Friday, September 14, 2012, by Reine Duffy This week it was reported that the Copyright Alert System, or “six strikes” anti-piracy program, is anticipated to arrive within the next few months. The program was first announced in July 2011 and its release was delayed at least twice since its original planned launch date of December …
Thursday, September 13, 2012, by Samantha Surles People have been talking about the decline of local newspapers for a long time, but lately they also seem to be talking about possible solutions to the problem. The importance of local papers to community life is undiminished, but shifts in the advertising industry are making it more …
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 by Tasneem Dharamsi Here’s a lesser-known fact for all of those avid Google users out there: from late 2009 until very recently, the company had blocked the term “bisexual” from its search algorithm. Since the search term is now unblocked, when a user begins to type the letters in the word …
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 by Teresa Cook On August 24, 2012, a jury trial in the Northern District of California found that Samsung Electronics Co. infringed on six of seven patents held by Apple Inc and awarded $1.05 billion in damages to Apple. There is no doubt that America was interested in seeing the showdown …
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 by Jonathan Ambrose A recent study from UK’s University of Birmingham suggests that users of BitTorrent clients to share files are likely to be monitored, with those downloading or sharing the most popular content being observed and recorded within hours. BitTorrent is widely-used file sharing protocol that allows users to download …
Friday, September 7, 2012 by Neil Barnes Over half the states in the US implement some form of the three strikes law, which mandates that upon his or her third felony conviction, a felon must be incarcerated for a minimum time period. This period is normally longer than the ordinary sentence for the felony considered …
Friday, September 7, 2012 by Catherine Clodfelter The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced changes to its fee system on Wednesday, reducing patent maintenance fees. This change is a part of a reform of the U.S. patent system that USPTO maintains is the “most significant of the U.S. patent system in more than a …
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 by Holly Bannerman Last month, a federal jury convicted House of Raeford Farms Inc., a North Carolina poultry slaughtering and processing facility, of 10 counts of knowing violations of the Clean Water Act. For nearly 16 months, blood, grease, and body parts from slaughtered turkeys were sent directly to the city …
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 by Laura Arredondo-Santisteban Earlier this year, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced into the House of Representatives and Senate a bill amending the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act called the Password Protection Act of 2012. The bill would make it a federal crime for employers to “knowingly and …
Tuesday, September 4, 2012, by Anne Marie Tosco The public may soon learn the details of the secret court ruling that the National Security Agency (“NSA”) violated the Fourth Amendment when it conducted illegal surveillance of e-mails and telephone calls. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (“EFF”), a non-profit defender of digital rights, sued the United States …
