Late Friday, a few short paragraphs of text were leaked that revealed something of the terms on fair use being negotiated in secret by the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is a treaty currently being negotiated by nine Pacific Rim countries seeking to establish a new free-trade agreement on many issues, including intellectual property. The next negotiating round is set for early September in Leesburg, Virginia.
A White House-backed cyber security bill on Thursday failed to secure the necessary votes needed to bring it to a full Senate vote, effectively guaranteeing that legislation governing computer protection responsibilities for the private sector will have to wait at least another year before being passed.
The largely Democrat-supported Cybersecurity Act of 2012 would have incentivized those companies that operate critical infrastructure to meet a series of security best practices, as part of a voluntary program.
A former congressional staffer and NSA whistleblower who the authorities suspected of exposing the George W. Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program is suing the government, saying her constitutional rights are being violated because her computer seized five years ago has never been returned, and the feds have refused to clear her name.
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO), the operator of the biggest U.S. Web portal, was sued for negligence over its disclosure that as many as 450,000 user names and passwords were stolen from one of its sites.
A Yahoo user who said his login credentials were posted online after a hacker infiltrated a company database on July 11 filed a complaint July 31 in federal court in San Jose, California.
LulzSec hacker Ryan Cleary has admitted launching distributed denial-of-service attacks against the websites of the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the CIA.
Cleary, along with fellow LulzSec member Jake Davies, 19, pleaded guilty to a series of attacks on the websites of organisations including News International and Sony, the Guardian reported on Monday.
With the Apple v. Samsung patent trial underway, Samsung has angered both US District Court Judge Lucy Koh and Apple by providing the press evidence that had been ruled inadmissible in court. Koh demanded that Samsung lawyers explain the leak, and Apple today asked Koh to issue sanctions against Samsung for trying to influence the jury through the media.
A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives attempts to deter frivolous patent litigation by forcing unsuccessful patent plaintiffs to cover defendants' legal costs. Introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and co-sponsored by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act is limited to patents related to computer hardware and software.
A hacker who disabled the website of a New Zealand company dedicated to helping feed poor children could face legal consequences in his home country of Spain after his attack spurred a Facebook/Twitter posse and incurred the wrath of members of Anonymous, who he may have been trying to impress.
Valve has issued an update to its Steam Subscriber Agreement that effectively prevents all Steam users from joining in class action lawsuits against the company. Valve's new SSA requires that "you [the user] and Valve agree to resolve all disputes and claims... in individual binding arbitration," mimicking similar language added by EA to its Origin service agreement and Microsoft with Windows 8.
Dave & Buster's store #32 in Islandia, New York—a restaurant and electronic funhouse for adults—seemed an unlikely target for an international credit card theft ring. Certainly no patron drinking beer and shooting miniature basketballs into a miniature hoop expected their credit card data to end up inside an encrypted Latvian server, waiting to be sold off to international criminals who would ring up more than $600,000 in charges on the cards. But that was because no patron knew anything about the Estonian hacker Aleksandr "JonnyHell" Suvorov.
