Charges dropped in dual-use tech case
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The Justice Department has dropped all criminal charges against a Chinese national accused of selling technology made by his Silicon Valley employer to a Chinese cruise missile laboratory, court records show.
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Federal prosecutors Friday dropped a charge that an alleged fundraiser for the Palestinian militant group Hamas gave material support to terrorists &#151; a move that stunned defense attorneys.
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A U.S. district court has dismissed an   antitrust suit filed by microchip maker Broadcom Corp. BRCM.O   against Qualcomm Inc. QCOM.O, but Broadcom said it would   continue to pursue the case.
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(InfoWorld) - Two more defendants have pleaded guilty to charges of criminal copyright infringement for selling counterfeit software with a retail value of nearly $6 million on eBay Inc., the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Robert Koster of Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Yutaka Yamamoto of Pico Rivera, California, both pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the DOJ said in a news release. The two pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit software from Rockwell Automation. The two will be sentenced in November, along with four other defendants who pleaded guilty in Milwaukee in April. Rockwell Automation produces, among other products, specialized factory management software. The majority of the software applications sold by these defendants on eBay had retail prices ranging from about $900 to $11,300. From September 2003 to September 2004, Koster offered counterfeit software in 105 or more online auctions, receiving a profit of more than $23,000, the DOJ said. The retail value of the software was more than $5 million. From December 2003 to August 2004, Yamamoto initiated at least 92 auctions, for a profit of $6,000, the DOJ said. The retail value of the software was about $543,000. Including Monday's pleas, the DOJ has gotten nine convictions involving eBay auctions of counterfeit Rockwell Automation software. In addition to six pleas in Wisconsin, there have been two convictions in the Eastern District of Michigan and another in the Southern District of Indiana. The combined retail value of the counterfeit software in all nine prosecutions is approximately $30 million, the DOJ said.
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Charges were dropped Wednesday against a woman accused of killing her newborn child in 2004 and keeping other sets of fetal remains around her home.
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A misdemeanor hit-and-run charge against Pamela Bach, David Hasselhoff's ex-wife, was dropped Tuesday after she agreed to pay for what her attorney called minor damage.
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The county prosecutor said Monday she intends to drop the charges against a man who was accused of shooting into a crowd of people watching a fireworks display this summer.
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The Nevada Senate convicted the state controller of using state equipment for her 2002 reelection campaign but dismissed two other counts that could have led to her removal from office.
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Media & professional: Prosecutors drop one count of money-laundering against tycoon.
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Traffic charges against Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje of ABC's "Lost" were dropped after defense attorneys proved he has a driver's license.
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(InfoWorld) - Washington's attorney general has settled the first case prosecuted under the state's 2005 Computer Spyware Act. The settlement announced Monday is with antispyware vendor Secure Computer. The White Plains, New York, software company wasÂ accused of marketing its product via deceptive spam and pop-up ads, which offered free spyware scans that always detected a problem with the computer that was scanned. The company and its president, Paul Burke, will pay $725,000 in legal fees and $200,000 in penalties, and will reimburse Washington state customers $75,000, said Paula Selis, senior council with the attorney general's office. "Given the scope of the defendants' practices and the amount of consumer harm out there, we feel this is a very fair settlement." More than 1,100 state residents purchased the company's Spyware Cleaner software since it went on the market in 2004, Selis said. Those customers will now be e-mailed by Secure Computer and offered a refund for the $49.95 product, under terms of the settlement. Secure Computer, which admits no wrongdoing in the matter, is also prohibited fromÂ using deceptive marketing techniquesÂ to promote its software, and the company must now review the advertising of its marketing affiliates to make sure they comply with the settlement. That seems like an unlikely possibility, however, because Spyware Cleaner was pulled from the market shortly after the lawsuits were filed in late January, and Secure ComputerÂ is now out of business,Â according to the company's Web site. Representatives from Secure Computer could not be reached for comment. Burke, who was Secure Computer's president, has formed a new company called Safe App Software, which is now selling a registry cleaner product, Selis said. That product is not being sold in the U.S. she added. Secure Computer and four of its business partners were sued by Microsoft and the Washington attorney general in January, but charges against three of the men have already been settled. A fourth man, Manoj Kumar of Maharashtra, India, could not be located, the attorney general's office said. Burke and Secure Computer settled the Microsoft lawsuit about two months ago, said Spencer Freeman, an attorney with Freeman Law Firm Inc. who represented the defendants in the case. Freeman declined to comment on Monday's settlement.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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More and more resellers of used computer equipment are charging to erase data that may still be left on hard drives.
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The State Technology Office plans to cancel two multimillion-dollar contracts, now that several investigations have discovered two companies were given unfair advantages.
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A customer filed a $54 million lawsuit against Best Buy for losing an $1100 laptop she took in for service. The reason, exposure to identity theft.  It's about time vendors were forced to recognize the value of customers' data. I recall how the chief genius at the Apple store in Emeryville complained that they would have to eat the cost of the drive in a deal they made with the manufacturer. Someday they'll have a clue that the data on most drives is worth far more than the hardware, and that their potential liability, if the data ends up in the hands of an identity thief, is also much greater.
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A U.S. district court has dismissed an   antitrust suit filed by microchip maker Broadcom Corp. BRCM.O   against Qualcomm Inc. QCOM.O, although Broadcom said it would   continue to pursue the case.
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Prosecutors dropped terrorism charges Tuesday against two Michigan men who were arrested after buying large numbers of cell phones, saying they couldn't prove a terrorism link.
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Patent infringement found; split decision sends part of case back to lower court.