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News

• Novell, Red Hat prevail in user-interface patent case

  A U.S. federal jury has found that Novell and Red Hat were not guilty of infringing on user interface patents held by IP Innovation.

• IBM executive denies open-source sellout

  IBM will not use its open-source patents in any potential legal actions it may bring against TurboHercules, an IBM company executive seemingly asserted on Wednesday.

• Photographers sue Google over book scanning

  Google's years-long attempt to create an online library and store with millions of books will face yet another legal hurdle with the filing of a class-action copyright infringement lawsuit by the American Society of Media Photographers.

• Jury sides with Novell in long-running SCO battle

  On Tuesday, a jury in Utah sided with Novell in its long-running legal dispute with SCO.

• Gonzalez sentenced for multimillion-dollar credit card scam

  As his parents and sister silently wept, hacker mastermind Albert Gonzalez was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to two concurrent 20-year stints in prison for his role in what prosecutors called the "unparalleled" theft of millions of credit and debit card numbers from major U.S. retailers.

• Ex-IBM exec heads to court in insider trading case

  IBM's former server chief, Robert Moffat, is heading to court on Monday after he agreed to waive his right to a grand jury in a case related to the Galleon Group insider-training scandal, according to court documents.

• Proposed US law would single out cybercrime havens

  A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate Tuesday would compel the White House to identify international cybercrime havens and establish plans for cleaning them up.

• CIOs must learn to swim with the sharks

  Many CIOs may well prefer a swim in shark-infested waters to spending time with their organisation’s corporate legal counsel, but new research shows that they should get used to hearing and seeing more from the lawyers than ever before.

• BSkyB asks HP judge for £49 million legal costs

  BSkyB has asked a high court judge to order a £49 million payment from HP, so that it can recover its full legal costs in the parties' ten-year dispute.

• Apple sues HTC for patent infringement

  Apple filed a patent infringement lawsuit Tuesday against HTC, claiming that the Taiwanese company is infringing 20 Apple patents.

• Three Google execs convicted over Italian bullying video

  Three Google executives were handed suspended six month prison sentences by a Milan court on Wednesday for privacy law violations relating to a video posted on Google Video showing the bullying of a handicapped boy.

• EPIC files privacy complaint against Google Buzz

  Despite the changes that Google has made to Buzz following negative reaction to the service, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission charging the search giant with violating user privacy.

• Criminal hacker 'Iceman' gets 13 years

  A former security researcher turned criminal hacker has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for hacking into financial institutions and stealing credit card account numbers.

• Nokia targeted in US class action suit

  A class action complaint against Nokia alleges the company committed securities fraud when describing its operations in 2008.

• Patent office to review VoIP patent

  The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has agreed to review a controversial patent issued in 2001 that is claimed to cover much of the technology underlying VoIP.