After bogging down in the recession, internet advertising is regaining the momentum that has made it the decade's most disruptive marketing machine. The signs of an online revival are emerging even while advertising in print and broadcasts remains in a slump that has triggered mass layoffs, pay cuts and other upheaval. Internet advertising was just about the only bright spot in the third-quarter reports of two major U.S. newspaper publishers, Gannett Co. and McClatchy Co. Meanwhile, the companies

Tiny Eolas Technologies is taking tech giants and major customers to court claiming they infringed its patents for working with online interactive content. Eolas has filed suit against Adobe Systems, Apple, Google, Sun Microsystems, YouTube, Blockbuster, JP Morgan Chase, JC Penny and Playboy Enterprises, among others. The company, which has chosen the litigant-friendly US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to fight the case, claimed the companies infringed on two of its patents. More

U.S. authorities are using the threat of big fines to force bloggers to disclose their relationships with the companies they write about, but jurisidictional confusion means no similar mechanisms exist or are under consideration in Canada. The Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced new rules that require bloggers in the United States to disclose "material connections" — or "connections that consumers would not expect" — with the subjects they write about. The

Two ongoing scams are tricking Google and other search engines into prominently displaying millions of compromised webpages that attempt to hijack end users' computers or steal their credit card numbers, researchers said. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/mass_compromise_google_results/

The Pirate Bay saga took another twist Tuesday as one of the appellate judges set to hear the appeal of the co-founders’ criminal copyright convictions was removed over concerns of bias. The Swedish judge in question, Fredrik Niemela, owns an unstated number of stock options in the music streaming service, Spotify, which has content deals with members of the Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/piratebaysaga/

Social website Facebook yanked a poll this week about assassinating President Barack Obama after being contacted by the U.S. Secret Service. On Monday, Facebook dropped a question that asked voters whether the U.S. president "should be killed." http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/29/obama-poll-secret-service-facebook.html

Microsoft's free antivirus program, Security Essentials, became available for download from the company's website Tuesday. Microsoft bills the software as providing "high-quality protection" against viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware and other malicious software. It updates and upgrades automatically. Microsoft said its free program is not meant to cut into the business of commercial antivirus programs, by companies such as McAfee and Symantec, but will appeal to people who

A federal judge fundamentally misinterpreted a patent asserted against Microsoft Word, an error that should require a $290m infringement penalty to be overturned, attorneys for the software giant argued Wednesday. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/23/microsoft_i4i_patent_hearing/

Facebook says it will shut down its controversial marketing feature Beacon, an application that broadcasts users' activities, including purchases, on other websites to their Facebook friends. The feature was adopted in November 2007 and immediately drew complaints from Facebook users who said it invaded their privacy. http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/21/tech-internet-facebook-beacon.html

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/nyt-revamps-online-ad-sales-after-malware-scam/