August 2008
Fri, Aug, 29 2008
NASA hacker Gary McKinnon has lost his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights and faces extradition to face trial in the US.
Fri, Aug, 29 2008
Intellectual property laws which were designed to protect inventors are actually stifling innovation, according to a leading US law academic.
Fri, Aug, 29 2008
Target will pay $6 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the retail giant's website of breaking US anti-discrimination laws. Blind individuals in California can claim up to $7,000 each if they tried to use Target.com and encountered barriers.
Thu, Aug, 28 2008
The problem information security professionals are most worried about is preventing data loss by their organisations, a survey has found. It found that 69% of IT security workers put the loss of data at the top of their worry list.
Wed, Aug, 27 2008
The Government has asked business what it thinks about its plans to extend flexible working rights to parents of children up to the age of 16.
Wed, Aug, 27 2008
A UK broadcaster has been fined £20,000 for showing sexually explicit content on a free-to-air television channel. Satellite Entertainment Ltd (SEL) breached regulator Ofcom's Broadcasting Code, it said.
Wed, Aug, 27 2008
The Gambling Commission should investigate the couple selling their £1 million house through a £25-a-ticket lottery, a gambling law expert has said. The Commission refused to comment on the case.
Wed, Aug, 27 2008
Microsoft will strengthen privacy protections in the upcoming new version of its dominant web browser, Internet Explorer. The changes will allow users to control what information on their web use is stored and published by their browser.
Wed, Aug, 27 2008
Apple will face legal action over its insistence that its software only run on its own hardware. A competitor, Psystar, says the restrictions may break antitrust laws.
Tue, Aug, 26 2008
A New Zealand judge has told journalists that they can print the names of two murder suspects in their paper but not online. The judge said he was worried about the fact that publication online is more permanent than that in newsprint.
Tue, Aug, 26 2008
A university which sent a department-wide email accusing a lecturer of expenses fraud has paid him £10,000 in an out-of-court libel settlement.
Tue, Aug, 26 2008
The European Commission "wilfully ignored" studies that it paid for whose conclusions disagreed with its policy and the Commission is misleading the European Union Council, Parliament and citizens over copyright extension, a leading academic has warned.
Tue, Aug, 26 2008
A computer containing the banking details of a million UK customers has been sold on eBay for £35. The machine was taken from a company which stores banks' financial records, Graphic Data.
Mon, Aug, 25 2008
Media sites which ask readers to comment on news stories are at greater risk of bearing responsibility for those comments than for comments in online forums or discussion groups, leading web moderators have warned.
Mon, Aug, 25 2008
A new wealth management firm was ordered by the High Court this month to restrict its activities to avoid breaking employment laws governing the mass defection of staff to rival firms.
Mon, Aug, 25 2008
Copyright holders must assess whether material has been used fairly before they demand that it be taken off the internet, a US court has ruled. The case involved a YouTube video clip of a baby dancing to a Prince song.
Fri, Aug, 22 2008
A contractor working for the Home Office has lost a memory stick containing the names and dates of birth of every prisoner in England and Wales. The data was not encrypted.
Thu, Aug, 21 2008
The producers of a film defending the anti-evolutionary theories of Intelligent Design probably did not infringe copyright when they used a sample of John Lennon's song Imagine in the film, a New York court has ruled.
Wed, Aug, 20 2008
Some of the biggest technology and internet companies in the world have agreed a set of standards to protect human rights online that they hope the whole IT industry will adopt. The move could affect companies' privacy policies worldwide.
Wed, Aug, 20 2008
The Sun newspaper broke the rules on secret filming when it published footage of a man working at a supermarket, press regulator the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has ruled. The video footage was shown on The Sun's website.
Wed, Aug, 20 2008
The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has said the government should do more to encourage businesses to recycle and reduce waste and take the focus away from householders.
Wed, Aug, 20 2008
A US judge has ruled that the country's Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is designed to combat viruses and worms and not to stop people giving out information in a speech.
Wed, Aug, 20 2008
Companies which fail to employ sophisticated backup systems for their databases could find it hard to comply with legal requests for information, according to IT research company Forrester.
Tue, Aug, 19 2008
The number of people using the internet to watch television on demand has more than doubled in a year, according to communications regulator Ofcom, while the number of people listening to the radio on the internet has increased by a fifth.
Tue, Aug, 19 2008
Three British Muslims face prison after a jury at Blackfriars Crown Court in London today found them guilty of involvement in an online plot to spread jihadism.
Tue, Aug, 19 2008
The founder of one of the internet's most popular and innovative online radio stations has said it will have to close soon because of continued stalemate over copyright royalties. A doubling of the rate will shortly put it out of business, he said.
Tue, Aug, 19 2008
A woman has been ordered to pay out £16,000 for engaging in the unlawful sharing of a computer game on the internet, according to the game publisher's lawyers. The payout could lead to games owners taking more action against file-sharers in the UK.
Tue, Aug, 19 2008
The US Patent and Trade mark Office (USPTO) has rejected computer maker Dell's application to register the term 'cloud computing' as a trade mark. The application had provoked controversy because the term is seen as a generic one.
Mon, Aug, 18 2008
Privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner plans to produce an annual report on surveillance for Parliament. The body has said, though, that the report will be limited in scope unless it is given wider powers.
Mon, Aug, 18 2008
The body behind the internet's addressing systems has said that it will settle disputes over who wins the right to new generic top level domains (gTLDs) by auction.
Fri, Aug, 15 2008
Breaching the open source licence that came with free software amounted to infringement of copyright, a US Court of Appeal has ruled. The landmark ruling has been welcomed as a major boost to the free and open source software publishing models.
Fri, Aug, 15 2008
Symantec has said that it has reached a £700,000 settlement with a British dealer in counterfeit software. It is the biggest settlement the company has ever reached in Europe, it said.
Fri, Aug, 15 2008
A Belgian court has backed eBay in the latest ruling on the auction firm's liability for the sale of counterfeit goods. The Belgian Tribunal de Commerce has rejected claims from cosmetics firm L'Oréal that eBay does not do enough to counter fake sales.
Thu, Aug, 14 2008
The Government has published a draft law that mandates the retention of data by internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms companies. The proposed Regulations will replace an earlier law that applied to non-internet data only.
Wed, Aug, 13 2008
Almost 90% of UK internet users are prepared to give away private data despite 84% of the same users claiming to be very guarded about online privacy.
Wed, Aug, 13 2008
More class actions in English courts would benefit consumers, small businesses and employees, according to a new report by the advisory body charged with overseeing the modernisation of the civil justice system.
Wed, Aug, 13 2008
Ryanair has said that it will no longer honour bookings made through aggregator sites. The Irish budget airline said that cancelling would be quicker and more effective than lawsuits.
Wed, Aug, 13 2008
Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon has been granted a short reprieve from possible extradition to the US while a European court decides whether or not to intervene.
Tue, Aug, 12 2008
Jeweller Tiffany has lodged an appeal against a US court ruling that said that eBay is not responsible for the sale of fakes on its auction site.
Tue, Aug, 12 2008
Rapper 50 Cent is suing an American fast food chain claiming that its invitation to him to change his name to 79, 89 or 99 Cent is trade mark infringement. He claims that Taco Bell used his image and trade marks to promote itself without his permission.
Tue, Aug, 12 2008
The Government plans to increase the maximum fine that Magistrates' Courts can award for online copyright infringement from £5,000 to £50,000.
Tue, Aug, 12 2008
Delays, rudeness and poor claims handling are grounds for ordering financial services firms to compensate customers, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has said. Payments can be ordered in addition to other remedies.
Mon, Aug, 11 2008
Italian internet service providers have attempted to block access to peer-to-peer (P2P) link-sharing site The Pirate Bay. The Pirate Bay claims that the action was taken on the orders of Italian prosecutor Giancarlo Mancusi.
Mon, Aug, 11 2008
The UK Government has signed up to an EU deal on whose law should govern cross-border disputes over contracts. It says that the agreement will protect UK businesses trading in Europe.
Mon, Aug, 11 2008
The Competition Commission (CC) has extended the deadline for its investigation into a joint venture between the UK's main broadcasters into next year. It has said that it will not be able to complete its inquiry by the initial date of 14 December.
Mon, Aug, 11 2008
A 16-year-old girl has successfully argued that she was too young to understand that her copyright-infringing downloading of music was unlawful. A US court said she will only have to pay $200 per song downloaded instead of the $750 demanded in the case.
Fri, Aug, 8 2008
Absolute Software has added GPS tracking to its laptop theft-recovery and asset-tracking service.
Thu, Aug, 7 2008
Defamation on internet bulletin boards is more like slander than libel, a High Court judge has ruled. Mr Justice Eady said that bulletin board discussions are characterised by "give and take" and should be considered in that context.
Thu, Aug, 7 2008
The US Patent and Trade mark Office will re-examine Dell's attempt to register the term 'cloud computing' as a trade mark. The Office's notice of allowance of the trade mark was cancelled this week and the case returned for examination.
Thu, Aug, 7 2008
A £400 million outsourcing deal between local authorities and IBM was unfair because the full details of the transfer of staff to a private company were not revealed, workers' union Unison has said.
Thu, Aug, 7 2008
The Government has paid £18.5 million over five years to telecoms firms for access to data about citizens' use of phones and the internet. The figures took a sharp upturn in 2006 and last year reached £8.3 million.
Wed, Aug, 6 2008
Online traders that fail to make clear the price of their products including any taxes and delivery charges could face criminal proceedings. New Government guidance has set out examples of commercial practices that are now banned.
Wed, Aug, 6 2008
An advert that claimed a website received over five million 'hits' every month has been banned because the metric is likely to mislead readers. The UK's advertising watchdog said that 'hits' is an unreliable measure of website popularity.
Tue, Aug, 5 2008
The Government wants to standardise the way that computer games are classified in a bid to protect children from unsuitable material. Against the wishes of games trade body ELSPA, the Government wants film censors to have a role in classification.
Mon, Aug, 4 2008
A designer did not infringe the Star Wars film franchise's copyright when he sold replica Stormtrooper helmets because copyright law does not apply to them. The designer will face an English court hearing on US copyright law over the sales.
Mon, Aug, 4 2008
Websites which accept user-generated content should do more to screen out content that might be harmful to the public, a Parliamentary committee has warned. Sites should also publish prominent terms and conditions banning harmful content, it said.
Mon, Aug, 4 2008
US regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ordered telecoms firm Comcast to stop treating peer-to-peer (P2P) network traffic differently to other internet traffic.
Fri, Aug, 1 2008
Google's Street View service has received the blessing of UK privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner, who has said that the safeguards Google has put in place for people's privacy are 'adequate'.
