Items tagged with laws
A statement made by the New Jersey Appeals Court this week has a number of people in an uproar, and after learning the details, it's not hard to understand why. To be fair to the story, it's best to understand where the ruling stems from. In 2009, a girl texted a friend who happened to be driving his truck at the time. This driver went on to drive into a couple on a motorcycle, resulting in both losing parts of their legs. In the end, the girl who texted the driver of a vehicle was ruled not liable for the accident (likely the result of no deaths being involved), but the Appeals Court has stated that things won't be the same with all cases. What's being said, in effect, is that if you text someone...
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Texting and driving doesn't mix very well and you shouldn't tryi to do the two simultaneously, even if your state hasn't made it illegal yet. But texting and walking? Turns out that combination can be dangerous too, and if you get caught sending or reading a text message while taking a stroll in New Jersey, you could be hit with a fine. According to ABCNews, New Jersey police are to begin writing $85 jaywalking tickets to anyone caught walking and texting at the same time. The reason is because "It's a big distraction," and like Mr. Magoo, "Pedestrians aren't watching where they are going and they are not aware," Fort Lee chief of police, Thomas Ripoli, tells ABCNews. Image Source: Flickr (Ed...
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In an effort to catch criminals and kidnappers, Mexico plans to start a national register of all mobile phone users. Under a new law published today, mobile phone companies will have a year to build up a database of their customers, complete with fingerprints. The law is due to be in force in April. Sadly, hundreds of people are kidnapped in Mexico each year. As the army cracks down on drug gangs, these gangs are increasingly using kidnappings as a source of income, causing the number of kidnappings to increase. The idea behind the law is to match calls and messages with the owner of a phone. According to lawmakers who pushed the bill through Congress last year, there are about 700 criminal bands...
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Spore is a critically-acclaimed game, but (at least by users) its DRM has been universally panned. Many of those who know anything about the SecuROM copy protection used in the game don't want it near their computers, unless they absolutely have to. And while Electronic Arts (EA) has "loosened things up" slightly, the DRM has spawned thousands of negative reviews at Amazon.com and protest creatures. And now, it has birthed a class action lawsuit (.PDF). The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 22nd by Melissa Thomas, represented by Alan Himmelfarb and Scott Kamber with KamberEdelson LLC. The lawsuit makes a number of statements, including: What purchasers are not told is that, included in the purchase,...
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NVIDIA has been hit with a securities fraud class action lawsuit over the defective GPUs which it admitted to in July. The complaint was filed by New York-based law firm Shalov Stone Bonner & Rocco. It alleges that NVIDIA knew about the flawed GPUs as early as November 8th, 2007 though no public announcement was made until July 2, 2008. After the announcement, NVIDIA stock dropped 30%. Since then manufacturers have issued BIOS updates to "fix" the issue, but all these have done is increase use of the fan to prevent the GPUs from overheating. The class action lawsuit is detailed on Shalov Stone Bonner & Rocco's website. Paragraph 23 of the complaint (.PDF) says: According to multiple public...
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Apple is certainly litigious over the use of the word "pod," and on Wednesday it received a taste of its own medicine, as it was sued over its "Mighty Mouse." No, it's not for the reason you might think, as its already licensed the name "Mighty Mouse" from CBS.Apple is facing a new lawsuit over its Mighty Mouse peripheral, reports say. The case was filed in Greenbelt, Maryland by a company called Man & Machine, which is accusing Apple of violating a trademark associated with its own Mighty Mouse device, an optical mouse designed to be waterproof and chemical-resistant for use in environments such as labs and hospitals. Crucially, M&M began selling its product in 2004, over a year...
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People and/or companies filing suit against Apple ought to get a volume discount these days.The latest lawsuit, filed by Stacie Somers in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Apple uses unfair business practices. Unfair could mean a lot of different things, but in this particular suit it refers to the iPod's inability to play Windows Media Audio files.“Further, Apple sells songs on the iTunes store with its own copy-protection technology, FairPlay, which is incompatible with music players other than the iPod.The suit contends iPod-owning consumers can only buy music from iTunes, an unlawful tie-in that violates U.S. antitrust laws. Apple could license...
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It is no secret that in the printer market, the money is all in the consumables. Paper, ink, and the like are where the money is made, not printers themselves. As such, a Boston man has filed a lawsuit against Staples and HP on collusion and anti-trust grounds.A Boston man has filed a class-action lawsuit accusing hardware maker HP and office supply retailer Staples of colluding to inflate the price of printer ink cartridges in violation of federal antitrust law. According to the suit, HP allegedly paid Staples $100 million to refrain from selling inexpensive third-party ink cartridges, although the suit doesn't make it clear how plaintiff Ranjit Bedi arrived at that figure.For most...
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You can nearly set your watch by the weekly Apple lawsuits, and future generations may count them to establish a sense of time between historic tech events in the same that way we count tree-rings to determine when natural disasters took place.This week's lawsuit was filed on behalf of Klausner Technologies and asserts that the Visual Voicemail technology, a service from co-defendant AT&T that works with the iPhone, infringes on two of their patents. This isn't the first time that we've reported claims of patent violations leveled at Apple's iPhone, but the damages being sought are worth mentioning as is the fact that Klausner has won similar law suits against other huge industry names...
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Apple and Burst.com have settled their patent dispute for $10 million USD after two years of litigation. The initial complaint was over four separate patents that covered transmission of compressed audio and video files that were used in iLife, iTunes, QuickTime and of course, the iPod. Given the digital media nature of the listed products, and the installed base (especially for the iPod) it seems like $10 million USD might be a bargain price.“Under the agreement, Apple will pay Burst.com US$10 million and get access to Burst.com’s patent portfolio, with some exceptions, Burst.com said in a press release. Apple won’t have access to four of Burst.com’s current and pending patents,...
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Yahoo has been embroiled in a lawsuit over information it gave the Chinese government regarding several Chinese dissedents. Last week it took a huge amount of criticism at a Congressional hearing. Today it settled that case.No details have been given of the settlement but Yahoo will be covering legal costs.The case alleged that Yahoo had provided information to the Chinese government that had then been used to prosecute the dissidents.Yahoo said it had to comply with Chinese laws to operate in the country.A statement released by the World Organization for Human Rights USA, which brought the case, said Yahoo had decided to settle the case following criticism at a US Congressional hearing...
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The first RIAA court case against an accused "music downloader" begins today. Jammie Thomas will become the first of 26,000 people who have been sued by the RIAA to have their case reach trial. The rest of those sued have settled out of court.The Brainerd, Minn., resident is accused of illegally sharing 1,702 songs for free on a file-sharing network. Her trial offers the first chance for both sides in the debate over online music sharing to show a jury its version of the facts. Thomas is accused of violating the song owners' copyrights. Her lawyer says the record companies haven't even proved she shared the songs.Thomas was initially offered a $3,000 settlement. Now she would...
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This week the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) released a report which investigated DRM used in 16 different products and services. The conclusion was that many DRM technologies fail to comply with basic requirements of Canadian privacy law.The study, published by the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), indicated that DRM is being used to collect, use and disclose consumers’ personal information for secondary purposes, without giving the user adequate notice or the opportunity to opt-out of collection. The report investigated DRM systems used in 16 different digital products and services including Apple’s...
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Ho-hum, it’s been nearly two weeks since the last Apple iPhone battery lawsuit. How time flies when lawyers are preparing briefs. Here we go with the third iPhone battery lawsuit. Interestingly, one of the attorneys representing the latest plaintiffs is Oakland-based lawyer H. Tim Hoffman, who also represents Sydney Leung, who filed the second lawsuit against Apple and AT&T nearly two weeks ago. On Wednesday, attorneys for plaintiffs Zoltan Stiener and Ynez Stiener filed a class action complaint against Apple and AT&T in federal court in Oakland, Calif.The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, fraud, and violations of California law. It charges the two companies with...
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Apple and AT&T have been sued for a second time over the controversial battery replacement plan for the iPhone. You may recall that last month Jose Trujillo of Melrose Park, Ill. sued the companies for $75,000 in damages over the battery. Monday a second lawsuit was filed, this time in California, alleging that Apple and AT&T deliberately withheld information pertaining to battery replacement until after the device launched. "The issue is whether or not Apple properly disclosed the problems with battery life," Max Folkenflik, a managing partner at New York-based Folkenflik and McGerity, told ABCNEWS.com. Folkenflik is one law firm representing the California-based plaintiff...
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If you have an e-mail box you know what spam is by now. With the recent arrest of Robert "Spam King" Soloway, there's been no lack of information and/or opinions on the web about spam in general. Most of it, like this Wired story, covers why the legal system isn't really making a big dent.It's certainly a good read if you have the time, here's a tidbit to get you started: "I believe the answer will lie in following the money. Spammers send spam because it is profitable. When the messages are touting snake-oil cures or illegal pharmaceuticals, someone is banking the dollars from the people who click to buy. When the messages contain spyware that routes private information back to identity...
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Nintendo's new console has been a blast for the lucky few folks who were able to get their hands on one of them, however the new technology isn't without a few teething problems. The strap that is supposed to secure the controller to your wrist has been having some problems, and of course, someone has decided to try and sue Nintendo over it. The suit claims that Nintendo's inability to provide a controller free of defects is against their own product warranty. "On December 6th, Green Welling LLP, of San Francisco, California along with Siebken & Siegele of Austin, Texas and Short, Cressman & Burgess of Seattle, Washington, filed...
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The RIAA has launched a fresh wave of 8000 lawsuits against alleged file-sharers world wide. This brings the total to more than 18,000 in the US and another 13,000 world wide. In this most recent wave 17 countries were affected, including Brazil, Poland, and Mexico which had previously avoided lawsuits. The music industry claims they loose billions of dollars annually to music piracy and is determined to set an example by filing civil and criminal suits to stomp it out. To date approximately 2300 people have settled these suits in amounts averaging $3,000. LONDON (Reuters) - The music industry has launched a fresh wave...
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NVIDIA has yet to respond to the lawsuit filed by Scanner Technologies, in which they claim NVIDIA sold products based on a 3D BGA inspection system, used to ensure product reliability. Along with seeking undisclosed damages, Scanner Technologies is also going after preliminary and permanent injunctions, as well legal fees and court fees. "The complaint alleges that nVidia has sold and/or is presently selling throughout the United States infringing BGA devices that are covered by one or more claims of the Scanner Patents. The complaint also alleges that nVidia has induced others to infringe. These BGA devices are a component in graphics cards,...
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Today it was announced that Apple has agreed to a settlement in which it must pay $100 Million to Creative Technology Ltd. Creative filed 5 patent lawsuits against Apple over the navigation system used with Apple's iPod MP3 player, claiming Apple violated patents that were already granted to Creative. Apple had filed two patent-infringement countersuits against Creative which were also settled, effectively ending all litigation between the two companies. "The settlement allows Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple to recoup a portion of its payment if other electronics companies license Creative's technology. "Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent," Steve Jobs, Apple's...
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Though the RIAA has been suing people over copyright infringement for a few years now, they've been starting to run into some roadblocks as of recent. Despite using such tactics as trying to sue deceased people, or even people without a computer, many of their lawsuits have been successful due to folks not wanting to fight the charges. A recent court battle has complicated matters for the RIAA though, as they've lost a case to an Oklahoma mother after they were unable to produce information concerning the number of songs downloaded, and the time of the downloads. This isn't the only suit giving them trouble though, more than a few people have decided to start fighting back....
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Back in March of 2005, Google was hit with a lawsuit by french news agency "Agence France Presse". AFP claimed copyright infringement over Google's use of their content with Google's own news service. Though Google agreed to stop, they apparently haven't called it quits just yet. "A lawyer for Google declined to comment, while a Google spokesman couldn't immediately explain why AFP links and content are still appearing on Google News. An AFP official in its North America headquarters in Washington, DC referred questions to its lawyer, who didn't immediately reply to a comment request."...
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