will closely monitor Google's use of the patents.

Microsoft Pledges 'Fair and Reasonable' Patent Licensing

Microsoft Corp., the largest software maker, said it would be “fair and reasonable” in licensing its industry-standard technology, pledging to negotiate with competitors instead of trying to block sales of their products. Microsoft also will make its industry-essential patents available without requiring companies to cross-license their own non-essential technology, according to a posting on the company’s website.

EPIC Files Suit to Stop Google's Privacy Changes

Google Inc.’s planned changes to its privacy policy violate a consent order signed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last year and should be blocked, a Washington advocacy group said in a lawsuit. Google’s plan to streamline privacy settings for some 60 different services and products on March 1 would allow the company to combine more information about users, reduce users’ control of their own data and give more personal information to advertisers, the Electronic Privacy Information Center said.

Media, Internet Industry Struggle for Common Copyright Ground

The recent highly publicized fight over two bills aimed at cracking down on online piracy threw a spotlight on the disconnect between the Internet industry and the media giants of Hollywood and New York. Despite full-court lobbying by big players like the Motion Picture Association of America, lawmakers abandoned the bills after tech companies and groups, along with ordinary Internet users, mounted a frenzy of protests, saying the bills would hurt Internet freedom and innovation. Now the challenge is for the two sides to find common ground on how to combat the piracy problem — though they can’t even come to terms on how big a problem it is.

Apple Wants Standards Body to Set Licensing Principles

Apple Inc. has asked a telecommunications standards body to set basic principles governing how member companies license their patents, an increasingly contentious topic for rivals in the smartphone industry. In a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Apple said the telecommunications industry lacks consistent licensing schemes for the many patents necessary to make mobile devices, and offered suggestions for setting appropriate royalty rates that all members would follow.

Google Plans 'Fair' Licensing for Motorola Patents

Google Inc., the largest maker of smartphone software, plans to send a letter to standards organizations reassuring them it will license Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. patents on a fair and reasonable basis, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. The move would come after a deadline passed for Google to submit remedies to the European Commission, which is evaluating the plan to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.

German Police to Use Facebook to Find Missing Persons

Police in the German state of Lower-Saxony will soon use their networks of Facebook "friends" to find missing persons and hunt out suspected criminals, according to the state's interior minister. The decision to use social media in manhunts follows the completion of a pilot scheme in the northern city of Hanover last year which drew sharp criticism from data protection groups.

In Sting, Symantec Offered Hacker $50,000 to Protect Code

As part of a sting operation, Symantec told a hacker group that it would pay $50,000 to keep the source code for some of the its flagship security products off the Internet, the company confirmed to CNET. An e-mail exchange revealing the extortion attempt posted to Pastebin today shows a purported Symantec employee named Sam Thomas negotiating payment with an individual named "Yamatough" to prevent the release of PCAnywhere and Norton Antivirus code.

Motorola Wants Apple to Pay Royalty on iPhones, iPads

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. asked Apple Inc. to pay a potential royalty of 2.25% of sales for some iPhones and iPads last year, representing possibly billions of dollars in licensing fees. In a letter filed in a California court last month, a lawyer said Motorola, which is being acquired by Google Inc., had "demanded" the royalty for a license of its patents.

Law Student Leads European Campaign Against Facebook

Max Schrems, a law student at the University of Vienna and a user of Facebook since 2008, has led a vocal campaign in Europe against what he maintains are Facebook’s illegal practices of collecting and marketing users’ personal data, often without consent. In less than a year, Mr. Schrems’s one-person operation has morphed into a Web site, Europe Versus Facebook, and a grass-roots movement that has persuaded 40,000 people to contact Facebook in Ireland, where its European headquarters are located, to demand a summary of all the personal data the U.S. company is holding on them.

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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.