Cyberlaw

Even after multiple Nintendo lawsuits, a bevy of Switch emulators survived. The company is now concentrating on GitHub, which is home to many of these open-source programs. DMCA notices sent to the developers accuse the emulators of facilitating copyright infringement.

The gaming platform giant could face fines of up to AUD $49.5 million and further impediments on how it caters to its young Australian user base.

Steam is full of voxel survival games inspired by Minecraft. Even so, Microsoft believes that Allumeria violates copyrights by using all-too-familiar graphics or gameplay. Now delisted, its developer is considering how to respond to the DMCA takedown. Update: DMCA strike removed Feb 11th.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a warning after a cyberattack targeted renewable energy facilities in Poland. The incident shows security weaknesses in internet-connected systems used in energy infrastructure and has prompted global agencies to advise operators to improve their cybersecurity protections.

Discord will soon force all users to complete ID verification or be shut out from age-restricted servers and features. In March, chatters must upload a video showing their faces or other qualified IDs. The company outlined privacy protections following an attempted October 2025 data breach.

A legal dispute could turn into a serious problem for various notable wearable manufacturers, and a sales ban for certain smartwatches might be the consequence. The issue concerns a fairly common feature, namely fall detection.

In an ironic turn of events, a notorious hacking forum was hacked, resulting in a breach compromising roughly 324,000 accounts. Some of these accounts had public IP addresses tied to them, meaning that law enforcement could use this information to catch malicious actors.

Can software save us from deepfakes? We put six detection tools to the test with a 'Nano Banana Pro' image. The results show that current tech is easily outsmarted. Simple edits using standard software were enough to drop detection rates to almost zero.

Apple recently suffered a landmark ruling in the UK. In sum, the ruling requires Apple to repay up to £1.5 billion to around 36 million British customers. Now, the tech giant is appealing the decision.

Following increasing discussion in recent weeks about deepfakes distributed via X and Grok, three US senators have now spoken out. In an open letter, they make their opposition to Elon Musk, X and Grok unmistakably clear.

A UK trade union is seeking the immediate reinstatement and visa protection of 31 fired Rockstar Games developers, alleging “brutal union busting” over their involvement in organizing efforts around GTA 6. Rockstar denies the accusations, insisting the dismissals were solely due to confidential game details being shared on an “insecure” channel, setting up a high‑stakes legal clash over labor rights and corporate secrecy in the games industry.

Anyone who has entrusted their darkest secrets to ChatGPT might want to flinch nervously, because a US court is forcing OpenAI to hand over 20 million user logs to the opposing side in a major copyright dispute.

Epic Games has confirmed that Fortnite will remain blocked on iOS in Japan, accusing Apple of defying the country’s new Mobile Software Competition Act despite formally allowing third-party app stores. CEO Tim Sweeney alleges Apple is preserving its dominance through high “junk fees,” strict reporting requirements, and alarming security prompts, while Apple defends its policies as necessary for user privacy, safety, and platform maintenance.

In 2024, Amazon introduced ads to its paid streaming service Prime Video. The regional court in Munich, Germany, has now ruled the move unlawful, citing a lack of proper user consent.

Commodore International Corporation has filed a major trademark lawsuit against Italy-based Commodore Industries S.r.l., seeking to invalidate its 2017 registrations before the European Intellectual Property Office and Italian courts. The dispute, which CIC frames as essential to protecting the legacy and consumer trust in the original Commodore brand, comes as the company prepares a new licensing program and continues shipping its modern C64 Ultimate systems.

Australia has become the first country to impose a nationwide ban on social media use for under‑16s across ten major platforms, with companies facing multimillion‑dollar fines if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to block underage users. Framed as a historic child‑safety and mental health reform, the move has drawn global scrutiny for its broad reach, selective targeting of platforms, and potential cultural impact on how young people spend their time online and offline.

Chatbots come with built-in safeguards designed to prevent them from producing harmful, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate content. But researchers and hackers have shown that, even with multiple patches, AIs can still be vulnerable to certain inputs that bypass those guardrails. One way to explore the basics is through an online game called Gandalf.

Some designers are landing positions as game developers without producing original artwork. In Japan, one studio now requires candidates to demonstrate their talent in front of recruiters. AI fraud-detection tools frequently fail to distinguish between authentic and machine-generated images.

In a recent update, Netflix removed the ability for some users to cast media from a smartphone to a TV or streaming box. This feature is still available to those with older TVs, but anyone missing the feature will have to use their TV's native Netflix app.

With FiveM servers, gamers have plenty of ways to pass the time until the GTA 6 release date. SevenWands was a mystical GTA 5 RP world with a clear connection to Harry Potter games. After Rockstar imposed a ban, its creator claims none of his work infringes on copyrights.

Users of generative AI apps like Stable Diffusion may not fear legal prosecution. Nonetheless, in Japan, authorities believe a man instructed the software to replicate a protected image. Most accusations of copyright infringement target the authors of AI tools, rather than end users.

TSMC is reportedly collecting evidence against a former Senior Vice President to see if company secrets related to the TSMC A14 and A16 2 nm process nodes were stolen. The employess under alleged investigation is Wei-Jen Lo and he is currently working for Intel.

Google must pay €465 million in damages to Idealo, according to a ruling of the Berlin Regional Court. Testberichte.de (Producto GmbH) will also receive €107 million. The ruling is more or less a consequence of the 2017 EU ruling. Google has announced its intention to appeal.

The EU’s "Chat Control" plan is now back in motion: a Danish compromise drops explicit scanning mandates but adds "risk‑mitigation" duties critics say could enable de facto scanning, which moves the file to ambassadors as Parliament’s pro‑encryption stance still looms.

Internal documents from tech giant Meta reportedly reveal the alarming extent of fraud and illegal content on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. According to a Reuters investigation, the company planned to generate approximately ten percent of its total annual revenue (estimated at $16 billion) in 2024 from advertising scams, illegal online casinos and prohibited products.

In what can be seen as possibly the most damning pieces of criticism from an elected public official, the Texas AG recently laid into Roblox's perceived lack of adequate safety measures on its platform.

UK MPs held a Westminster Hall debate on November 3 in response to an e-petition calling for publishers to be prohibited from permanently disabling games they have already sold, with members urging clearer ownership rights and mandatory disclosure for server-dependent "live service" titles.

The CEO of digital security firm Memento Labs admits that the organization developed the "Dante" malware uncovered in a recent Kaspersky report. Worryingly, Memento Labs indicates that the malware was used by an undisclosed "government client," potentially for spying on private citizens.

When data protection complaints are no longer enough: A US company is collecting billions of photos of people worldwide and, using invasive AI facial scanning technology, is building a comprehensive, illegal biometric database. Access to this database is being sold to wealthy states and companies.

China-based gangs reportedly stole over $1 billion from Americans using advanced smishing scams that exploit SIM farms and mobile wallets. Here is how the cross-border scheme operates and what you can do to protect yourself.

Microsoft has come under scrutiny in Austria after regulators ruled it ‘illegally’ tracked student data through its 365 Education platform. The decision raises fresh questions about data transparency and Big Tech’s compliance with Europe’s GDPR standards.

AT&T will pay out $177 million after two major data breaches exposed the personal data of more than 170 million customers. Affected users can claim up to $7,500, but only if they file before the December 18, 2025, deadline.

Hacking group 'Crimson Collective' now claims to have breached Nintendo, posting internal file lists online. The group also hit Red Hat very recently. Nintendo hasn't acknowledged the attack as of writing.

Intel will no longer be blindly contributing to the open-source software ecosystem, with recent comments from the company indicating that it will be using open-source as an "advantage to Intel." Intel was previously known for contributing substantial development efforts to open-source projects and releasing many of its AI acceleration tools and programs under open-source licences.

Xbox console users are now witnessing the ramifications of the UK Online Safety Act. Gamers participating in the Xbox Insider program may notice prompts to verify their ages. Despite privacy concerns, the checks are mandatory to retain access to multiplayer features.

Valve removed the community-made "Transit" map from Counter-Strike 2’s official matchmaking two days after adding it on October 2, 2025, after players uncovered an embedded racial slur in the map files along with copyrighted imagery from Stray and references to crypto schemes such as MMM and FPIBank.

Germany has decided not to approve the Tesla Cybertruck for road use. The electric pickup truck was found to violate EU safety standards when members of the US Army applied for a permit.

Computer viruses have come a long way from floppy-disk pranks to today’s AI-assisted cybercrime. The 2020s have turned malware into a professional industry, complete with ransomware cartels, AI-driven phishing and even research projects masquerading as real-world threats. As of September 2025, the fight is no longer about who writes the nastiest script; it’s about who trains the smartest algorithm, and the results are both fascinating and frightening.

Apple has confirmed that Digital I.D., a feature in iOS 26 that allows users to store passports, will roll out this year for United States passports only. This should make traveling (at least for citizens of the U.S.) a bit more seamless for iPhone users.

Dying Light: The Beast is facing censorship in Japan. To meet the country’s content guidelines, the developers had to make changes to the global version and tone down the gore.

Cyberattacks through third-party suppliers doubled last year, hitting retailers and healthcare. Marks & Spencer and NHS England are among those affected as regulators push tighter rules.

Google is rolling out an update for its Discover feed that the company claims will make it easier to find and follow creators and publishers you are interested in. It will go beyond just showing articles from sources to more formats that let you easily explore the content they post.

As of September 17, 2025, the House Oversight Committee of the USA has summoned CEOs of Discord, Steam, Twitch, and Reddit to testify on online radicalization following recent violence.

A new form of ransomware, dubbed HybridPetya, is able to bypass UEFI Secure Boot and can install malware on a system's EFI boot partition. This means that HybridPetya can hold a computer hard drive ransom by preventing it from booting into Windows. It appears the malware is currently in the research phase and has not yet launched publicly.

A federal judge has put a landmark $1.5 billion judgment against the AI company Anthropic on hold after raising several concerns. The judgment followed several authors suing Anthropic for downloading pirated copies of published books to train their AI models.

Accessory maker Genki has settled with Nintendo after the Japanese video game company sued them earlier in the year, for showing off an eerily accurate 3D mockup of the Nintendo Switch 2 at CES. Genki will now pay Nintendo undisclosed damages and refrain from using names similar to Nintendo's IP.

Anthropic has agreed to a settlement of $1.5 billion to compensate authors who accused it of using copyrighted works to train its AI models. The authors will get $3,000 per book, with a payout scheduled for approximately 500,000 works. The settlement is a significant milestone in the copyright battle against the AI industry.

The European Union has slapped Google with a €2.95 billion ($3.5 billion) fine for abusing its dominance in ad-tech services and favoring its own services over other competitors. The EU has also ordered Google to stop its anti-competitive practices in 60 days.

A bankruptcy lawyer from Indianapolis, U.S., is suing Meta after having his account suspended five times in the last eight years. The problem? His name is Mark Zuckerberg.

France's data protection authority, CNIL, has fined Google €325 million for violating cookie regulations according to the GDPR, and displaying ads in Gmail without user consent. The fine is a result of several investigations by the authority between 2022 and 2023.