ban

Tired of being told not to use your smartphone on a commercial flight? There's good news. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to lift the long-running and often criticized ban on in-flight cell / smartphone use. The FCC voted 3-2 ... in favor of ditching the measure late last week. But there's still one major hurdle left: the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has final say on whether or not you should be allowed to use a handheld electronic device while a plane is in the air. "The FAA is the expert agency on determining which devices can be used on airplanes," noted ... (view more)

In a hugely controversial move, Facebook says users can once again post extremely violent videos -- including those of people being beheaded. It's a reversal of a five-month ban on such material. The social media site began blocking members from ... posting extremely violent video clips back in May, but has now changed its policies. It didn't make a major announcement of the reversal, but has confirmed the change after a user posted a video of a murder in Mexico. That clip remained online under revised rules that limit the circumstances in which violent videos can be shown. Violent Video Viewing ... (view more)

Law enforcement agencies around the world are taking steps to prevent the illegal distribution of copyright-protected materials through file-sharing sites like The Pirate Bay . However, new research from the Netherlands shows that illegal ... downloading has actually increased since that country took steps to block access to the controversial Sweden-based site. Back in 2012, Dutch courts ruled that Internet Service Providers in the Netherlands must make an attempt to block all access to The Pirate Bay. Those courts based their decision on reports indicating that over 90 per cent of the material ... (view more)

The long-running patent dispute between Apple and Samsung took a surprise turn this week when a U.S. federal agency banned earlier models of the iPhone and iPad. However, an appeal court or the White House could block the ban. The order doesn't come ... from a court, but rather the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), a semi-independent federal agency with some legal powers. The ITC's job is to advise the government on trade issues. However, it does have some power to make rulings on unfair trade practices, such as alleged violations of trademarks and patents. This week, the ITC ... (view more)

A US Senate committee has approved the Location Privacy Protection Act. It's a bill that would ban the smartphone tools which allow people to track others without their knowledge. The act, introduced by Senator Al Franken, would force companies ... offering smartphone apps to get a phone user's permission before collecting or passing on data about their location. The new rules would also explicitly ban any application that tracked locations without the phone user's knowledge. (Source: govtrack.us ) According to Franken, such measures are necessary to prevent cases of people secretly installing a ... (view more)

The Supreme Court recently reached a ruling that will be seen by many as a victory for makers of violent video games. At least seven states have passed legislation that bans the sale of violent games, but in every case that legislation was ... overturned by a lower court. California, which passed such a law in 2005 and was immediately blocked from enforcing it, was the first to appeal to the Supreme Court. The California law caused immediate controversy: while it only banned sales where the content was "patently offensive," the threshold also required prosecutors to show a game lacked "serious ... (view more)

It seems "being all that you can be" also means being an online hermit. The United States Marine Corps recently announced that it will be banning social networking for all members of the elite fighting force from this day forward. Included in the ... ban are uber-popular pages Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, which encourage members to publish personal information and photos, while roping friends into joining them online. That's a problem for the Marines, who believe that such activity -- and more specifically the disclosure of personal data -- is a security threat to its members who, by extension ... (view more)