Microsoft Seeks Exceptions to Trump's Travel Bans

Microsoft Corp. said it proposed a program to U.S. President Donald Trump's administration allowing people from seven predominantly Muslim nations to enter and leave the United States on business or family emergency travel if they hold valid work or student visas and have not committed any crimes. In a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Microsoft President Brad Smith outlined a program for case-by-case review of exceptions to a travel ban.

EU Investigating 'Geo-Blocking' Limits on Online Sales

EU antitrust regulators opened three investigations into 15 companies suspected of restricting online sales of electronics, video games and hotel rooms to deny consumers choice and prevent them from buying at the lowest prices. The EU aims to boost online cross-border sales and stop "geo-blocking" -- restricting offers based on a customer's location -- which runs counter to its goal of a single market for digital goods and services that would underpin economic growth.

IRS Warns HR, Payroll Dept's About Email Tax Scams

The IRS and state tax authorities have issued a new alert to HR and payroll departments to beware of phony emails intended to capture personal information of employees. The emails generally appear to be from a senior executive (typically the CEO or CFO) to a company payroll office or HR employee and request a PDF or list of employee W-2 forms for the tax year.

Jury Orders Facebook, Others to Pay $500 Million in Oculus Suit

A U.S. jury in Texas on ordered Facebook Inc, its virtual reality unit Oculus, and other defendants to pay a combined $500 million to ZeniMax Media Inc, a video game publisher that says Oculus stole its technology. The jury in federal court in Dallas found Oculus, which Facebook acquired for about $2 billion in 2014, used ZeniMax’s computer code to launch the Rift virtual-reality headset.

Google Wins Japanese Ruling on Scrubbing Search References

Japan’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Alphabet Inc.’s Google in a case brought by a man found guilty years ago of child-pornography charges who wanted articles about his arrest removed from Google searches. The ruling didn’t directly address the “right to be forgotten,” which was established in the European Union by the EU’s top court in a 2014 ruling, but it did offer some of the Japanese high court’s first views on what standards should apply when people want Google and other search engines to scrub references to past wrongdoing.

Cable Customers 'Short-Changed' on Internet Speed, Lawsuit Says

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against Charter and its Time Warner Cable subsidiary, claiming that the Internet provider "allegedly conduct[ed] a deliberate scheme to defraud and mislead New Yorkers by promising Internet service that they knew they could not deliver." State officials said they conducted a 16-month investigation that reviewed internal corporate communications "and hundreds of thousands of subscriber speed tests," concluding that Spectrum-TWC customers were "dramatically short-changed on both speed and reliability," the attorney general's announcement said.

Amazon Working with Washington State Against Trump Travel Ban

Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said the Seattle-based company is prepared to support a lawsuit being brought by Washington state's attorney general against President Trump and the administration over Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees. The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos, reported that Bezos wrote in an internal email to Amazon employees Monday that company lawyers have prepared a "declaration of support" for the suit.

Spanish Police Arrest Three Linked to Data Breach of Officers

Spanish police have arrested three people over a data breach linked to a series of dramatic intrusions at European spy software companies — feeding speculation that the net has closed on an online Robin Hood figure known as Phineas Fisher. A spokesman with Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalonia's regional police, said two men and a woman were arrested in Salamanca and Barcelona on suspicion of breaking into the website of the Mossos labor union in May, hijacking its Twitter feed and leaking the personal data of more than 5,500 officers.

Court to Hear Facebook Case on Challenging Search Warrants

New York’s highest court will weigh whether Facebook Inc. can legally challenge search warrants issued for the accounts of its users, a case that has been closely watched for its ramifications on law enforcement and digital privacy in the state. The Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments Feb. 7 in a lawsuit brought by Facebook against the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Draft Executive Order Could Hit High-Tech Visa Program

President Donald Trump's administration has drafted an executive order aimed at overhauling the work-visa programs technology companies depend on to hire tens of thousands of employees each year. If implemented, the reforms could shift the way American companies like Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. recruit talent and force wholesale changes at Indian companies such as Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd.

More Criminals Publicize Their Activity Online

Terrorists, political protesters and narcissistic criminals have long carried out crimes designed to further their agenda or demonstrate their own perceived cleverness, power or bravado. What’s new is the access people have to tools, via the smartphone, that allow for the creation, publication and distribution of content at the touch of a button -- through photos, tweets, status updates, videos and now live streaming.

Tech Company Leaders Criticize Trump's Order on Immigration

Leaders from across the technology industry criticized President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, ending weeks of cautious engagement with the new president, whom many in Silicon Valley opposed. Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Microsoft Corp., Uber Technologies Inc. and other companies expressed concern about the immigration order’s effect on their employees, with some executives saying the ban violated their personal and company principles.

Twitter Discloses Receipt of FBI National Security Letters

Twitter disclosed that the FBI had issued the tech company two national security letters accompanied by gag orders in the past two years. In a blog post on Twitter’s website, Elizabeth Banker, an associate general counsel for the company, published both national security requests, redacted to hide the identities of the users being probed as well as law enforcement officials.

High-Tech Companies 'Scared' Over Trump's Immigration Changes

American technology companies for years have relied on a steady stream of skilled engineers from overseas to help them create their products. Now many of those companies and their workers are girding for expected changes to immigration policy under President Trump that the companies say could hurt their ability to tap the technical talent they need to stay competitive.

FBI Posts Redacted Report on Gamergate Investigations

The FBI has posted a heavily redacted report of its threat investigations during the Gamergate controversy in 2014 and 2015. The 173-page document (not counting 61 deleted pages) primarily seems to cover harassment of against critic Anita Sarkeesian and game developer Brianna Wu, including a shooting threat that caused Sarkeesian to cancel a planned talk at Utah State University.

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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.