Tech Law

Though well-intentioned, services that scrub potentially offensive material from DVDs and then resell them as family-friendly versions are violating copyright laws, a court has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch ruled in favor of major Hollywood studios by saying that a number of compan...

The European Commission is poised to raise the limit on daily fines that Microsoft may face if it does not bring itself into compliance with remedies aimed at addressing its past antitrust behavior on the continent. Reports say the EC will raise the cap on daily fines to the equivalent of US$3.8 mil...

A federal judge in Houston and the U.S. Attorney's office for that region are wrangling over just how much information the government can garner from a phone call without a warrant for a wiretap. The case involves a request by U.S. Attorney Donald J. DeGabrielle Jr. for a pen register and a trap and...

With legislative attempts to mandate so-called "network neutrality" sputtering, Google said it would use existing antitrust laws to require that cable companies and telcos carry its services to consumers if necessary. Google would not hesitate to bring antitrust complaints to the attention of the U....

Google defended its system of ranking Web pages in search results in court Friday after a competitor claimed its pages were unfairly blocked. A California judge is considering whether to allow a lawsuit to proceed. Attorneys for Google argued that the search giant can use any criteria it wants to ra...

Mobile technology developer Qualcomm is facing charges from U.S. based companies that it improperly used its market dominance to squelch competition in Korea, where regulators are probing a fresh batch of complaints. Korea's Fair Trade Commission is examining complaints from Dallas-based Texas Instr...

Yahoo has reached a tentative agreement to settle a class action lawsuit. The portal and search company agreed to pay millions in attorneys fees and potentially may have to refund millions more in advertising revenue. The settlement, which was given preliminary approval Wednesday by U.S. District J...

A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday rejected an amendment that would prevent Internet service providers from charging Web firms more for faster service to consumers. The amendment failed by an 11-11 vote. The "net neutrality" amendment was designed to ensure that telephone and cable companies treat...

Police in Bangalore, India, reported the arrest Tuesday night of the chief suspect in the theft of funds from a score of customers of HSBC bank in the UK. Nadeem Kashmiri is being charged in India with stealing customer data that was sent to Nadeem's accomplices in the UK. Nadeem's accomplices ass...

Shares of video game producer Take-Two Interactive Software plunged to new lows Tuesday after the company revealed it had been served with grand jury subpoenas as part of an apparent investigation into a host of company activities. At issue is whether company executives knew about explicit sex scen...

Once again, AT&T's actions have sparked a national debate over customer privacy. The company deliberately kicked off a new round of debate with its announcement last week that it was changing -- or as it said, "modifying" -- its privacy polices for Internet and video customers. To be sure, compa...

Last week's dismissal of the Metabolite case by the Supreme Court was a welcome relief to the intellectual property community, seemingly besieged with Supreme Court cases, eBay-inspired injunctive denials, patent reforms, Congressional pressures, the Blackberry brouhaha, and other challenges to the ...

Federal regulators on Wednesday agreed to impose or increase universal service fees on wireless and Internet-based phone subscribers. The Federal Communications Commission changed the "safe harbor" percentage for wireless carriers from 28.5 percent to 37.1 percent. The FCC is also requiring Voice ov...

The drumbeat of bad news continues for Vonage, with the VoIP startup, whose recent IPO has become something of a train wreck, saying Monday it has been sued by telecom giant Verizon for patent infringement. Vonage said it had received notice that parent company Vonage Holdings Corp. and its U.S.-sub...

Cable television consumers across the nation are halfway to their goal of getting lower prices and better service, thanks to the passage of a cable reform bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. The COPE Act will make it easier for new companies to enter the cable market and compete for consumers...