Technology

A California federal court has ordered documents in a legal battle over smart phones and tablets unsealed -- a departure from the marked increase in the number of civil cases completely or partially sealed in courts nationwide.

News organizations are asking a state judge to unseal the search warrant affidavit that led to police searching an editor's phone for evidence about a missing iPhone prototype, The Los Angeles Times and Wired reported.

A federal judge last week ordered Google to hand over a roster of user data on videos viewed on YouTube, in an effort to help Viacom shore up its lawsuit against the search-engine giant.

The Fifth Circuit ruled on May 16 that neither MySpace nor its parent company, News Corporation, could be responsible for the sexual assault of an underage user who misrepresented her age to gain access to the Web site.

Open government laws are often the focus of efforts when journalists and journalism organizations want to increase the openness of governments, but an article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian reminds us that simple technological fixes can often be an equally effective first step.