In an apparent quest to make the patent system look even more ridiculous, a firm sued Samsung and Research in Motion for allegedly infringing a patent titled "emoticon input method and apparatus." Varia Holdings Inc., claims it owns the concept of allowing users to choose emoticons from a menu of options rather than typing them out one character at a time.
Aereo Inc., an online television service backed by billionaire Barry Diller, filed a second countersuit against major broadcasters that want to stop it from retransmitting their programming. The newest lawsuit against News Corp's Fox, the Public Broadcasting Service, Univision Communications Inc. and the WPIX and WNET stations in the New York area was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Google Inc., the world’s largest Web-search provider, was questioned by France’s data protection authority to determine whether policies for mobile devices running its Android operating system and information collected using “cookies” violate European privacy rules. The National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties, known by its French acronym as CNIL, asked Google to reply to the list of 69 questions on its privacy policy before April 5, according to a statement on the regulator’s website.
A group of prominent Chinese writers have demanded millions of dollars in compensation from Apple Inc. for allegedly selling unlicensed versions of their books in its online store, a lawyer said. Three separate lawsuits have been filed with the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court on behalf of 12 writers who allege 59 of their titles were sold unlicensed through Apple's iTunes online store, said Wang Guohua, a Beijing lawyer representing the writers.
Microsoft is giving law enforcement PhotoDNA, a digital tool that sifts through massive amounts of online images to help identify instances of child pornography and rescue victims. The software giant announced that it, along with NetClean, a Swedish maker of technology to combat the spread of child porn, will give away the image-matching software to help law enforcement agencies detect new images of child abuse online.
A boardroom dispute over ethics has broken out at the organization that maintains the Internet address system after its most important supporter, the United States government, reproached the group for governance standards said to fall short of “requirements requested by the global community.” The Commerce Department said this month that while it was temporarily extending a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to manage the allocation of computers’ Internet protocol addresses -- and the .com and .net names of Web sites associated with them -- it warned the organization that it needed to tighten its rules against conflicts of interest or risk losing a central role.
AT&T Inc. has cut a deal with an iPhone user who sued the carrier for $850 in Small Claims Court -- and won. Matthew Spaccarelli of Simi Valley sued AT&T recently after having seen his mobile data speeds drastically decreased -- a process called throttling.
Google Inc.'s breach of Apple Inc.'s Safari Internet browser is under investigation by U.S. regulators to determine whether it caused consumers to be misled about privacy safeguards, a person familiar with the matter said. The Federal Trade Commission is examining whether Mountain View, California-based Google effectively deceived consumers by planting so-called cookies on Safari, bypassing Apple software’s privacy settings, said the person, who lacked authorization to speak publicly on the matter and declined to be identified.
A German court suspended a trial in which Apple alleged that Samsung Electronics copied the slide-to-unlock technology of its iPhone and iPad devices pending the outcome of a separate suit. The regional court in Mannheim, Germany, said it would wait for a decision in ongoing proceedings in a Munich court over the feature, which allows users to switch on a device by swiping over the touch-screen.
A former Rutgers University student accused of spying on and intimidating his gay roommate by use of a hidden webcam was found guilty on all counts, including invasion of privacy and the more severe charges of bias intimidation, in a case that thrust cyberbullying into the national spotlight. CNN legal analyst Paul Callan called Friday's verdict "unprecedented," adding that it "sends a message to people across the rest of the country" about the potential consequences of unauthorized webcam use.
Cyberattacks on the federal government continue to increase, but most were "phishing" attempts and reports of threats largely leveled out in the past year, according to the Office of Management and Budget. OMB reported a 5 percent increase in cyberattacks on federal networks in 2011, based on reports to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, OMB reported.
Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Yelp and 14 other companies have been hit with a lawsuit accusing them of distributing privacy-invading mobile applications. The suit charges 18 companies with surreptitiously gathering data from the address books of tens of millions of smartphone users.
Apple's App Store, and its broader iTunes Store, have become playgrounds for illicit transactions. And the Web is rife with App Store scams. On Chinese online marketplaces, like Taobao or DHgate, some sellers are offering access to iTunes accounts for as little as $33.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he wants "Internet giants" to pay tax in France, shortly before he was due to meet the founder of the micro-blogging site Twitter. "It is unacceptable that they have a turnover of several billion euros in France without paying tax," he told Le Point magazine, adding that the French government should consider taxing online advertising revenues.
Samsung Electronics Co. said a Dutch court rejected its 3G patent bid to ban sales of Apple's iPhone and iPad in the Netherlands. But Samsung said the court ruled that it could seek damages over the use of Intel chips, giving the South Korean firm a partial victory in the latest skirmish between the world's biggest smartphone makers.
Internet pornography could conceivably become a thing of the past if Rick Santorum is elected president. The unapologetic social conservative, currently in second place behind Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, has promised to crack down on the distribution of pornography if elected.
Ahmad Miski doesn't deny that he has no alter ego known as the "Libyan Embassy" or the "Embassy of Libya." Still, Miski made his case in federal court in Washington that he has a legal right to keep domain names such as libyaembassy.com and embassyoflibya.org that he bought in the early 2000s.
During the five-month period between October and February, there were 86 reported attacks on computer systems in the United States that control critical infrastructure, factories and databases, according to the Department of Homeland Security, compared with 11 over the same period a year ago. The increase has prompted a new interest in cybersecurity on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are being prodded by the Obama administration to advance legislation that could require new standards at facilities where a breach could cause significant casualties or economic damage.
Internet security experts have set up a system to alert Americans when sensitive personal information such as social security numbers and online banking log-in credentials turn up in the hands of cyber fraudsters. AllClear ID, an Austin, Texas-based company that provides identity theft protection, is offering the free service with help from the non-profit National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance.
Last July, Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable and other bandwidth providers announced that they had agreed to adopt policies designed to discourage customers from pirating music, movies and software over the Web. During a panel discussion at a gathering of U.S. publishers, Cary Sherman, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said most of the participating ISPs are on track to begin implementing the program by July 12.
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