Updated: 'Mortified' Google To Act On Those Who Poached Rival's Clients
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has “apologised unreservedly” after its Kenyan outfit poached customers from a rival business directory by systematicall…
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Spammer Spanked By Court, Award Slashed From $11 Million To .. $3
If you’re going to miss deadlines and make stupid legal arguments, it’s probably better not to have your case wind up in front of one of the…
News Corp Picks One Of Its Own, Joel Klein, To Do Probe Into Phone Hacking
He took on the world’s biggest company and America’s largest education authority, but the task facing Joel Klein at News International could…
Google May Have To Shell Out $500M Over Mysterious DOJ Investigation
There’s a big surprise in Google’s just-released quarterly SEC filing. In one short paragraph, the company discloses that it may soon be dea…
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paidContent Week In Review: Royal Wedding; Delicious Sold; iPhone Tracking
In case you missed it, links to some of the top stories in digital media this past week — including our Royal Wedding coverage:
»&nbs…
paidContent Week In Review: Google Books; Color App; Journalism Online
In case you missed it, links to some of the top stories in digital media this past week:
» What The Collapse Of The Google Books…
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Shareholders Are Suing News Corp For ‘Overpaying’ For Lis Murdoch’s Shine
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (NSDQ: NWS) is being sued by shareholders for “paying for nepotism” in its $675m deal to buy daughter Elis…
Google Wins Ruling In Dispute With Microsoft Over Government Contracting
In a sign of how intense the competition between Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is, Google sued the U.S. government in Octob…
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IAB Expands Lobbying Operations; Separate Mobile Unit Formed
With the possibility of stricter regulation of online ad targeting looming on Capitol Hill, the Interactive Advertising Bureau is beefing up…
Why Google Ditched the Name ‘Sponsored Links’
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes an ad is just an ad. Google (NSDQ: GOOG) embraced the clarity of that nifty two-letter word…
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UK Gov. Wants To Join Silicon Roundabout, Olympic Park For Tech
David Cameron today set out a vision of London’s East End becoming a hi-tech rival to Silicon Valley on the US west coast, disclosing Google…
Google Sues U.S. Government Over ‘Unfair’ Contracting
In a clear sign that competition between Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) over the enterprise software market is heating up, G…
Mobile Content Providers To Pay $10 Million To Settle Class Action Suits
A long-standing issue plaguing the mobile content industry has been fraudulent or deceptive billing practices that led to consumers demandin…
‘Bullying’ Anti-Piracy Lawyers Await Trade Tribunal
While a settled approach to tackling online piracy was trashed out through Digital Britain and the Digital Economy Act over the last year, s…
Apple Employee Busted For Selling Top Secret Info To Asian Suppliers
A mid-level Apple employee has been arrested for selling information to iPhone and iPod suppliers in Asia that enabled them to negotiate mor…
Jailbreaking The iPhone Won’t Land You In The Slammer, Authorities Say
One of the more obscure government bodies has ruled today that unlocking iPhones is perfectly within a consumer’s right, even if it is to do…
The Yahoo-Demand Media Rivalry Surfaces In A Slogan
The Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) – Demand Media rivalry is now apparently showing itself in a slogan. We reported yesterday that Yahoo had filed to tr…
How That Limewire Fine Could Fix The UK’s Budget Deficit
By Charles Arthur: Here’s a solution to the budget deficit: get LimeWire to pay it.
That’s because a calculation by a lawyer acting for the…
Judge In AP-Shepard Fairey Fair Use Suit Suggests Settlement
The judge presiding over the ongoing lawsuit between street artist Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press concerning the use of a photo of…
BBC Slaps Cease-And-Desist On Unofficial App Maker; More To Come?
Now that the BBC is finally due to develop more of its own mobile apps, it looks like it’s starting to put its foot down to third-party deve…
Nokia Faces Further Legal Wrangles U.S. Legal Over Shareholder Suit
The legal guys over in Finland must be clocking up a lot of overtime these days: on top of the Apple ITC battle over patent infringements, n…
Craigslist Founder Newmark: I’ve Never Looked At eBay’s Classifieds Site
Craigslist CEO Craig Newmark (pictured, left) took the stand in the company’s court battle with eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) on Friday to deny that he…
Settlement Likely In Suit Over Skype Sale; Founders May Take Stake
A settlement in the litigation over eBay’s sale of a majority stake in Skype could be announced this week, the NYT reports. In September, Sk…
On2 Settles Litigation Over Sale To Google
Eliminating what had become a headache in the wake of its agreement to sell itself to Google (NSDQ: GOOG) for $106.5 million, video compress…
China Bans Foreign Investment, Tech Partnerships In Its Online Games Industry
More U.S. gaming companies and VCs are looking to the Chinese online gaming model — micro-transactions, virtual goods and subscriptions –…
Apple, Eminem Settle iTunes Rights Suit
Eight Mile Style, Eminem’s publishing company, and *Apple*, have settled a lawsuit Eight Mile filed over whether Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) had the…
Music Biz Appoints An Anti-Piracy Tsar
Perhaps a recognition that even governments’ plans to suspend freeloaders’ internet accounts won’t kill piracy… record labels, via their I…
Newspaper Advocates Press Congress For Help (But Don’t Call It A Bailout)
With government bailouts now about as popular with taxpayers as “death panels,” a trio of newspaper advocates lobbied on Capitol Hill this m…
Blogosphere To Obama: Forget A Newspaper Rescue Plan
Barack Obama didn’t quite say he was open to a government bailout of the newspaper industry last week, as many reports suggested — but he d…
Google Wins EU Court Backing In Louis Vuitton Keyword Battle
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) should be allowed to continue selling brand names as search keywords because it isn’t infringing corporate trademarks, a…
Microsoft Goes After ‘Malvertisers’ With Lawsuits
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has taken the battle against “malvertisers” to the courts — with a series of lawsuits against advertisers who it all…
Federal Court Throws Out UMG's Copyright Suit Against Veoh
A federal judge in Los Angeles has thrown out a Universal Music Group’s copyright infringement lawsuit against video sharing site Veoh. UMG…
Yahoo, DivX Settle Lawsuit Over Toolbar Distribution Deal
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and digital video technology firm DivX (NSDQ: DIVX) have settled a ten month old lawsuit over an advertising deal between…
AOL Sues Advertise.com Over Name
Advertising.com, Ad.com, and Advertise.com. Because AOL (NYSE: TWX) says it has extensively used and promoted the first two trademarks, it i…
Tweet Of The Week: Why Shuttering Pirate Bay Won’t Dent Piracy
It’s always good news for music labels and movie studios when courts take their side against organised online piracy. But the entertainment…
Too Hot To Handle: After Rajya Sabha, Sach Ka Saamna In Court
Two petitions have been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking to stop the telecast of controversial game show Sach Ka Saamna on Star Plus. A…
High Court: Google Not Responsible For Libels In Its Index
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) UK can’t be held responsible for defamations on overseas pages it indexes, according to a High Court ruling, Out-Law rep…
Verizon Will Sell You ‘Sportslink’ Trademark, For $10K or More
IP auctions are a murky world, especially online brokerages and sales platforms. But this release caught my eye: Verizon Communications (NYS…
Gallery Threatens To Sue Wikimedia Admin Over Portrait Uploads
An Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer is representing an English American man threatened by London’s National Portrait Gallery for upload…
Spot Runner Files Motion To Dismiss WPP’s $13 Million Suit
The drama continues: Web-based TV ad agency Spot Runner has filed a motion to dismiss the $13 million lawsuit by Dublin-based ad holding fir…
Yahoo Withdraws Lawsuit Over Rights To Fantasy-Sports Stats
*Yahoo* withdrew its lawsuit against the NFL Players Association, which had promised to reignite a battle over the rights to data used in fa…
Project Playlist Stops The Music To International Users
Project Playlist, the website that lets people create and share music playlists and was led by current MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, has block…
Election 2010: Labour, Tories Poles Apart On Web Strategy
The 2004 and 2008 US elections pushed boundaries in online campaign strategy – but how well stacked are UK parties to follow America’s lead?…
Music Firm Sues Microsoft, Yahoo, and Real Networks Over Copyright Infringement
Not your typical targets for a music copyright infringement lawsuit: The big companies that run paid online music subscription services. But…
Moreover May Sue Newspaper Biz Over Online Copying Levy
Online news aggregator Moreover is considering taking legal action against the Newspaper Licensing Agency in response to plans to impose a l…
Updated: Idlewild Track Pirates After Fan-Funded Album Leaks
Update: Idlewild bassist Gareth Russell, apparently posting in our comments below, says the Woomble Twitter persona is false; Roddy isn’t th…
Private Emails Reveal BBC Considering Blocking ‘Insidious’ Phorm
Many senior BBC executives want to follow Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and Wikipedia by opting out of on-net behavioural ad targeter Phorm – a blow w…
Updated: San Diego Union-Tribune Cracks Down On Poachers; Bloomberg Restricts Employee Bloggers
Considering all the jobs newspapers are shedding lately — see PaperCuts for the latest tally — it seems doubly cruel for a publisher to ma…
UK Train Authority Banning Unofficial Mobile Apps
The UK’s train info operator National Rail Enquiries is forcing unofficial timetable apps offline, as it looks to profit from its own, rathe…
Hollywood Launches Action Against TV Re-Streamer Zattoo
By Bobbie Johnson: Two of Hollywood’s most powerful studios are suing European video startup Zattoo, amid claims that it is illegally profit…
Would-Be Online Ad Targeter NebuAd Calls It A Day
Behavioral ad targeter NebuAd, whose beta tests with Charter Communications (NSDQ: CHTR) last spring sparked a class action lawsuit and help…
Video: BBC News Anchor Blurts Out: ‘My Salary Is £92,000’
When under-fire MPs ask newsreaders to reveal their salaries, the TV folk usually keep diplomatically schtum – and Auntie usually rejects…
Does the FTC Really Have A Case Against Google and Apple?
Behind the FTC’s probe into whether Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) are violating antitrust laws by having overlapping directors…
Report: Fake Phones In China Account For 20 Percent Of Sales
No one should be surprised that counterfeit phones are a big business in China
News Roundup: Yahoo To Hire In India, HC On Publishing Confidential Info Of Companies
Even as it is trimming staff globally, Internet major Yahoo! (NSDQ: YHOO) will hire nearly 150 people in India, according to this PTI (via l…
Pyramid Saimira Promoters Violated Securities Regulations: SEBI
Market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, today said it has found Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd promoters P.S. Saminathan…
BT Blocking Pirate Bay To UK Dongle Users Due To ‘Adult’ Content
BT (NYSE: BT) is getting itself on the right side of content owners by blocking access to The Pirate Bay for under-18 mobile broadband custo…
Social Startup Amazee Fighting Amazon’s Amazing Name-Change Demand
This is amaz-ing. Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has been demanding Swiss social collaboration platform Amazee change its name, and has now also filed…
Spot Runner Defends Against WPP’s Share Sale Suit
Web-based TV ad agency Spot Runner has tried to reassure staffers over the weekend with a memo that could offer a clue as to how it plans to…
Spot Runner: ‘Sophisticated Investor’ WPP Was Given Opportunities To Sell Shares
Web-based TV ad agency Spot Runner has tried to reassure staffers over the weekend with a memo that could offer a clue as to how it plans to…
Pirate Bay Founders Found Guilty: One Year Jail Sentence, Likely To Appeal
A Swedish court has found the four men behind the infamous Swedish BitTorrent tracking site The Pirate Bay guilty of assisting copyright inf…
UK’s Copyright Freedoms Worst In The World, Consumer Group Says
The UK sits at the bottom of a league of 16 nations for copyright freedoms, according to a table produced by international pro-consumer grou…
Goal Tweets Silenced Under Leagues’ Legal Threat
A web developer has stopped providing live football updates via Twitter after governing bodies complained he was infringing their copyright.…
Video Nasties Gallery: 15 Years Of Anti-Piracy Warnings
With Robert Andrews: Piracy is isn’t just a big problem for the entertainment industry execs, it also keeps creative types like Andrew Lloyd…
Apple Bans Jailbreaks And Selling Apps Outside The App Store
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has put some new clauses into the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, which governs what iPhone developers can an…
Google Settles AdWords Lawsuit For $20 Million
The list of companies and individuals suing *Google* for the way it runs its search ad business is a long one: including everyone from biggi…
@ GDC: Game Developers Get The Short End Of The Money Stick
The video game business may be booming for major publishers like *Activision* and *EA*, but the people that actually create the games — the…
Newspapers To Govt: Make Google Pay For Our Content
The UK newspaper business has called on the government to stop Google (NSDQ: GOOG) using its content, or else pay up for it. With publishers…
Social Sites May Have To Keep Data To Help UK Govt Fight Terror
Independent.co.uk opened a hornet’s nest this morning with its report the government wants access to data from social network communications…
CBS, Last.fm Deny Passing User Data To RIAA; Some Users Delete Accounts
The news cycle spins fast and flimsy these days. Late Friday night, TechCrunch posted an unsourced rumour that CBS-owned Last.fm handed a “g…
Google Sued Over Ad Rates, But Wins Separate, Street Views Court Challenge
Companies often complain that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) uses its online ad dominance to punish potential rivals, but this time, one is taking the…
Music Labels Take Eircom Ruling As Gospel, Warn Ireland's Other ISPs To Adopt Three-Strikes
After their court action last month forced ISP Eircom to initiate a three-strikes procedure against broadband users downloading music illega…
Beeb Pays Man £75 For Using Copyrighted Flickr Pic As News Backdrop
Whoops! The BBC is paying a Birmingham photographer £75 for his trouble after using his copyrighted Flickr image as TV news backdrop withou…
Lords Tell Ministers: Don’t Forget Poor, Elderly In Online Comms Drive
The House of Lords’ communications select committee has criticised the UK government for emphasising online public communications at the exp…
Google, NUJ Still Utterly Opposed On Story Aggregation
Any notion that the debate over whether Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is a friend, enemy or frenemy to online content producers is mellowing was put t…
Microsoft Launching Mobile Music Downloads In UK, Tracks Are DRM-Protected
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has launched a UK mobile music download platform offering more than one million tracks and 10,000 videos from Sony (N…
IFPI Report: 95 Percent Of Music Downloads Are Illegal
Digital music sales are growing faster than ever — but the music industry’s task in convincing music fans to pay for their music looks trul…
This Bird Has Flown: Norwegian Radio Pulls Beatles Tracks On Legal Slip-Up
We knew it was too crafty to be true – Norwegian public radio network NRK, which on Monday began giving away The Beatles’ entire back catalo…
Google Not Liable For Fraudulent Pay-Per-Click Ads
A San Jose District Judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Google (NSDQ: GOOG) that sought to hold the Internet search giant responsible for…
Aggregators Hire Consultant To Determine Enforcement For Messaging Industry
Competing messaging aggregators are banding together to determine the best way to enforce the industry’s rules and guidelines. Companies suc…
Digital Music Roundup: NY ‘iTunes Tax’?; RIP Mixwit; Free MP3s To Soldiers
— NY governor proposes tax on digital downloads : If Gov. David A. Paterson’s budget passes, cash-strapped New York could impose a 4 perce…
Film, TV Makers Demand Piracy Action, Five Months Late
Over 100 members of Britain’s film- and TV-making elite – including Kenneth Branagh, Mike Leigh and Lynda La Plante – are calling on the gov…
Copyright Extension: Burnham ‘Silly And Out Of Touch’, Says Gowers
Disagreement over how long the long tail should be… Former FT editor Andrew Gowers, whose 2006 review of UK intellectual property law for…
Vodafone Challenges $2 Billion Tax Bill On Hutch Essar Purchase
Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) has suffered a setback in its plans to expand its business in India after the Mumbai High Court threw out the company’s…
DOJ Hound Wanted To Sink Teeth Into Google-Yahoo Deal
Looks like Jerry Yang and the rest of the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) gang weren’t the only ones sad to see the search outsourcing deal with Google (…
Judge Orders Former IBM Exec To Stop Working For Apple
A federal judge in New York has ordered the new engineering head of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to stop work immediately. Mark Papermaster started fo…
Two Arrested In Japan For Illegal Mobile Music Downloading Site
The RIAA’s big concern in the U.S. is PC users, who download music illegally, but apparently the bigger threat in Japan is people who downlo…
Done With Google, American Airlines Targets Yahoo With Trademark Lawsuit
American Airlines is suing Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) for allowing competitors to bid on trademarked terms like “American Airlines” and “AAdvantage…
Legal Roundup: Google Appeals; Apple MP3 ‘Monopoly’; Fast Charged; Microsoft Xbox 360
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) were all mired in legal issues today, managing to incorporate lawsuits, a…
Copyright Royalty Board Holds The Rate; iTunes Lives To See Another Day
iTunes fans can breathe easy: The Copyright Royalty Board has decided not to raise the royalty rates online music retailers must pay publish…
Senate Passes Webcaster Act; Now Onto The President For Approval
This wasn’t much in doubt once the NAB dropped its opposition to it, but the Senate has passed the Webcaster Settlement Act, which the House…
House Spares Internet Radio After NAB Relents On Royalty Rate Law; Senate Next
File this under: Things congress does when it’s not trying to stave off the next Great Depression. While Congressmen busily worked to constr…
Game Makers Plan US-Style Copyright Assault Against 25,000
Turns out game maker Topware’s latest legal action against an illegal game sharer is just the tip of an iceberg. Lifting the lid, The Times…
Pinball Game Maker Racks Up High Score In P2P Damages
Video games maker Topware has won another piracy case, this time scoring £16,000 after it said a woman illegally shared one of its titles o…
Family Loses Narnia.mobi Birthday Gift To Lewis Estate
A family in Edinburgh has been ordered to give up the Narnia.mobi domain they registered as a gift for their son to the estate of C.S. Lewis…
ISPs’ P2P Pledge ‘Won’t Stop Downloading’, Govt Admits It’s ‘No Easy Task’
ISPs’ pledge to send letters to subscribers who illegally download music is unworkable and won’t stop the practice, according to the body wh…
UK’s Biggest ISPs Agree To Warn Illegal Music, Movie Downloaders
Threatened with legislation by April if they fail to halt piracy, the UK’s six largest ISPs will today announce a plan to tackle illegal mus…
Yahoo Execs: Review Of Google Deal Halfway Done
An important detail to note from today’s earnings call: Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) is not factoring in any gains from its Google (NSDQ: GOOG) deal i…
EU-Wide Licenses Approved For Music Sites; Services Applaud Reforms; Artists, Not So Much
Digital music providers welcomed today’s EC decision to end Europe’s country-by-country royalties collection system, a move that will make i…
Google, Yahoo And Microsoft Live On The Hill
The top legal officers from Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) are currently testifying in front of the U.S.…
On Eve Of Senate Hearings, Subpoenas Sent Out For Info On Yahoo And Google
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) arrive on Capitol Hill tomorrow, set to defend (or more likely explain) their search ad deal to c…
Yahoo-Google Ad Deal Prompts Multiple Congressional Hearings, Usual Washington Circus
It looks like Jerry Yang’s jaunt to Washington, DC won’t be enough to prevent congressmen from getting their two cents in on the company’s a…
Yahoo-Google: Antitrust Outcome Hinges On Market Definition: Is It Search Ads? Online Ads?
Even though they said it wasn’t required of them, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Google are waiting 3.5 months before implementing their agreement,…
Yahoo Shareholders Want Severance Plan Struck Down; Claim Invalid Under Delaware Law
As Carl Icahn has honed in on Yahoo’s (NSDQ: YHOO) severance plan as a key vulnerability, so too have the shareholders suing the company. In…
How Yahoo Gets Away With Its Annual Meeting Schedule
Yesterday we mentioned that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) was really pushing the envelope, if not the edges of the law by scheduling its annual meeting…
Judge Unseals Yahoo Shareholder Suit: Severance Poison Pill Key To Complaint
While things have been pretty quiet on the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) front (knock on wood: this looks to be a busy week)…
Yahoo Restrained From Publishing T-Series Content By Delhi High Court
Indian Music label T-Series today obtained an interim injunction against Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Inc and Yahoo India from the Delhi High Court, c…
Lawsuits Are On The Rise As Subscribers Experiment With Mobile Data
A new line of lawsuits is emerging against cellphone operators as mobile data and content takes off, BusinessWeek reports. For more than a d…
Indie Labels To Websites: Pay For Our Music With This New License
The body representing indie record labels, and a quarter of all UK music, has called on the UK government to create a new licensing system t…
Federal Court Rules AOL, Yahoo, Real Must Pay ASCAP Music Licensing Fees; Could Run $100 Million
ASCAP is ballyhooing a federal court ruling today that AOL (NYSE: TWX), Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) must pay higher lic…
Half Of Youngsters Ignore ‘Illegal Downloading Is Stealing’ Comparison
File under: “Unsurprising Research Conclusions”. Research firm TNS finds 51 percent of young adults consider downloading music and movies il…
UK Music Biz Would Rather Tax iPods Than Legitimize Format Shifting
The British record industry has challenged a UK government proposal that would legalize “format shifting” from CD to gadgets like iPods – an…
Plagiarism By MSN India’s Content Partner
Content from a post by Melanie Phung on the “10 Years of Viagra Spam” was allegedly plagiarised by MSN India’s content partner India Syndica…
Carphone Refuses To Back Three-Strikes Music Proposal
Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) may be ready to tow the BPI’s three-strikes line to warn, then disconnect illegal music downloaders – not so Carph…
Inside The Deals: Texas Justice May Give Clear Channel Another Shot
A rough bit of Texas justice may well give the imperiled $19.5 billion Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU) buyout another shot at life. A state judge…
Poll: Will ISP Monitoring Help Music Back To Profitability?
The music industry is getting some scores in its efforts against illegal downloading. The related links tell the story: After France’s recen…
Industry Moves: Warner Picks Ex-Napster UK Boss For Digital Role
After Napster (NSDQ: NAPS) was scaled back on these shores last year, former UK general manager Leanne Sharman has joined Warner Music Inter…
Premier League Wins Injunction To Stop Illegal Match Streaming
The Premier League quietly won High Court injunctions this week against three websites accused of illegally streaming its live football matc…
Yahoo Slapped With Another Suit Over Microsoft; Also From Detroit
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) has been hit with its second shareholder lawsuit since its initial rejection of $44.6 billion bid. This time, its brought…
Microsoft Press Call: As Promised, No Talk Of Yahoo; EC Regulators Unmoved By Open Talk
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) just wrapped up a press call to discuss new principals related to openness and technological interoperability. It pro…
Yahoo Board Members Divided On Microsoft Bid; Yang’s Stance Called ‘Emotional’: Report
A New York Post report paints a picture of a divided Yahoo board, split between a group of realists that see few options and a few Jerry Yan…
Yahoo Gets Hit With First Shareholder Suit Over Microsoft Rejection
By most interpretations, Yahoo’s “rejection” of Microsoft’s offer for it, was more like an attempt to solicit a higher bid. But at least one…
Play.com To Sell DRM-Free Music In UK
Play.com has unveiled a new DRM-free UK download store called PlayDigital that will sell tracks and albums in MP3 format from EMI and severa…
MSFT-YHOO: Hasty House Hearing Delayed; Board Meeting?
After Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) made its bid for Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) last Friday (yes, it’s only been one week), the House Judiciary Committee q…
Scrabulous' Fate To Be Decided Today?
Hectic negotiations are underway between Hasbro, Scrabulous and Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS), and one might either see the Kolkata based Aga…
MySpace, Attorneys General Announce Joint Internet Safety Effort
MySpace gets to take the high road with internet safety today, announcing a joint effort with state attorneys general via the Multi-State Wo…
User-Gen Threatened By The Zeal To Protect Copyrights: Report
The increased zeal among copyright holders to clamp down on any hint of piracy by online video sites puts the notion of user-generated conte…
Film, Music Companies Calling ISPs To Suspend Illegal Downloaders
Could 2008 be the year when ISPs are forced to get tough over illegal online distribution of media content? The upshot of this indecipherabl…
Microsoft, Google And Yahoo Fined $31.5 Million Over Gambling Ads
Microsoft, (NSDQ: MSFT) Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will pay a combined $31.5 million to settle claims that they improperly r…
Industry Moves: WorldSpace Director, Sumo.tv Controller, Digital UK CEO
– WorldSpace: Italian radio pioneer Robert Zaino has been appointed content director for WorldSpace Italia, a subsidiary of WorldSpace Satel…
DVB-H Lessons From Finland For The Writers Strike
To see the results of the writer’s strike just take a look at Finland’s mobile TV market, suggests Hollywood Reporter. Back in 2006 Finnish…
MLBAM Loses Appeal On Ownership Of Stats; Fantasy Sports Leagues Win Another Round
Touted as a baseball town, St. Louis isn’t proving to be very baseball friendly this fall. First, the world champion St. Louis Cardinals mis…
Record Labels Prevail in File Sharing Suit; Defendant Ordered to Pay $220,000
The record labels have prevailed in the first U.S. file-sharing lawsuit to go to trial. The defendant, Minnesota resident Jammie Thomas, was…
New York Rangers/Cablevision Sue NHL, Opposing Its Website Control By The League
New York Rangers, run by Madison Square Garden LP, which in turn is a Cablevision Systems unit, has filed a lawsuit against National Hockey…
Monsoon Multimedia Sued In US Over GPL Violation; Already In Talks To Settle Out Of Court
The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed a copyright infringement suit in the US against Noida headquartered Monsoon Multimedia, all…
TruePosition Wins LBS Patent Suit Against Andrew Corp; $45.3 Million Damages
The jury in the United States District Court in the District of Delaware has awarded LBS company TruePosition $45.3 million in damages in a…
FTC Fines Movie Download Sites $500,000 Over Extortionware
The FTC has fined three movie download sites $500,000 for their use of extortionware, reports Variety. The sites, Movieland.com, Moviepass.…
Ad Industry Roundup: ValueClick; Publicis; Tremor/ExpoTV; Gray TV
— ValueClick Hit With Another Shareholder Suit: Shareholders of lead gen ad firm ValueClick have accused the company of violating the Secu…
UMG Carries Out Threat To Sue Veoh For Copyright Violations
As expected, Universal Music Group has thoroughly ignored video site Veoh’s attempts to prevent the record label from suing it and has filed…
Online Media Limits Threaten Coverage On Eve Of Rugby World Cup
The International Rugby Board (IRB) is still playing hard ball with an international coalition of newspapers and news agencies that is chall…
Bertelsmann Settles Final Napster Suit for $130 Million
Bertelsmann settled the fourth and (and what it hopes will be the final) lawsuit related to Napster from 2000. The National Music Publishers…
Bertelsmann Settles Final Napster Suit for $130M
Bertelsmann settled the fourth and (and what it hopes will be the final) lawsuit related to Napster from 2000. The National Music Publisher…
Motricity Owes Outsourcing Software Company Millions?
So alleges a California software company it hired in 2006 to set up an operation in India, according to this story. Motricity entered into a…
Russia Acquits AllofMP3.com Of Copyright Violation; Where Now For Angry Record Labels?
The music industry is predictably up in arms after a Moscow court found the former boss of controversial Russian music downloads site AllofM…
Veoh Files Pre-Emptive Suit Against UMG; Still Battling Other Infringement Suit
Meanwhile, at the same time Universal Music Group is testing moving away from anti-piracy measures, online video site Veoh is making a pre-e…
On Startups And Copyrights
I’m not getting into the whole copyright vs copyleft debate, but pluggd.in gives the lowdown on copyright issues that startups (for that mat…
Internet/Tech Companies File Complaint With FTC On Media and Leagues’s Broadcast Copyright Warnings
An interesting push from a coalition of tech/Internet companies against sports leagues’ copyright boundaries: the Computer & Communications…
Warner Drops Suit Against Imeem, Swaps Access For Rev Share
This may be one of the fastest lawsuits/negotiations in the copyright fight era … Warner Music Group filed suit against social-net imeem l…
AllofMP3.com Closed Down By Russia; Alternative Site Opens
AllofMp3.com, the tiny big site that could, in the end couldn’t, but did it anyway. The music download website whose activities threatened t…
MPAA Sues Two Movie Link Sites
THe Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed the suits in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com o…
U.S. District Judge Puts Google In Place; Sides With Justice On Microsoft Antitrust Case
Google tried an end run of sorts by asking U.S. District Court Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to extend antitrust oversight of Microsoft past the ex…
Google Asks Court To Extend Microsoft Antitrust Oversight
On the eve of the quarterly federal court hearing to monitor Microsoft’s antitrust agreement, Google asked Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to e…
Warner Music Sues Social Network Imeem For Music Copyright Infringement
Warner Music, fresh from $110 million settlement with Bertelsmann on the former Napster, has sued Imeem, a music-based social networking sit…
NWS-DJ: Let The Lawsuits Begin
Speaking of class-action suits, the first shareholder suit — there are bound to be more — has been filed against Dow Jones and the Bancrof…
Google And Belgian Newspaper Group: We Can Work It Out
Belgian publishing collective Copiepresse has given its approval for Google to once again include links to some of that country’s French- an…
Yahoo Roundup: Yahoo China Asked To Curb Music Links; Adds Lyrics Service From Gracenote
Yahoo China has been ordered to delete links to free websites offering music-downloads and to pay about 200,000 yuan ($27,200) for aiding th…
WMG, Bertelsmann Settle Napster Suit For $110 Million
EMI settled its Napster suit with Bertelsmann last month; now it’s Warner Music Group’s turn. WMG gets $110 million (for some obscure reaso…
Legal Search/Info Site Avvo Raises $10 Million Second Round Funding
Online legal information search company Avvo has closed a $10 million second round financing. The round was led by Ignition Partners, along…
The New Generation of Video Pirates
Oftentimes, it seems like the entertainment industry is going after the wrong copyright infringers: grandparents who didn’t know what the te…
DRM Loosens In Some Places But Anti-Piracy Fight Continues
On a day that EMI, with Apple’s blessing, begins what may turn out to be a stampede away from DRM, The New York Times reports that the pirac…
EMI, Bertelsmann Settle; Put Napster Dispute To Rest
EMI and Bertelsmann have agreed to settle their four-year-old Napster dispute out of court. EMI was amongst a gaggle of record labels to sue…
NPR, Clear Channel Seek Changes To New Net Radio Royalty Rates
In what is likely to be the first of many challenges to the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision to impose a new cost and reporting structure…
@ TED: Lawrence Lessig Places Today’s Copyright Laws Into Perspective
At its best, TED is an argument against cynicism. Even on a day during which Goldie Hawn tiptoed on stage to give out an award (don’t ask),…
Eager To Complete Sale To Go Fish, Bolt Finalizes Settlement With Universal
Universal Music Group and video sharing site Bolt.com have agreed to a final settlement estimated at $10 million or at least a third of the…
Yahoo China Sued For Copyright Infringement
Yahoo China is being sued by music labels including Warner Music Group and Universal for providing links to unlicensed music, reports Reuter…
Copyright Ruling Would Make Webcasting Much More Expensive
Just before the weekend, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board announced increased royalty rates for webcasters. As Wired News reports, the board…
Cisco, Apple Settle iPhone Dispute; Interoperability To be Explored
Cisco and Apple have resolved their dispute involving the iPhone trademark…the agreement will allow Apple to use the name in exchange for…
Google Loses To Belgian Newspaper Group Over Content Use
Google appears to have suffered a major defeat, as a Belgian court ruled Tuesday that the internet giant violated that country’s copyright l…
Beatles, Apple Settle Trademark Dispute; No Mention Of Anticipated iTunes Deal
Apple Inc., the company formerly known as Apple Computer, and the Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. have settled their trademark dispute yet again.…
Belgian Newspaper Group Warns Yahoo On Content, Waits On Google Decision
Copiepresse, the Belgian copyright defense group that has been waging war against Google for the past few months, issued a new warning Thurd…
Chinese Media War Pits Paper Against Portal Over Intellectual Property Rights
China has often been accused of laxity when it comes to intellectual property protection. But that could change as a result of a lawsuit bei…
No Direct Links To Webcasts If Owner Objects: Texas Federal Court
Interesting ruling which will hopefully be contested in higher courts: A federal judge in Texas has ruled that it is unlawful to provide a h…
Major Record Labels (Finally) Sue Moscow-based Allofmp3.com
Several record labels are suing the operator of Moscow-based allofmp3.com, claiming that Mediaservices is selling millions of music download…
Aussie Court: Pointing To Illegal Downloads Equals Hosting Them
If you’re looking for a piece about a retired policeman who helps people steal music, you’ve come to the right place. An Australian appeals…
Concert Streaming Site Wolfgang’s Vault Sued By Led Zeppelin, Santana, Others
Well, you knew this would happen: Some of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest names, including Grateful Dead Productions, Carlos Santana and members of…
Music Regulation Roundup: Dutch Levy on MP3 Players Postponed; U.S. Publishing Split Recommendations
Couple of pieces of news on both sides of the Atlantic, which is food for thought in the music industry:
— Dutch postpone copyright levy fo…
Google Settles Dispute With Two Belgian Media Groups; Denmark Delay
Google has reached a settlement with Belgian photographers and journalists in a copyright dispute over how Google News links to newspaper co…
Web User Faces $94,000 Fine Over ‘Defamatory’ Comment
Always worth keeping an eye on legal cases, and this bodes well for publishers if not for the public. This is a libel case over a comment po…
Universal Music Sues Grouper and Bolt.com; $150K Per Infringement
So no, Universal Music Group’s threats against YouTube did not seem to pan out (as it tied up with the company last week prior to the Google…
Music Industry Goes P2P Lawsuit Crazy: 8,000 Announced Today
The music industry announced more than 8,000 new legal cases today in a massive crackdown on illegal music sharing. The International Federa…
Morpheus Loses Case; Another P2P Domino Falls
The old peer-to-peer networks are gone, but the lawsuits linger on. A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled against Streamcast, the company…
Limewire Countersues Record Companies For Anti-Competitive Practice
Here’s a turn-up for the books: Limewire is suing the biggest record companies in the US for anti-competitive behaviour, accusing them of co…
New Media Compensation for Actors: Issues Continue With Streaming
A good story in HREsq about how Hollywood’s labor leaders, who believe current residuals paid for content sold over the Internet already are…
NYT’s Attempt To Block UK Access To Story Had Patchy Results
As we wrote earlier this week the New York Times tried the difficult balancing act of making a story about an alleged terror plot available…
NYTimes.com Keeps Terror Suspect Story Offline To Avoid Problems With UK Law
People reading the New York Times online today aren’t getting the full edition — and not because they aren’t subscribing to TimesSelect. In…
Protecting Brandnames: Apple Says Our Pod; Google Says No Google
This is more in the “really-what-were-they-thinking” category…maybe lazy August got to them or something.
First, Google has sent C&Ds to v…
MLBAM, MLBPA Will Appeal Fantasy Stats Ruling
Would be a lot more suprising if they decided not to appeal … MLB Advanced Media and the MLB Players Association plan to appeal Monday’s r…
Federal Court Says MLBAM Can’t Halt Use Of Player Names, Stats
CBC Distribution and Marketing hit an improbably long ball over the fence when its request for summary judgment against MLBAM was granted in…
Google Adds UC To Controversial Library Scanning Project
The University of California — already taking part in the Open Content Alliance scanning project — is the latest academic institution and…
Mexico’s Televisa Sues Univision About Online Rights; Major U.S. Expansion Planned
Grupo Televisa, the world’s largest Spanish-language broadcaster, who recently lost out on buying U.S. Hispanic broadcaster Univision (it st…
Dutch MP3 Site Ruled Illegal In Appeal; Taken Offline
The Dutch court of appeal has overturned a 2004 ruling legitimizing zoekmp3.nl, operated by Techno Design. The company took down the site ra…
Talent Contracts: The New Deal
Hollywood Reporter has launched a new publication, called Hollywood Reporter Esq, covering the entertainment and media law, and the new webs…
Effort To Revise U.S. Copyright For Digital Age Causes Alarm
Another U.S. House bill that passed out of committee Thursday is causing some consternation … the EFF is among those warning that a propo…
World Editors Forum: YHOO, GOOG Execs Say Portals Don’t Threat News Orgs
I’m not sure what the Russian equivalent of Rashoman is but it sounds like one variation of it played out at the World Editors Forum in Mosc…
Unlocking The iPod? Rights vs Content
I am not sure this would happen as smoothly as this B2.0 story on commerce/rights vendor Navio makes it out to be…but at least now we know…
Court Case Centers On Use Of Players’ Names; Could Scorch Fantasy Leagues
Time for an update on a lawsuit due to be heard in St. Louis Sept. 5
UK Copyright Laws Unfit For Society; Fair Use Clause Needed
UK’s copyright laws, which do not allow CD/DVDs to be copied onto portable/MP3 players, have been deemed unfit for modern society, by the Na…
Personal Media Use To Not Remain Illegal in Australia
Meanwhile, in Australia, a similar movement is afoot: downloading music from CDs onto iPods and MP3 players will no longer be illegal after…
Beatles Lose UK Trademark Suit Against Apple; Will Appeal
Apple Corps, the label founded by the Beatles, lost a trademark case against Apple Computers, which successfully argued before a British cou…
Taxing Downloads: 15 U.S. States Now Do It
A News.com story/analysis shows that 15 states and the District of Columbia now tax downloads of music, movies and electronic books. Some hi…
Apple V. Apple: “Even A Moron In A Hurry” Should Know The Difference
Or so says the attorney for Apple Computer during his opening in the trademark case. Anthony Grabiner: “It’s obvious that the content comes…
Apple V. Apple: Defining Music In The Digital Age
Anyone with an iPod full of songs purchased on iTunes might think they’ve actually downloaded the equivalent of physical copies. But Apple’s…
Court Splits The Difference Between Google, Feds
Citing privacy concerns, a federal judge in San Francisco denied the Justice Department’s demand for sample search queries by Google users b…
Court Will Order Google To Turn Over Some Data To Feds
The Justice Department is going to get some of the info it wants from Google, a federal judge said during a hearing Tuesday. The federal gov…
Fans Prosecuted For Publishing Pirated Songs Online
Two men have been indicted in federal court in Tennessee on charges of violating a provision in the 2005 FECA law that specifically prohibit…
Google Loses Case on Image Thumbnails Display; Mobile Plays Role
This is pretty significant in the scheme of things: A federal judge has ruled that portions of Google’s image search, which displays small t…
UM President Defends Google Book Search To Publishers: “Change Or Die” (pdf)
(via John Battelle’s Searchblog) University of Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman gave what reads like a passionate defense of Google Book…
Internet Firms Raise Capitol Hill Profile
An interesting story about how Internet firms are waking up and kickstarting their lobbying efforts in Washington DC. They risk being dwarfe…
Company Challenges MLB “Ownership” Of Stats
Denied a license from MLB Advanced Media to use stats in its fantasy leagues, CBC Distribution and Marketing went after the league in federa…
UK Regulator Gives Two Months For New Media Rights Settlement
UK new media regulator Ofcom has asked media companies in the country to sort out the rights issues in two months, or shut up. The media wat…
