Judge refuses to order removal of anti-Islam video from YouTube
A judge in California refused on Thursday to order YouTube to pull down a controversial anti-Islam movie trailer that has sparked violent protests at U.S. diplomatic missions in many Middle East countries, according to a spokeswoman for the plaintiff's attorneys The Armenta Law Firm.
An actress who appears in the trailer asked the court to impose a temporary restraining order against YouTube and the person alleged to have doctored the film to give it an anti-Islam slant.
In a complaint filed Wednesday before the Superior Court of the State of California for the county of Los Angeles, Cindy Lee Garcia alleged that she was cast in a film titled "Desert Warrior" and that defendant Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, also known as Sam Bacile, a resident of Los Angeles county, told her that it was an adventure film about ancient Egyptians. Read more...
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 blocked from sale in the US
A federal court in California has blocked the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the U.S. in a patent dispute between Apple and Samsung.
Samsung intends to appeal.
In an order on Tuesday granting the preliminary injunction, Judge Lucy H. Koh of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division has enjoined Samsung and its U.S. subsidiaries from importing or selling within the U.S. the tablet or any "product that is no more than colorably different from this specified product and embodies any design contained in U.S. Design Patent No. D504,889." Read more...
California moves to stop employers demanding Facebook passwords
The California assembly passed a bill on Thursday that prevents employers from demanding job applicants' passwords for accounts on Facebook or other social networking sites. The bill passed unanimously and will now head to the state senate. Similar legislation was introduced Thursday in the U.S. Congress.
The legislative moves follow reports that employers have demanded passwords for social sites from job applicants, demanded a walk-through of the content on those sites, or insisted applicants accept a friend request from a member of staff. Read more...
Oracle handed setback in HP Itanium case
A court in California rejected Oracle's bid to use a fraud claim to undo an agreement to support the Itanium processor, that it is said to have made with Hewlett-Packard.
"The alleged fraud did not prevent Oracle from participating in the negotiations or deprive Oracle of the opportunity to negotiate," Judge James P. Kleinberg of the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County said in a 21-page ruling on Monday.
The Judge was referring to HP's settlement agreement in 2010 with Mark Hurd, former CEO of HP, who later joined Oracle as president. Although Oracle was not a party to the previous litigation by HP against Hurd, its participation in the Hurd litigation settlement negotiations was extensive, he added. Read more...
CA startup sees entrepreneur-ship as visa solution
You've heard of tech companies starting in a Silicon Valley garage. What about on a ship?
That's the idea being floated by a California startup that wants to dock a vessel off the coast to house foreign entrepreneurs who have dreams of creating the next Google but can't get visas to work in the United States.
Sunnyvale-based Blueseed Co. says current immigration rules can sink promising ventures and torpedo innovation and job creation.
The ship aims to provide a remedy by giving foreign entrepreneurs a place to build their companies only a short boat ride from high tech's hub.
"A lot of people say, `I'd like to go to Silicon Valley' but there is no way for them to do it," said Max Marty, Blueseed CEO and co-founder. Read more...
Phisher who hit 38,500 gets long prison sentence
A California man was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison Thursday for his role as the brains behind a widespread phishing scam that took in more than 38,000 victims.
That Tien Truong Nguyen, 34, worked with Romanian scammers to drive users to websites that were set up to look up like they belonged to legitimate financial institutions. After victims entered their information on the sites, Nguyen sold the data to two alleged co-conspirators, Stefani Ruland and Ryan Price, who used the information to set up lines of credit -- typically between US$1,000 and $2,000 -- at instant credit kiosks at Wal-Mart stores.
They used those lines, as well as fake credit cards made using the stolen data, to purchase products from Wal-Mart, which they then sold for cash. Read more...
Oracle wants a big piece of Android’s ad revenue
Oracle (ORCL) is known for some epic lawsuits, often throwing its weight around in California courtrooms over software licensing and patents. Coming off a recent victory against SAP (SAP), Oracle’s throwdown against Google (GOOG) is just getting warmed up, as the software maker seeks billions in damages over claims that Android software uses technology related to the Java programming language. It’s a drama that’s been building its plot since Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, and Java along with it. The full extent of Oracle’s claims were finally disclosed yesterday in a San Francisco federal court, when the company sought to prevent Google from filing under seal documents in the case stating Oracle’s monetary claims. Read more...
Frog dissections go virtual at California school
A Southern California high school is taking the scalpel to frog dissections in biology class as it becomes the first U.S. school to take up animal welfare supporters' offer of free anatomy software.
Rancho Verde High School assistant principal Kevin Stipp tells the Riverside Press-Enterprise that it agreed to the deal with the Animal Welfare Institute and Save the Frogs to save money. Read more...
Facebook fights California privacy push
California is considering legislation that would tighten Facebook's privacy practices, and the social network is not happy about it.
The bill, Social Networking Privacy Act (SB 242), would require Facebook and other social networking sites to make big changes to the way they handle users' privacy. Industry analysts say social networks like Facebook could be wary of this move for fear that it will lead to a slippery slope of government control and privacy rules.
"Facebook has been very passive about security . They put the onus on the user to figure the security out on their own," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group. "Now it would automatically be more secure." Read more...