Displaying items by tag: Legal
ISOHunt Closes Down Under Legal Pressure; Faces a $110 Million Fine
The MPAA can score another victory in their ongoing (and lopsided) battle against file sharing on the internet as the popular Torrent search site ISOHunt has announced it is closing down. For the last few years site owner Gary Fung has fought the MPAA over allegations of copyright infringement. The case resembles the one that was thrown at The Pirate Bay several years ago in that ISOHunt did not actually store files on the site. The lawsuit brings many questions to mind about search engines in general and if systems designed to index the internet can be policed.
Kim Dotcom has filled a lawsuit against New Zealand
Kim Dotcom has announced that he filed a lawsuit against New Zealand due to the illegal spying and search of his home which happened in 2012.
Microsoft Accuses Google of Patent Abuse; Pot Meet Kettle
One thing that I find sadly funny is when one company accuses another of patent abuse. It is one of those statements that really spells out just how disingenuous most corporations are. However as a rule, most large corporations have people that are paid to mask the truth at least to come degree. In today’s episode of pot meets kettle we find Microsoft accusing Google of patent abuse after winning a victory against Google in court. Google (through Motorola) was trying to get certain Microsoft products banned from import.
Zynga takes the "litigate over innovate" path; sues the makers of “bang with friends”
Yesterday we talked about how the social network gaming company Zynga was having a rough time of things. Now we are hearing that they could be pulling off a desperation move by suing another company over trademark infringement. The culprit here is the developer behind the adult app Bang with Friends (who has the same name as the app). Now, while we could see Zynga getting a little upset over the title for a few reasons not the least of which is associating this title with their kid friendly games that have the same naming scheme. However to try and claim trademark infringement because of the “with friends” part is a little much.
Apple Found Guilty of Collusion in Price Fixing
As expected US District Judge Denise Cote found that Apple did collude with five publishers to fix eBook prices in 2010. Although it appeared to come as a shock to some it was something that many analysts saw as inevitable. Apple faced a mountain of evidence that showed Apple acting to push the new “agency” model and then establish price guides for new books. These caps on eBook prices (along with the most favored nation clause) are what allowed Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster to move away from the $9.99 that Amazon was setting to $12.99 and $14.99.
Google has to change their privacy policies in the UK
Google at the beginning of 2012 changed their policy regarding the privacy of users of their services. Despite the fact that months earlier they warned users about future changes, users did not have too many choices, they could continue to use the service under the new rules or cancel the services.
Cisco Says Microsoft Should Not Have Been Allowed to Buy Skype
When Microsoft bought Skype it was to deal with a couple of issues. One of the big ones was to remove a competitor in the communications market and the other was to make sure they were not going to get sued for the direction their own communications services were taking. Microsoft had been floundering in the consumer market despite the multiple changes they tried to make to their messenger product. While their enterprise messaging software was complicated and expensive to maintain and to properly integrate with other messaging services. To combat this Microsoft was already looking to make their messaging services much more like Skype than they were.
Troubles in Bitcoin paradise
According to Ars Technica, the U.S. Homeland Security closed a key account for mobile payment associated with Bitcoin Stock Exchange Mt. Gox. This is the account Dwolla owned by Mutum Sigillum (Mt. Gox property) from which resources are paid to the account of Mt. Goxa which is the largest Bitcoin exchange on the Internet. For those who do not know, Dwolla was the easiest way of buying Bitcoin as other services for online payment, such as PayPal, for example, do not give the option to purchase Bitcoin.
Prison sentence for the owners of torrent.to
A Certain Jens R., a 33 years old German citizen, who owns the site torrent.to, normally located on servers in Russia, received three years and 10 months in prison at the court in the German city of Aachen. As owners of The Pirate Bay, in his case, he is charged for illegal distribution of copyrighted content. In addition, Jens is still under investigation for false report of bankruptcy and embezzlement.
CoinLab puts a lawsuit against Mt. Gox because of BitCoin
U.S. startup CoinLab filed a lawsuit against the Japanese Mt. Gox, the largest Internet Exchange of Bitcoin in the world, for allegedly violating mutual agreement. Seeking damages of 75 million real, not virtual dollars for the suffered damage.