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Judge rules Canada's de-indexing order won't apply to Google in the US
For the past few years, Google has been the subject of a legal debate in Canada, one aiming to determine whether Canadian court rulings regarding the internet are applicable just in Canada or should be enforceable worldwide owing to the borderless nature of the web. In June, the Canadian Supreme Court decided that they should be enforced globally, but a US federal judge has now weighed in, and at least in this particular case, the Canadian ruling won't apply in the US.
Australian courts order ISPs to block 59 pirate websites
Australian authorities will make it much harder to keep up with the latest on Game of Thrones. They're expected to crack down hard on dozens of pirate websites that serve unauthorized movies and TV shows within the next couple of weeks. That's because federal courts down under have handed down rulings for two separate cases, both ordering major telcoms and internet service providers (ISPs) to block a total of 59 websites and 127 domains. That's a huge number to block in one go and might actually help mitigate piracy in the country.
China's online court heard its first case today
The Hangzhou Internet Court, a new online court in China that will hear internet-related civil cases, had its first trial today. Today's copyright infringement case was between a novelist and a web company that offered her novel to online subscribers without her permission and everyone met via video chat. The judge and both sets of legal agents connected through the web from different parts of the country and the whole thing took around 30 minutes to conclude.
UK cybersecurity researcher pleads not guilty to malware charges
Marcus Hutchins, the British cyber security researcher who won attention for helping to halt the spread of the WannaCry malware program earlier this year, has just entered a plea of not guilty for a set of unrelated charges. Hutchins was arrested by the FBI at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas and was due for arraignment in a Milwaukee court last Friday. The arraignment was postponed until Monday, August 14th, which is when Hutchins entered his plea.
Volkswagen’s head of compliance pleads guilty in emissions scandal
Last September, Volkswagen's James Robert Lang pled guilty in federal court on charges of conspiring to defraud US regulatory agencies and consumers. The veteran Volkswagon AG engineer admitted to his part in creating software for the EA 189 engine that would essentially cheat on emissions tests. The car company itself agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle federal criminal and civil charges over the emissions-cheating technology this past January. Now yet another executive has entered a guilty plea. Oliver Schmidt faces up to seven years in prison and a fine of $40,000 to $400,000 for his part in conspiring to mislead US regulators. His sentencing is set for December 6th.
LeEco's assets frozen by Chinese court as debts mount
Chinese firm LeEco's financial situation is deteriorating rapidly. A Shanghai court has frozen $180 million in assets owned by co-founder Jia Yueting, his wife Gan Wei and three subsidiaries, according to Chinese news site Tencent and the Financial Times. The order was carried out on behalf of the China Merchants Bank, reportedly because of missed interest payments by LeEco's mobile, watch and other divisions.
Canada says court order to pull Google results applies worldwide
In 2012, Canadian manufacturer Equustek asked Google to remove search results relating to a court case against Datalink, a distributor of the former company's network devices. While Google complied with the request, it only did so in Canada itself. The Supreme Court then ordered Google to remove search results pertaining to the issue in all countries Google operated in. Google appealed the decision, arguing that the order went against its own freedom of expression. The court has now rejected the company's argument. The majority decision says that Canadian courts may in fact grant injunctions that compel compliance anywhere in the world.
Uber will appeal compulsory English exam for London drivers (updated)
Uber continues to fight against an upcoming rule change that would force London drivers to pass an English language exam. Today, the ride-hailing company has won the right to appeal the requirement, originally proposed by Transport for London in March 2016, that all private hire chauffeurs hold an English GCSE or, if they're from a predominantly non-English speaking country, B1-level qualification. Uber broadly supports the rule change, but thinks the written exam component is unfair. "Writing an essay has nothing to do with communicating with passengers or getting them safely from A to B," Tom Elvidge, Uber's General Manager for London said.
Ohio drunk drivers ordered to install Uber or Lyft
Drunk drivers may have a new consequence for getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. They'll still face stiff penalties like fines, mandatory driver's prevention programs and possible jail time, of course. However, according to The News-Herald, Ohio Municipal Court Judge Michael A. Cicconetti has been ordering those convicted of Operating a Vehicle Impaired (OVI) to download ride-sharing apps like Uber or Lyft as part of his sentencing. They must also enter their credit cards into the app as a condition of probation.
The FCC can’t limit excessive inmate phone call rates
The FCC of 2015 pushed for limits to "excessive and egregious" rates for prison-based telephone calls. This was a progressive move to limit the ability states and private prisons to make money off of prisoners, who have no choice in choosing how much a phone call costs. When the new Trump administration took over, however, the FCC stopped defending its policy on caps. In what seems to be the final blow, an appeals court has ruled that the FCC cannot, in fact, cap rates for prisoner phone calls within states.
Copyright troll lawyer is finally disbarred for fraud
While it is illegal to download copyrighted files from file-sharing sites, it is also against the law to extort downloaders. John L. Steele, a Chicago lawyer who pled guilty to perjury, fraud and money laundering resulting from alleged "honeypot" schemes, has just been disbarred by an Illinois court. Both Steele and his law partner, Paul Hasmeier, were indicted last March for uploading porn videos that they acquired through sham companies in the West Indies and then suing whomever downloaded them, resulting in a staggering $6 million in settlement fees. That's quite a honeypot.
Magic Leap settles sex discrimination lawsuit with former employee
Magic Leap created some serious buzz back in 2014 when Google, Qualcomm and other tech giants lined up to heavily invest in its mysterious mixed reality headset. Unfortunately, the tech may not live up to its own hype. Making things even worse, the company was sued for sex discrimination this past February by former employee Tannen Campbell, who, ironically, was hired to help create a more female-friendly product. While no specific terms have been revealed, the company filed a notice of settlement May 8th; the suit should be officially dismissed by June 2nd.
Austria orders Facebook to delete hate postings
Facebook is having a hard time lately amid claims of fake news, political bias and sexism. The European Union considered legislation to encourage a more unified response to such postings and Germany supports fines for social networks that ignore hate speech. Similarly, today an Austrian appeals court ruled that Facebook must delete hate postings written about the leader of the country's Green party -- and not just in Austria.
Turkish court backs censorship of Wikipedia
When Turkey blocked Wikipedia last week, its co-founder Jimmy Wales promised to push for a judicial review of the online censorship. Today, however, Ankara's 1st Criminal Court of Peace rejected Wikimedia Foundation's appeal, saying that popular crowdsourced site contained entries that link Turkey to terrorist groups. The court ruled that since the "offending" Wikipedia pages remain on the site, it would not remove the country-wide block.
Two men admit involvement in the TalkTalk 2015 hack
Two men involved in 2015's TalkTalk hack have pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey court in London. Matthew Hanley, a 22-year-old from Tamworth, Staffordshire, admitted to three offences under the Computer Misuse Act, including the TalkTalk hack itself and obtaining and supplying files that would "enable the hacking of websites to others." He also confessed to supplying a spreadsheet, containing TalkTalk customer details, so that others could commit fraud. Conner Douglas Allsop, also from Tamworth, pleaded guilty on March 30th to assisting fraud and sharing a file that could help other hackers. Both men will be sentenced on May 31st.
Court indicts contractor who stole NSA's hacking tools
A federal grand jury has indicted former NSA contractor Harold Thomas Martin for what could be the biggest theft of classified materials in the US. According to Reuters, the indictment alleges that Martin has been stealing from NSA, CIA and other intelligence agencies for 20 years as a private contractor with top security clearance. When he was arrested in October 2016, he was working for Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp, the same consulting firm that Edward Snowden worked for when he leaked top secret files to the press in 2013. The event forced the company to hire former FBI Director Robert Mueller to audit its security and personnel.
Samsung can't use in-box warranty to kill Galaxy S4 lawsuit
Oh Samsung. When the company isn't busy recalling cellphones and washing machines for being safety hazards, it's busy fighting its customers in court. In 2015, Daniel Norcia contended that he was misled by Samsung about the capabilities of his Galaxy S4. Specifically, its speed, performance and memory capacity, according to Consumerist.
Mark Zuckerberg will testify in Oculus VR lawsuit this week (update)
Mark Zuckerberg is heading to a Dallas court to testify in an ongoing lawsuit filed against Oculus, the VR company Facebook purchased for $2.3 billion. ZeniMax, the parent company of Doom developer id Software, claims that Oculus CTO John Carmack took its intellectual property when he left the company in 2013. Zuckerberg will testify in the suit tomorrow (January 17th), and Oculus co-founder (and noted recluse) Palmer Luckey is also set to testify later in the week.
Exxon must turn over decades of climate change research
A court in Massachusetts has ruled that Exxon Mobil must reveal how much it knew about our looming environmental apocalypse. The oil giant is under investigation by the state's attorney general, Maura Healey, who is looking at claims that the company mislead investors about climate change. The court has compelled the company to hand over decades' worth of paperwork relating to what Exxon chiefs knew, and when.
IMDb tells California it will continue to publish actors' ages
With age discrimination rife in Hollywood, California wanted to do something about it. That meant introducing a new law that didn't actually target the root cause of the problem -- i.e. penalizing the people who engage in the practice -- but instead stopped websites from publishing an individual's age. IMBb, the movie listing website owned by Amazon, was told in September that it would need to remove ages and birthdates of performers by January 1st, 2017. It's been a week since the deadline passed and IMDb hasn't done a thing.
