California legislators have proposed the first measure in the country to give minors the legal right to scrub away their online indiscretions. The legislation puts the state in the middle of a turbulent debate over how best to protect children and their privacy on the Internet, and whether states should even be trying to tame the Web.
France plans to push for new Europe-wide regulations and tax rules on U.S. Internet giants when European Union leaders meet next month to discuss the bloc's digital challenges. According to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, France is calling on the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, to draw up proposals by spring 2014 aimed at "establishing a tax regime for digital companies that ensures that the profits they make on the European market are subject to taxation and that the revenues are shared between the Member States, linking the tax base to the place where the profits are made."
Hackers and other cybercriminals pose as grave a threat to the financial system as the recent financial crisis if banks and government officials don't mount an effective response, a top U.S. official warned. The growing sophistication of cyberattacks spawned by criminal organizations, hackers and other foreign governments could pose a systemic risk to the financial system, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said in a speech in Washington.
Aereo, FilmOn, and the major TV broadcasters are in a seesaw legal contest in courtrooms around the country, but Aereo may have the upper hand in Boston. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton, who is overseeing the copyright complaint brought against Aereo by Hearst TV Stations, said that he's "inclined at this point" to rule in favor of the web TV service.
A legal process intended to compensate consumers and promote privacy is instead breeding alarmism and lining lawyers’ pockets — while letting the tech companies that created the privacy problems brush off the mistakes as a cost of doing business. This point was reinforced yet again when the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation revealed that it will turn down its share of a $20 million settlement intended to compensate Facebook users whose photos were misused for advertising.
Miami Heat forward Chris "Birdman" Andersen was the victim of a complex Internet hoax allegedly perpetrated by a woman in Canada that prompted authorities to raid his Denver-area home last year on a child pornography warrant, according to his attorney. Lisa Pinto, a spokeswoman for the 18th Judicial District in Colorado, said prosecutors are not pursuing charges against Andersen, 35, and plan to announce the findings of their "extremely complex" investigation in the near future.
The Federal Trade Commission said that it had settled charges against a Florida company and its two top executives for sending more than 42 million unwanted and deceptive text messages to consumers. Messages sent by the company had promised free gift cards worth up to $1,000, the commission said, but when consumers tried to visit a Web site to collect the prize, they were instead connected to a site that asked for personal information, like Social Security numbers and credit card numbers.
Using Facebook Inc.’s “Like” feature to show support for a candidate in an election is speech protected under the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court said, handing a victory to the social networking company which argued such protection is vital to its business. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, issued its ruling in a lawsuit brought by former employees of a sheriff’s office who said they lost their jobs because they supported their boss’s opponent, partly by endorsing a campaign page on Facebook.
Thwarted by irreconcilable differences, the Digital Advertising Alliance has withdrawn from an effort to standardize how browsers could tell Web sites that users don't want their behavior tracked. The World Wide Web Consortium's Do Not Track effort included browser makers, privacy advocates, and advertisers, but the conflicting agendas hobbled an already contentious effort.
Pandora Media Inc., the biggest Internet radio service, won a court order to stop a group representing songwriters and music publishers from limiting the number of songs that it licenses to Pandora. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said in a ruling that Pandora’s five-year license beginning Jan. 1, 2011, won’t be affected by withdrawals of new-media licensing rights from the repertory of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Nasdaq's website may be a ticking a time bomb for a major security breach, including a takeover by hackers, a cybersecurity expert warns. Ilia Kolochenko, chief executive of Swiss information security company High-Tech Bridge, said he warned the exchange three weeks ago that Nasdaq.com had holes in its security.
Microsoft said that hackers are exploiting a critical, but unpatched, vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9, and that its engineers are working on an update to plug the hole. As it often does, the company downplayed the threat.
The general principles of a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would clear the way for states to collect sales tax on online purchases will be released soon, according to sources who have worked on the legislation. Staff of the House Judiciary Committee planned to brief House members' staff on the principles that Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte will include in the bill, said the sources, who did not want to pre-empt an announcement by Goodlatte.
Computer security experts have discovered a group of highly sophisticated computer hackers operating for hire, a U.S. computer security firm said, and it linked the group to some of the best-known cyber-espionage attacks out of China in recent years. Symantec Corp said the hacker group, which it dubbed "Hidden Lynx," was among the most technically advanced of several dozen groups believed to be running cyber espionage operations out of China.
Iranians had a few hours access to Facebook and Twitter before a Web firewall went back up and Tehran scotched talk of new Internet freedoms by blaming a technical glitch for the brief opening of access. Several people in Iran found they could log in to their accounts on the U.S.-based social media sites without using techniques to circumvent blocks on Twitter and Facebook that the state imposed four years ago, during a clampdown on the biggest protests since the Islamic revolution.
After four years of intricate and widespread filtering, Iran loosened restrictions on both Facebook and Twitter, allowing open access to the servers. Previously, the services had only been accessible using a VPN or redirecting service outside the country, and many on Twitter commented this was the first time they had ever used the sites without an intermediary.
Belgium said it was investigating suspected foreign state espionage against its main telecoms company, which is the top carrier of voice traffic in Africa and the Middle East, and a newspaper pointed the finger at the United States. Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the former state telecoms monopoly Belgacom had filed a complaint in July about the hacking of several servers and computers.
Over the last year, media and marketing types have been repeating the term “native advertising” until they’re blue in the face and now it looks like people are finally paying attention — including the good folks at the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC announced that it will hold a workshop on December 4 about native advertising and the “blurring of digital ads with digital content.”
A U.S. web-hosting company has shut the website of an Iranian opposition leader held under house arrest in Tehran to comply with U.S. sanctions, underscoring the unintended impacts of some of the curbs imposed on the Islamic Republic. Washington has imposed sanctions restricting U.S. entities' trade with and provision of services to Iran in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.
Four men appeared in a British court over an alleged attempt to steal millions of pounds from Santander by hacking into the bank’s computer system, police said. Twelve men were arrested following an operation by the Metropolitan Police’s Central e-Crime Unit, over the alleged plot which centered on a Santander branch in southeast London.
About : Legal Services | Doug Isenberg | Cases & Clients | Firm News
Resources : YouTube Channel | Daily News | Blog | Masterclass | Domain Dispute Digest
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.