Brian McWilliams

Steptoe and Johnson, a leading Washington, D.C., law firm, is accused of trying to settle a domain dispute by launching a cyberwar against a cybersquatter that registered its name. Steptoe is accused of hacking into a server operated by Moore Publishing Co., which operates an information service for investigators called Dig Dirt. Moore has filed […]

Several domain registrars are threatening to sue The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers if the group does as expected Thursday and approves a controversial agreement involving the Commerce Department and Network Solutions Inc. During ICANN’s board meeting in Los Angeles this week, several NSI competitors have alleged the deal is anticompetitive. The agreement […]

A group calling itself the Massachusetts Coalition for Consumer Choice and Competition on the Internet Wednesday accused AT&T Corp. and MediaOne Group of attempting to deny voters the right to decide whether to make open access a statewide policy. Facing a Dec. 1 deadline, the coalition is staking out shopping malls and recycling centers across […]

Levi Strauss and Co. is close to pulling the plug on its ambitious e-tailing plans. The clothing maker confirmed Friday that it intends to phase out its online store after this holiday season — just a year after it launched. Levi spokesperson Jeff Beckman told InternetNews.com the company was generally very satisfied with traffic and […]

The transformation of Encyclopedia Britannica into a new-age electronic media company apparently is not going off without glitches. As Internet users rush to access its newly free Web content, Britannica.com’s servers have been swamped, and the company has had to close its virtual front doors until it can beef up its systems. “We don’t want […]

The company known for creating the “love bug” is currently involved in a heated domain name dispute and this week took its case into court, countersuing the owner of VW.net to gain control of the domain after he sued to keep it. Virtual Works Inc. is a Virginia network service provider and Web site designer […]

The patent infringement lawsuit Priceline.com has slapped on Microsoft is a risky strategy that could send the high-flying, name-your-price e-commerce firm crashing back to earth, legal experts said Thursday. Filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, the lawsuit alleges that Microsoft and its Expedia travel service violated Priceline’s U.S. patent number 5,794,207, “Method and […]

The Java security sandbox has sprung another leak. A researcher in Denmark has discovered a new flaw in the Java Virtual Machine from Microsoft Corp. which could enable a malicious programmer to take control of the victim’s computer. Karsten Sohr of the University of Marburg has found a way to circumvent Microsoft’s (MSFT) bytecode verifier, […]

A serious bug in America Online version 5.0 that prevents users from accessing the Internet was well known to the company prior to the release of the software Oct. 5. But, according to beta testers, AOL chose to disregard their warnings and rushed the new software out anyway. Referred to by some testers as the […]

Trademark law on the Internet may still contain a number of grey areas, but Pez Candy Inc. believes the definition of fair use of its famous mark is black and white — and it’s threatening to prosecute anyone who uses the word Pez on a Web site. According to a page at the site operated […]

Internet users who downloaded and installed the latest version of America Online’s client software, AOL 5.0, have found that they’ve gained some spiffy new features. But in the process some have found they’ve also lost their ability to connect to the Internet. A message board at the online service devoted to AOL 5.0 upgrade questions […]

A rocky month could lie ahead for the historic agreement over domain names announced Tuesday between Network Solutions, the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers and the U.S. Commerce Department. Already, several interested observers have announced their unhappiness with aspects of the tentative deal. While the participants claim the agreement represents a compromise by […]