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Jan 29 2012

 If you use Facebook, the world’s top social networking site, you may have “liked” an Internet scheme without even knowing it – and unwittingly helped spread the scam to your Facebook friends.  Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna and Facebook have announced the latest step in an ongoing fight against spammers and scammers: a lawsuit against the co-owners of Adscend Media, LLC, an ad network that is alleged to develop and encourage others to spread spam through misleading and deceptive tactics, including the one known as “clickjacking.”

“We don’t ‘like’ schemes that illegally trick Facebook users into giving up personal information or paying for unwanted subscription services through spam,” McKenna said during a news conference at Facebook’s Seattle Office. “We applaud Facebook for devoting significant technical and legal resources to finding and stopping scams as soon as possible – and often before they even start. We’re proud to join forces in order to protect Washington consumers.”  [24x7]

RealNetworks Sells Patents to Intel in $120M Deal; Stock Soars

Seattle’s RealNetworks has traded its intellectual property to  help shore up its balance sheet. The Seattle company has entered a $120 million deal with Intel to sell off a number of patents and patent applications, including its video codec software.

In the exchange RealNetworks will give up about 190 patents and 170 patent applications as well as its video codec software. RealNetworks’ stock was up 32 percent Thursday morning, trading around $9.74 per share.

The sale gives RealNetworks a significant amount of new capital to invest in new products and businesses. The company said it does not expect the deal to have any material impact on its businesses. RealNetworks said it is keeping certain rights to continue to use the patents in current and future products.

“Selling these patents to Intel unlocks some of the substantial and unrealized value of RealNetworks assets,” said Thomas Nielsen, RealNetworks president and CEO. “It represents an extraordinary opportunity for us to generate additional capital to boost investments in new businesses and markets while still protecting our existing business.”

The move signals a further transition for RealNetworks, one of the pioneers of digital information such as music and movies on the internet. But the company has struggled as it has made the transition from creating content to focusing on technologies for distributing and managing media among different types of devices. The deal gives Intel a cache of patents during a time when tech companies are increasingly bolstering their patent holdings to guard against patent-infringement lawsuits or to seek legal action against tech rivals.  [24x7]

Mozy Offers a Cozy Pantry for Family File Storage

Where can your family put away their files after they “clear the table?”  iCloud? Box.net?  Seattle-based Mozy, a unit of storage giant EMC,  is recommending a different file-storage alternative — its own — code-named Stash.

Stash is a file synchronization feature that provides Mozy users a simple way to keep their most active data up to date across each of the computers they regularly use and complements the Mozy online backup feature. As soon as users place a file in  their local Stash folder it quickly becomes available online. No need to wait for a backup or hit an upload button.

Stash works together with Mozy online backup to make all your files available to you from anywhere—even those you don’t keep in your Stash. So when you forget to put a file in your Stash, Mozy online backup ensures that you can still access it through the Mozy web site or the Mozy app for Android, iPhone, and iPad devices.

“Mozy has always protected our customers’ data against catastrophic loss,” said Russ Stockdale, general manager of Mozy. “With Stash, Mozy customers will see a huge increase in the value they get from protecting their data with Mozy. Stash makes it easy to move from your computer at the office to your computer at home to your smartphone or tablet without having to email files to yourself, or mess around with USB drives.”

The new Stash service is available to Mozy Home customers using the 2 GB free, 50 GB or 125 GB plan. [24x7]