court

The highest court in the United Kingdom has ordered the country's Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block all access to popular torrent site 'The Pirate Bay.' The new ruling marks a stunning turn of events in what has been an ongoing war between ... copyright defenders and supporters of torrent-based websites. The UK ISPs affected by the order include Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. Each of them must now prevent their users from accessing The Pirate Bay website in one way or another. Proposed Blocking Process Unclear However, it currently remains unknown exactly what ... (view more)

The company that publishes "For Dummies" books is taking to court the people it accuses of pirating its titles and releasing the content via BitTorrent. This could be the first time an American jury has considered a case involving BitTorrent users. ... BitTorrent is a technology for sharing large files, legally and illegally. It involves breaking down a file into hundreds of small pieces and downloading the pieces from many different sources, all at once. The method allows a computer to obtain different pieces of the same file in any convenient sequence, making the transfer process much quicker ... (view more)

Yahoo is taking Facebook to court for violating approximately ten patents related to Internet advertising systems. It's the first patent showdown between these two web companies. The lawsuit has been filed in a San Jose, California federal court. ... Yahoo is reportedly represented by the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart ... (view more)

Both Facebook and Google have removed online material alleged to pose a risk of social unrest in India, following legal threats to block the sites completely. The two companies are among 21 firms hit with a civil lawsuit regarding offensive content. ... The lawsuit, brought by a private citizen, claims the material involves religious issues that could provoke unrest. Google's problems appear tied to its sites Blogger and YouTube. Google says it has taken down the material pursuant to a court request, its standard policy regarding legal issues, regardless of country. The material has been removed ... (view more)

Last week the Supreme Court put an end to Microsoft's long-running attempt to avoid paying a hefty $290 million decision over its use of XML technology found in Microsoft Word, which also affects the Microsoft Office Suite. The court ruling marks ... the end of a long journey for the Redmond-based software giant, which has been trying desperately to overturn the decision since last year . (Source: reuters.com ) This decision is said to have a major impact on future cases involving similar conflicts. Microsoft Supported by Apple, Google Surprisingly, both Apple and Google supported Microsoft in ... (view more)

Until recently, courts of law have had the power to force Internet Service Providers to hand over customer details based on IP (Internet Protocol) address information, which is used to identify a user connected to the Internet. But now one judge has ... refused to make such an order, questioning the accuracy of the method. An IP is a number that identifies a particular device such as a computer or a router connected to a network. In theory, there is a straight correlation between one device and one IP address. In practice, though, a single IP address does not necessarily mean one computer or one ... (view more)

A district court in Massachusetts plans to use social media to improve public understanding of the legal process. The experiment will take place in Quincy District Court, to the south of Boston. Unlike many courts where filming is allowed for use in ... news broadcasts, the plan here is to have a live Internet video broadcast whenever the court is in session. Not only is the court going to allow court visitors to blog, update Facebook and post to Twitter during cases, but it's providing a WiFi connection and even setting up a special seating area for "citizen journalists." Lawyers Fear Privacy ... (view more)

The United States government is said to be considering plans that would force all communications firms to make their systems available for "wiretapping" in the event of a court order. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lawyer says the idea ... would not mean expanding the ability of law enforcement and security officials to demand access to data through the court system. Instead, the changes would deal with cases where court orders are effectively meaningless because the communications firms concerned are unable to hand over the relevant data, either because it can't be intercepted ... (view more)

Microsoft has convinced a judge to grant it legal ownership of 276 web domains previously used to control networks of infected PCs. It's the first time this has happened, and the company believes it could be used as a legal weapon. The case involves ... a botnet , created from computers infected with the Waledeac worm . A botnet is short form for "robot network" -- or quite simply, a network of infected computers controlled by one or few individuals. Botnet Sends 1.5 Billion Spam Email Messages Per Day At one point an estimated 80,000 computers were under part of the botnet and were ... (view more)

Microsoft had a busy day in court this past Thursday. First, it unsuccessfully lobbied to have an injunction related to patented XML features in its Word software overturned. In another case, Microsoft filed suit against a video game hardware ... producer whose game controllers look similar to the original Xbox 360 model. Microsoft May be Mulling Supreme Court Appeal In regard to the XML lawsuit: Microsoft failed in a bid to have a full appeals court review last year's decision that found the software company in violation of a patent owned by tiny Toronto, Canada-based i4i's patent. The patent ... (view more)