Electronic Frontier Foundation

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have joined rights groups, including the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to create the Global Network Initiative to protect and advance privacy, freedom of expression, and human rights.

The initiative will examine issues relating to freedom of expression and privacy around the world and international laws and standards that affect companies doing global business.

They're back. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox lost some users with the debut of Google's Chrome browser, but they are returning. Just three weeks after its launch, Chrome is seen as not so polished and is losing some users, according to Net Applications, an Internet tracking company.

Net Applications tracked 40,000 sites and found that Chrome made up .77 percent of the browsers visiting the sites, down from .85 percent last week. And down substantially from 1.4 percent in the first week of its release, according to Nielsen Online.

The National Security Agency, other governmental agencies, and President George W. Bush are named in a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The action by EFF, a nonprofit with offices in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, also accuses Vice President Dick Cheney; David Addington, Cheney's chief of staff; Alberto Gonzales, former White House counsel and attorney general; and John McConnell, director of national intelligence, of participation in domestic surveillance.

In a first-of-its kind decision, a California federal court has dismissed a copyright-infringement lawsuit against online video-sharing site Veoh Networks. IO Group, an adult entertainment company, filed the suit against Veoh, alleging the site displayed its content in violation of copyright laws. But Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd of the U.S. District Court in San Jose ruled against the gay-porn distributor on Wednesday.

A federal judge on Tuesday lifted a gag order placed on three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students earlier this month. The trio, Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan, and Alessandro Chiesa, were going to discuss the vulnerabilities of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's fare system at the annual Defcon conference.

The judge found the MBTA had a minimal case against the students under the federal computer-intrusion law and denied the MBTA's request for a five-month injunction.

A federal judge Thursday refused to lift the gag order imposed on three students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology barring them from disseminating information about the security flaws they identified with Boston's "T" mass transportation system.

Defcon 16, which drew an audience of 9,000 people to Las Vegas over three days, is over -- but the focus remains on a trio of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who stole the spotlight at the world's largest hacker conference.

MIT students Zack Anderson, Alessandro Chiesa, and R.J. Ryan are still blocked from revealing how they found a way to ride the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's subways free. They used weaknesses in the MBTA's Charlie Card and Charlie Ticket Fare system.

A federal judge has blocked three Massachusetts Institute of Technology students from presenting a paper at the Defcon 16 security conference. The paper would detail security problems with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's "CharlieCard" system and reveal how the cards can be hacked to give free rides on Boston's "T" system.

The students -- Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan, and Alessandro Chiesa -- say they offered to show officials how to fix the problem at a meeting last week.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) announced Monday that three U.S. Internet companies have agreed to an Internet code of conduct for doing business with repressive regimes like China. Microsoft, Google and Yahoo worked with human-rights organizations and other nongovernment groups to hammer out the framework.

The agreement, subject to final approval of the terms, comes after intense hearings in 2006 before the Senate Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee chaired by Durbin. On July 21 Durbin said the subcommittee would like to see progress, and the companies appear to have delivered.

Congress just whacked Comcast for throttling its users' broadband service when using BitTorrent. Now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has announced a new tool to find out if other broadband providers are doing just that.