Cyberlaw

The FCC has extended a waiver allowing software and firmware updates for existing foreign-made routers and drones, including TP-Link routers and DJI drones, until January 1, 2029. The decision, framed as a public safety measure, preserves security patches and bug fixes for millions of devices while broader national security restrictions and legal challenges continue.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says he is “deeply disappointed” by BioShock 4’s prolonged delay, citing years lost to creative directions that failed to work. The troubled Cloud Chamber project has since undergone an internal review, layoffs, and leadership changes as 2K attempts to refocus the long-awaited sequel.

Accused of monopolistic practices, Sony has agreed to pay $7.8 million in damages to consumers. The PlayStation Store is the only marketplace that sells digital PS4 and PS5 games. Buyers eligible for the payout must have bought a retail voucher for a qualifying title between 2019 and 2023.

The EU’s common charger directive has officially expanded to include laptops as of April 28 2026. Following the expiration of a 16-month transition period, all new laptops sold in the European Union with a power rating of 100W or less must now support USB-C charging. This regulation aims to reduce environmental impact by cutting 11,000 tonnes of e-waste annually and saving consumers millions of euros.

The largest home security company in the United States, ADT, confirmed it suffered a data breach on April 20. This breach involved the compromise of customers' personally identifying information. A hacker group known as ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility and issued a ransom threat.

Square Enix says it has reached a court-backed settlement with a Final Fantasy XIV content creator accused of harassing staff, securing an apology, financial compensation, and a ban on similar conduct after obtaining the uploader’s identification. The move follows a recent case against the blog Netoge Sokuho and coincides with another FF14 news aggregator, Umadori Sokuho, voluntarily shutting down and issuing an apology amid the company’s broader anti-harassment push.

Build A Rocket Boy employees, represented by the IWGB Game Workers Union, have unionized to pursue legal action alleging the studio installed Teramind surveillance software, including keylogging, screen recording, and microphone monitoring, without consent, potentially capturing activity in workers’ homes. Although the software was reportedly removed in March after a collective grievance, the union says management has not disclosed what data was collected, where it was stored, or why it was deployed, and has also filed a separate claim over last summer’s redundancy process that cut 300 jobs.

The US International Trade Commission declined to review a ruling that Apple’s redesigned blood-oxygen feature in the Apple Watch does not infringe Masimo’s patents, effectively ending the case and averting a US ban. The decision caps a six-year dispute that previously led to an import exclusion order and prompted Apple to rework the pulse-oximetry system to keep the feature available.

Amid an ongoing lawsuit between Unknown Worlds and Krafton, Subnautica 2’s store pages on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Xbox now list Unknown Worlds as both developer and publisher, with SteamDB showing the change was made on April 7, 2026. Neither company has commented, leaving it unclear whether this reflects an official publishing shift or a strategic move to distance the sequel from Krafton as Early Access reportedly approaches in May.

NZXT and its billing partner Fragile Inc. have agreed to a $3.45 million preliminary settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging the NZXT Flex “Rent-a-PC” program misled nearly 20,000 customers with deceptive rent-to-own claims, component bait-and-switching, and aggressive collections that prompted RICO allegations. If approved in September 2026, the deal would cancel qualifying subscriptions, forgive about $923k in debt, provide $1.21 million toward transferring PC ownership to eligible long-term payers, and offer $450–$500 in cash payments to certain former subscribers.

France's government is shifting from using Windows to Linux. The change comes as part of an effort to abandon non-European digital services and reduce technological reliance on outside countries, specifically the United States.

Three YouTube channels, including the popular h3h3 Productions, filed suit against Apple for using content to train the Cupertino company's AI models. The lawsuit alleges that Apple unlawfully skirted around YouTube's copyright protection systems to "harvest content creators' protected and copyrighted videos for commercial use."

Major tech corporations are calling for illegal content to be automatically detected in private chats. However, the European Parliament has declined to extend the e-Privacy Directive exemption that permitted the identification of abusive material in private messages.

Glenn Israel, a former art director at Halo Studios, has published a detailed account of alleged harassment, HR failures, and project mismanagement during his final years at the company. These claims come a few months after his departure in late 2025.

Samsung's next Fan Edition smartphone appears to be on the way. The Galaxy S26 FE is expected to debut later in the year and has now surfaced on Geekbench with worse performance numbers than other Galaxy S26 series phones, thanks to its last-gen chipset.

The European Union is putting an end to cheap, duty-free parcels from China by introducing new fees that will greatly impact platforms such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress. Recent media reports have missed a crucial detail of the new EU customs reform, which is set to become a major cost trap for online shoppers starting July 1, 2026.

(Update: official statement from Insta360) The rivalry between DJI and Insta360 has escalated into the courtroom, with the leading drone manufacturer filing a lawsuit in China against its competitor for alleged patent theft. The case involves employees who switched companies, plagiarised technologies, and a bitter fight for market share. This article outlines the key facts surrounding the lawsuit.

The FBI is seeking the public’s help to limit the number of Steam games with hidden malware. Infected titles downloaded from the marketplace stole money and confidential information. Valve is assisting the FBI with the investigation, but some gamers blame the company for lax moderation.

Valve has issued a rare public response to New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit targeting loot boxes in Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2, arguing the mechanics are not illegal gambling under New York law. The company says the items are cosmetic, optional, and comparable to physical trading packs, while noting its efforts to curb third-party gambling and warning that the lawsuit’s push to make items non-transferable would harm consumers.

Valve is facing two major lawsuits: one from New York Attorney General Letitia James and a federal class action led by Hagens Berman, alleging that loot boxes in titles like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2 amount to unlawful gambling engineered to exploit players, including minors.

A notorious GTA 6 hacker has returned, hinting that the game’s source code may yet spread. Despite being in prison, Arion Kurtaj commented on materials stolen from Rockstar Games in 2022. A major leak could threaten the GTA 6 release date with its third delay.

NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has authorized Apple mobile devices for use with classified information within the organization, according to Apple. This makes the iPhone and the iPad the first (and currently only) consumer devices to meet NATO's software security standards.

Stop Killing Games founder Ross Scott says the campaign to prevent publishers from making purchased games unplayable is gaining momentum, after the EU Citizens’ Initiative “Stop Destroying Videogames” cleared 1.3 million valid signatures and is now headed for a European Commission response by 27 July.

Valve may be in legal hot water, with New York filing a lawsuit against the gaming giant. The state’s Attorney General contends that loot boxes in Steam games like Counter-Strike 2 legitimize gambling. Players, desperate to acquire rare skins and other cosmetics, spend money irresponsibly.

A bill proposed by Colorado lawmakers aims to integrate age checks into operating systems, which will then be shared with apps. Understandably, folks online are not thrilled about it, and have pointed out several interesting loopholes.

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.