Home

Justice

Google Vows to Fight U.S. Justice Department Request for Search Records

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 20, 2006 - 2:54am.
Washington - In a move being watched by Internet privacy advocates, search engine giant Google said that it plans to "vigorously" fight the Bush administration's demand to reveal what million of its users have been looking up on the Internet, several media outlets reported on Friday. The Justice Department is asking to see a random sampling of one million searches conducted on Google over a one-week period as part of its effort to revive the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA), designed to protect minors from sexually explicit material. The measure was previously struck down by the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. Though several of Google's competitors, including Yahoo, America Online and MSN, already have complied with the request, Google told CNN that the government's demand for information "overreaches." "We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously," Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, wrote in a statement to the network. The government filed a motion on Wednesday demanding that Google turn over the records.
tags: Google | U.S | Records | Justice |

Justice Dept. Announces 3 Convictions for Internet Game, Software Piracy

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 9, 2005 - 5:24am.
Washington -- The U.S. Justice Dept. has announced that three men have pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement charges as a result of an 18-month games and software piracy investigation, "Operation Higher Education," that spanned 12 countries. The three admitted to having leadership roles in online piracy or "warez" groups Fairlight and Kalisto, which cracked security on video game titles and other software and then posted downloadable versions of titles on IRC and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Seth Kleinberg, 26, of Pasadena, California faces up to 10 years in prison, while Jeffrey Lerman, 20, of College Park, Maryland and Albert Bryndzda, 32, of Flushing, New York both may be sentenced to up to five years in prison. The Justice Dept. said Operation Higher Education is part of its larger "Operation Fastlink," which has so far yielded 70 "high-level targets" and a total of six convictions since it was launched in April 2004. Separately, Attorney General Albertro Gonzales on Wednesday named Kyle Sampson, deputy chief of staff and counselor to the Attorney General, as the new chairman of the the Justice Department's Task Force on Intellectual Property, created to protect "the creativity, resourcefulness, and innovation of Americans and to curb the threat that intellectual property crimes pose to the nation’s economic security."
tags: Convictions | Justice | Internet Game | Software Piracy |

Justice Department Sides with RIAA in Battle with Verizon

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2003 - 10:22am.
Washington, DC -- The Department of Justice has sided with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its dispute with Verizon Communications over whether Verizon must disclose the identity of a customer who is an alleged copyright infringer. In a brief filed in the U.S. District Court in DC, the Justice Department argued that the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which requires Internet service providers to turn over information about subscribers who are alleged to be copyright infringers, does not violate the Constitution. Verizon, however, argues that the law violates consumers' rights to privacy and due process. The district court ruled in favor of the RIAA in January, and Verizon appealed the decision
tags: Verizon | RIAA | Battle | Justice |

Justice Department Sides with RIAA in Battle with Verizon

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 21, 2003 - 1:44am.
Washington, D.C. -- The U.S. Department of Justice filed a brief with the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on Friday siding with the Recording Industry of Association of America (RIAA) in its dispute with Verizon Communications Inc. over whether Verizon must disclose the identity of a customer who is an alleged copyright infringer. The Justice Department argues that the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright (DMCA) invoked by record labels to require ISPs like Verizon to turn over information about subscribers who are alleged copyright infringers does not violate the U.S. Constitution. Verizon argues that the law violates consumers' rights to privacy and due process. "It is manifest that the DMCA's subpoena provision targets the identity of alleged copyright infringers, not spoken words or conduct commonly associated with expression," the Department of Justice said. The district court ruled in favor of the RIAA in January, and Verizon appealed the decision. "The government's filing today supports the proposition that we have long advocated: copyright owners have a clear and unambiguous entitlement to determine who is infringing their copyrights online and that entitlement is constitutional," said Matt Oppenheimer, Senior Vice President for Business and Legal Affairs at the RIAA.
tags: Verizon | RIAA | Battle | Justice |