FBI Arrests Man for Stealing Unpublished Book Manuscripts via Email

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Filippo Bernardini, a 29-year-old rights coordinator for Simon & Schuster UK, saying that he “impersonated, defrauded, and attempted to defraud, hundreds of individuals” over five or more years, obtaining hundreds of unpublished manuscripts in the process. The thefts and attempted thefts occurred primarily over email, by a fraudster impersonating publishing professionals and targeting authors, editors, agents and literary scouts who might have drafts of novels and other books.

French Data Regulator Set to Fine Google, Facebook Over EU Privacy Rules

French data regulator the CNIL is set to fine Google €150 million and Facebook €60 million for violating EU privacy rules. According to a document seen by Politico, the CNIL will fine Google's United States and Irish operations €90 million and €60 million respectively, and Facebook's Irish arm €60 million for failing to allow French users to easily reject cookie tracking technology.

China's Copyright Authority Puts Limits on Agreements for Digital Music

China's copyright authority said digital music platforms are not allowed to sign exclusive copyright agreements except in special circumstances, amid a regulatory crackdown on monopolistic behavior in the country's private sector. The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) gave the order on Thursday at a meeting in Beijing with influential digital music platforms, as well as record and songwriting copyright companies, according to a statement published on the NCAC's official WeChat account.

Meta Appeals British Competition Watchdog Ruling on Giphy

Facebook-owner Meta has applied to appeal a British competition watchdog ruling that it must sell Giphy on grounds that include challenging the finding that the deal removed a potential competitor in display advertising. Meta said last month it had lodged an appeal against the decision by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to block its 2020 acquisition of Giphy.

Disney Gets Patent on 'Virtual World Simulator' Without Glasses

Disney has taken one step closer to creating a virtual metaverse at Disneyland that would allow the entertainment giant to simulate a digital world with animated characters in a real-world theme park attraction. The Walt Disney Company was granted a patent on Dec. 28 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a Virtual World Simulator that enables multiple users to experience a 3D virtual world from multiple vantage points without any glasses, goggles or digital devices.

Probe Finds 650,000 Facebook Posts Attacking Election Before Capitol Riot

Facebook groups swelled with at least 650,000 posts attacking the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory between Election Day and the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, with many calling for executions or other political violence, an investigation by ProPublica and The Washington Post has found. The barrage — averaging at least 10,000 posts a day, a scale not reported previously — turned the groups into incubators for the baseless claims supporters of President Donald Trump voiced as they stormed the Capitol, demanding he get a second term.

China's Cyberspace Administration Issues Draft Rules on Mobile Apps

China's cyber regulatory body issued draft rules governing mobile apps, including a requirement for security reviews of apps whose functions could influence public opinion. The proposed regulations are part of a campaign run by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) over the past year to increase oversight of the country's tech companies.

Judge Refuses to Dismiss Shareholder Lawsuit Against BlackBerry

A U.S. judge rejected BlackBerry Ltd's bid to dismiss a long-running lawsuit claiming it defrauded shareholders by inflating the success and profitability of its BlackBerry 10 smartphones, and said the class-action case could go to trial this fall. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan said "genuine issues of material fact" remained in dispute in the more than eight-year-old case, including over BlackBerry's accounting, and that "battle-of-the-experts" issues precluded her from ruling for one side or the other.

Right-Wing Provocateurs Turning on Each Other Over Online Tactics

After months of failing to disprove the reality of Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss, some of the Internet’s most popular right-wing provocateurs are grappling with the pressures of restless audiences, saturated markets, ongoing investigations and millions of dollars in legal bills. The result is a chaotic melodrama, playing out via secretly recorded phone calls, personal attacks in podcasts, and a seemingly endless stream of posts on Twitter, Gab and Telegram calling their rivals Satanists, communists, pedophiles or “pay-triots” — money-grubbing grifters exploiting the cause.

Websites of Portuguese Newspaper, Broadcaster Down After Hacking

The websites of one of Portugal's biggest newspapers and of a major broadcaster, both owned by the country's largest media conglomerate Impresa, were down after being hit by a hacker attack. Expresso newspaper and SIC TV station both said they reported the incident to the criminal investigation police agency PJ and the National Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS) and would file a complaint.

Twitter Permanently Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene's Personal Account

Twitter permanently suspended the personal account of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican of Georgia, after the company said she had violated its Covid-19 misinformation policies. Twitter suspended Ms. Greene’s account after she tweeted on Saturday, falsely, about “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.”

India's Competition Watchdog Orders Probe of Apple's Business Practices

India's competition watchdog ordered an investigation into Apple Inc.'s business practices in the country, saying it was of the initial view that the iPhone maker had violated certain antitrust laws. The order from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) comes after a non-profit group alleged this year that Apple was abusing its dominant position in the apps market by forcing developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase system.

T-Mobile Reportedly Suffers Data Breach Targeting Small Group of Customers

T-Mobile has reportedly suffered another data breach, a few months after a huge breach in August. The new breach seems to have affected a smaller group of customers, who received notifications of "unauthorized activity" that consisted of hackers checking out customer proprietary network information, pulling off a physical SIM swap, or both, says a post by blog The T-Mo Report.

  • Read the article: CNET

TikTok Content Moderator Sues Company for Psychological Trauma

A content moderator who reviewed videos for TikTok is suing the social media company, alleging that it did not protect her from suffering psychological trauma after “constant” exposure to violent videos that showed sexual assault, beheadings, suicide and other graphic scenes. For as long as 12 hours each day, Candie Frazier and other moderators reviewed “extreme and graphic violence,” including videos of “genocide in Myanmar, mass shootings, children being raped, and animals being mutilated” in an effort to filter out such content from being viewed by TikTok users, according to the lawsuit.

Judge Allows Plaintiffs to Depose Alphabet CEO in Chrome 'Private' Mode Case

Plaintiffs who accused Alphabet Inc's Google of unlawfully tracking their internet use while on "Incognito" browsing mode can question Chief Executive Sundar Pichai for up to two hours, a California federal judge has ruled. In the lawsuit filed in June 2020, users accused Google of illegally invading their privacy by tracking internet use while Google Chrome browsers were set in "private" mode.

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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.