You didn't pay your bill. We need our computer back. And here's a picture of you typing away on it, the computer rental company told a client as it tried to repossess the machine.

Those allegations appear in a federal lawsuit alleging that the firm, Atlanta-based Aaron's Inc., loaded computers with spyware to track renters' keystrokes, make screenshots and even take webcam images of them using the devices at home. The suit filed by a Wyoming couple Tuesday raises anew questions of how invasive custodians of technology should be in protecting their equipment.

Computer privacy experts said Aaron's, a major furniture rental chain, has the right to equip its computers with software it can use to shut off the devices remotely if customers stop paying their bills, but they must be told if they're being monitored.

"If I'm renting a computer ... then I have a right to know what the limitations are and I have a right to know if they're going to be collecting data from my computer," said Annie Anton, a professor and computer privacy expert with North Carolina State University.

But the couple who sued Aaron's said they had no clue the computer they rented last year was equipped with a device that could spy on them. Brian Byrd, 26, and his wife, Crystal, 24, said they didn't even realize that was possible until a store manager in Casper came to their home Dec. 22.

Two of the six teenagers charged with bullying a Massachusetts high school freshman so relentlessly that she committed suicide have been sentenced to a year of probation.

Sean Mulveyhill pleaded guilty to criminal harassment Wednesday in Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court.

Kayla Narey admitted to sufficient facts to the same charge, acknowledging the state could win conviction at trial.

Both 18-year-olds were ordered to do 100 hours of community service to help at-risk children, complete their high school education and were barred from profiting from their involvement in the Phoebe Prince case.

Prince, who moved to South Hadley from Ireland, hanged herself in January 2010 in her family's apartment about 100 miles west of Boston. Prosecutors say the 15-year-old had been relentlessly bullied at school.

A Massachusetts man known for his infomercials touting the purported health benefits of coral calcium and Supreme Greens has pleaded guilty to tax and consumer fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors say Donald Barrett of Plymouth pleaded guilty on Monday to failing to report $573,000 in income from one of the products he sold on television and for marketing a product touted as preventing cancer and arthritis without approval of the Food and Drug Administration.

The 36-year-old Barrett faces up to three years in prison at sentencing scheduled for July 27. The Salem News reports that he is only expected to receive a year under terms of a plea agreement.

Barrett and his lawyer declined to comment after court.

A man about to start a second trial for the 2005 samurai sword slaying of his sleeping stepfather, whom he had accused of sexually molesting him, pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter.

Zachary Gibian, 24, will be sentenced later this month to 25 years in prison, the Suffolk County district attorney's office said.

Gibian had been convicted of nearly beheading Scott Nager, a retired New York Police Department officer, as he slept on a couch at home in Hauppauge, on Long Island, but the state's highest court sided with an appeals court and ordered a new trial. It faulted the trial judge for not allowing testimony about statements made by Gibian's mother.

Gibian, who gave written and videotaped confessions to police just hours after the February 2005 killing, changed his story on the witness stand. He insisted his mother inflicted the fatal blows on Nager, who had an extensive war memorabilia collection, after she discovered her husband sexually abusing him. Prosecutors said there was no evidence of any sexual abuse in the home.

The mother, Laura Nager, maintained her innocence throughout the trial and wasn't charged.

Gibian claimed that numerous times, beginning when he was about 15, Nager would get drunk and force him to perform a sex act on him — sometimes with a pistol against the boy's head. He testified that his mother learned of the abuse the night before the killing, when she walked in on her husband and son in the teen's bedroom.

A key prosecution witness at the monthlong trial was Gibian's friend Troy "T.J." Harrelson, the son of former New York Mets star and manager Bud Harrelson. The younger Harrelson, who recalled few specific details because of his admitted use of marijuana, cocaine and painkillers, said he went to Gibian's home after his friend called him for a ride on the morning of the killing.

Harrelson said when Gibian got in his car, he admitted he had just killed his stepfather and then asked Harrelson to help him dispose of the murder weapon and other items in a trash bin behind a shopping mall.

A California appeals court rejected music producer Phil Spector's bid to overturn his murder conviction on Monday, saying it was permissible for prosecutors to call a parade of women who said Spector had threatened them with guns in the past.

A three-member panel of the state 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed Spector's conviction in a strongly worded, 81-page decision rejecting a number of claims made by defense attorney Dennis Riordan.

The judges also dismissed the contention that actress Lana Clarkson was despondent and might have killed herself with a gun at Spector's home. In making that ruling, the panel pointed to evidence from her mother that suggested Clarkson was hopeful about the future.

The panel also concluded the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence to prove "Clarkson did not die by her own hand."

In addition, the judges found there was neither judicial nor prosecutorial misconduct at the trial, and that the testimony of five women who claimed Spector threatened them with guns was properly admitted, even though some of the incidents dated back 30 years.

Spector was never charged in those instances. Still, the judges said the testimony showed a pattern of gun-related behavior.