Lawsuit targets Facebook mobile texting
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The popular online social network Facebook Inc. is being sued by an Indiana woman who alleges it has profited from its members sending thousands of unauthorized text messages to mobile phone users whose numbers previously belonged to other people.
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Company is latest phone giant to file suit to stop data brokers from fraudulently obtaining customer information.
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Four of the nation's largest online providers Thursday announced a new round of lawsuits aimed at e-mail spammers, including the first major case involving spam sent via an instant messaging service. -The Washington Post
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The U.S. Department of Justice is scheduled to respond this week to a lawsuit claiming restrictions on online gaming ads violate First Amendment protections of free speech.
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Facebook took a new step into the mobile realm on Thursday, launching a platform for operators designed to make its social networking application work better on portable devices.Vodafone is the first operator to use the Facebook for Mobile Operators platform and has started services in the U.K. and Germany, said Jed Stremel, Facebook&#39;s director of mobile division. Vodafone will soon expand the program to Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal.The platform involves giving operators a set of technical specifications intended to resolve some of frustrating hang-ups when using Facebook on a mobile phone rather than a PC, such as smoothing out login problems and opening up other features, Stremel said.The move by Facebook, which ranks next to MySpace as one of the most popular social networking sites, is intended to grow its user base, which the company estimates at 64 million users. So far, the company says it has 6 million users of Facebook Mobile, an unsupported mobile version of the Web site that will now get full support, Stremel said.At the moment the mobile site does not have any advertising. Stremel would not reveal the financial details of Facebook&#39;s deal with Vodafone, although he said operators will be able to generate revenue from data services as their subscribers access Facebook.The long-term hope for social networking sites is&#160;rich online advertising revenue. Facebook, which has an&#160;exclusive deal with Microsoft to place ads on the site, also did not say when it would put advertising on the mobile site.The company is hoping to lure more operators by the simplicity with which they can enable Facebook, Stremel said.Facebook has created special Web pages with instructions on how operators can set up their systems, he said. The instructions, for example, let operators add system settings that will let their subscribers send MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) with photos or video to their Facebook profiles, Stremel said.The platform also includes other specifications designed to stop abuse of Facebook, such as spamming, Stremel said. When someone sends their first MMS with a photo to their profile, the user is sent back a confirmation message with a code or a link. That confirmation then links that person&#39;s phone with their Facebook account, Stremel said.&#160;
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TechWeb - A class action suit claims that drivers were illegally arrested and ticketed for using their cell phones while driving.
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Verizon Wireless will allow an  abortion rights group to set up a text message alert system for  its subscribers, after initially refusing the request based on  what the company called an outdated policy against unwanted  messages, a spokesman said on Thursday.
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The wireless carrier's lawsuit is aimed at those responsible for obtaining the phone records of a CNET News.com reporter in an HP probe.
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has asked a federal court to make two Florida companies stop telephone pretexting and to pay back victims of the practice.
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In an Aug. 29 story about a permanent injunction against a Rhode Island man who sent unsolicited text messages to Verizon Wireless cell phone customers, The Associated Press erroneously reported the date of the federal court action. The injunction was granted Aug. 23, not Aug. 27.
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The country's largest provider of pay-as-you-go mobile services is suing the federal government over a recent ruling that allows people to disable the software that locks cell phones to a particular carrier.
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(InfoWorld) - Verizon WirelessÂ has reversed a decision to block text messages on its network from abortion rights group Naral Pro-Choice America after an outcry fromÂ net neutrality advocatesÂ and others. The controversy erupted Thursday, after a New York Times story said Verizon had rejected a request from Naral to send text messages to wireless customers who sign up for them. Verizon had said it has the right to block controversial or unsavory messages. Several other political groups, including the Republican National Committee and Amnesty International, have used text message campaigns. But Verizon backtracked on its position Thursday morning local time. "The decision to not allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect, and we have fixed the process that led to this isolated incident," Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson, said in a statement. "Upon learning about this situation, senior Verizon Wireless executives immediately reviewed the decision and determined it was an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy." The old policy was developed before text messaging protections such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages, Verizon said. Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group, said Verizon's decision still shows the need for the U.S. Congress to pass aÂ net neutrality law, which would prohibit telecom carriers and broadband providers from blocking or slowing content from competitors or other groups. "Instant replay is not the way to guarantee the rights of Americans to communicate freely over telecommunications networks," Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge's president, said in an e-mail. "You cannot have unfettered communications by having the telephone company review each decision whenever a controversial issue is raised. A text message like this one alerting Naral supporters to act quickly on a pending political issue is useless after hours of delay by the telephone company referees." Cynthia Brumfield, president of tech consultancy Emerging Media Dynamics, called the original Verizon action "unbelievable" in a post on her IP Democracy blog Thursday. "Verizon is seriously [messed] up if it thinks Naral is promoting an 'agenda' but the Republican National Committee is not," Brumfield wrote. "And clearly Verizon believes that a woman's right to choose is somehow 'unsavory.'" The issue goes beyond Verizon's apparent political leanings, Brumfield added. "What's truly disturbing is that Verizon is imposing its own political views on its wireless customers without their consent, something that the carrier could not do in the landline voice world," she wrote. Naral on Thursday morning was encouraging visitors to its Web site to contact Verizon about its original decision. "What kind of company would deny its customers the ability to use their cell phones to participate in our democracy?" Naral said.
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The suits include the first filed by America Online against spammers who use instant messaging, a practice the online industry calls spimming.
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The founders of a social networking website take legal action to try to shut down its rival, Facebook.
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By Anick Jesdanun  Operators of the online hangout Facebook wanted to help users save time by highlighting changes their friends make to their personal profile pages. Instead, the new feature has drawn complaints from thousands of its users and even threats of a boycott.
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Tallahassee, Fla. -- A federal appeals court Monday revived a lawsuit demanding that all Florida voters who use touch-screen machines receive a paper receipt, in case a recount becomes necessary.
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MicrosoftÂ filed a civil lawsuit against two men accused of running a host of spam companies that sent out millions of spam messages that violated the federal Controlling the Assault of Non-Solictied Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM).