Federal regulators moved to halt an initial coin offering that allegedly raised $600 million in what amounts to the biggest U.S. intervention yet into the world of raising money by issuing digital tokens. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it obtained a court order that permits a receiver to seize cryptocurrencies held by Dallas-based AriseBank, which allegedly marketed and received the proceeds from the coin offering.
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating whether Apple Inc. violated securities laws concerning its disclosures about a software update that slowed older iPhone models, according to people familiar with the matter. The government has requested information from the company, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the probe is private.
U.S. copyright authorities decided to increase over the next five years the royalty payments music streaming companies like Spotify and Apple must make to songwriters and music publishers, a trade association for music publishers said. The Copyright Royalty Board of the U.S. Library of Congress issued a written decision that altered the formulas used to determine how much of their revenue streaming companies must share with songwriters and the music publishing companies they typically hire to collect licensing fees on their behalf.
The theft of nearly $500 million in digital tokens, disclosed by Coincheck, has heightened calls for stricter oversight at a time when many governments are struggling to formulate a response to the digital-asset boom. Japanese finance ministry officials said that the country will conduct on-site inspections of exchanges and that cryptocurrencies would likely become an issue at the next G-20 meeting.
Facebook said it was publishing its privacy principles for the first time and rolling out educational videos to help users control who has access to their information, as it prepares for the start of a tough new EU data protection law. The announcement is a sign of Facebook's efforts to get ready before the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enters into force on May 25, marking the biggest overhaul of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the internet.
Emojis -- tiny pictures of facial expressions or objects used in text messages, emails and on social media -- are no longer a laughing matter for the legal profession. Increasingly, they are bones of contention in lawsuits ranging from business disputes to harassment to defamation.
The New York attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, opened an investigation into a company that sold millions of fake followers on social media platforms, some of them copying real users’ personal information. The company, Devumi, and its sale of automated followers to a swath of celebrities, sports stars, journalists and politicians, was detailed in a New York Times article.
A 17-year-old Oklahoma high school student is facing obscenity and child pornography charges after authorities say he posted nude photos of students on a Snapchat page then tried to blackmail administrators when they turned off the school’s Wi-Fi access. Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes says the Carl Albert High School student faces 10 charges, including blackmail and transmitting obscenity and child pornography.
The Dutch intelligence service passed on “crucial evidence” to the FBI about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reported, citing the results of an investigation. Hackers from the Dutch intelligence service known as the AIVD gained access to the network of Russian hacking group “Cozy Bear” in the summer of 2014.
The Department of Justice's special counsel Robert Mueller and his office have interviewed at least one member of Facebook's team that was associated with President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter. The interview was part of Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and what role, if any, the Trump campaign played in that interference.
One of Japan's largest digital currency exchanges says it has lost some $534m (£380m) worth of virtual assets in a hacking attack on its network. Coincheck froze deposits and withdrawals for all crypto-currencies except Bitcoin as it assessed its losses in NEM, a lesser-known currency.
Facebook informed Congress in newly released documents that it could not prove or disprove collusion between President Trump's campaign and Russians who may have used the online platform to try to sway opinions during the 2016 election. In written questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee, Facebook representatives were asked whether metadata on their site could reveal possible collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russian government, a possibility raised by some researchers.
Major global technology providers SAP, Symantec and McAfee have allowed Russian authorities to hunt for vulnerabilities in software deeply embedded across the U.S. government, a Reuters investigation has found. The practice potentially jeopardizes the security of computer networks in at least a dozen federal agencies, U.S. lawmakers and security experts said.
A provision in the newly revised U.S. tax code slashes the income tax companies pay on royalties from the overseas use of intellectual property or so-called intangible assets, such as licenses and patents. The new tax break, for what is dubbed foreign-derived intangible income, effectively reduces tax on foreign income from goods and services produced in the U.S. using patents and other intellectual property to 13.125% until the end of 2025, after which the rate rises to 16.4%.
The highest court in the European Union will decide whether an Austrian privacy activist can bring a class action lawsuit against Facebook for what he says are illegal violations of the privacy of users. Max Schrems, long a thorn in Facebook’s side, is claiming 500 euros ($620.55) in damages for each of more than 25,000 signatories to his lawsuit.
The European Commission announced that it would be fining the company €997 million, or $1.23 billion, for abusing its market position between 2011 and 2016, related to its relationship with Apple. Qualcomm says it will appeal the case and that the decision “does not relate to Qualcomm’s licensing business and has no impact on ongoing operations.”
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) will investigate the use of impersonation in public comments on the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality repeal. While the investigation request was spurred by widespread fraud in the FCC's net neutrality repeal docket, Democrats asked the GAO to also "examine whether this shady practice extends to other agency rulemaking processes."
President Donald Trump's pick for a top Commerce Department post privately assured Republican senators that he would look at reversing the Obama administration's decision to give up U.S. oversight of the internet, according to documents newly obtained by Politico. David Redl, now the head of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, made the pledge last summer to Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), who had condemned the move to international control as a giveaway that could empower authoritarian governments.
YouTube has asked musicians to agree not to disparage the streaming-video service in exchange for promotional support, according to people familiar with the matter, a way to quell persistent criticism by artists. In recent months, YouTube has given a handful of musicians a couple hundred thousand dollars to produce videos and promoted their work on billboards, part of a larger campaign to improve the site’s relationship with the music industry.
EU antitrust regulators are expected to impose a multi-million euro fine on Qualcomm Inc on Wednesday for paying Apple Inc to use only its chips, according to a person familiar with the matter. The European Commission in 2015 accused the company of the anti-competitive behavior. The fine could in theory go as high as 10 percent of Qualcomm’s annual revenue, which was $22.2 billion for its most recent fiscal year.
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