Technology

Open government in the heart of Silicon Valley is starting to mean turn off, tune out, power down.

THE ALLEGATIONS: Since late February, at least three lawsuits seeking class-action status have been filed against Yelp, a site that asks people to review businesses. The cases claim that reviews on Yelp are manipulated, depending on which companies pay to advertise on the site and which don't.

Federal regulators are seeking public comment on a petition by cable, satellite and phone companies for new government rules that would give them more clout in negotiations with TV broadcasters over programming.

Settling a copyright dispute closely watched in the financial news industry, a judge on Thursday ordered a Web site to delay disseminating the stock recommendations of financial services firms long enough so that the firms can alert their clients first.

Lin Xiuying believes her daughter bled to death after being gang-raped two years ago by a group of thugs that had ties to the police in their southern Chinese town.

Could Nintendo's Mario be swapping his world of magic mushrooms and ravenous dinosaurs for the staid confines of the classroom?

Yelp, one of the most popular Web sites that let people post opinions about restaurants, shops and local services, is being sued by several small businesses that claim they've been pressured to advertise on the site in exchange for getting negative reviews squashed.

The pay package last year for EMC Corp. CEO Joe Tucci was 23 percent lower than in 2008, a reflection of lower equity awards and cuts to the data-storage company's executive salaries.

NAME: Jerome B. York

Viacom Inc. and Google Inc.'s YouTube site began airing each other's dirty laundry Thursday, providing a tantalizing peek at the wheeling and dealing that triggered a bitter battle over the copyright laws governing the Internet.

WHAT HAPPENED: Jerome York died Thursday of a brain aneurysm at a Pontiac, Mich., hospital. He was 71.

THE REVELATIONS: YouTube co-founder Steve Chen once warned a fellow co-founder to stop posting pirated videos on their Web site. And Viacom Inc. wanted to buy YouTube before getting beat out by Google Inc.

Palm Inc. reported sales figures Thursday that showed it's having a difficult time getting consumers to pay attention to its phones in a market dominated by iPhones and BlackBerrys. The company's shares plunged in after-hours trading.

Some suburban Philadelphia parents are seeking to halt a potential class-action lawsuit accusing their school district of using cameras in school-issued laptops to spy on students at home.

The suitors for Sex.com have been put off for now.