Tag: COURT

Challenges to the FCC's new Net neutrality rules filed by Verizon and MetroPCS have been dismissed by a federal appeals court judge. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia tossed out the cases on a technicality. Since the rules had not yet been published in the federal register, it was too early to file challenges to them. The decision does not prevent either company from filing ...

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell issued a ruling that would make it easier for copyright holders to obtain personal information on anyone suspected of illegally downloading copyrighted files. The verdict was met with complaints from ISPs and consumer rights groups, with many arguing that it would allow copyright holders to pursue frivolous lawsuits in the hopes of striking ...

A New York court has rejected a settlement in a class action lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild against Google Books. Under the settlement, reached in 2009, Google would be able to digitize and display excerpts from books that are out of print, even if they're still under copyright, or not authorized to be included in Google Books. The agreement quickly raised the ire of many organizations, ...

The ACLU and other civil liberties groups can continue their legal battle against a federal wiretapping law, now that a New York appeals court has reinstated their lawsuit. At issue is a 2008 federal law known as the FISA Amendments Act, which empowered the U.S. government to conduct widespread electronic surveillance on suspected terrorists. The ACLU's challenge had been previously thrown out ...

IP addresses may help identify the source of anonymous and malicious e-mails, but they can only tell authorities where the message originated, without providing many details on the individual who authored them. Using some pretty innovative analytics, researchers at Concordia University have just come up with a new technique that could help investigators determine the precise identity of these ...

The U.S. Army has filed 22 new charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, the former intelligence analyst who's already been accused of handing over thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks. Among the new allegations, the most serious is a charge of aiding the enemy -- a capital offense. Though the Army says it won't seek the death penalty against Manning, the 22-year old could face ...

Google's ongoing legal battle with European regulators has shifted to Switzerland. Today, the company asked a Swiss court to lift restrictions on its Street View service that have been in place for more than a year. The curbs were originally implemented in response to demands from authorities and privacy advocates, who claimed that the feature violated individual rights to privacy. Speaking ...

A British judge has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange must be extradited to Sweden to be questioned on accusations of sexual abuse. The decision, which was issued this morning in London, means that the Australian national will be sent to Sweden in ten days, although his lawyers have already indicated that they plan to file an appeal. In the ruling, Judge Howard Riddle determined that ...

A woman who lost her job after ignoring her boss' sexually explicit text messages has been awarded $30,000 by a Canadian court. The woman, Lisa McIntosh, worked as a truck driver at an aluminum company in British Columbia, where she was briefly involved in a consensual relationship with Zbigniew Augustynowicz, the company's owner. During the relationship, the two would exchange text messages on ...

A Pennsylvania teenager has admitted to raping an intoxicated woman, and to soliciting the services of a hitman on Facebook. Corey Christian Adams, a 19-year old from West Chester, was arrested last July after a woman accused him of raping her following a party. The victim, whose name has not been released, reportedly got a ride home with Adams after the party, but passed out on the way. When ...

On the very day that the Egyptian government shut down an overwhelming majority of the country's Internet servers, Republican Senator Susan Collins began floating a piece of legislation which, if passed, would grant the President the power to do essentially the same thing in the U.S. The so-called 'kill switch' bill was approved by the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ...

The father-son team behind a massive 'scareware' scam will have to pay $8.2 million to the Federal Trade Commission, in order to settle a complaint filed by the government agency. Marc D'Souza and his father Maurice were allegedly at the center of the scam, which tricked Internet users into buying fake security software to combat computer infections that didn't really exist. The operators ...

A Staten Island man has filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Facebook, alleging that the social network shut down his account without explanation. The plaintiff, Mustafa Fteja, reportedly discovered that his account had been disabled back in September after he was repeatedly unable to log in. The 30-year old says that he contacted Facebook for an explanation, but only received automated responses. ...

If you're a California resident planning on filing a lawsuit against your employer, you probably shouldn't communicate with your lawyer via your work e-mail account -- because whatever you say won't be protected under attorney-client privilege. Yesterday, the Sacramento Third Appellate District court ruled that e-mails sent from work accounts can't be considered legally confidential, because ...

The Fourth Amendment requires all law-enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant before seizing a suspect's personal property. According to the California Supreme Court, though, the law doesn't apply to cell phones. In a 5-to-2 vote, the court ruled that police don't need a search warrant to search an arrested individual's cell phone -- because cell phones, in essence, are like clothing. ...