Tech Law: Facebook to Open Code, Twitter Sued Over Patents, More
A look at highlights of the past week in the high tech legal world: courts, regulation, and lawsuits.
Facebook must cough up source code — No software company (other than those in the open source movement) likes to show its source code. But that’s what Facebook may have to do, according to an order by a judge involved in the patent suit brought by Leader Technologies. [Source: TechDirt]
TechRadium sues Twitter — Public safety notification company TechRadium is suing Twitter for patent violation. Didn’t anyone tell them that the Whale still isn’t making any money? [Source: TechCrunch]
Criminal prosecution of domain name theft — A New Jersey resident, arrested for domain name theft, appears to be facing the first criminal prosection for the practice. [Source: Domain Name News]
Microsoft and Yahoo start the deal paperwork — Microsoft and Yahoo are starting the process to obtain regulatory permission for their ad deal. [Source: All Things Digital]
SCO may head into bankruptcy — A judge has denied SCO permission to sell itself in a deal with Gulf Capital Partners and has appointed a bankruptcy trustee for the company. [Source: Ars Technica]
Brutal Legend dispute may be over — Apparently, Activision and Double Fine have come to terms in their long-standing action over the video game title, Brutal Legend. [Source: GameDaily]
Gavel image via Flickr user Thomas Roche, CC 2.0.
Erik Sherman is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, Technology Review, the Financial Times, Chief Executive, and other publications. Follow him on Twitter.
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