Buys Inc. Attorneys
ICT Law Blog
 
 
Saturday, May 31, 2008
 
  SAA makes e-ticketing deadline
IATA member airlines around the world are required to eliminate paper tickets, resulting in significant savings for the airlines and their customers.

Outsourcing goes beyond data
Companies specialising in data hosting are better able to employ specialised staff as they are able to offer more exciting career opportunities. For small companies it is often not economically viable to employ expert IT staff on a fulltime basis.

Integr8 IT aligned to Consumer Protection Bill
The Consumer Protection Bill and its potential impact on the ICT sector elevates the role of service level agreements (SLAs) in future trade.

Friday, May 30, 2008
 
  Israel business news - Mazuz: Employer needs permission to read employee e-mails
An employer is not permitted to read employees' e-mail, unless they give their free and informed consent, in that employees reasonably have the necessary knowledge to formulate valid consent to an invasion of privacy, says Attorney General Menachem (Meni) Mazuz in an opinion submitted to the National Labor Court. The opinion implies that without the explicit consent of an employee to read his or her e-mail, only under extraordinary circumstances would it be possible to know of this consent.

French police bust 22 youths in alleged hacking network [printer-friendly] | Channel Register
Police in Dijon, France have detained 22 youths suspected of being members of a domestic network of hackers.

Cunning micro-deposit fraudster not quite smart enough - News - heise Security UK
The Wired blog reports that California resident Michael Largent has been indicted for computer fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud after he netted thousands of dollars from online brokerages between November 2007 and May 2008 by opening thousands of accounts and pocketing the micro-deposits the brokerages use for enrolment authentication. His victims included E*Trade, Capital One, Metabank, Greendot, Skylight, Schwab, and, according to an affidavit but not asserted in the indictment, Google Checkout.

China’s Cyber-Militia
Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts.

Court Dismisses Antitrust Suit Against Amazon.com
Amazon.com and Borders Group won dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit brought by a customer challenging the companies' online marketing agreement. Amazon.com customer Gary Gerlinger didn't pay higher prices for books, and thus suffered no harm, after the retailer took over the unprofitable Borders Web site in 2001, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled.

Piracy Fight Blamed for Shutdown of TV Website
One of the most popular Internet-based television networks was shut down all weekend, a casualty in the entertainment industry's fight against pirated material. The outage at Revision3, which features shows such as 'Diggnation' and others targeted at techies, highlighted the risks of serious collateral damage in the usually invisible but bare-knuckled technological war between copyright holders and pirates.

Hackers Deface Comcast Site for Several Hours
Hackers took over and defaced Comcast's Web portal for several hours overnight, leaving a cryptic message on the site that the company's 14.1 million subscribers use to access e-mail, news and technical support. The front page of Comcast.net went down and was replaced with a note saying the hackers had 'RoXed' Comcast, according to postings at BroadbandReports.com.

Software was sold, not licensed, says US court
A Seattle man is free to sell second-hand software on eBay, a US court has said. It found that the maker of the software, Autodesk, could not stop the resale by claiming that its software is licensed rather than sold.

British newspaper websites liable in France for privacy invasion
Two British newspaper publishers have been fined in French courts because they violated French privacy laws. The publishers were liable because the articles were viewed in France on the internet.

Half of UK firms have sacked errant emailers
Nearly half of UK companies have fired workers in the past year because of abuses of email. Over half of UK firms regularly audit employees' email to make sure they are complying with company rules, a survey has found.

Prosecutors investigate Deutsche Telekom over data misuse
German prosecutors have begun an investigation into allegations of data misuse by telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom. Today's announcement follows the company's admission earlier in the week that phone call records had been misused.

Senator Asks Google to Remove Terrorist YouTube Videos
Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, wrote a letter to Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt asking him to 'remove content produced by Islamist terrorist organizations from YouTube,' the video-sharing site owned by Google. Lieberman argued that 'Al-Qaida created and manages a multi-tiered online media operation that produces content intended to enlist followers in countries all over the world, including the United States.'

U.S. Wins First Criminal File-Sharing Verdict
For the first time ever, the federal government has successfully won a jury verdict against someone accused of illegally downloading music, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. A jury in Alexandria, Va, found Barry Gitarts, 25, allegedly a member of Internet music piracy group, Apocalypse Production Crew, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.

Newspapers Want $77 Million from Google in Copyright Case
Belgian French-language newspapers said they want search engine Google to pay up to $77 million in damages for publishing and storing their content without permission. The newspaper copyright group Copiepresse said it had summoned Google to appear again before a Brussels court in September that will decide on their claim that they suffered damages of between $51.7 million $77.5 million.

Yahoo Sues "Lottery Spammers" for Running Scams
Yahoo has filed suit against unnamed 'lottery spammers' who tried to fool people into thinking that they won a prize from Yahoo so they'd share passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information. The Internet company said it filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, citing the Federal Trademark Act, the Can-Spam Act, and related state laws.

Realtors Settle Suit, Agree to Open Listings for Net
The National Association of Realtors agreed to give discount Internet brokers access to its listings of home sales, resolving a U.S. antitrust lawsuit that accused the trade group of trying to restrain competition. The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, calls for the realtors group to revise a policy that let real estate agents exclude their sales information from Web sites.

Social networking site bans the over 36s in sex offender claims
A social networking site has deleted most of its users over the age of 36 because it claims older users pose a danger of sex offending. It claims to be forced into the action by the Government, but the part of a law it cites is not yet in force.

Facebook battles Google over access to user data
Facebook has suspended the use of a Google service which allowed people to export their Facebook friends list to other websites, claiming that the Google service violates users' privacy.

YouTube user named 'dumbest criminal in Leeds
A Leeds man has had to be restrained by an ASBO from posting evidence of his own anti-social behaviour online. Andrew Kellett, 23, has been given the order to stop him posting films of his exploits on YouTube.

MySpace suicide case based on breach of terms and conditions
A US woman has been indicted on charges of perpetrating an online hoax because she violated MySpace's terms and conditions. Prosecutors reason that a violation of contract terms can lead to criminal convictions.

Why we don't need a security breach notification law in the UK
The reason is simple: failure of an organisation to contact individuals at risk of identity theft following a loss of unencrypted personal data on a laptop is a likely breach of the Data Protection Act and recent changes in the law means that such breaches could attract large fines.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008
 
  Sordid reality of cybersex
Every time we hear of raids on computer shops dealing with cybersex, we are aghast at the brazenness of those who would deal in it. Because of our techno-illiteracy, our understanding of illegal operations using new technology is limited to piracy of music and DVDs. Our introduction to its other limitless possibilities started in “Oprah.”

New rules for online gamblers
Parliament approved a new internet gambling law to regulate an industry plagued by crime and vulnerable to money laundering and terrorism financing, parliamentary papers showed on Monday.

Google bans anti-MoveOn.org ads
Internet giant Google has banned advertisements critical of MoveOn.org, the far-left advocacy group that caused a national uproar last month when it received preferential treatment from The New York Times for its “General Betray Us” message.

Website design was stolen, says US jury | OUT-LAW.COM
A man has been found liable for stealing a company's website design in order to then pursue that same company's customers. A US court found the man liable for copyright infringement and in breach of contract in his property business.

MySpace wins largest ever anti-spam award
The popular online hangout MySpace has won a $234 million (€151.23 million) judgment over junk messages sent to its members in what is believed to be the largest anti-spam award ever.

Spanish Police Arrest Five Active Internet Hackers
Spanish police have arrested five hackers they describe as being among the most active on the Internet. The hackers, who include two 16-year-olds, are accused of disrupting government websites in the United States, Asia and Latin America.

South African Parliament Approves Online Gambling Law
South Africa's parliament approved a new Internet gambling law to regulate an industry plagued by crime and vulnerable to money laundering and terrorism financing, parliamentary papers showed. A memorandum attached to the National Gambling Amendment Bill said the interactive gambling industry in Africa's biggest economy was currently unregulated and 'generally plagued' by crime.

Japanese Student Convicted in Computer Virus Case
A student who allegedly spread a computer virus was convicted of copyright infringement in a case that has highlighted the lack of laws in Japan to police cyberspace. Masato Nakatsuji, 24, a graduate student at Osaka Electro-Communication University, was charged with maliciously spreading a virus by embedding it in an image from a Japanese animation film he illegally copied and distributed.

Company to Pay $4.5 Million to Settle Software Piracy Suit
A Fairfax County technology company has agreed to pay a rival $4.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of stealing computer software. Razorsight also agreed to stop using the intellectual property from Teoco, a Fairfax County company that had developed software to process and audit billing among telecommunications carriers.

Apple Sued Over Use of "Mighty Mouse" Name
Apple, maker of the iPod media player, and CBS were sued for trademark infringement by closely held computer-accessory firm Man & Machine over the name of Apple's wireless 'Mighty Mouse' device. Apple started selling computer mice under the name 'Mighty Mouse' more than a year after Man & Machine began selling waterproof and chemical-resistant computer mice to labs and hospitals under that name in 2004, according to the suit filed Tuesday in Greenbelt, Md.

Many Large Companies Read, Analyze Employees' E-mail
A new survey finds that 41 percent of large companies (those with 20,000 or more employees) are paying staffers to read or otherwise analyze the contents of employees' outbound e-mail. In the study, which was commissioned by e-mail security provider Proofpoint and conducted by Forrester Research, 44 percent of the companies surveyed said they investigated an e-mail leak of confidential data in the past year and 26 percent said they fired an employee for violating e-mail policies, according to security portal Help Net Security.

Lawmakers Criticize Progress on Cyber-Security Threats
At a hearing, members of the House Committee on Homeland Security warned that regulatory bodies aren't moving fast enough against cyber-security threats to critical infrastructure. 'I think we could search far and wide and not find a more disorganized response to a national security issue of this import,' said Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology.

T.J. Maxx Worker Fired for Discussing Security Problems
A low-level TJX employee has lost his job for speaking in public about information security problems he uncovered while working for the company. In an e-mail interview, he said he was fired Wednesday for violating corporate policy by disclosing proprietary information.

Attorneys Debate Scope of N.Y. Internet Tax Law
Speaking on a conference call with online retailers and affiliate marketers, an attorney for the Direct Marketing Association sought to reassure them that a controversial new tax law in New York takes a much narrower scope than previous regulations, but other legal experts are not so sure. The law, enacted with the state's budget last month, said that online retailers who solicit sales from affiliates located in New York will be responsible for collecting sales tax on purchases shipped there, even if they have no employees or physical operations within the state.

Old Laws May Restrict Monitoring of Internet Usage
Privacy advocates and attorneys point to a collection of federal laws -- written in the 1980s when broadband services were merely a pipe dream -- that combine to create a treacherous legal landscape for broadband providers that plan to conduct Web monitoring.

Phishing Schemes Lead to 38 Arrests in U.S., Romania
Thirty-eight people in the U.S. and Romania have been charged in two indictments alleging they used complicated Internet phishing schemes to steal thousands of credit and debit card numbers, U.S. and Romanian authorities announced. The indictments, in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and the District of Connecticut, focus on two related phishing schemes with ties to organized crime, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Court Says MySpace Not Liable for Sexual Assault
A federal appeals court ruled that MySpace can't be held responsible for the sexual assault of an Austin, Texas, teen by a man she met on the site. The girl, named in the case as Julie Doe, initially filed suit along with her mother, named as Jane Doe, after she was sexually assaulted in May 2006 by 19-year-old Pete Solis, whom she met on MySpace.

Monday, May 19, 2008
 
  Cabinet passes Companies Bill
Cabinet has approved a draft law, which will change the way businesses in SA are run, for introduction to Parliament and eventual enactment.

Sunday, May 18, 2008
 
  Information Commissioner gets power to fine for privacy breaches
The Information Commissioner has been given the ability to fine organisations if their operational procedures cause a gross breach of data protection principles. The move, which had not been expected by privacy experts, follows a Government defeat in the House of Lords.

Insurance aggregation sites can be unfair, says regulator
Some insurance price comparison websites are unclear, unfair and provide inaccurate information, the financial industry regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has warned.

One in three airline sites breaks consumer laws
One in three European airline ticket websites is breaking consumer protection laws, the European Commission has said. It said that almost 60% of investigated sites published misleading pricing details.

Government orders data retention by ISPs | OUT-LAW.COM
Phone and internet companies will soon be forced to keep logs of internet usage to be made available to the police under a new law announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week.

Company Challenges Constitutionality of Webcast Rates
Just when record labels thought it was safe to start charging webcasters on a per-listener, per-song basis, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board that set the rates has been charged unconstitutional in the Federal Court of Appeals. During the royalty rate proceedings, a company called Royalty Logic proposed that it compete with SoundExchange for the collection of digital royalties from webcasters.

Company Challenges Constitutionality of Webcast Rates
Just when record labels thought it was safe to start charging webcasters on a per-listener, per-song basis, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board that set the rates has been charged unconstitutional in the Federal Court of Appeals. During the royalty rate proceedings, a company called Royalty Logic proposed that it compete with SoundExchange for the collection of digital royalties from webcasters.

Cox Accused of Slowing File-Sharing Traffic
Cox Communications appears to be interfering with file-sharing by its Internet subscribers in the same manner that has landed Comcast Corp. in hot water with regulators, according to research obtained by The Associated Press. A study based on the participation of 8,175 Internet users around the world found conclusive signs of blocked file-sharing connections only at three Internet service providers: Comcast and Cox in the U.S. and StarHub in Singapore.

Grand Jury Indicts Woman in Internet Suicide Hoax
A federal grand jury indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide. Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans.

Only attorneys and prostitutes bill by the hour
The traditional hourly billing system employed by the vast majority of South African law firms are coming under increased scrutiny - locally and internationally.

Thursday, May 15, 2008
 
  MTN warns of competition scam
MTN customers are being warned not to respond to an SMS or phone call which indicates they have won a Volkswagen Polo.

R10 000 for racist SMS: South Africa: News: News24
A domestic worker - who complained that her former employer had sent a racist SMS about her - was given an apology and a R10 000 'settlement' at the Durban Equality Court, the Mercury newspaper reported on Monday.

Absa warns against fake email
Absa has reiterated a warning that typing a PIN into an ATM in reverse order does not work as a police emergency alert.

Google is watching you
Google said on Wednesday it is blurring the faces of people in street scenes pictured at its free online mapping service.

Top 10 malware list
BitDefender, a global provider of antivirus software and data security solutions, has announced that malware packers gained even more popularity in the month of April, as three of the positions on BitDefender’s April 2008 Top Ten Malware list are occupied with malware packed by such software.

Teazers billboard 'degrading': South Africa: News: News24
Teazers has been told by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to remove one of its billboards because it was deemed degrading, the authority said on Wednesday.

Billionaire eyes Yahoo board: Sci-Tech: News: News24
Word that billionaire investor Carl Icahn was leaning toward launching a proxy fight to unseat at least some of Yahoo Inc's directors could soon prompt Microsoft to answer a critical question: Has the software giant really 'moved on' from its attempt to buy Yahoo?

Only Attorneys And Prostitutes Bill By The Hour - Broadband & ADSL Forums - Internet, Gaming, Hardware, Software
The traditional hourly billing system employed by the vast majority of South African law firms are coming under increased scrutiny – locally and internationally. This is according to Internet attorney, Reinhardt Buys, of the Cape Town law firm Buys Inc.

Software piracy remains a problem
Despite the drop by a single percentage point locally in the piracy of software on PCs from 2006 to 2007, industry losses rose to R1,9bn in 2007. This increase in economic losses is largely due to exchange rates and the overall growth in the software market over the past year.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
 
  Hackers Attack Zimbabwe's State-Owned Newspaper
Hackers attacked the website of Zimbabwe's state-owned Herald newspaper and shut it down for three days, the newspaper said. The Herald is widely seen as the official mouthpiece of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party and has been critical of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change which won the country's disputed March 29 elections.

New York Bill Makes Internet Violence a Felony
A proposal in New York would make a felony of committing violent acts for display on Internet video sites. The state Senate's Republican majority is expected to introduce a bill that would make a felony of violent acts like the brutal beating of a girl in Florida and subsequent attack of a 12-year-old in Indiana.

Microsoft Patches Critical Security Hole in Word
Microsoft issued security patches that plug critical holes in Microsoft Word and Publisher and a vulnerability in Windows for which a zero-day exploit has been available for weeks. Zero-day exploits are considered particularly dangerous.

MySpace Wins Record $230 Million Award in Spam Case
The popular online hangout MySpace has won a $230 million judgment over junk messages sent to its members in what is believed to be the largest anti-spam award ever. A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled against a notorious 'Spam King,' Sanford Wallace, and his partner, Walter Rines, after the two failed to show up at a court hearing, MySpace said.

SA Police to automate evidence handling
The South African Police Service (SAPS) wants to automate the handling of all evidence in a bid to improve quality control and cut back on the theft of exhibits that are needed in criminal trials.

SA Draft law to curb cellphone fencing
Second-hand dealers, including businesses dealing in previously-owned mobile phones, office and ICT equipment, as well as aluminium and copper, will soon have the police looking over their shoulders when a new a new law on the subject takes shape.

SA Police to Google Earth?
The SA Police Service (SAPS) will use satellite imagery to help it monitor the country's borders, says deputy national commissioner for operational services Andre Pruis.

Adverts for Kane & Lynch, a ‘nasty, brutal’ video game, are banned - Times Online
A promotional campaign for a violent computer game must never be shown again, after the advertising watchdog decided to uphold complaints from worried parents.

Facebook ordered to out kids behind principal's fake profile
Anonymous pranksters who made a fake Facebook profile for a high school dean and used it to send out messages may soon be exposed, thanks to a court order issued late last week. Dean Tim Puntarelli of Roncalli High School—a Catholic prep school on the south side of Indianapolis—sued the social networking site in an attempt to find out who is behind the profile, citing harassment and identity theft. Marion Superior Court Judge Robyn Moberly's order is meant to identify the still-anonymous individuals so that Puntarelli and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis (which operates the high school) can hold them responsible for what they perceive to be character defamation, even though the profile is no longer up.

Cells, net 'are porn ponces': South Africa: News: News24
While two-thirds of high-school pupils in South Africa's major cities have watched at least one porn movie, the figures for porn are much higher with mediums like the internet and cellphones.

Data protection complaints rise in 2007
Eircom, Sky, Aer Lingus and Tesco were among the organisations investigated by the Data Protection Commissioner last year as the number of complaints made by members of the public soared.

Classified Hong Kong "watch-list" leaked on internet | Top News
A government investigation was underway Friday after it was revealed that confidential files from the Immigration Department had been mistakenly leaked on to the internet.

Another Laptop Stolen from Pfizer, Employee Information Compromised
About 13,000 employees at Pfizer Inc., including about 5,000 from Connecticut, had their personal information compromised when a company laptop and flash drive were stolen, the pharmaceutical giant confirmed today.

Police get break in ID theft case - San Jose Mercury News
Police say two men arrested Thursday in Southern California are connected to last month's massive identity theft scam at the Lunardi's Supermarket in Los Gatos.

Three accused of hacking Dave & Buster's computers
Three people have been charged with stealing credit and debit card numbers from customers at U.S. restaurant chain Dave & Buster's Inc by hacking into cash register terminals, the Department of Justice said on Monday.

Outlawed: Reckless loss of data - Public Sector - Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com
Anyone who recklessly loses personal data will face a 'substantial' fine after the government created a new civil offence.

Fraud losses by banks shifted onto consumers - Security Park news
The newly revised UK British Banking code means that fraud losses by banks will now be shifted onto consumers. The new code allows banks to hold customers personally responsible if they have not taken adequate security measures to protect themselves.

Social Net Data Portability: Too Much Information?
In the social networking world, there's been a rush, of late, toward data portability -- the idea that you can take your social networking profile with you across the Web. The idea is popular, but social networks need to remember the lessons learned from the Beacon fiasco.

Stolen MacBook Owner Logs On, Takes a Photo, Busts Thieves
The Back to My Mac feature brought a MacBook back to its owner recently. Kait Duplaga, an Apple store employee who had her MacBook stolen in April, was able to recover it by remotely taking a photo of one of the thieves while he was using the laptop.

Microsoft Opens Windows to BlackBerry
Microsoft is expanding its presence on mobile devices with a new deal that will provide Hotmail and other Windows Live services to BlackBerry users. The offerings will be available on the Bold -- Research In Motion's new 'iPhone killer' -- as well as other BlackBerry models.

Hacker in Chile Posts Data on 6 Million People
A computer hacker in Chile has published confidential records belonging to six million people on the Internet, officials say. The information was obtained by hacking into government and military servers, and was posted on a technology blog.

Sunday, May 11, 2008
 
  Online banking call to arms
According to a recent report released by UK payments industry association APACS, the rate of phishing attacks in the UK has increased dramatically over the last 12 months, with the number of incidents reported during the first quarter of 2008 up 200 per cent on the same period last year.

Cybercrims dump swag on open botnet server [printer-friendly] | The Register
Everyone knows Trojans steal personal data, but the discovery of a server containing more than1.4 gigabytes of stolen business and personal info brings home the real extent of the problem.

Four patches from Microsoft this month
In one of this year's lighter Patch Tuesdays, Redmond plans to roll out four patches this month. Three of the four bulletins are 'Critical' and only one is noted as 'Important.'

TorrentSpy to appeal whopper legal judgment | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
TorrentSpy intends to appeal a court decision that requires the now-defunct search engine to pay $111 million in damages to the six largest film studios, according to the company's attorney.

House OKs copyright czar, new piracy penalties | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
A bipartisan proposal to create an intellectual-property czar and impose new penalties on pirates sailed through the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.

US court orders online advertiser to use 'negative keywords'
A US court has ordered a company to use 'negative keywords' to avoid being associated with another firm's trade mark. The innovative order was one of a series of measures ordered by the judge.

Wikipedia goes to court to defend defamation immunity
Wikipedia, the free, user-generated online encyclopedia, faces a court battle to protect itself from liability for everything that users post on the site. The company behind the site will argue that it should be granted immunity under US law.

ITV faces biggest-ever Ofcom fine over phone vote rigging
ITV has been fined £5.67 million by Ofcom for abuse of premium-rate phone lines in television competitions. It is the highest fine the media regulator has ever imposed and is added to the £7.8 million ITV has already pledged to repay viewers or give to charity.

Rowling privacy win confirms proper test for privacy, says expert | OUT-LAW.COM
JK Rowling's court victory against a paparazzi agency has confirmed that the scope of privacy law is wideand will make it easier for others to gain its protection, a privacy law expert has said.

Digital Rights Management Coming Back, RIAA Predicts
News of DRM's death has been greatly exaggerated, according to an executive with the Recording Industry Association of America. At a time when the top recording companies appear to be phasing out digital rights management (DRM), the RIAA is predicting that the highly controversial software will make a comeback.

McAfee Identifies Largest Trojan File in Three Years
Almost 500,000 people have been caught out by a booby-trapped media file, says security firm McAfee. The fake file poses as a music track, short video or movie and has been widely seeded on file-sharing networks to snare victims.

China Refuses to Make Net, Copyright Promises for Olympics
China will not guarantee it won't censor the Internet over this summer's Beijing Olympics, nor can it guarantee to stamp out piracy of Olympic-branded goods, officials said. Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic organizers, had promised media would have 'complete freedom' to report over the event, but rights groups have regularly criticized China's commitment to that pledge.

Facebook to Add Tools to Fight Sex Predators, Bullies
Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking Web site, will add more than 40 safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, attorneys general from several states said. The changes include banning convicted sex offenders from the site, limiting older users' ability to search online for subscribers under 18 and building a task force seeking ways to better verify users' ages and identities.

Hundreds of State Dep't Laptops Unaccounted For
Hundreds of employee laptops are unaccounted for at the U.S. Department of State, which conducts delicate, often secret, diplomatic relations with foreign countries, an internal audit has found. As many as 400 of the unaccounted for laptops belong to the department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program, according to officials familiar with the findings.

Microsoft Denies Copyright-Scanning Plans for Zune
The New York Times suggested that future versions of the Zune might come with a tiny cop capable of catching digital lawbreakers. Microsoft issued a statement denying that there was any agreement to filter content.

Judge Orders TorrentSpy to Pay $100 Million in Damages
In a major win for Hollywood studios, a California federal judge has ordered TorrentSpy to pay $110 million in damages for infringing the copyright of thousands of films and TV shows through its BitTorrent search engine. The Los Angeles judge, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, also issued a permanent injunction against TorrentSpy, which was once one of the most popular indexes of BitTorrent files before it shut down in March after a two-year copyright battle with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Wednesday, May 07, 2008
 
  Naspers can buy New York Times but not interested – Bekker
South Africa's largest media company, plans to buy more internet businesses outside its home market as newspaper advertising slumps.

SA's open source acceleration
SOUTH AFRICA'S GOVERNMENT has made substantial progress in the move towards adopting open source technology over the past 18 months. That's according to Sun Microsystems Europe, Middle East and Africa chairman Crawford Beveridge.

Italy posts income details on web
There has been outrage in Italy after the outgoing government published every Italian's declared earnings and tax contributions on the internet.

Internet provokes more complaints than newspapers or magazines | OUT-LAW.COM
Advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has released its annual report for 2007 which outlines the pattern of complaints about advertising. The internet was the subject of almost 3,000 complaints.

Venerable newspapers face extinction
THE New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry’s deep malaise. The Grey Lady’s circulation is tumbling, down another 3.9% in the latest data from America’s Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Its advertising revenues are down, too (12.5% lower in March than a year earlier), as is the share price of its owner, the New York Times Company, up from its January low but still over 20% below what it was last July. On Tuesday April 29th Standard & Poor’s cut the firm’s debt rating to one notch above junk.

How to get safe online
Customers using their credit or debit cards online have been advised that high street banks are likely to become increasingly reluctant to help victims of internet fraud as new rules added to the Banking Code signal less willingness to cover losses.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008
 
  Google Removes Open Source Project After DMCA Complaint
Google has removed an open source project that enables the proprietary CoreAVC high-definition video decoder to run in Linux following a complaint from the codec's developer -- but the project could soon return. 'In response to a complaint we received under the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed project 'coreavc-for-linux,'' Google said in a brief statement posted on the project hosting section of its Google Code web site for developers.

Court Orders Company to Use "Negative Keywords"
A U.S. court has ordered a company to use 'negative keywords' to avoid being associated with another firm's trade mark. The innovative order was one of a series of measures ordered by the judge.

Saturday, May 03, 2008
 
  Pikoli's hacker 'willing to negotiate'
A hacker is threatening to release sensitive documents stolen from Vusi Pikoli's computer to the press - if the suspended National Prosecuting Authority boss doesn't pay for their return.

Friday, May 02, 2008
 
  Wired vs wireless
In spite of the advances of wireless broadband, the best option for now remains ADSL.

Eskom load shedding suspended
Eskom is to suspend scheduled load shedding from Monday, May 5, said the utility's chief executive officer Jacob Maroga on Wednesday.

Web only in infancy
The World Wide Web is still only in its infancy, its British inventor said.

Telkom adds 010 area code
Telkom has introduced the 010 area code in Johannesburg. This is part of its implementation of the 10-digit dialling system, introduced by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), says the fixed-line incumbent.

7-Surefire-Ways-to-Become-an-ID-Theft-Victim: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
Experience the hassles of being defrauded firsthand! If you love bureaucracy and the thrill of waiting in line to talk to government and bank employees again and again, becoming an identity theft victim might be right for you.

Retain IT Talent by Instilling a Sense of Ownership
With predictions of an IT worker shortage in the air, smaller employers will have to work hard at retaining their most important assets -- their talent. Not every company can compete on salary, but you can give your employees a place they'd be reluctant to leave, writes Guidance CEO Jason Meugniot.

 

 

 

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