Tech Law

Microsoft is the target of yet another legal challenge -- this time from the online travel Web site Kayak, which has sent the software giant a letter noting similarities between its own site and Bing's travel service. It has asked Microsoft to take steps to address the matter. "Our concern is about ...

China's bid to clamp down on online porn has sparked a flurry of activity. PC makers are scrambling to install Green Dam Youth Escort, an Internet filtering software application, on every desktop and laptop sold in the country by the July 1 deadline issued by the nation's government. However, they'r...

Since its conception in 1996, Google's search engine has played a key role in redefining not only the role of the Internet, but also the accessibility of the Internet to the end-user. Its unofficial slogan is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google...

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Minnesota mom who has been at the center of the RIAA's legal battle against music piracy, has been found liable for illegal file-sharing in the retrial of Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rasset. She now faces a $1.92 million penalty, or $80,000 for each of 24 songs she made avail...

Blogs and online review sites have proliferated in recent years, as ostensibly "with-it" influencers offer "independent" reviews, endorsements and testimonials that increasingly drive consumer traffic to a wide variety of product sellers. However, as consumers are learning with great disappointment,...

Microsoft has initiated a civil lawsuit in the Western District of Seattle seeking $750,000 in damages from three individuals in Vancouver, British Columbia, for committing click fraud. The three alleged fraudsters are two brothers and a mother -- Eric Lam, Gordon Lam and Melanie Suen -- who, accord...

Europe's nearly 18-month battle against the dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer has entered a new stage. The EC has rejected Microsoft's offer to strip Internet Explorer from some copies of Windows 7 destined to ship to the EU when the new operating system is released in the fall. Instead, th...

Many local governments have initiated class action lawsuits in an effort to compel the collection of sales taxes on hotel room markups. Online travel companies have responded to these cases along three main lines of defense, marshaling both procedural and substantive arguments. Among their defenses ...

It looks as though the Southern District of New York has opened a new front in the war on Internet gambling. Federal prosecutors have asked Citibank, Wells Fargo and two smaller banks to freeze funds in accounts belonging to two companies that process payouts on behalf of four offshore poker sites, ...

The Federal Communications Commission has closed the first round of comment on its national broadband plan initiative, a requirement of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. The FCC must deliver a completed plan to Congress by February 2010 showing the way to more widespread broadband ...

The FTC has shut down an ISP that it painted as the worst of the worst in cyberspace. Pricewert, which has done business under a variety of names including "3FN" and "APS Telecom," sought out criminals seeking to distribute illegal electronic content including child porn, violent porn and bestiality...

On the front line of the e-commerce tax are online travel companies such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline, Travelocity and Orbitz. The issue is whether the OTCs should be collecting hotel room occupancy taxes on the difference in the price between what the OTC pays the hotel operator and the amount...

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker on Wednesday dismissed dozens of lawsuits against telecommunication companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's so-called warrantless wiretapping activities several years ago. The once-secret program allowed government agents to listen in on U.S. citize...

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the hiring practices of high-tech firms to determine whether they are colluding with one another, according to a press report. Essentially, it is investigating possible agreements among high-tech companies not to poach talent from eac...

With an increasing number of individuals engaging in social networking, it is not surprising that Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have started to play a prominent role in litigation in the United States and Canada, at times affecting outcomes. Increasingly, information contained in F...