A suspected distributed denial of service attack against DynDNS early Friday resulted in outages or latency for many websites that use the service. The attacks primarily affected users on the East Coast. Dyn confirmed that a DDoS attack against its servers began at 7:10 a.m. EDT, with service restored by 9:20 a.m. Dyn said it subsequently began “monitoring and mitigating” a new DDoS attack by mid-day. Amazon Web Services said it began experiencing outages and latency at 7:31 a.m. EDT, but operations returned to normal by 9:10 a.m. GitHub was “one of the sites affected” by the DDoS attack, a spokeswoman said. Airbnb, Etsy, Netflix, Reddit, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tumblr and Twitter were among the other sites experiencing outages or connectivity issues. Sony said some of its PlayStation services were still “experiencing issues” at our deadline. Dyn didn't confirm the size or origin of the DDoS attacks. The Department of Homeland Security is “investigating all potential causes” of the attacks, a spokeswoman said.
Jimm Phillips
Jimm Phillips, Associate Editor, covers telecommunications policymaking in Congress for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications News in 2012 after stints at the Washington Post and the American Independent News Network. Phillips is a Maryland native who graduated from American University. You can follow him on Twitter: @JLPhillipsDC
Implementation of the Internet Assigned Number Authority transition this month (see 1609300065 and 1610030042) is likely to cause a shift in the domain name sector's priorities in lobbying and interacting with the U.S. government, industry executives and stakeholders said in interviews. That shift could result in some downsizing in the industry's lobbying, but executives from ICANN and major domain name registrars indicated they don't view that as a reduction in the industry's interest in maintaining a relationship with the federal government. The IANA transition resulted in the spinoff of NTIA's direct oversight role over ICANN's administration of the IANA functions.
The New York Court of Appeals split between voicing support and expressing skepticism Tuesday for Flo & Eddie’s claim that New York common law allows a performance royalty right for sound recordings made before 1972. Flo & Eddie, owners of The Turtles' “Happy Together” and the rest of the band's music, were arguing in favor of a pre-1972 performance right as part of their lawsuit against SiriusXM seeking compensation for performances of the Turtles' pre-1972 recordings. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals paused its review in April of SiriusXM's appeal of a 2015 U.S. District Court ruling in New York in the Flo & Eddie suit there that found state common law allowed for a pre-1972 performance right. The New York Court of Appeals agreed in May to hear the case (see 1604130063 and 1605030055). Only six members of the state court heard oral argument in the Flo & Eddie case. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore recused herself.
The House Judiciary Committee is poised to continue its years-long work on copyright and patent litigation revamp legislation next Congress, and patent bills appear likely to get earlier action, industry lobbyists said in interviews. That perception is bolstered by the lack of clear House Judiciary priorities for possible copyright legislation before the November election and the likelihood the committee can easily reintroduce patent bills that stalled in the 113th and 114th Congresses. House Judiciary still anticipates “releasing some outlines for potential [copyright] reforms before the end of this Congress,” an aide said.
IPv6 transition stakeholders said rapidly dwindling availability of IPv4 addresses is the top motivation for switching to IPv6 addresses. They also told NTIA in comments filed through Monday that uncertainty about benefits of upgrading and its costs are major impediments to adoption. In August, NTIA requested comment on factors influencing a move to IPv6 (see 1608180029). U.S. entities have made considerable progress in moving to longer IP addresses (see 1608310069).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology plans to release Version “1.1” of its Cybersecurity Framework this winter, said Framework Program Manager Matthew Barrett during an NTCA conference Monday. NIST has been considering how to modify the existing 2014 framework in response to comments earlier this year from stakeholders who encouraged the agency not to pursue a major revamp of the document (see 1602240065). Others encouraged NIST during the event to first test drive any changes to the framework and ensure any changes are cost-effective for stakeholders.
Congress will need to be mindful of the U.S.'s IP-related treaty and trade obligations as it considers copyright modernization legislation, government officials and stakeholders said Friday during a Columbia Law School Kernochan Center for Law, Media & the Arts event. House and Senate Judiciary committees are expected to extend their existing Copyright Act review into the next Congress by moving forward with work on potential legislation (see 1607150022). House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is expected to release a white paper outlining the committee's copyright legislative priorities (see 1605110059).
The FTC study of business practices of patent assertion entities drew mixed reviews Thursday during a Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law Searle Center on Law, Regulation and Economic Growth event. Last week's report proposed several changes to mitigate what the FTC called “nuisance infringement litigation” by PAEs. The recommendations are largely to balance the rights of defendants during the early stages of patent lawsuits by the entities, the FTC said (see 1610060045).
Several Supreme Court justices appeared Tuesday to be leaning toward either vacating or modifying the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's May ruling in Samsung v. Apple, lawyers told us. It's unclear whether justices coalesced around a set of instructions to inform how jurors in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, should determine damages in the long-running patent infringement battle, lawyers said in interviews.
The Supreme Court is to hear oral argument Tuesday in Samsung’s appeal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's May ruling that whittled down the amount of damages it's required to pay Apple in a patent infringement lawsuit Samsung lost in 2012.