Italy's Antitrust Authority Investigating Meta Over Music Licensing

Italy's antitrust authority said it would investigate Meta Platform over the possible abuse of its position in talks over the rights to music posted on Meta's platforms and potentially hurting competition in the sector. The dispute involved the Italian society of authors and publishers, SIAE. According to the antitrust regulator, Mark Zuckerberg's company may have "unduly interrupted the negotiations for the stipulation of the licence for the use on its platforms" of SIAE's music rights, it said in a statement.

U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies Seize Hacker Marketplace Genesis Market

U.S. law enforcement agencies have seized Genesis Market, a notorious hacker marketplace used to acquire compromised credentials and digital browser fingerprints. The takedown, dubbed “Operation Cookie Monster,” has not yet been announced by the FBI, but Genesis Market domains now display a notice stating that the U.S. law enforcement officials have executed a seizure warrant.

Regional Australian Mayor Threatens Defamation Lawsuit Over ChatGPT

A regional Australian mayor said he may sue OpenAI if it does not correct ChatGPT's false claims that he had served time in prison for bribery, in what would be the first defamation lawsuit against the automated text service. Brian Hood, who was elected mayor of Hepburn Shire, 120km (75 miles) northwest of Melbourne, last November, became concerned about his reputation when members of the public told him ChatGPT had falsely named him as a guilty party in a foreign bribery scandal involving a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 2000s.

Britain's Data Protection Authority Fines TikTok $15.9 Million for Child Privacy Violations

Britain’s data protection authority issued a $15.9 million fine to TikTok, the popular video-sharing app, saying the platform had failed to abide by data protection rules intended to safeguard children online. The Information Commissioner’s Office said TikTok had inappropriately allowed up to 1.4 million children under the age of 13 to use the service in 2020, violating British data protection rules that require parental consent for organizations to use children’s personal information.

Biden Addresses 'Potential Risks to Our Society' from Artificial Intelligence

President Joe Biden said it remains to be seen if artificial intelligence is dangerous, but that he believes technology companies must ensure their products are safe before releasing them to the public. Biden met with his council of advisers on science and technology about the risks and opportunities that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence pose for individual users and national security.

Apple Wins U.K. Appeal Against Mobile Browser Decision by Antitrust Regulator

Apple Inc. won its appeal against the decision by Britain's antitrust regulator to launch an investigation into its mobile browser and cloud gaming services, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled. Regulator the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) opened a full investigation in November into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet Inc's Google in mobile browsers, and the possibility of the iPhone maker restricting the cloud gaming market through its app store.

Judge Dismisses Photo App's Antitrust Lawsuit Against Facebook

A U.S. judge dismissed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. that alleged its Facebook social media business drove a now-defunct photo software application startup out of business in violation of federal antitrust law. U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in Brooklyn, New York, federal court said in her 67-page order that Phhhoto Inc had failed to timely bring its claims under relevant U.S. antitrust law that sets a four-year window and under New York state competition provisions that have a three-year statute of limitation.

China Opens Cybersecurity Investigation of U.S. Memory Maker Micron

Chinese authorities announced a cybersecurity investigation into U.S. computer-memory maker Micron Technology Inc., a move that is likely to put global firms operating in China further on edge at a time of escalating U.S.-China tension. The Cyberspace Administration of China said it would review Micron’s products sold in China, citing the need to safeguard the supply chain for critical information infrastructure.

Twitter’s Algorithm Recommends Hate Speech for Accounts Following Extremists

Twitter is amplifying hate speech in its “For You” timeline, an unintended side effect of an algorithm that is supposed to show users more of what they want. According to a Washington Post analysis of Twitter’s recommendation algorithm, accounts that followed “extremists” — hate-promoting accounts identified in a list provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center — were subjected to a mix of other racist and incendiary speech.

Senate Bill Requires More Review for Biden's $42.5 Million Broadband Program

The Biden administration’s $42.5 billion program to expand broadband could hit a speed bump, as some U.S. lawmakers push legislation to ensure rural states aren’t shortchanged. A bipartisan pair of senators announced a bill that would require the Biden administration to perform an additional review before deciding how much funding each state will receive under the program, which is the federal government’s largest-ever one-time allocation to build out broadband to Americans who don’t have it.

Meta to Let European Users Opt Out of Some Highly Personalized Ads

Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to let European users of Facebook and Instagram opt out of certain highly personalized ads as part of plans to limit the impact of a European Union privacy order, according to people familiar with the planning. Under the plan, Meta will allow EU users to choose a version of its services that would only target them with ads based on broad categories, such as their age range and general location — without using, as it does now, data such as what videos they watch or content they click on inside Meta’s apps, the people said.

Appeals Court Reverses VirnetX's $502 Million Patent Victory Against Apple

Apple Inc. convinced a U.S. appeals court to throw out a $502 million verdict for patent licensing company VirnetX Inc. in a long-running fight over internet privacy technology. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Feder.al Circuit said the verdict could not stand after the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board canceled the virtual private network (VPN) patents VirnetX accused Apple of infringing.

Tech Leaders Urge Artificial Intelligence Labs to Pause Development

More than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk, have urged artificial intelligence labs to pause development of the most advanced systems, warning in an open letter that A.I. tools present “profound risks to society and humanity.” A.I. developers are “locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one — not even their creators — can understand, predict or reliably control,” according to the letter, which the nonprofit Future of Life Institute.

Court Sanctions Google in Case of Unlawful Browser Tracking in 'Incognito' Mode

A U.S. court has sanctioned Google LLC for a second time in recent days, after a judge in a decision said the Alphabet Inc. unit took too long to comply with a ruling last year in a data-privacy class action. The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen in San Jose, California, stems from a class action claiming Google unlawfully tracked its users while they were using the company's Chrome browsers in private, or "incognito," mode.

FTC Plans Case Against Amazon Over Child Privacy Violations for Alexa

The Federal Trade Commission is planning to move forward soon with a case against Amazon over alleged privacy violations stemming from the use of children’s data with the company’s Alexa voice assistant, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The antitrust and consumer protection agency has been investigating Amazon on a number of fronts for several years, including for possible violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which could potentially allow the agency to collect large civil monetary penalties.

Italy Temporarily Bans ChatGPT, Citing Illegal Collection of Personal Data

The artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT was temporarily banned in Italy, the first known instance of the chatbot being blocked by a government order. Italy’s data protection authority said OpenAI, the California company that makes ChatGPT, unlawfully collected personal data from users and did not have an age-verification system in place to prevent minors from being exposed to illicit material.

Biden Signs Executive Order Limiting Commercial Use of Hacking Tools

President Biden restricted the use of commercial hacking tools throughout the federal government as officials said they believed high-powered spyware had compromised devices belonging to at least 50 U.S. personnel working overseas. Mr. Biden signed an executive order that imposes rules limiting the acquisition and deployment of hacking tools from vendors whose products have been linked to human-rights abuses or are deemed to pose counterintelligence or national security risks to the U.S.

Subscribe

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.