CNET News - Politics and Law

What kind of virus has Fiorina's ad spread?

Chris Matyszczyk — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:04:40 PST

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina's attempt to become a California senator is thrust into the spotlight by a trippy video that has gone viral. But is any kind of viral good viral?

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

FBI wants records kept of Web sites visited

Declan McCullagh — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:16:00 PST

Internet providers should keep logs for two years, says head of FBI's digital evidence section. But what about the practical and privacy issues?

DOJ not pleased with latest Google Book agreement

Elinor Mills — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:56:00 PST

Justice Department says amended settlement didn't adequately address antitrust issues that give Google competitive advantages in the digital marketplace.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex

Lawmakers grill execs over Comcast-NBC deal

Marguerite Reardon — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:47:00 PST

U.S. senators and representatives, including former NBC comedian Al Franken, hold hearings to question the cable giant and the media conglomerate about the proposed merger.

Originally posted at Signal Strength

U.S. House passes cybersecurity research bill

Elinor Mills — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:07:00 PST

The measure, passed by a vote of 422 to 5, would boost research and public education efforts to bolster flagging cybersecurity efforts.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex

Web video gets H.264 royalty reprieve

Stephen Shankland — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:08:00 PST

The group that licenses the widely used H.264 video compression technology decides against adding a Web-streaming royalty charge that could have helped rival formats such as Ogg Theora.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Police survey provides glimpse of Net-surveillance figures

Declan McCullagh — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:37:00 PST

A relatively small group of 100 police working on Internet investigations reports submitting as many as 22,800 legal requests for information a year to Internet providers.

Government warns of looming cyberthreats

Lance Whitney — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:37:22 PST

Appearing before a Senate panel, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair warns of the growing impact and danger of new cyberattacks.

Originally posted at News - Security

Police want backdoor to Web users' private data

Declan McCullagh — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:00:00 PST

A survey, part of a broader lobbying effort, finds cybercrime fighters want to "exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process" through a police-only "nationwide computer network."

Mozilla weighs privacy warnings for Web pages

Declan McCullagh — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:00:00 PST

New icons in Firefox could reveal how much privacy a Web site provides--a useful new feature, but only if publishers agree to rate themselves.