The facade of the federal courthouse for the Eastern District of Virginia, the court that is overseeing the MegaUpload case. (Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET) The patience of Kyle Goodwin, a MegaUpload user, has apparently been exhausted. The videographer, who stored clips of high school sports action at MegaUpload, filed a motion today that asks a federal court in Virginia to figure out a way to return his clips to him. Goodwin waited for the company, U.S. government, Hollywood studios and other interested other parties to figure out what to do with user data on MegaUpload's servers. The negotiations between the different interested parties have lasted weeks without any kind resolution. According to lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who advocate on behalf of tech companies and ... Continue reading →
Was that you who was named as a defendant by Raw Films for downloading Bareback Street Gang using Bittorrent? Chances are, if you download enough free porn, you’ll eventually become one of the 220,000 (and counting) defendants in piracy lawsuits filed by porn publishers. These plaintiffs have had mixed success enlisting the courts to compel ISPs to disclose names of customers based on their IP addresses. If you live in the Eastern District of New York and Magistrate Judge Gary Brown catches the case, you’re in good shape: he recently slapped down an attempt to sue multiple anonymous porn pirates. You’re out of luck, though, if you live in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where U.S. District Court Judge Mary A. McLaughlin ruled that “A ... Continue reading →
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong (right) has made poor investments and is operating the company inefficiently, says Starboard Value, a hedge fund and AOL investor. (Credit: CNET) Starboard Value, a $1 billion hedge fund with a 5-percent stake in AOL, claims the media company is poorly managed and is preparing for a proxy fight to replace three members of AOL's board. Starboard said today that it filed a copy of the presentation it plans to make at AOL's annual meeting in June. Starboard is backing a slate of nominees that would replace AOL directors Alberto Ibarguen, Patricia Mitchell, and James Stengel. For months, Starboard has bashed AOL and CEO Tim Armstrong's leadership record. The hedge fund has grown impatient with AOL's effort to become a media ... Continue reading →
19-year-old entrepreneur Eric Simons spent two months secretly living at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif. campus, sleeping each night on a couch like this one. (Credit: Eric Simons) It was 6 a.m. when Eric Simons was jolted awake by the yelling. After working until 4 a.m, the 19-year-old entrepreneur had finally passed out. A few hours of sleep would help with the day ahead. But unlike most people working at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif., campus who were surely still hours from showing up at the sprawling complex, Simons was already there. He'd been living there for two months, hiding out at night on couches, eating the company's food, and exercising and showering in its gym. And now, with an angry security guard bellowing at him, it ... Continue reading →
Kim DotCom became emotional when recalling how he was "ripped away from his family." Here, he is sworn in during a bail hearing in February. (Credit: Tvnz.co.nz) Kim DotCom isn't too big to cry. In court yesterday, the MegaUpload founder choked up when he recalled how New Zealand police in January raided the Auckland mansion where he lived and when, as his lawyer, said he was "ripped him away from his family." The U.S. Attorney's office accuses MegaUpload of being a front for a massive piracy operation and lawyers there are trying to extradite him to this country to face criminal copyright, money laundering and wire fraud charges. MegaUpload was one of the Web's most popular cyberlocker services before U.S. authorities shut it down. The ... Continue reading →
19-year-old entrepreneur Eric Simons spent two months secretly living at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif. campus, sleeping each night on a couch like this one. (Credit: Eric Simons) It was 6 a.m. when Eric Simons was jolted awake by the yelling. After working until 4 a.m, the 19-year-old entrepreneur had finally passed out. A few hours of sleep would help with the day ahead. But unlike most people working at AOL's Palo Alto, Calif., campus who were surely still hours from showing up at the sprawling complex, Simons was already there. He'd been living there for two months, hiding out at night on couches, eating the company's food, and exercising and showering in its gym. And now, with an angry security guard bellowing at him, it ... Continue reading →
In an attempt to combat cyberbullying, some New York state legislators want people who post mean-spirited personal attacks online to be prepared to identify themselves. The bill, known as The Internet Protection Act (IPA), wouldn't stop with cyberbullying If it became law, the legislation would also prevent people from posting anonymous criticism of local businesses or those who make "baseless political attacks," wrote James Conte, a member of New York's state assembly and one of the bill's sponsors. "With more and more people relying on social media and the Internet to communicate and gather information," Conte wrote in a statement, "it is imperative that the legislature put into place some type of safeguard to prevent people from using the Internet's cloak of anonymity to bully ... Continue reading →
A jury has found that Google did not infringe upon Oracle's patents. "Today's jury verdict that Android does not infringe Oracle's patents was a victory not just for Google but the entire Android ecosystem," Google said in a statement. More to follow. Continue reading →
