Tech Law

In one of the most sweeping domestic law enforcement actions against online child pornography in recent times, New Jersey officials arrested 41 people and charged them with possession or distribution of graphic images of child molestation. Dubbed "Operation Silent Shield," the roundup was the culmin...

A California state appeals court in San Jose has reinstated an age discrimination case against Google brought by former employee Brian Reid. A California Superior Court judge had dismissed the case in 2005. Reid sued Google in 2004 following almost two years of employment at the search giant, primar...

The music industry emerged victorious in the first file-sharing lawsuit to go to trial, with a federal court jury ruling a Minnesota woman was liable for swapping two dozen songs and ordered her to pay $222,000 to Capitol Records. The closely watched case ended Thursday after two days of testimony a...

One of the first file-sharing lawsuits to go to trial could be concluded Thursday, and while the case is being closely watched, the Recording Industry Association of American said it will continue to pursue legal action against alleged music pirates regardless of the outcome. Attorneys for the RIAA ...

A federal district court judge issued two landmark decisions Tuesday in a nationwide class action suit against Target charging that the retail giant has "failed and refused" to make its Web site accessible to the blind. Brought by the National Federation of the Blind, the suit charges that by failin...

Three years after Sony Music Entertainment and BMG Entertainment finalized their Sony BMG joint venture, antitrust regulators from the European Union have again cleared the music industry deal. The decision followed a court-ordered review of the impacts on small record labels. European Commissioner ...

Google and Microsoft squared off as usual Thursday, but this time instead of the competitive battlefield, they met on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are weighing the question of whether Google's purchase of DoubleClick will create an unfair online advertising monopoly. Representatives of both compani...

A jury Tuesday delivered the second punch of a potentially staggering one-two legal blow to Vonage, finding the VoIP provider had willfully infringed upon patents held by Sprint Nextel. Jurors awarded Sprint $69.5 million in damages -- the equivalent of an estimated 5 percent of its revenues during ...

Google has formally asked the European Commission to review its acquisition of interactive advertising firm DoubleClick. The next few weeks will be critical, as regulators and lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic contemplate how -- or whether -- the merger should move forward. The EC on Monday i...

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, and Steve Perlman, who developed Apple's QuickTime video technology and WebTV, were among the people who descended upon Capitol Hill to protest the Patent Reform Act passed by the House of Representatives at the beginning of September. Kamen and Perlman are perhap...

Forcing consumers to buy prepackaged tiers of bundled TV channels is a violation of trade and anti-trust laws, contends a lawsuit filed in the federal court against media companies and cable/satellite TV providers. The complaint, filed by Los Angeles lawyers Maxwell Blecher and David Kesselman on be...

President Bush wants to renew and expand the controversial temporary surveillance legislation he rushed into law last month. The law, also known as the "Protect America Act," updates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by permitting warrantless surveillance of any targets located abroad, even ...

A European court upheld the European Union's sweeping antitrust ruling and the penalties against Microsoft, saying regulators acted within their authority when they issued a record-setting fine, forced Microsoft to produce a new version of Windows and required the software giant to share how its ser...

Enigmatic artist Prince says the Internet has allowed third parties to steal his works and may sue sites such as YouTube that benefit from the unauthorized use of his music. The bone of contention with the artist who once changed his name to a symbol is unreliable or insufficient filtering of conten...

Verizon Wireless is suing the Federal Communications Commission, asking a court to overturn the agency's rules that require the winner of an upcoming wireless spectrum auction to ensure at least part of that spectrum remains compatible with all mobile devices and services. Verizon Wireless filed the...