Roy Mark

The U.S. Department of Justice has targeted a group known as the Underground Network for its first criminal investigation into intellectual property piracy over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Direct Connect, P2P software developed by NeoModus, enables the network. A Justice Department official told internetnews.com that neither NeoModus nor its technology were under investigation. Last week, a […]

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) launched its back-to-school, anti peer-to-peer (P2P) campaign Tuesday with a national media briefing praising the efforts of a handful of colleges and universities to stop piracy. But Wednesday, the group showed its less friendly side, filing another 744 individual lawsuits for illegal file sharing. The RIAA filed 592 […]

Authorities raided five residences and and an Internet service provider Wednesday morning in the first federal criminal enforcement action against private peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Search warrants were executed in Texas, New York and Wisconsin as part of an investigation into the illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music over P2P networks. Federal agents […]

Verizon and Qwest rushed to court Monday to challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) latest ruling on line sharing and access fees between incumbent telcos and their competitors. Late last Friday, the FCC decided to extend for six months rules tossed out by a federal appeals court. The interim FCC action freezes into place all […]

Federal regulations thrown out of court in March designed to foster local telephone competition will remain in place until the end of the year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said late Friday. If the FCC is unable to draft new regulations by January, the rules will be extended another six months, with price hikes capped […]

Since peer-to-peer (P2P) exploded on the scene in the late 1990’s, the entertainment industry has waged legal war against the distributive technology that sparked the greatest raid on copyrighted music in history. Hollywood drove the first Napster out of business and flooded other P2P companies with expensive litigation. The industry threatened lawsuits against corporations that […]

Peer-to-peer networks are not responsible for the copyright violations of their users, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Thursday. The decision upholds a lower court ruling based on the technology neutrality principles established in the 1984 Sony Betamax case. In a seminal victory for the popular file-sharing networks, the court acknowledged […]

When three of the four Baby Bells decided in May to walk out of a telecom industry summit crafting a new interconnection access fee system, they dealt a serious blow to reforming a 20-year-old scheme that generates $14 billion a year for the incumbent networks. Meeting at the explicit suggestion of Federal Communications Commission Chairman […]

WASHINGTON — An uneasy calm before another potentially complicated court battle over spectrum usage has settled in over the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). At issue is the FCC’s proposed plan for Nextel’s cell phone interference with first responder networks. The proposal has brought threats of legal action and accusations from public safety groups that the […]

Eric Benhamou plans to resign as chairman of the PalmSource board of directors in late October, but will continue as chairman of PalmOne. Benhamou has served on the boards of both PalmSource and PalmOne since PalmSource spun-off from Palm in October 2003, the same year the company acquired handheld rival Handspring. “PalmSource and PalmOne have […]

Cybersource filed a patent infringement suit today against Retail Decisions (ReD), seeking an injunction and treble monetary damages for willful infringement. Both companies develop and market electronic payment and risk management technology for merchants who take credit card payments over the Internet. The suit claims infringement in relation to ebitGuard, one of ReD’s card fraud […]

Driven by growing demand for its global business consulting services, IBM said today it would almost double the number of new hires it originally projected for 2004. The tech bellwether said it plans to add an additional 8,800 workers to its previous forecast of 10,000 new jobs. The majority of the jobs will be in […]