Singapore's Parliament Passes Law Targeting Harmful Content Online

Singapore’s parliament passed a law giving authorities more powers to block harmful content on social media platforms, from TikTok to Instagram and Facebook, the city state’s latest move to curb online harms. Under the the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Bill, known as OSRA, authorities will be empowered to require Internet companies — including major social media platforms — to remove content deemed harmful, such as material promoting sexual abuse or online bullying.

U.S. Departments, Agencies Want to Ban Home Routers from TP-Link

More than a half-dozen federal departments and agencies backed a proposal to ban future sales of the most popular home routers in the United States on the grounds that the vendor’s ties to mainland China make them a national security risk, according to people briefed on the matter and a communication reviewed by The Washington Post. The proposal, which arose from a months-long risk assessment, calls for blocking sales of networking devices from TP-Link Systems of Irvine, California, which was spun off from a China-based company, TP-Link Technologies, but owns some of that company’s former assets in China.

Cybersecurity Workers Charged with Moonlighting as Criminal Hackers

Three employees at cybersecurity companies spent years moonlighting as criminal hackers, launching their own ransomware attacks in a plot to extort millions of dollars from victims around the country, U.S. prosecutors alleged in court filings. Ryan Clifford Goldberg, a former incident response supervisor at Sygnia Consulting Ltd., and Kevin Tyler Martin, who was a ransomware negotiator for DigitalMint, were charged with working together to hack five businesses starting in May 2023

Google, Epic Games Reach Settlement Over Android App Store Fees

Alphabet's Google said it has reached a comprehensive U.S. court settlement with “Fortnite” video game maker Epic Games, agreeing to Android and app store reforms aimed at lowering fees, boosting competition and expanding choices for developers and consumers. In a joint filing, in the federal court in San Francisco, the companies asked U.S. District Judge James Donato to consider a proposal resolving Epic’s 2020 antitrust lawsuit, which accused Google of illegally monopolizing how users access apps and make in-app purchases on Android devices.

Judge in London Dismisses AI Copyright Claims in Getty's Lawsuit

Getty Images largely lost its London lawsuit against artificial intelligence company Stability AI over its image generator, prompting Getty and some lawyers to call for stronger protections for copyright owners in Britain. Seattle-based Getty, which produces editorial content and creative stock images and video, accused Stability AI of using its images to "train" its Stable Diffusion system, which generates images from text inputs.

University of Pennsylvania Reports Cybersecurity Breach to FBI

The University of Pennsylvania has reported a mass cybersecurity breach to the Federal Bureau of Investigation following reports that the hack compromised data for millions of individuals. The breach resulted in mass scam emails sent from multiple University-affiliated email addresses that were addressed to the Penn community and contained criticisms of the University’s security practices and institutional purpose.

Man Released from Jail Five Weeks After Posting Charlie Kirk Meme

A retired police officer was released from Perry County Jail in Linden, Tennessee, more than five weeks since he was arrested at home after sharing a Facebook post about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah. The post quoted President Donald Trump saying “we have to get over it” after a deadly 2024 school shooting in Iowa. Authorities in Perry County had held Larry Bushart on charges of threatening mass violence on school property, which he denied.

France Threatens to Ban Shein Over Sex Dolls 'Resembling Children'

The French government threatened to bar the Chinese fashion retailer Shein from selling its products online in the country and referred the company to the Paris prosecutor after an investigation found that sex dolls “resembling children” were being sold on the company’s platform in France. After receiving an anonymous tip, France’s consumer fraud agency said it had discovered the sale of lifelike dolls the size of little girls whose appearance “left little doubt as to the child pornography nature” of the items.

University of Southern California Files Patent Suit Over Google Maps

The University of Southern California has sued Google in Texas federal court, alleging that the tech giant's Google Earth, Maps and Street View applications violate its patent rights. USC said in the complaint, opens new tabfiled Monday that Google's map and navigation products infringe two patents related to technology for overlaying two-dimensional images onto three-dimensional models.

Celebrity Video Platform Cameo Files Trademark Suit Over OpenAI's 'Cameo'

The maker of celebrity video platform Cameo sued OpenAI in a California federal court, arguing that the new "Cameo" feature of OpenAI's Sora video generation app violates its trademark rights. Cameo said in the complaint that OpenAI's Cameo, which allows users to create and share their virtual likenesses on Sora, is likely to cause consumer confusion and dilute its brand.

People Flee to Thailand After Myanmar’s Military Shuts Online Scam Center

The number of people fleeing from Myanmar to Thailand after Myanmar’s military shut down a major online scam center has slowed to a trickle, a Thai regional army commander said Tuesday, after more than 1,500 had left in the past week. The KK Park site, identified by Thai officials and independent experts as housing a major cybercrime operation, was raided by Myanmar’s army in mid-October as part of operations starting in early September to suppress cross-border online scams and illegal gambling.

Judge Rejects OpenAI's Request to Dismiss Authors' Copyright Suit

A New York federal judge has denied OpenAI's early request to dismiss authors' claims that text generated by OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT infringes their copyrights. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein said that the authors may be able to prove the text ChatGPT produces is similar enough to their work to violate their book copyrights.

Law Firm Admits Attorney Used AI, Created Fake Citations, Lied to Court

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani admitted that one of its attorneys lied to a bankruptcy court when she denied that generative artificial intelligence was used in filings that contained fabricated citations. The firm reimbursed more than $55,000 in legal fees to the law firms representing bankrupt Alabama-based Jackson Hospital & Clinic and its lender after they accused Gordon Rees of submitting filings with inaccurate and misleading citations, according to documents filed Thursday in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

Judge Decertifies App Store Class-Action Suit Against Apple

A federal judge decertified a class action by tens of millions of Apple customers who accused the company of monopolizing the market for iPhone apps by banning purchases outside its App Store, leading to higher prices. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, reversed her February 2024 decision allowing Apple account holders who spent $10 or more on app or in-app content within the last 17 years to sue as a group.

Australia's Competition Regulator Sues Microsoft Over AI Bundling

Australia's competition regulator sued Microsoft, accusing it of misleading millions of customers into paying higher prices for its Microsoft 365 software after bundling it with artificial intelligence tool Copilot. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleged that from October 2024, the technology giant misled about 2.7 million customers by suggesting they had to move to higher-priced Microsoft 365 personal and family plans that included Copilot.

More Than 60 Countries Sign UN Treaty Targeting Cybercrime in Hanoi

Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to strengthen international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering.

  • Read the article: AFP

Two Federal Judges Admit Using AI to Prepare 'Error-Ridden' Orders

Two federal judges admitted in response to an inquiry by U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley that members of their staff used artificial intelligence to help prepare recent court orders that Grassley called "error-ridden." In letters released by Grassley's office, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate in Mississippi and U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals in New Jersey said the decisions in the unrelated cases did not go through their chambers' typical review processes before they were issued.

OpenAI Loosened Rules for Discussing Suicide, Teen's Parents Allege

OpenAI twice loosened ChatGPT’s rules for discussing suicide in the year before 16-year-old Adam Raine took his own life using a method the chatbot advised him on, according to an amended lawsuit filed by his parents. Adam’s parents, Matthew and Maria Raine, sued OpenAI in August for the wrongful death of their son, saying he had spent more than 3½ hours a day conversing with ChatGPT, including about suicide, in the weeks before taking his own life by hanging in April.

Plaintiffs in Google Privacy Case Want Company to Forfeit $2.36B

U.S. Google users who won a $425 million jury verdict in a consumer privacy class action last month have asked a federal judge to force the Alphabet unit to forfeit an additional $2.36 billion in profits. The consumers in a court filing called the amount a "conservative approximation" of Google’s allegedly ill-gotten gains after the jury found the company secretly collected app activity data from millions of users who had disabled an account tracking feature.

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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.