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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…
French "three-strikes" anti-piracy law may be repealed
- Hadopi, France's "three-strikes" anti-piracy law, could be in for sweeping changes or even discarded as officials once again ponder the controversial measure. According to the New York Times, France's administration is exploring the closure of the agency tasked with enforcing the…
Kim Dotcom holds two-factor authentication patent, won't sue tech giants in exchange for legal help
- Kim Dotcom is once again making headlines, but not over his controversial Mega website. Rather, Dotcom claims he invented two-factor authentication. He has promised to not sue companies using the technology; namely Google, Facebook and Twitter, but only in exchange for…
Microsoft launches YouTube app, Google demands it taken down
- Google yesterday issued a cease-and-desist letter to Microsoft, demanding Redmond pull its YouTube app from the Windows Phone Store. The app has been available for over a week; however, it violates YouTube's API usage terms. Google says Microsoft has until…
New bill aims to legalize cell phone unlocking, fix the DMCA
- Unlike jailbreaking, which has remained legal since 2010, a DMCA exemption allowing cellphone unlocking was effectively banned in an update to the act late last year. The controversial decision pushed forward by the Librarian of Congress sparked responses from consumer…
Mozilla demands firm halt spyware masquerading as Firefox
- Gamma International, a British security firm with ostensibly few scruples, has been accused of developing surveillance software which intentionally masquerades as Firefox. The program's unauthorized similarities to Mozilla's well-known browser prompted the organization to issue a cease-and-desist notice in an…
McAfee patents anti-piracy filter
- A recent patent published by McAfee describes what amounts to an anti-piracy system. Titled "Detect and prevent illegal consumption of content on the internet", McAfee's approach would employ a centralized blocklist-style system to issue warnings for -- or entirely block…
YouTube protected by DMCA in Viacom lawsuit, judge rules
- A federal judge has ruled in favor of YouTube once more, shooting down claims made by Viacom that the Google-owned video service infringes on its intellectual property. Judge Stanton agreed with Google that it was protected under the "Safe Harbor"…
CISPA passes House (again), White House threatens veto (again)
- The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is once again making the rounds. The bill passed the House on Thursday with a 288-127 vote. Although there appears to be a fair amount of bi-partisan support for the bill, it may…
Judge: Apple, Google using courts as "business strategy" to "mop up mess"
- Displeased with a lengthy, ongoing patent dispute between Apple and Motorola Mobility (i.e. Google), a Florida-based federal judge has accused both companies of misusing the court system as just another business strategy. Bloomberg published the original scoop yesterday. …
Aereo Internet TV forces Fox, CBS to consider subscription-based model
- Following a recent court decision favoring Aereo's Internet-based, royalty-free retransmission of broadcast television, Fox warned it may pull its freely available NY-area broadcast channel in favor of a subscription-only model. CBS claims it too is mulling over a similar move to…
Twitter awarded patent for... Twitter
- Twitter founders Jack Dorsey and Christopher "Biz" Stone have been awarded a patent which describes a platform agnostic, multi-point message broadcast system and methods. When all said and done, USPTO application 60951415 essentially describes the core of the Twitter's microblogging service…
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…
Microsoft fined €561m for not showing browser ballot on Win7 SP1
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The European Commission has fined Microsoft €561 ($730 million) for not complying with a three-year old agreement to give Windows users a selection of alternative browsers. In 2009, Microsoft faced an antitrust case with the EU that suggested the company abused its position...
FCC will investigate phone unlocking ban, cites innovation, competition concerns
- FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says the FCC will be investigating whether or not a ban on cellphone unlocking is a sensible demand. The government communications body will also be exploring its options to address the ban, assuming it determines the…
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…
Nevada is first state to legalize online gambling
- Nevada's governor has signed into law a bill which legalizes Internet gambling. Consequently, Nevada has become the first U.S. state to legalize online gambling. The AB114 bill (pdf) also authorizes Nevada to make deals with other states, allowing them to…
Petition to legalize unlocking reaches 100K signatures, warrants White House response
- With over 100,000 signatures (and counting), an open petition asking the White House to legalize unlocking cell phones could elicit an official response from the Obama administration. Currently, 100,000 signatures within the first month of a petition's life is the…
Major ransomware operation dismantled by authorities
- Authorities have detained 11 individuals thought to be responsible for the proliferation of a nasty "police ransomware" virus which demanded users pay €100 ($135 USD) to re-gain access to their infected PCs. Amongst the 11 caught -- a crew of…
The Pirate Bay sues anti-piracy group for copying its design
- In an attempt to further propel its anti-piracy message, a Finnish organization known as the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Center has launched a new website (piraattilahti.fi) which shamelessly duplicates the look and feel of the The Pirate Bay. Piraattilahti, by the…
CISPA cybersecurity bill returns, still ignores privacy rights
- It's back. The U.S. House Intelligence Committee has reintroduced its controversial "Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act" in a second attempt to pass the bill. Originally unleashed last year, CISPA slipped passed Congress but was aborted by the Senate following a…
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…
Skype calls purportedly being tapped, Skype-based malware spreads
- In terms of security, privacy and trust, it looks like 2013 is shaping up to be a tough year for Skype. The latest ding against the Microsoft-owned company comes from Reporters Without Borders' online censorship project leader Grégoire Pouget, who…
Banning sex offenders from social media sites violates free speech, Federal court rules
- Due to First Amendment concerns, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has invalidated an Indiana law barring registered sex offenders from using social network sites. "The Indiana law targets substantially more activity than the evil it seeks to redress,"…
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