Legal Archive

Judge in Pirate Bay Case Member of Pro-Copyright Groups

Submitted by zegenie 2009-04-23 Legal 75 Comments

The verdict in the Pirate Bay trial surprised many people, seeing as how many errors the entertainment industry's lawyers had made, and how little understanding they seemed to have of how BitTorrent works. The height of the sentence also surprised many; for aiding in sharing just 33 copyrighted items, the four founders were sentenced to one year in jail, and a massive fine of 3.6 million USD. Well, as it turns out, we now know why we were all relatively surprised: the judge in the case, Thomas Norstrom, is member of the same pro-copyright groups as many of the people representing the entertainment industry in the case.

Submitted by csynt 2009-04-17 Legal 111 Comments

Old World 1, New World 0. The four defendants in the landmark The Pirate Bay case, taking place in Sweden, have all been found guilty, and sentenced to one year in jail. They also received a hefty fine of USD 3.58 million to 17 ~~American~~ media companies, among which are Warner Bros. Entertainment, MGM Pictures, Columbia Pictures Industries, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment, and Activision. The defendants have already stated they will appeal the decision.

Microsoft Says EU Antitrust Deadline Extended

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-16 Legal 2 Comments

Microsoft on Wednesday confirmed a report that it had received a one-week extension from European antitrust regulators to respond to charges that it had sought to thwart rivals by bundling its web browser with Windows systems. "Microsoft confirms that the new deadline for the company to respond to the Commission's statement of objections is 28 April," a spokeswoman said, referring to an unsourced reference to a new deadline reported on the website of the Financial Times. A spokeswoman for the European Commission said she could not immediately comment.

Microsoft Hit by USD 388m Patent Verdict

Thom Holwerda 2009-04-09 Legal 6 Comments

Microsoft on Wednesday was hit with a USD 388m verdict in a long-running patent-infringement case. In the suit, Uniloc alleged that Microsoft used its patented technology as part of the software giant's product-activation methods. A federal jury in Rhode Island found that Windows XP, Office XP and Windows Server 2003 infringed on a Uniloc patent.

TomTom, Microsoft Settle Patent Dispute

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-30 Legal 45 Comments

Navigation device maker TomTom and Microsoft have resolved their patent dispute by entering into a settlement agreement out-of-court. The outcome of the agreement is that TomTom will license the infringed patents, but that they will remove the encumbered code from their implementation of the Linux kernel within two years.

Nvidia Countersues Intel in Licensing Spat

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-27 Legal 1 Comment

Nvidia filed a countersuit against Intel for breach of contract yesterday, in which it alleged Intel had made misleading statements in an effort to weaken the graphics chipmaker's licensing rights. The suit is also seeking to kill off Intel's licence to Nvidia's graphic processing and 3D computing patents. "Having breached the contract and irreparably injured Nvidia, Intel has lost the right to continue to enjoy the considerable benefit of its license to Nvidia's patent portfolio," reads the filing.

Acer Sued for Shipping Vista-Book with GB of Memory

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-27 Legal 28 Comments

"Two Middle Americans have sued Acer over its low-cost Aspire notebooks, claiming that the Taiwanese PC giant pre-installed Windows Vista on machines ill-equipped to run Microsoft's latest OS. With a lawsuit filed Wednesday in San Francisco, California, two residents of Fostoria, Ohio seek damages and relief from the world's third-largest computer maker after purchasing a sub-$600 Aspire notebook that included Windows Vista Premium and a gigabyte of shared system and graphics memory."

Miller: Macs Less Secure, But Safer than Windows Machines

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-26 Legal 47 Comments

Winner of this and last year's PWN2OWN contest Charlie Miller made some bold statements last week, stating that Mac OS X is easier to exploit than Windows. In a new interview with Tom's Hardware, Miller explains that that doesn't mean users should avoid Mac OS X for security reasons. He also gives a little more insight into his winning exploits, and what exactly they do.

Obama’s DOJ Sides with RIAA

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-24 Legal 65 Comments

We always try to avoid politics like the plague here on OSNews, but sometimes, it's hard to avoid it. Take the case of Joel Tenenbaum, who could be liable for over 1 million USD if the Recording Industry Association of America gets its way. While many hoped for a change of pace when it comes to these matters, Barack Obama's Department of Justice has squarely sided with the RIAA.

PC Buyers Fail to Prove MS Deceived in Vista ‘Capable’ Suit

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-20 Legal 13 Comments

"The judge in the ongoing Vista Capable row has denied PC buyers a motion for partial summary judgment in a lawsuit against Microsoft, citing a lack of evidence to show the company had hoodwinked customers. The issue will be decided in a forthcoming trial instead, ruled US District Judge Marsha Pechman late on Wednesday."

TomTom Countersues Microsoft

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-20 Legal 14 Comments

Following Microsoft's patent claim against TomTom, the Dutch mobile navigation device maker has countersued Microsoft, claiming the company infringes upon four of its patents. "The GPS device maker, based in The Netherlands, filed the countersuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Monday. TomTom says Microsoft's Streets and Trips products infringe on four patents it owns related to vehicle navigation software."

EU: Interoperability Documents from Microsoft Already Complete

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-04 Legal 3 Comments

Well, it's a bit of a Microsoft day today, for better or worse. In any case, the European Commission has announced that it will scale back its monitoring of Microsoft. According to the EC, Microsoft has made progress in complying with the 2004 Statement of Objections - in fact, the company has already provided all the necessary documentation required by the EC's ruling.

Psion Counterclaims Intel Over Netbook Trademark

Thom Holwerda 2009-03-02 Legal 16 Comments

Two weeks ago we reported that Canadian company Psion had started an all-out legal offensive to protect its Netbook trademark, a trademark the company gained through its line of portable "Netbook" device, discontinued a few years ago. Dell had already thrown itself into the fight, followed not long after by Intel. Now, Psion has filed a countersuit against Intel.

Guest post by Rahul 2009-02-26 Legal 39 Comments

As seen in this TechFlash article, Microsoft has launched a patent suit against TomTom, a seller of (Linux-based) navigation devices. "It's believed to be the first time Microsoft has filed a patent suit over Linux, after claiming for years that elements of the open-source operating system violate its patents. However, Microsoft says open-source software is not the intended focal point of the action." The lawsuit focusses on several navigation techniques, and includes a few patents related to Linux. LWN lists the individual patents in question.

Settlement Talks Apple, PsyStar Going Through the Motions

Thom Holwerda 2009-02-23 Legal 8 Comments

Thanks to people familiar with PsyStar, we know now that the mediation procedure between PsyStar an Apple, a compulsory attempt at settling out of court, has failed to produce any outcome. It was mostly a going through the motions, according to WorldOfApple.

Psion Defends “Netbook” Trademark

Thom Holwerda 2009-02-20 Legal 43 Comments

I recently joked that we might want to rename OSNews to CourtNews, and with each passing day that silly joke seems to become less silly. This week, it became clear that Psion Teklogix, the company behind various small computing devices back in the '90s, has started an all-out legal offensive to prohibit other companies from using the term "netbook".

Can Your Cat Agree to an EULA?

Thom Holwerda 2009-02-20 Legal 41 Comments

An interesting story is making it rounds across the internet the past few days about someone who made a system to get his cat to agree to the EULAs she was presented with. While that's just a funny joke, it does raise a very interesting point: if person A agrees to an EULA, does its power extend to person B?

Submitted by adkilla 2009-02-19 Legal 6 Comments

Intel has filed suit against NVIDIA seeking a declaratory judgment over rights associated with two agreements between the companies. The suit seeks to have the court declare that NVIDIA is not licensed to produce chipsets that are compatible with any Intel processor that has integrated memory controller functionality, such as Intel’s Nehalem microprocessors and that NVIDIA has breached the agreement with Intel by falsely claiming that it is licensed. Intel claims that it has been in discussions with NVIDIA for more than a year attempting to resolve the matter but were unsuccessful. As a result Intel is asking the court to resolve this dispute. Shall we rename OSNews to CourtNews?

‘Vista Capable’ Suit Loses Class Action Status

Thom Holwerda 2009-02-19 Legal 19 Comments

Microsoft has achieved a major win in the "Vista Capable" class action lawsuit against the company. The suit, which is about if Microsoft knew the PCs it labelled as "Vista capable" weren't actually capable of running Vista's more advanced features, has lost its class action status.

‘Does Kindle 2’s Text-to-Speech Infringe Authors’ Copyrights?’

weildish 2009-02-18 Legal 28 Comments

The Author's Guild has been having some trouble coping with the Kindle 2's Read to Me feature because it supposedly undermines author's rights. Their argument? "They don't have the right to read a book out loud." It sounds ridiculous; we've been reading out loud since we were wee little children, and text-to-speech has been in use since before the Google Empire (by hundreds of years technically, and by decades literally). However, after explanation by Engadget's very own pretentious ex-copyright attorney, the blurred lines of law and lawlessness gets even blurrier. Does the Author's Guild have a valid point, or are they splitting hairs?