A number of companies are raising concerns about what Google says it can do with documents stored on the new Google Drive online storage service. Critics pointed out that Drive, like any Google product, would fall under Google’s terms of service, which let Google scan and use its consumers’ content for Google’s own purposes.
The White House escalated its opposition to a cybersecurity-related surveillance bill with a formal veto threat. In a new statement, the White House's Office of Management and Budget said that the CISPA bill endangered Americans' privacy and inappropriately shielded private companies from liability.
A U.S. Marine sergeant who wrote in a Facebook post that he would not follow orders from President Barack Obama will be discharged from the military on "other than honorable" terms, a Marine spokesman said. California-based Sergeant Gary Stein was advised of the decision after a commanding general upheld the recommendation by a review board, Major Michael Armistead said.
Finland's Nokia and Taiwan's HTC won a key European ruling that a patent of German firm IPCom, which was threatening sales of their phones in Germany, was invalid in its current form. The ruling by the European Patent Office was a rare spot of good news for Nokia, which is struggling with dwindling sales and credit rating downgrades in recent weeks. Nokia said it meant it could continue selling products in Germany.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) called for Congress to protect critical infrastructure systems from cyberattacks during a hearing but stopped short of calling for government regulations. He warned that cyberattacks could blow up natural-gas pipelines, derail trains, hack financial systems and cause chemical plants to leak toxins.
The U.S. government is close to completing rules for a long-awaited expansion of the number of defense contractors with which it swaps data on cyber threats, the Defense Department's chief information officer said. The number of companies would jump from 37 currently to 200, Teri Takai, the chief information officer, told a forum in Arlington, Virginia.
Apple may risk losing the right to use iPad trademark in China, as a Chinese court seeks to mediate a settlement between the technology giant and local company Proview Technology challenging the use of the iPad name. According to the Associated Press, Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, told reporters in Beijing that the Chinese government regarded Shenzhen-based Proview Technology as the rightful owner of the trademark of Apple's tablets.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said in court that he could not recall being told in 2005 that the company needed a license from Sun Microsystems to use the Java programming language. Schmidt was Oracle's final witness before Oracle rested its copyright case, and Google then called Schmidt as its first defense witness.
An Occupy Wall Street protester can't stop prosecutors from getting his tweets, a judge has ruled in a clash over the bounds of privacy in an age of living publicly on social networks. In a ruling punctuated with Twitter users' beloved hashtag marks, the judge said prosecutors weren't overreaching by seeking Malcolm Harris' public tweets for weeks before and months after his Oct. 1 disorderly conduct arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as the user information surrounding the Twitter account he used at the time.
Microsoft infringed Motorola Mobility's patents in making its popular Xbox gaming consoles, a judge for the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled. ITC Judge David Shaw said that Microsoft infringed four patents and did not infringe on a fifth in the complaint.
Last-minute opposition to the CISPA, which has been criticized as a "Big Brother" cybersecurity bill, is growing as the U.S. House of Representatives prepares for a vote. Rep. Ron Paul, the Texas Republican and presidential candidate, warned in a statement and YouTube video today that CISPA represents the "latest assault on Internet freedom."
The U.S. Justice Department has come under criticism since filing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc. and five publishers, accusing them of colluding to fix e-book prices. But many experts say that under antitrust law, the department didn't have much choice. And even if it did, antitrust experts say, it is far from clear that doing nothing would have been wise.
A jilted boyfriend who put nude pictures of his former lover on Facebook has been sentenced to six months' jail -- the first social networking-related conviction in Australian history and one of just a handful in the world. Ravshan ''Ronnie'' Usmanov told police: ''I put the photos up because she hurt me and it was the only thing [I had] to hurt her.''
U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled sanctions against those who help Syria and Iran track dissidents through cell phones and computers and said he would keep adding pressure on both governments to prevent mass atrocities. In a somber speech at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Obama said Damascus and Tehran were monitoring the social media tools that allowed democracy campaigners to organize rallies in the Middle East to plot attacks against opposition groups.
Facebook and Microsoft announced that they have struck a deal for over 1,000 patents, including some of the patents Microsoft recently acquired from AOL. According to the release, Facebook will pay around $550 million in cash for the patents.
Iranian authorities are investigating alleged cyber-attacks against Iran's oil ministry and possibly against the key export hub, though oil shipments haven't been affected, Iranian oil officials said. The computer attack -- reminiscent of a virus that allegedly targeted Tehran's nuclear program in 2010 -- highlights potential new vulnerabilities for the Islamic Republic's oil exports, which international sanctions have already impeded.
Facebook unveiled changes to its terms-of-use document, tweaking earlier drafts in an apparent effort to ease users' concerns about privacy and how their information is used. The proposed changes to the networking giant's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities come after the plan was opened up for user comments last month, and just weeks before Facebook is expected to go public in a stock offering some expect could value the company at $100 billion.
The House will consider legislation to better defend corporate networks from foreign governments, cybercriminals and terrorist groups. But deep divisions over how best to handle the growing problem mean that solutions are a long way off.
In a provisional victory for musicians, filmmakers and other creators of art and entertainment, a court in Hamburg ordered Google to install filters on its YouTube service in Germany to detect and stop people from gaining access to material for which they do not own the rights. The judge, Heiner Steeneck, agreed in his ruling that Google was not directly responsible for the uploaded material, but he said the company needed to do more to stop violations.
Apple’s battle over the iPad trademark in China could be moving toward resolution. That’s the word from the attorney representing Proview, Apple’s antagonist in the spat, who tells IDG that the two companies have agreed to participate in a mediation session.
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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.