Nokia has launched a whole bunch of lawsuits against HTC, RIM and Viewsonic, claiming that they violate (collectively) 45 of Nokia’s patents. It has not revealed what patents each case entails, but all the cases are either in the US or in Germany.
Topic: United States
US Court rules that lying on social media sites is not criminal
Image: steakpinball/Flickr (Creative Commons)
If you were like many, you would have signed up to Google when you were a ‘minor’, you were until recently breaking the terms of service (and yes, who knew). Well, you are no longer a criminal because a US court has ruled that lying on social media websites isn’t an offence under the law. So, all those profiles with fake ages and birthdays won’t send you to jail.
MPAA chief hints of SOPA/PIPA revival
Image: Skye Suicide/Flickr (Creative Commons)
The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act could find themselves back in the spotlight again, with the chief of the Motion Picture Association of America hinting at a possible revival of the bills.
NASDAQ website down by DDOS
Image: bfishadow/Flickr (Creative Commons)
A online hacktivist group has taken down the website of the NASDAQ stock exchange – and at the time of writing, the site remains down. However, the group has said that their servers were not hacked and that trading systems were not affected.
Google/Motorola tie-up approved by US Department of Justice, European Commission
Both the European Commission and the Department of Justice in the United States have cleared a deal that will see Google and Motorola finally tie the knot, after the US$12.5 billion deal was announced last August.
HOW TO watch the Daily Show, Colbert Report abroad with no VPN
If you were like me, you were pretty upset when ABC had to pull The Daily Show and the Colbert Report from air after Foxtel acquired exclusivity of the two. And in Australia, the only way to watch them was via Foxtel or acquire it via different means. But, their geoblock is not like the ones you see on Hulu. It has a weak spot, which we have found.
Kodak files for bankruptcy – now who will buy its patents?
Kodak has announced that it and all of its subsidies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in a move to restructure the company “to focus on its most valuable business lines” after years of ignoring the rise of digital cameras.
Who else is participating in the Jan 18 Blackout?
Wikipedia and Reddit are not the only sites to black-out their website in protest of the PROTECT IP and Stop Online Piracy Acts that are running through the US Congress. Many other sites, including Destructoid, and Imgur will also participate.
What is SOPA and PIPA (and why Wikipedia isn’t working)?
Have you heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act, or the PROTECT IP Act? The tech industry is talking about it. And that could be because it hasn’t gotten any mainstream media attention until the White House publicly said it would not let it through if Congress passed it in its current form. But what is it? Why are Google and Facebook against it?
2011 – A Year of Many Things: A recap of the big events of the year
The year 2011 was one year that we will all never forget. Even though they were all in the beginning of the year, the floods in Queensland and Brazil, the earthquakes in Christchurch and the tsunami in the north of Japan are still present in all of our minds. We also saw the death of a tech luminary, Steve Jobs; and the powerful News Corporation losing its influence over politicians in the UK after the phone hacking scandal took a drastic turn from celebrities to victims of crime.
Wikipedia ponders total blackout ahead of SOPA
Wikipedia could have a total “blackout” – by blanking out every single page in the online encyclopedia, even the 1 million pages in the English version – as a protest to the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, which is heading to the US Senate.
WSJ: Facebook to launch IPO between April and June
Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au
Social networking giant Facebook could launch its initial public offering of its stock somewhere between April and June of next year. This is according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal, who cites “people familiar with the matter” as their source.
PETA turns to porn for animal rights – yes, graphic footage included
Image: Miel Van Opstal/Flickr (Creative Commons)
Animal rights activists People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals might have gone a bit crazy. The group has announced plans to launch a porn site that hopes to raise awareness of veganism.
Wikileaks cables reveal American involvement in iiNet trial
Image: Tobias Vemmenby/Flickr (Creative Commons)
Wikileaks has recently published more cables from the US embassy in Canberra. One such cable has revealed that there could have been American involvement in the trial against ISP iiNet and AFACT over copyright infringement.
GoDaddy sold to private investors in $2.25bn deal
Image: Los Angeles Times
The largest domain registrar and web hosting company GoDaddy has been bought for a hefty $2.25 billion to private equity firms KKR, Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures. The buyout comes after the announcement by ICANN to reduce restrictions on domain names a few weeks ago.