The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed briefs and evidence in a motion for a preliminary injunction against AT&T for the company’s alleged cooperation with the National Security Agency in “dragnet” surveillance. DoJ initially opposed EFF’s filing of evidence in the class-action suit, though the agency wasn’t a party in the case, but consented when EFF offered to file them under seal to prevent public access. “More than just threatening individuals’ privacy, AT&T’s apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans’ Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself,” EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston said. Evidence submitted to the U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, under tentative seal includes internal AT&T documents and portions of supporting declarations from a retired AT&T telecom technician and former FCC Internet technical advisor. AT&T had 5 days to justify why the information should remain private. DoJ is still mulling whether to participate in the case, EFF said.

Bilingual Hispanics, the fastest growing segment of Internet users, will be targeted in the launch of Quepasa, an online social network. The network encourages bilingual users to chat, make new friends, share photos and send messages. During a preliminary test, Quepasa registered 100,000 new users for its social network.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the final results of its antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of certain small diameter carbon and alloy seamless standard, line, and pressure pipe from Romania for the period of August 1, 2004 through July 31, 2005.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed briefs and evidence in a motion for a preliminary injunction against AT&T for the company’s alleged cooperation with the National Security Agency in “dragnet” surveillance. DoJ initially opposed EFF’s filing of evidence in the class-action suit, though the agency wasn’t a party in the case, but consented when EFF offered to file them under seal to prevent public access. “More than just threatening individuals’ privacy, AT&T’s apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans’ Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself,” EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston said. Evidence submitted to the U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco, under tentative seal includes internal AT&T documents and portions of supporting declarations from a retired AT&T telecom technician and former FCC Internet technical advisor. AT&T had 5 days to justify why the information should remain private. DoJ is still mulling whether to participate in the case, EFF said.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated new shipper reviews for the antidumping (AD) duty order on certain forged stainless steel flanges from India with respect to the following four companies, as both the exporter and producer, and review period:

The International Trade Administration (ITA) is revoking in part the antidumping (AD) duty order on certain corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from Canada and Germany with respect to certain wear plate product.

GENEVA -- ITU-T members established an IPTV focus group Wed., with the aim of coordinating a broad range of standards development work into a global standard, officials said. Standards bodies from the existing TV and video markets are creating standards for IPTV, but are focusing on -- and coming from -- their industry perspectives, officials said. What hasn’t been identified is a coordinated framework that says this is how IPTV works, this is the boundary of IPTV and these are the ways IPTV can be coordinated and managed as a service, they said.

Fax “store and forward” technologies are the subject of a patent infringement suit by IP development and licensing firm Catch Curve against French firm Esker in U.S. Dist. Court, Atlanta. The plaintiff said Esker violated Catch Curve’s AudioFax patents, which cover fax-to-e-mail, fax broadcasting, fax-on-demand and “real time” fax over the Internet. Catch Curve wants monetary damages for past infringement and preliminary and permanent injunctions. Esker, which has a U.S. subsidiary, sued Catch Curve days before in U.S. Dist. Court, Madison, Wis., after licensing talks broke down; Catch Curve portrayed its suit as a defensive measure. More than 1/3 of Esker fiscal year 2004 sales involve products and services related to the AudioFax patents, and more than half of Esker’s sales were in the U.S., Catch Curve said. Its patents have been licensed to companies such as AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Cisco, NEC, Send2Fax and Siemens, it said.

Network-based 3D imaging software firm Skyline praised a court decision to expedite discovery and a trial schedule in the firm’s patent infringement case concerning Google Earth. The U.S. Dist. Court, Boston hasn’t ruled on Skyline’s request for a preliminary injunction, but Skyline said the move was a “strong indication that the court views the claims of patent infringement as having real substance.” Skyline filed the suit in 2004 against Keyhole, since acquired by Google to create the satellite mapping application.

Blockbuster declined comment Wed. on a Netflix suit accusing its rival of violating basic patents on the online ordering and delivery of DVDs. A Blockbuster spokesman said his company hasn’t had an opportunity to review the suit, which Netflix filed Tues. in U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco.