Intellectual Property Law

Google Offers to Help Yahoo! Fend off Microsoft?s Unsolicited Takeover Bid

Posted on February 04, 2008
Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang to offer his company's help in any effort to thwart Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, say people familiar with the matter," Kevin J. Delaney and Matthew Karnitschnig report for The Wall Street Journal...

Chinese Great Firewall of Internet Facing Increased Criticism & Internal Attacks

Posted on February 04, 2008
Reports that China's massive Internet is heavily policed and censored is news to few political aficionados or students of the World Wide Web but a movement is growing within the country to fight back against the Government's heavy hand and refusal to allow any genuine rights of free speech or expression...

FTC, IAPP, Northwestern University Law School to Co-Host April 15 Workshop for Businesses on Best Practices for Protecting Personal Information and Securing Data

Posted on February 04, 2008
The Federal Trade Commission, International Association of Privacy Professionals, and Northwestern University School of Law will co-host a one-day public workshop on April 15, 2008 on how businesses can secure the personal information of consumers and employees...

Pagerank Software System and the Issue of Liability

Posted on January 30, 2008
Some predict that the growth on Internet advertisement is so large that some day companies' marketing budgets may shift to 100% internet advertisement. "This record spending was once again led by ads linked to Web search results," said the Interactive Advertising Bureau...

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Sweden Taking Pirate Bay to Court While Music Biz Demands EU Crack Down

Posted on January 30, 2008
Like all major copyright scofflaws, the Pirate Bay had to know its date with Armageddon would likely happen at some time and now Sweden has taken umbrage at the file sharing site and is readying a prosecution against them. With ten-million peers and a million torrents of stolen files, the Bay has certainly grown beyond a cute adolescence...

Hackers Disable Scientology Website & Declare War

Posted on January 30, 2008
In a war rivaling the plot-line of science fiction writer and founder L. Ron Hubbard's novel Battlestar Earth, Scientologists are bracing for an assault against their online presence after the church's website was disabled by a group calling itself simply "Anonymous...

How can I File a Lawsuit a Nicaraguan Online Casino?

Posted on January 30, 2008
"I had a very unpleasant experience in an online casino in Nicaragua playing blackjack. After playing 425 hand and looking at the game log, it became clear to me that the software this casino was using was heavily favoring the house. I have made a spreadsheet with my betting history to prove this point...

District Court Bars the Sale of Consumers' Telephone Records to Third Parties

Posted on January 28, 2008
A federal judge has barred the illegal operation of an information broker who advertised and sold confidential consumer telephone records to third parties without the consumers" knowledge or consent. In entering summary judgment for the Federal Trade Commission, Judge William F...

Reform of State Secrets Privilege at Tuesday Congressional Hearing

Posted on January 28, 2008
  New Legislation Could Clear Path for Telecom Spying Lawsuits to Proceed in Court Washington, D.C. - On Tuesday, January 29, at 9:30 a.m, members of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing on reform of the state secrets privilege, which the Executive Branch has often used in recent years to hinder judicial inquiry into controversial anti-terrorism policies such as the CIA's rendition program and the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program...

Islamic Terrorist Software Released to Cloak Jihadist Internet Communications

Posted on January 28, 2008
Software designed specifically to aid Muslim terrorists hide their identities and location while online has been released in an updated version, according to security analyst Paul Henry of Secure Computing. He says the program is named Mujahideen Secrets 2, and claims it is "the first Islamic program for secure communications through networks with the highest technical level of encoding...

Am I subject to customs & duties (VAT) even though I am a non-EU national?

Posted on January 25, 2008
I am an Egyptian student living in Rome. I purchased a product online and it was shipped from the US a couple of days ago. I was notified of the shipments arrival and arranged a pickup at the FedEx depo in Rome. Upon collection I was asked to pay customs and duties of 93 euros for a product that I purchased for 230 euros...

Online Casinos Will Experience Cyber-Extortion During SuperBowl Betting

Posted on January 22, 2008
 Online casinos nearing one of their biggest paydays of the year on the eve of SuperBowl XLII must also await anxiously to see whether their site will be one of the many hit by a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS), meant not just to disable, but also reap financial gains for the cyber-criminals who initiate them...

Online Data Privacy and Methods or Mechanisms to Detect Violations

Posted on January 22, 2008
In the United States, online private companies' collection and use of customers" personal and identifiable information is subject to government regulations on data privacy.  Some of these regulations may be specific to the nature of the website or information collected...

Funerals Going Online in Madras, India

Posted on January 22, 2008
With a population approaching that of New York City, the 7.5 million residents of the southeastern metropolis Chennai, India will assumedly take whatever excuses they can find to not embark into the heavy urban traffic. And now the denizens of this artistic hub can respectfully attend funerals online as they mourn the dearly departed via the Net...

From what court could a stockholder seek readress and what type of relief could the court provide?

Posted on January 22, 2008
A company issued stocks after stating that the shares were secured. Many investors bought shares in the company. The company files bankruptcy. However the company never actually secured the stocks. The stockholders now want to pursue legal action against the company...

Restricted Access System Declaration 2007

Posted on January 21, 2008
Restricted Access System Declaration 2007 New rules for restricting access to age restricted content (commercial MA15+ content and R18+ content) either hosted in Australia or provided from Australia will commence from 20 January 2008. The new rules made by ACMA on 20 December 2007 are specified in the Restricted Access System Declaration 2007 (PDF 38 kb, Word 127 kb), and in the Explanatory Statement to the Declaration (PDF 37 kb, Word 95 kb) and are made in accordance with the new regulation of content framework under Schedule 7 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which also commences on 20 January 2008...

CIA Report: Cyber Extortionists Attacked Foreign Power Grid, Disrupting Delivery

Posted on January 21, 2008
In an unusually bold statement detailing another incursion of the Net battle targeting government sites, the CIA admitted web hackers penetrated overseas power grids, compromising service while demanding payment in exchange for cessation. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency made this announcement at a meeting hosted by the SANS Institute on January 16, in New Orleans, LA...

Beware Chatters: Net-Crooks Have Your Number

Posted on January 21, 2008
Next time you are relaxing with a cup of java and Internet messaging a friend, beware that cyber-crooks could be using your spontaneous recreation as an opportunity to breach your security and launch an attack, according to a new study. Instant message users reported many attack incidents, with the assaults broken down as: 19% on the AOL Instant Messenger network, 45% on MSN Messenger and 20% on Yahoo Instant Messenger, with the rest occurring on all other IM networks...

How can I track an Internet scammer?

Posted on January 17, 2008
Hi, Here is my story and I would like to know how I should proceed. My nephew Steven wants to open a gaming site on the Internet and since I know a lot about the Internet he asked me if I can help him, and of course I said yes. He met a guy on a gaming site that called himself Jose and he said that he lives in the UK which I don't believe (will explain later)...

Where should I base my offshore e-commerce company?

Posted on January 17, 2008
Dear Experts, My wife, tomoko, is Japanese, I am American. We live in California. Tomoko has a sister and parents in japan. Tomoko and her sister plan to start an online retail website selling organic only apparel and cotton products to sell to Japanese customers in Japan...

Study Reveals Large Holes in NYC Retailer Wireless Security

Posted on January 16, 2008
The recent National Retail Federation trade show in New York City had a surprise that shocked many small business owners when WLAN wireless defense company AirDefense announced it had tested wireless business security in Gotham and found it at an appallingly bad level...

Personal Data Should be Handled Like Spent Nuclear Fuel

Posted on January 16, 2008
Private data is so dangerous and volatile if mishandled and its power to damage lasts so long that one author claims it needs to be viewed like "Hot Nuclear Waste." Personal information is precious to those to whom it belongs to, highly damaging to their security and future prospects if exposed and needs to be treated as if it is a dangerous threat to all of society when not handled with the utmost care and respect...

Internet Disclosure of Civil Court Records: State Public Records Laws v. Privacy?

Posted on January 15, 2008
Very simple; defrauders, including businesses, can easily, and at no cost, use Internet published civil court records to supply their ?data collection.?    In other words, some state public records laws have become accomplice of defrauders who use ?this mandated service? to obtain people?s financial and other private information for the defrauders? gloomy purpose...

Where is the love? ? A saga in copyright!

Posted on January 14, 2008
Malaysia?s neighbor, Indonesia, with whom it shares close cultural links, has accused Malaysia of stealing its cultural heritage. The events came about following an advertisement in Malaysia?s overseas tourism campaign by the Malaysian Tourism Board featuring the traditional folk song ?Rasa Sayang? loosely translated as the ?feeling of love?, as its theme song...

New Boeing 787 Dreamliner May Be Vulnerable to a Cyber-Hjacking

Posted on January 13, 2008
Completing the greatest year in the history of aviation marketing with sales of over 800 units, upon the development of its new gas-efficient airplane the "Dreamliner," Boeing is currently riding high. Yet a new report by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) claims the plane may be at risk for hacking into its on-board computer system, with possible disastrous consequences...

'Cyber Cold War' Has Been Launched

Posted on January 13, 2008
When IT security colossus McAfee launched a deep study to discover what or who was behind the many recent breaches of Western government and military websites and computer systems, they drew a shocking conclusion ? that a new war on the web had been launched against Europe, the U...

How can I get my VAT refund?

Posted on January 11, 2008
We recently went to Italy and Switzerland for vacation. We were told that we needed to get our VAT EU stamp on the train when crossing the border from the Italy/Switzerland border. There was no Italian customs officer on the train. We went to the Zurich train station and went to the Change office and they would not give us an EU stamp on our documents for a VAT refund...

Can I post cheaters' pictures in an online cheaters website?

Posted on January 09, 2008
If i was to start a online cheaters exposted website business exposing cheaters around the world, will I be able to post there pictures on the site along with information about them as long as I don't use there physical address?

My professional character is being attacked on the Internet. I need an attorney in California

Posted on January 09, 2008
 Attacking a person's professional character /standing on the internet. If am a victim of this is there a firm or lawyer that deals with this in my area (california) thanks

What Can I Do Regarding False/Obsolete Registrant Information for Domain Name Registration?

Posted on January 09, 2008
This question is regarding false/obsolete registrant information for domain name registration. There is a very derogatory and defamatory website hosted on internic.ca by one of their customers. The targeted individual is in currently in prison in Europe and for many complex reasons and fears has not sought legal or social help...

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