Sign up for a new account or log in here:
TechSpot News
law articles
Secret court makes refusing government data requests tricky for companies
- Sources in touch with the New York Times purport that Yahoo was one of the companies with enough brass to try to resist national security data requests before its indoctrination into PRISM. In a secretive court though, the company was…
Phone-unlocking petition author launches "Fix the DMCA" campaign
- Sina Khanifar, co-found of OpenSignal, has launched a campaign to "fix" the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Interestingly, Khanifar is also the same person who authored a recent petition to legalize cellphone unlocking. His "We the People" submission was subsequently blessed…
Manning pleads guilty, hoped leaks would "cause society to reconsider" war on terror
- During his military trial at Ft. Meade, Bradley Manning, age 25, plead guilty yesterday to 10 of 22 charges stemming from the submission of classified information to Wikileaks in 2010. Manning has claimed responsibility for obtaining and sharing hundreds of…
Newegg defeats patent troll who claims it invented the shopping cart
- Presenting CompuServe's ancient online "mall" as an example of Precambian prior art, Newegg successfully defeated Soverain Software's supposed patent claim to what is essentially the modern day shopping cart. If Soverain had won the verdict, there's a good chance nearly…
Privacy bill reportedly rewritten to allow warrantless surveillance
- An update to the 26-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is due for a vote next week. But it seems that rather bringing it up to modern standards while guaranteeing protections for people’s digital communications, the rewrite actually expands the…
Samsung countersues LG over OLED patent claims
- It looks like Samsung and LG Display are still at it. The latest wrinkle between the two companies is a Samsung-led lawsuit filed in Korea which alleges seven of LG's OLED patents "lack innovation". Apparently, Samsung hopes to invalidate those…
Google report shows increase in censorship, anti-piracy requests
- This summer, Google's Transparency Report indicated an increase in global government censorship. Google's latest bi-annual look though illustrates not only a continued increase, but a substantial uptick of government-issued requests in just past six months. In fact, requests to take…
Jailbreaking smartphones remains legal. Tablets? Not so much.
- The U.S. Copyright Office has performed its triennial review of exceptions to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Officials have most notably determined jailbreaking smartphones (but not tablets) remains legal, unlocking phones is legal -- but only with your carrier's…
NZ Prime Minister apologizes to MegaUpload's Kim DotCom
- Today New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key issued an apology to Kim DotCom for failing to protect him against illegal surveillance performed by NZ authorities. DotCom is the brains behind the long defunct MegaUpload, a file sharing service shut down…
Weekend tech reading: Inconsistencies in Apple v. Samsung ruling
-
Late in the process yesterday at the Apple v. Samsung trial, when the parties and the judge were reviewing the jury verdict form, Samsung noticed that there were, indeed, inconsistencies in the jury's verdict form, a possibility Samsung anticipated. In two instances, results were crazily contradictory...
Site owner gets 4 years in prison for unauthorized video sharing
- Surfthechannel.com owner Anton Vickerman has landed himself a stiff four-year prison sentence after running a website which hosted links to unauthorized video content. That's substantially less than the maximum of 10 years he faced, but almost certainly more than he…
Apple calls e-book settlement "unfair, unlawful, and unprecedented"
- In a statement issued yesterday, Apple lambasted the Department of Justice over supporting a government-proposed settlement intended to resolve possible e-book price-fixing practices. The company criticized the settlement as "fundamentally unfair, unlawful and unprecedented", accusing the DOJ of attempting to…
Hulu sued over 24-year old video privacy law
- Due to a 1988 video rental privacy law, media streaming outfit Hulu has found itself in a jeopardous position. An anonymous group of individuals are suing Hulu for purported violations of privacy, a charge brought about by sharing users' video watching history…
Video footage reveals armed raid on MegaUpload founder's home
- New Zealand-based news channel 3News has released new video footage of the armed raid launched against Kim Dotcom, MegaUpload's former head man. The video was courtesy of an "elite officer" involved in the operation and supports Dotcom's criticism of the…
Underage labor claims push Samsung to investigate Chinese factory
- Although Apple's Foxconn ordeal eventually managed to slip beyond the spotlight, Samsung may be next in line for a public flogging due to workforce abuse. China Labor Watch is reporting a major Samsung supplier, HEG Electronics, has been employing workers under the legal…
Demonoid shut down by Ukrainian authorities following DDoS attack
- Demonoid, the Internet's largest combined BitTorrent site and tracker, has been shutdown in one of the biggest BitTorrent-related busts in recent times, according to TorrentFreak. ColoCall, the Ukrainian datacenter who hosts Demonoid, was forced to relinquish Demonoid's data to local…
Google says plaintiffs haven't proved scanning books hurts sales
- It appears Google has asked for a summary judgment regarding the legality of scanning books and posting them online via Google Books. Google defended its book-scanning project (formerly known as Google Library) on the basis of fair use, preserving those works,…
Comcast refuses IP lookups, calls anti-piracy case a 'shake down'
- Comcast may be complicating the lives of copyright holders everywhere by rejecting recent requests made to link subscriber information to IP addresses. In an ongoing legal kerfuffle with AF Holdings, adult film publisher and plaintiff, Comcast requested an Illinois district…
Comcast anti-trust probe launched, DoJ concerned about Xfinity
- Citing individuals "familiar with the matter", the Wall Street Journal claims the Department of Justice is investigating Comcast for possible anti-trust violations. The DoJ has reportedly spoken to Netflix, Hulu, Comcast and others so far during their investigation. Comcast has been…
Comcast investigated over net neutrality, denies Xfinity favoritism
-
Comcast network and operations VP, Tony Werner, has responded to Minnesota senator Al Franken's request to investigate the company for questionable net neutrality practices. According to Werner, Comcast is not prioritizing Xfinity traffic -- the company's IP television service...
Congress aims to outlaw employers from requiring Facebook passwords
- In response to a recent (and dubious) phenomenon where employers require employees to fork over the proverbial keys to their online accounts, U.S. House Democrats are working to pass legislation which will prohibit this practice all together.
Judge rules IP addresses aren't enough to incriminate pirates
- Judge Gary Brown, a federally-appointed magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of New York, recently ruled that an IP address is no more able to identify wrong-doers than a telephone number can be used to…
SOPA is dead, but CISPA may give Internet citizens a new cause
- Although the demise of SOPA is behind us, citizens of the Internet may have new cause for concern. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) has been gaining momentum and while it is distinctly different than SOPA, some argue…
Most Popular
| Trending | Featured |
-
Microsoft backtracks: Drops daily check-ins, used games restrictions on Xbox One
-
Noise cancellation technique harnesses magnets to silence CPU fans [video]
-
Cookie-blocking browser plugin Ghostery feeds data to the ad industry
-
China reclaims world's fastest supercomputer title
-
Games get traded in because they are too short, Avalanche boss says
Subscribe to TechSpot
Get free exclusive content, learn about new features and breaking tech news.
TechSpot on: