Accusations of price fixing like those now being filed in New York are nothing new, but as it turns out, the penalties don’t really stick. LG and Sharp paid hundreds of millions in a settlement back in 2008, Hitachi had its own scandal in 2009, and Sharp is already the defendant in a Dell lawsuit also alleging price fixing. Samsung seems to be the new kid on the block, but I think they can… → Read More
This guy, Fred Merle got arrested for selling Polka DVDs that he did not own the rights to. Apparently he was set up to make a deal with a tall guy dressed as a polka-fiend and now he can’t sell Polka DVDs anymore. Like forever. There is the wife, the lawyer and the tall guy with the mustache. Click to see the videos → Read More
Looks like Sony now finds itself on the business end of a class-action lawsuit. You’ll recall that a recent PS3 firmware update removed the “Other OS” option from the console, preventing owners from installing Linux (which was one of the selling points when the PS3 first came out in 2006). The removal upset one California gentleman, who filed suit with the note “Sony’s decision to force users to… → Read More
Apple doesn’t like HTC, not one bit. In fact, Apple recently filed a lawsuit against the Taiwan-based company, alleging that it has infringed 20 iPhone-related patents. This has already been discussed to death, but it gives us an opportunity to look at some of Apple’s other forays into the world of lawsuits. It’s terribly exciting. → Read More
Whoever says the legal system in this country is broken, well, you’re right. Comcast was caught tampering with its customers’ packets two years ago. It bitched and moaned like nobody’s business, earning itself no friends. The Federal Communications Commission sanctioned the gigantic corporation in what amounted to a slap on the wrist. Big deal. A class action lawsuit was filed, which was just… → Read More
Netflix is in a spot of trouble. The movie rental company has been sued by a woman who claims that it ostensibly revealed her sexual orientation. Against her wishes, obviously. Such an act amounted to an invasion of privacy, the suit argues. → Read More
Looks like Intel is in a bit of Dutch. The Federal Trade Commission sued the company for using its position in the market “to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.” Not good, no. → Read More
You knew this was coming. Someone’s driving a car. They’re talking on their cellphone, too. The car crashes. It crashes into another car. The driver of the other car dies. And now the family of the killed driver wants to sue someone. That “someone” just so happens to be the wireless provider and the manufacturer of the phone. → Read More
Looks like Apple’s lawyers will be extra busy in the coming days. Some entity by the name of St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants has filed suit against the house that Jobs built, alleging that the iPhone infringes upon several of its patents. → Read More
More Psystar news for you. We now know that the Florida-based company will have to pay Apple $2.68 million in damages over its little Hackintosh business. (That’s a partial settlement, not court-mandated or anything.) Go ahead and go to its Web site: everything is out of stock! → Read More
Apple has been fighting for a permanent injunction against Psystar, preventing the company from selling Hackintoshen and their Rebel EFI software. The company has been accused of “trafficking in circumvention devices.” → Read More
Another Xbox 360 lawsuit? Oh, yes! Datel, which makes all sorts of video game accessories, has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft because it “has taken steps to render inoperable the competing Datel memory card for no visible purpose other than to have that market entirely to themselves.” → Read More
It’s safe to say that we hear at CrunchGear think you should be able to do whatever you want with hardware that you buy. Let’s take console modding. You wanna flash the drive on your 360 for whatever reason? Fine, go ahead. But don’t think that you can log onto Xbox Live with said modded console, and play your misbegotten wares (or is that warez?), on Microsoft’s network. It’s against the TOS, it… → Read More
When is an update not an update? Today we learned that Eminem has reached a settlement with Apple over what he claims was the unauthorized use of his songs. Eminem said the record label has the right to the recordings, but not the right to turn around and sell said recordings to Apple. → Read More
The word for the day is “malvertising”. It’s a linguistic mashup that means “malicious advertising”. Not deceptive, or antagonistic, but actually harmful. You know, the kind of online advertising that delivers a virus payload that jacks up your sister-in-law’s computer and then she calls you and you have to try to troubleshoot it over the phone and she doesn’t listen and just keeps clicking that… → Read More
Great Ceasar’s ghost! A woman in Ohio is charging the double-As for breach of contract for… mum… not supplying MMS with the 3.0 firmware.
She writes in the lawsuit:
“Millions of customers, as a result of the false and deceptive representations and concealments of Apple and AT&T purchased the 3G and 3GS, waiting for the wonderful day in June 2009 when the new application would be… → Read More
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=6827163268088648679&hl=en&fs=true Ah, patent trolling: the last refuge of a dying company. Don’t get me wrong. I love my TiVo. It’s like a friend and a lover. We still have the old DVD-burning Humax model – I didn’t even upgrade to the wonky cable-card HD model – and the fact that I, a fairly plugged in tech… → Read More
When was the last time you read your AT&T contract? If you answered “never,” then may I suggest you take two minutes to look this over. That’s right, unbeknownst to you, you just lost the ability to enter into a class action lawsuit against the mobile phone carrier. High five! → Read More
Who hasn’t thought about suing their college for some reason or another? Trina Thompson is doing it. She’s a 27-year-old IT graduate from the Bronx who’s suing her alma mater, The Monroe College, for the $70,000 worth of tuition she spent there. Why? Because she doesn’t have a job and she doesn’t think the college has tried hard enough to help her find one. → Read More
Years from now, people will look back on the year 2009 as the year A) Apple lost the goodwill of a sizable chunk of the Internet audience; and B) when a high school kid sued Amazon because it remotely deleted an illegal copy of 1984. The kid is suing because he annotated the copy of the book, and now is without said notes. So of course, sue right? → Read More
AMD launched the Break Free Page: a collection of articles and quotes ramming about Intel’s bad behavior. I understand that Intel was a bad boy and revenge is sweet but making a website about it seems a little cheap. Maybe the time and effort put in slapping Intel should go to making processors. → Read More
The European Commission today announced that it has fined Intel a record €1.06 billion ($1.45 billion) for abusing its dominance in the market for computer chips to exclude its biggest (and frankly, the only serious) rival AMD by paying computer manufacturers Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and NEC as well as retailers to postpone, cancel or downright avoid using or selling the latter’s… → Read More
Fire hazard, smire hazard. A class action lawsuit accuses Apple of negligence vis-à-vis the MacSafe power adapter. The suit, filed in San Jose, says that faulty MasSafe design can lead frayed wires and general calamity, which can cause fires. → Read More
We hear of so many frivolous and petty lawsuits against (and from) Apple, it’s a bit weird to see one actually connect like this. A serious technical suit filed in 2007 alleged that Apple willfully violated a patent owned by Opti Inc. Apple did it’s darnedest, but in the end got their buns handed to them. → Read More
Ah, Taser. The Monster Cable of personal defense. Although the word “taser” has become so common as to be an improper noun like frisbee, kleenex, or google, the company still vociferously defends its trademark. I guess you can’t really blame them there, but suing Linden Labs because some Second Life player made a BDSM suit with a “built-in crotch taser”? How petty. → Read More
Again, I don’t know how so many of you guys put up with your iPhone “3G,” in quotes because of the constant complaining about the lack of speed. In fact, a lawsuit was just filed in New Jersey that accuses AT&T and Apple of, among other things, Negligent Misrepresentation and Breach of Contract. → Read More
From the frivolous lawsuit department: The folks behind Worlds.com are looking to sue the likes of World of Warcraft and Second Life for infringing on one of their longstanding patents that covers “virtual worlds” or somesuch. While that may seem pretty ludicrous, keep in mind that a similar lawsuits, against City of Heroes’ NCSoft, was filed in a plaintiff-friendly district in Texas. Best… → Read More
Another day, another lawsuit. This time, a Texas company called Wall Wireless has accused several companies, including Nintendo, Sony and Nokia, of infringing on one of its patents pertaining to wireless communication. None of the accused companies have responded to the complaint just yet. → Read More
Thanks for waiting patiently for this to all pan out over the last year or so, but that Pittsburgh couple that wanted $25,000+ from Google after noticing their home on Google Maps Street View has had their case thrown out of court. → Read More
Here’s a tip: next time your company creates a snazzy marketing slogan make sure it isn’t misleading. Microsoft may be liable to the tune of $8.5 billion as a result of so many people buying “Vista Capable” PCs in the run up to Vista’s release in January, 2007. The problem is that, to the average person, “Vista Capable” means, “Hey, I can run Vista.” And you can, but only the most… → Read More
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