Tag: LAW

A man named Norman LeBoon is headed to prison after making threats to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a video posted to YouTube. In the clip, the 38-year-old LeBoon called the Republican "a liar" and "a Lucifer," and promised to shoot him. LeBoon pleaded guilty to the charges in November, and, on Thursday, was sentenced to two years in prison, along with an additional three years of ...

The hacker who orchestrated the biggest computer crime operation in U.S. history is alleging that the American government authorized him to do so. Last year, 29-year-old Albert Gonzalez pleaded guilty to hacking into computer systems at TJX, Office Max, Dave & Busters, Heartland Payment Systems and other companies, in order to steal some 130 million credit card numbers. He received a ...

Google reached a historic settlement with the Federal Trade Commission yesterday, bringing an end to the FTC's investigation into Google Buzz -- the social network that has mired the company in allegations of privacy violations. Under the settlement, Google will have to implement a "comprehensive privacy program," and will be subject to independent audits for the next two decades. Yesterday's ...

BlueBeat, a site that sells streaming music by a range of artists, just settled a federal lawsuit that a bunch of pissed-off record labels had brought against it for selling and streaming Beatles songs. The songs were posted about a year before Apple released them on iTunes and were sold for just $0.25 each. By the time BlueBeat was forced to pull them, more than 67,000 songs had been sold. The ...

Police in South Carolina have arrested a teenage boy who has been accused of impersonating an officer on Facebook in hopes that his false identity would convince women to have sex with him. Horry County police were alerted to the teen's scheme on March 14th, when a woman named Tonya Godwin complained that an officer was harassing her on Facebook. According to Godwin, a man going by the name of ...

Last year, a hacker named Igor Blinnikov infiltrated a video billboard, and used it to broadcast porn above a busy road in Moscow. Though the 40-year-old prankster eventually confessed to the crime, calling it a "bad joke," he wasn't able to avoid his legal comeuppance. Today, Blinnikov was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Blinnikov reportedly hijacked the billboard from the comfort of his ...

RIM has decided to pull all BlackBerry apps designed to help drivers avoid sobriety checkpoints, in response to a request filed by four Democratic Senators. Thus far, at least one app has already vanished from the BlackBerry App World, a fact that drew praise from New York Senator Charles Schumer. "RIM's decision to remove these apps from their online store proves that when it comes to drunk ...

The parents of Tyler Clementi -- the 18-year-old Rutgers student who committed suicide last year after his classmates secretly recorded and streamed video of him having sex -- said yesterday that they want his former roommate Dharun Ravi's invasion of privacy case prosecuted, though they do not want him to receive "harsh punishment." His parents hope that the invasion of privacy charges will ...

A group of Senators is asking Apple to remove from its App Store all apps designed to help drunk drivers avoid checkpoints -- apps that the politicians consider "harmful to public safety." In a letter, four Senators -- Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Tom Udall (D-NM) -- argued that apps that help drivers avoid speed traps, sobriety checkpoints and police ...

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 ...

Just about everyone in the world knows that texting while driving puts motorists and passengers in serious danger, especially if school buses are involved. Evelyn Guzman, however, apparently didn't think it was that big of a deal. Guzman, 47, was recently arrested in Connecticut after police found video footage showing the woman sending text messages while driving a school bus. The surveillance ...

The Obama administration is pushing Congress to adopt a so-called "privacy bill of rights," in order to offer greater protection for Americans concerned about online data gathering and targeted advertising. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Lawrence E. Strickling is expected to propose the legislation today during a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee. A source familiar with the matter told ...

The New Jersey Assembly passed a bill yesterday that essentially decriminalizes teen 'sexting,' by allowing the courts to send teens to a diversionary program, rather than strapping them with a criminal record. As sexting among teens grows increasingly popular -- the bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Pam Lampitt, notes that 20-percent of teens surveyed have sent explicit images -- the legislation ...

Last week, we learned not to post incriminating photos on Facebook. This week? Don't let your friends post them either. The Court of Appeals in Kentucky upheld a lower court custody decision made in part on the basis of tagged photos. In Lalonde vs. Lalonde, the father was awarded custody based on evidence that the child's mother had been drinking -- something her psychiatrists warned could ...

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 ...