The tensions between device makers like Apple and Google against law enforcement shows no signs of slowing down. As you may recall, the U.S. government is hell-bent on forcing Apple to unlock encrypted iPhone that are involved in criminal cases. Apple contends that the encryption that it provides on iPhones via the...Read more...
AT&T may have failed in its attempt to acquire rival wireless provider T-Mobile for $39 billion back in 2011, but as for its proposed $48.5 billion acquisition of satellite TV service giant DirecTV, federal regulators are set to approve the deal. Doing so would end a more than yearlong review process that began in May of 2014 when the deal Read more...
The market may be filled to the brim with image and video sharing websites, but one of the oldest ones, Photobucket, still proves to be a popular choice. As we're now finding out, though, it's a choice you may want to reconsider if you have an account with the service.
The US Department of Justice yesterday...Read more...
The opposition to the $45 billion Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is growing. Late last week, we reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust division is damn near close to recommending that the deal be nuked. The DOJ’s recommendations could ultimately lead to a lawsuit aimed at stopping the deal in its...Read more...
Comcast has spent the past year extolling the benefits of its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, but many in the tech industry and plenty of customers aren’t so certain that a merger is the right way to go. As we’ve seen time and time again, Comcast’s customer service is often atrocious and Time Warner Cable...Read more...
Hot on the heels of president Obama's insinuation that the government should never have an issue accessing a person's data comes an even scarier prospect -- being the victim of a search warrant just because you take steps to enhance your privacy.
As it happens, that could become the reality, if the FBI gets its...Read more...
Phew, we can all breathe a sigh a relief that the scooping up of our sensitive mobile phone data -- things like text messages, call records, browsing history, pictures, contact, and more -- is completely legal, or so the government says. Doesn't that make you make feel much better about the U.S. Marshal Service's use...Read more...
Four members belonging to an international computer hacking ring have been indicted. The Justice Department released a press release that revealed the members were charged with breaking into the computer networks of tech companies and even the U.S. Army. The estimated value of the theft of intellectual property is...Read more...
Sir Walter Scott warned long about about weaving a tangled web through deception, but apparently the Department of Justice (DoJ) and National Security Agency (NSA) aren't fans of old poetry. If they were, they'd drop the secrecy behind the PRISM program that whistleblower Edward Snowden blew wide open earlier this...Read more...
Panasonic and its subsidiary Sanyo (by way of a 50.2 percent stake in the company) both pleaded guilty in separate price fixing allegations involving automotive parts and battery cells, the United States Department of Justice announced this week. The two firms will pay a total of $56.5 million in criminal fines, while...Read more...
The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking a $1 billion criminal fine against AU Optronics for its alleged involvement in a liquid crystal display (LCD) price fixing scheme that took place from 2001 to 2006. In addition to the hefty company fine, the DoJ also wants two convicted company executives to each serve 10...Read more...
The Internet is still something of a wild frontier, where everything is growing and evolving fast, but the rules are still being written and shootouts between companies are general practice. It’s grown so much that it’s gradually invading just about every other market sector, from phone service to retail and more. The TV industry...Read more...
When the Department of Justice and Microsoft hammered out the terms of their agreement in 2001, one of the strictures was that the software giant would be subject to official DOJ oversight for a period of five years. In 2006, the DoJ opted to extend the term another five years, but the government body won't be doing the same thing again. On...Read more...
Wow, this is odd. According to a new report today from the United States Department of Justice, six very well recognized silicon valley companies are have their hands slapped by a very powerful entity. The DoJ has mandated that six companies stop entering into anti-competitive employee solicitation agreements, which...Read more...
Uncle Sam doesn't like it when you try to pull one over on him, and that's something Hewlett Packard had to go and find out the hard way. After standing accused of offering kickbacks to systems integrator companies in exchange for recommending HP products to U.S. agencies, the OEM has agreed to fork over $55 million to put the whole incident...Read more...
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha you gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when the U.S. Department of Justice slaps you silly for conspiring to fix prices of LCD panels on a global scale? So maybe the actual theme song goes a little differently than that, but we have an answer to the question nonetheless. When the DoJ lobs a legal backhand your way for bending...Read more...
The Department of Justice approved Verizon Wireless’ $28 billion purchase of Alltel, but the deal is subject to a few stipulations. More specifically, Verizon Wireless will be required to divest wireless assets in 100 markets encompassing 22 states. The sale of assets doesn’t mean Verizon Wireless will lose service in the areas affected by...Read more...
The Department of Justice has been hounding Microsoft for years over anti-trust issues of one sort or another, not to mention the major case in the late '90s that had people wondering if MS was going to be broken into several smaller operating units. Apparently that's all changed: "Nearly a decade after the government began its landmark...Read more...