Internet Law

Ex-News Anchor Pleads in E-Mail Snooping Case

Until a few months ago, Larry Mendte was a television news anchor at CBS 3 in Philadelphia. Today, the ex-anchor was in the news at his former station and throughout the country after he pleaded guilty in a criminal case in federal court to intentionally accessing the private e-mail accounts…

Aug 22, 2008 5:00 PM CDT

Fair Use Right Upheld in Claim Over YouTube Dancing Baby Takedown

A federal judge in northern California questions whether Stephanie Lenz can prove that Universal Music Corp. acted in bad faith when it demanded that YouTube take down a 29-second video clip she posted of her 13-month-old baby jumping up and down to the sound of the Prince song “Let’s Go…

Aug 21, 2008 4:10 PM CDT

Lawsuits by Social Networking Sites Chase Elusive Spammers

Social networking sites are pursuing spammers with lawsuits, but their targets are difficult to locate and rarely show up in court. The most recent high-profile suit was filed by Facebook against a Canadian man, Adam Guerbuez, the Recorder reports. It alleges he impersonated Facebook users to send more than 4…

Aug 21, 2008 4:03 PM CDT

Computer Game-Makers Threaten to Sue 25,000 in UK re Downloads

In an unprecedented effort to enforce their copyrights, five top computer game-makers are reportedly about to threaten 25,000 residents of the United Kingdom with lawsuits unless they ante up about $560 each. The 25,000 residents are believed to have illegally downloaded computer games without paying for them, reports the London…

Aug 19, 2008 10:33 PM CDT

Judge Sides With MIT Students, Lifts Gag Order in Transit Case

A federal anti-hacking law wasn’t intended to prohibit the disclosure of public information about computer security flaws and hence doesn’t prohibit three MIT students from discussing with fellow academics how they learned to circumvent the Boston transit fare system, as part of a class project. That’s what a federal judge…

Aug 19, 2008 8:31 PM CDT

Google Among Web Cos. Tracking Users Without Explicit Consent

Internet and broadband companies are monitoring the Web surfing habits of their users via targeted-ad technology, letters released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee reveal. The companies are doing so without explicitly informing their customers, the Washington Post reports. Leading online advertiser Google acknowledged that it’s now following Web-surfers…

Aug 12, 2008 12:41 PM CDT

Trump Claims Firm Invaded Privacy By Posting Name on Website

Real estate mogul and reality TV personality Donald Trump is continuing his battle against his former lawyers, this time with a $5 million suit claiming they have violated his privacy by using his name on its website and talking about representing him during media interviews. Trump has sued again, this…

Aug 12, 2008 10:36 AM CDT

Marshals Service Investigates Video Rants Against YouTube Judge

Someone who goes by the name Cap’n Awesome isn’t happy with the Manhattan judge handling Viacom’s $1 billion infringement lawsuit against YouTube. The Cap’n has posted a YouTube video, rated five stars, that features liberal use of the F-word and a crude name for U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton. InsaneClownPerv,…

Aug 11, 2008 12:27 PM CDT

New Website Sells Restaurant Reservations

There are laws against reselling tickets. But offering restaurant reservations online to the highest bidder may be entirely legal. A 10-day-old Internet venture, which has created a new website to do just that has attracted customers and critics, reports the Chicago Tribune. However, despite unhappiness on the part of some…

Aug 8, 2008 8:48 PM CDT

Bogus Olympics Tickets Sold on Internet

An Internet ticket scam is of Olympic scope for victims who have spent thousands of dollars, not to mention days of vacation time, to travel to China for the games in Beijing. Family members of athletes are among thousands in more than half-dozen countries who reportedly paid hefty sums for…

Aug 8, 2008 5:24 PM CDT

Yale Law Students Start Naming Names in Suit Over Blog Posts

Two female students at Yale Law School have begun identifying, in federal court papers, the defendants who allegedly posted vile comments about them under anonymous screen names on an Internet discussion board—and are unwilling to settle the lawsuit they brought as a result. The two students learned the posters’ names…

Aug 6, 2008 8:59 PM CDT

11 Charged in Biggest ID Theft Case Ever

Updated: The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston reportedly has charged 11 individuals from four countries in what is believed to be the largest identity theft case ever prosecuted by the Justice Department. Those charged allegedly stole more than 40 million debit and credit card numbers, many of them used by…

Aug 5, 2008 5:24 PM CDT

Yale Students Unmask Anonymous Critics; Legal Careers at Risk

Apparent law students who posted nasty comments about female classmates on the Internet thought they were doing so anonymously. But now two female Yale Law School students who sued over the AutoAdmit posts have identified at least some of those who made the vile comments, including posts that said women…

Jul 31, 2008 8:50 PM CDT

Wordscraper is Facebook’s New Scrabulous, Testing IP Law

There is Scrabulous news today for some 500,000 aficionados of the popular computerized word game that was played on the Internet by some 450,000 Facebook users each day. Although Scrabulous can no longer be played via the social networking site, a remarkably similar game by the same software developers is…

Jul 31, 2008 7:23 PM CDT

Internet Flaw Puts Huge Numbers of People at Risk of Fraud

What if you called up a telephone company’s directory assistance service and got a wrong number for a major bank? And, worse yet, the wrong number was for a fraud scheme that pretended it was that major bank, extracting information from callers so that it could steal from them? That…

Jul 30, 2008 8:10 PM CDT