With the rise of massive multiplayer online games (MMOs for short), players went off in search of gold, slaying monsters or waging war in virtual universes. Of course, their real world sins followed with them and soon you started to hear about players killing players in cold blood (spawn killing), making money through shady means (gold farming) or even throwing away their real-life marriages in favor of a new relationship they made online.

The world of “Second Life” is an MMO where people don’t quest for treasure or slay orcs but instead create an avatar and make items to sell or trade with other players. Now one of those players (who goes by the name Stroker Serpentine) has launched a real lawsuit against another player who he claims is copying and selling a virtual item that Stroker originally made – a …

According to a filing with the USPTO it looks like Apple is looking to extend their touch screen technology beyond the iPhone and use it in a new mouse design.

According to the filing this mouse has a touch sensitive surface that works through a camera inside the mouse viewing an illuminated surface. The changes in illumination due to fingers on the mouse would indicate the “touches”, and pressing harder would signal things like a right or left button press, since this mouse has no buttons.

The touch sensitive mouse would then be able to identify different movements of your hand and fingers on the mouse to indicate different actions of moving or rotating things on the computer. It also could potentially be used as a security and user identification tool by identifying unique fingers, and customizing the user experience and access …

20th Century Fox has served YouTube with a subpoena over entire episodes of “24″ and “The Simpsons” which were uploaded to the site. Fox wants to know who uploaded the video to the video site. YouTube is owned by Google who may have set aside money for the legal defense of YouTube over copyrighted material that makes its way to the site.

Fox is upset because the “24″ episodes were uploaded to YouTube and another site, LiveDigital before their premier on Fox. Fox is claiming damages and according to Jane Sunderland, a Fox VP, during testimony, “the uploaded material could cause Fox irreparable harm”. It appears that Fox may be trying to find out who leaked the video and getting the information from YouTube …

Washington Research Firm, located in Seattle, Washington, is claiming that one of its scientists was awarded a patent for some of the technology used in Bluetooth back in 1999. The firm is claiming damages for infringement on the use of “simplified high frequency broadband tuner and tuning method.”

The firm is suing Nokia, Samsung and Panasonic claiming that these cell phone makers “have manufactured, used, imported into the United States, sold and offered for sale devices which, or the use of which, infringes at least the ’963′ patent.” This essential means the manufacturers are using Bluetooth technology in their phones without paying royalties.

It appears the suit is aimed at products manufactured by CSR, a British chip manufacturer. Broadcom, CSR’s US based competitor has a license for the patented technology.

Many suits have been filed over Bluetooth …

A new cold war of sorts is brewing in the online music industry. The Russian music store AllofMP3.com is planning to continue business as usual even as US lawsuits are pending.

The US music industry is claiming that AllofMP3.com is operating illegally. AllofMP3 claims that it is following all Russian laws.

AllofMP3 offers MP3 downloads that are free of DRM (Digital Rights Management) schemes that most US music download sites use. The company also charges much lower rates sometimes by as much as half or lower. For instance, we found Gwen Stefani’s “Wind It Up” for 42 cents on AllofMP3 versus 99 cents on iTunes (www.applie.com/itunes).

In a recent post on its blog AllofMP3 claimed that the court case against AllofMP3 was “imprudent.”

They continued:

“AllofMP3 understands that several US record label

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