Displaying items by tag: Legal

It is not often that we can write about a big company like Microsoft and say they are doing “the right thing”. This is even more true in light of the Snowden revelations that showed the close cooperation that Microsoft (and others) had with many data collection programs run by the NSA. Any trust that people had in Microsoft and their drive to protect their customer’s data vanished in an instant. Since those days Microsoft has been working very hard to rebuild consumer trust. They have put SSL and TLS encryption on their email service and have put a few privacy (pronounce that security if you are in government) features in place to help change the public opinion.

The concept of the VPN (Virtual Private Network) is one that is intended to allow people to make a secure, encrypted connection from point A to point B. in most cases this connection is from a remote location back to the home or an office. VPN actually covers a few different protocols that include IPSEC (IP Security), PPTP (point to point tunnel protocol), L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol), SSL (Secure Socket Layer) and a few other less common ones. In recent years it has also become a method to get around DNS blocking and also as a form of maintaining private/ anonymous communication.

In the soap-opera that has been the case against Kim Dotcom and Mega Upload we now has another chapter. It seems that the copyright groups responsible for the original claims against Dotcom want to have a look at this financial state. If you remember when the case and raid first happened we mentioned that the move was most likely done to remove competition from the playing field. The actions and claims that followed certainly seemed to support our hypothesis.

There is a story running around the internet that says Google is now processing one million piracy take down requests in a single day. Now there are two different spins to this story (and we will cover both) out there. One of them is being pushed by the copyright lobby groups, while the other is popping up through sites like Google and various net neutrality groups.

So, remember back when the FBI removed data that is was not allowed to search for from the home of Kim Dotcom, (that they were not really allowed to search)? Well if not we will sum things up for you here. Back when the US DoJ was really pushing the Mega Upload case the FBI convinced New Zealand law enforcement to execute a raid on the Dotcom house without a properly defined warrant. The reason it was not properly defined is that it did not spell out what they were searching for.

In a somewhat surprising decision the US Supreme Court has rules that patents that cover an “abstract idea” are not valid. This was the final outcome of a battle between two financial institutions, Alice Corp and CLS Bank. The story is one that has played out very often, Alice Corp. holds the patent for the concept of an electronic escrow system. CLS wants to use the same type of system, but as the patent held by Alice Corp is so vague and abstract they cannot do so without running the risk of infringing.

The guy that leaks Windows 8 to a French journalist is going to get a whopping three months in jail for his actions. Alex Kibkalo will also have to pay a whopping $100 fine for his actions. These actions are likely to follow him for the rest of his life and most certainly will hurt his career opportunities. Kibkalo leaked information about Windows 8 just before the launch of the OS.

To say that I am speechless is an understatement. Although I know the move by Tesla Motors today is also a marketing move it still stands on its own as one of the coolest things I have seen in a while. Oh that’s right I had probably better tell you what I am talking about. Although the head line makes much of this clear today Tesla announced that it will not seek patent litigation against any company that wants to use their technology in good faith.

When Edward Snowden revealed the extent of US Government surveillance and just how much corporations cooperated with them to accomplish their goals everyone was shocked. Many could not believe that the companies we trust would betray us in the ways that Snowden showed. Even as the clarifications and denials were being typed up by Microsoft, Google and others the consumer backlash was starting and not just in the US. Consumers here and overseas were pulling their data out and cancelling accounts. This change has (and will continue to) seriously hurt technology companies financially. As we all know, the only way to motivate big business is to hit them in the bank account.

Snapchat lately came under criticism after it was revealed that their services are not entirely what they appear. The case went before the U.S. Trade Commission, which has accused the company that messages sent via Snapchat can easily be saved even though the application claims that they are only temporary.