The video streaming service Hulu has prevailed against a legal challenge claiming that it violated its users' privacy by sharing what they watched on Facebook. A federal judge ruled that the company did not “knowingly” send information to Facebook to pair up with users’ profiles and distribute online.
More than three dozen technology-industry executives issued a joint statement urging lawmakers to enact legislation protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination, responding to controversial religious-freedom measures in states such as Indiana and Arkansas.The statement, organized by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and released on the website of the Human Rights Campaign, was signed by executives such as Salesforce.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff, Twitter Inc. CEO Dick Costolo, EBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe and Sequoia Capital Chairman Michael Moritz.
China's bank technology restrictions and a draft anti-terrorism law may run counter to the country's international trade commitments, the U.S. Trade Representative said in a report. The U.S. trade office's regular review of telecommunications trade continued the pressure over initiatives that have upset U.S. industry groups and that the Obama administration has also raised at the highest level with Chinese counterparts.
Europe’s competition regulator is preparing to move against Google Inc. in the next few weeks, a person familiar with the matter said, setting the stage for charges against the U.S. Internet-search giant in a five-year-old investigation that has stalled three times and sparked a political firestorm. The European Commission, the European Union’s top antitrust authority, has been asking companies that filed complaints against Google for permission to publish some information they previously submitted confidentially, according to several people familiar with the requests.
Uber has filed complaints with Brussels against Spain and Germany over their bans on the mobile phone taxi-hailing service, ramping up the U.S. company's battle against legal challenges across Europe. The European Commission confirmed it had received a complaint against a German ban on Uber offering its unlicensed services.
President Obama signed an executive order establishing the first sanctions program to allow the administration to impose penalties on individuals overseas who engage in destructive attacks or commercial espionage in cyberspace. In the works for two years, the order declares “significant malicious cyber-enabled activities” a “national emergency” and enables the treasury secretary to target foreign individuals and entities that take part in the illicit cyberactivity for sanctions that could include freezing their financial assets and barring commercial transactions with them.
The latest sign of growing global concerns over cybersecurity: Singapore has established a new ministry to combat bad guys lurking in the Internet’s shadows. The wealthy city-state opened the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, or CSA, a new body that will focus on national cybersecurity strategies.
The U.S. International Trade Commission has decided to investigate Apple after two complaints from Ericsson that the iPhone maker violated its patents. The companies have been fighting since the start of the year when a license agreement covering Apple’s use of Ericsson patents on LTE high-speed wireless technology expired.
The U.S. government charged that in the shadows of an undercover investigation of Silk Road, a notorious black-market site, two federal agents sought to enrich themselves by exploiting the very secrecy that made the site so difficult for law enforcement officials to penetrate. The agents, Carl Mark Force IV, who worked for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Shaun W. Bridges, who worked for the Secret Service, had resigned amid growing scrutiny, and they were charged with money laundering and wire fraud.
China has agreed to delay implementing new bank technology restrictions that Washington has complained represent unfair regulatory pressure on foreign firms, a senior U.S. Treasury official said in Beijing. China said this month work was ongoing on a draft anti-terrorism law that would require foreign companies to hand over encryption keys and otherwise facilitate Beijing's ability to bypass security measures, triggering U.S. protests.
Google has lost a Court of Appeal bid to stop consumers having the right to sue in the UK over alleged misuse of privacy settings.A group of users claim that Google bypassed security settings on the Safari browser to install tracking cookies on their computers in order to target them with advertising.
Letting EU citizens watch movies online anywhere and simplifying cross-border e-commerce are key European Commission efforts to unify the continent’s digital market. The Commission agreed how to proceed with its European Digital Single Market plan and identified priorities to be detailed in May.
Thousands of Uber users account credentials could have been compromised, and are up for sale from unscrupulous sellers. At least two separate vendors on dark web marketplace AlphaBay are hawking active Uber accounts, Motherboard reports.
Quebec plans to order Internet providers to block unlicensed gambling websites that sap its revenues, raising questions about government interference with the Web for financial gain. In its budget, the province said it plans to propose new legislation that would compel Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to a list of gambling websites drawn up by Loto-Québec.
Three Federal Trade Commission members denied media reports that the agency essentially ignored a staff recommendation to sue Google during its 2012 investigation of the search giant’s practices. In a blog post, the commissioners said that “contrary to recent press reports, the commission’s decision on the search allegations was in accord with the recommendations of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Economics, and Office of General Counsel.”
The United Nations top human rights body agreed to appoint a special investigator to probe digital spying and violations of online privacy. Brazil and Germany spearheaded the resolution, which voiced deep concern over electronic surveillance and the interception of digital communications, as well as data collection by governments and private companies.
In a five-to-zero vote, the Federal Trade Commission ruled that a website operated by Napster co-founder John Fanning had misled consumers. The site presented users with personal profiles of themselves labeled “Jerk” or “Not a Jerk,” purportedly posted by other users. In fact, information in the profiles was harvested from Facebook and the “jerk” labels were added by site personnel.
Patent holding company Intellectual Ventures' second crack at holding Motorola Mobility liable for using its technology without permission partially succeeded after a U.S. jury in Delaware found Motorola infringed a patent on multimedia text messaging. The jury, which deliberated for about a day and a half, cleared Motorola on a second patent related to wireless bandwidth, which it said was invalid.
Tennessee is suing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its attempt to block a state law limiting the growth of government-run Internet providers. The state filed a petition with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals claiming that the agency’s action violates the Constitution and the federalist approach to governance.
China's Internet regulator issued new guidelines prohibiting sexual and vulgar content on Tencent Holdings Ltd's popular messaging app, the latest step in the agency's perennial campaign to clean up China's Internet. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said sexually explicit pictures and text, including nude photos and erotic animation, and stories of "one-night stands, wife-swapping, sexual abuse and other harmful information" will be subject to punishment.
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.