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Anonymous member convicted for DDoS against PayPal, others
- A jury has convicted 22-year old Anonymous hacktivist Christopher Weatherhead for playing a lead role in organizing a series of distributed denial of service attacks against PayPal (and others) in 2010. Weatherhead's cohorts, Peter Gibson, Jake Bichall and Ashley Rhodes,…
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…
MegaUpload now set to relaunch as mega.co.nz
- After Kim Dotcom was denied the possibility of resurrecting MegaUpload as Me.ga, the controversial figure blasted the U.S. and Vivendi for their opposing views and global reach. Dotcom added that Mega was well-prepared for this contingency however, with a number of…
Man fined $1.5 million in damages for sharing 10 porn movies
- A Virginia man, Kywan Fisher, who was accused of sharing 10 adult movies via BitTorrent is being asked by an Illinois Federal court to pony up a whopping $1,500,000 in damages. The stiff judgment is the largest amount ever awarded…
Federal court: If users don't click, your terms of service is invalid
- A Federal court in Nevada has ruled that because users weren't forced to click through Zappos' terms of service agreement, the company's terms are invalid. The ruling is the result of a lawsuit regarding an unfortunate security breach at Zappos…
Me.ga is new home for MegaUpload, launches 01/19/13
- Kim Dotcom and friends are making good on their promise to revive MegaUpload. The popular file sharing destination was abruptly shut down by U.S. officials earlier this year and Kim Dotcom's New Zealand mansion raided by American and New Zealand…
Microsoft sued over use of Live Tiles in Windows
- Microsoft is already facing lawsuits related to the recently-launched Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 operating systems. Surfcast, a Portland-based company OS development company has filed a complaint with a U.S. District Court in Maine, claiming that Microsoft is infringing…
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…
AT&T to launch six-strike anti-piracy plan Nov 28, leak shows
- Leaked internal training documents indicate AT&T is gearing up to launch a six-strike anti-piracy initiative on November 28. This may not prove to be much of a surprise for readers who caught headlines earlier this year regarding an impending graduated response supposedly…
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…
Apple seeks US Samsung sales ban plus $707m in damages
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Apple filed a motion in the San Jose District Court late Friday requesting an additional $707 million in damages and a wider US sales ban covering all of Samsung's infringing devices. The South Korean electronics giant has also filed its own motion requesting a retrial...
Twitter hands over Occupy protestor data to avoid hefty fines
- Twitter was given until September 15 to either give up tweets belonging to Occupy Wall Street protestor Malcolm Harris or face stiff financial penalties from a New York State Supreme Court judge. The microblogging service elected to avoid any further…
$220,000 award upheld in RIAA v. Jammie Thomas-Rasset lawsuit
- Yes, Jammie Thomas-Rasset is still embroiled in a legal battle against the Record Industry Association of America -- and yes, the infamous P2P file-sharer from Minnesota is still on the losing side. It appears the most recent verdict totaling $220,000…
Twitter ordered to identify protester, argues users own their data
- A New York State Supreme Court judge ordered Twitter to hand over the account information of Occupy Wall Street protester Malcolm Harris, Bloomberg reports. Twitter has until September 15 to comply with the court order to face an undisclosed fine…
Chinese company patents iPhone 5 design, may sue Apple
- Tired of hearing about seemingly endless patent wars being waged between multi-national companies? Me too. However, this one has an interesting twist. Giz-China is reporting that Apple's iPhone 5 may be in danger of an injunction barring sales in China…
Book publishers reach $69M settlement in e-book price-fixing case
- Three book publishers have agreed to an anti-trust settlement that will see them collectively pay more than $69 million in order to resolve charges that they collaborated with Apple to raise the prices of digitally-distributed books. Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins…
Apple v. Samsung super roundup: winners, losers, opinions, legalities, implications and more
- Even though Friday's ruling could be considered a landmark in the Apple v. Samsung case, the battle between the two companies is far from over, both in the U.S. and overseas, where it's estimated they are are involved in more…
Weekend tech reading: Inconsistencies in Apple v. Samsung ruling
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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...
Samsung loses U.S. trial, owes Apple more than $1 billion in damages
- After several comings and goings over the past few months, the Apple v. Samsung verdict has come in, widely favoring Apple who claimed in U.S. courts that Samsung's Android smartphones and tablets infringed on its intellectual property, including patents, trademarks and…
Microsoft simplifies Windows 8 EULA, rewrites terms
- Microsoft's Windows EULA (end-user license agreement) has traditionally consisted of posterior-covering blobs of legalese. According to ZDNet though, with Windows 8, Microsoft has completely rewritten the agreement in "plain English". Also, for the first time, the EULA allows for legally…
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…
Former MPAA CTO speaks out against laws like SOPA
- Former Motion Picture Association’s Chief Technology Officer Paul Brigner has offered a level-headed rundown regarding the perils of using DNS as a means of Internet enforcement. Once controversial legislation, SOPA relied upon DNS-blocking techniques to essentially take down undesirable websites -- a…
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