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DOJ to Seek 'Major Concessions' on Live Nation-Ticketmaster

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 16, 2009 - 8:06am.
Washington - The U.S. Justice Dept. is providing "stiff resistance" to the proposed $1.5 billion merger of concert promoter Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) and Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM), and will require "major concessions" from the companies if it is to approve any deal, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing several people familiar with the situation. One source said there are elements of the deal in its current form that would prompt the Justice Dept. to sue to block it from happening.
tags: Deals | Music | Acquisitions | Live Nation | DOJ | Ticketmaster | Ticketing |

Authors Ask for Google Book Settlement Hearing Delay

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 23, 2009 - 8:28am.
New York - The Authors Guild has petitioned the federal court handling its settlement with Google (NASD: GOOG) over the company's ambitious book-scanning project to postpone a hearing on the settlement scheduled for Oct. 7, saying the two parties wish to work with the U.S. Department of Justice to overcome its concerns with the deal. On Friday, the Justice Dept. lodged its official opposition to the deal in its current form, and made suggestions for specific changes that could help bring approval of the settlement.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Policy | Google | Copyright | DOJ | Publishing | Books | Authors Guild | Google Book Search | E-boks |

Justice Dept. Opposes Google Book Settlement in Current Form

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 21, 2009 - 7:22am.
Washington - The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday urged the court overseeing Google's (NASD: GOOG) settlement with authors to reject the deal in its current form, "due to concerns of the United States regarding class action, copyright and antitrust law." The Justice Dept. said that "the partied should be encouraged to continue their productive discussions to address those concerns."
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Policy | Google | Copyright | E-Books | DOJ | Publishing | Books | Authors Guild | Google Book Search |

Google in Talks with Justice Dept. on Book Settlement Terms

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 17, 2009 - 10:13am.
Washington - Google (NASD: GOOG) is in talks with the U.S. Justice Department and the plaintiffs in the settlement governing its plans to create a digital book index, on potential changes to the settlement that could ease the Justice Department's concerns about the deal, Bloomberg reported, citing two anonymous sources. The judge overseeing the settlement yesterday gave Google until Oct. 2 to respond to the 400-odd briefs submitted in opposition to the settlement deal.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Policy | Google | Copyright | DOJ | Google Book Search | On Demand Books |

Justice Dept. Seeks More Info on Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 14, 2009 - 8:45am.
Washington - The U.S. Justice Department has requested additional information from Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), related to their proposed deal that would see Microsoft's Bing search engine power Yahoo search results and the two companies share advertising revenue. Both Microsoft and Yahoo confirmed for CNET News.com that they had received requests from additional information from the Justice Department, and that they would cooperate fully with the requests.
tags: Deals | Advertising | Law | Policy | Microsoft | Yahoo | Search | DOJ | Bing |

Four Alleged Members of Web Music Piracy Group Indicted

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 10, 2009 - 9:50am.
Washington - Four individuals were indicted in federal court on Thursday on copyright infringement charges, related to their alleged membership in a pre-release music piracy group that uploaded thousands of songs to the Internet. Adil R. Cassim, 29, of Granada Hills, Calif.; Bennie Glover, 35, of Shelby, N.C.; Matthew D. Chow, 28, of Missouri City, Texas; and Edward L. Mohan, II, 46, of Baltimore, are accused of being part of "Rabid Neurosis" (RNS), which the indictment says operated from at least 1999 until 2007.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | P2P | Piracy | Music | Copyright | DOJ | FBI | Rabid Neurosis |

Sony to Support Google in Settlement with Authors

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 31, 2009 - 7:32am.
New York - Sony (NYSE: SNE) intends to file a brief supporting Google's (NASD: GOOG) position in its landmark settlement with authors, over the use of copyrighted works in its massive book-scanning project, Wired.com reported.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Sony | Microsoft | Yahoo | Google | Amazon | E-Books | DOJ | Publishing | Books | Google Book Search |

Obama Justice Dept. Defends $1.92M File-Swapping Damages

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 17, 2009 - 3:00pm.
Washington - The U.S. Department of Justice has defended the constitutionality of an award of $1.92 million in damages for copyright infringement on a file-sharing network, which a jury ordered Kazaa user Jammie Thomas-Rasset to pay the major record labels.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | P2P | Music | RIAA | Copyright | DOJ | Jammie Thomas |

Report: Google, Apple Had Deal Not to Poach Employees

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 10, 2009 - 8:01am.
Palo Alto, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) and Apple (NASD: AAPL) had an unofficial agreement not to poach employees from one another, TechCrunch reported, citing unnamed former Google employees. The unwritten and non-official agreement meant that the companies would not actively recruit from one another's ranks -- although employees were free to pursue opportunities on their own.
tags: Law | Policy | Moves | Apple | Google | DOJ |

Canadian Indicted for Processing U.S. Web Gambling Payments

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 7, 2009 - 9:39am.
New York - A federal grand jury has indicted a Canadian man accused of helping process more than $350 million in payments for online gambling companies, in violation of the U.S. Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The indictment comes as legislation has been introduced in Congress to repeal the U.S. ban on Internet gambling, and instead license and tax such operations.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Gambling | DOJ | Douglas Rennick |

Congressman Urges Antitrust Veto of Live Nation-Ticketmaster

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 10, 2009 - 11:10am.
Washington - Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) asked his fellow Congressmen to join him in urging the Justice Department's antitrust division to block the proposed $1.5 billion merger of live event giants Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) and Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM), saying it will lead to higher ticket prices for consumers, Wired.com reported. "This merger violates both horizontal and vertical anti-trust principles, and will undoubtedly lead to higher ticket prices for the average fan," wrote Pascrell.
tags: Deals | Music | Acquisitions | Live Nation | DOJ | Ticketmaster | Ticketing | Bill Pascrell | Christine Varney |

NYT: Justice Dept. Steps Up Probe Into Google Book Settlement

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 10, 2009 - 8:42am.
San Francisco - The U.S. Justice Department has intensified its antitrust investigation into Google's proposed settlement with authors and publishers over its digital book-scanning project, sending formal requests for information to Google (NASD: GOOG) and others involved in the dispute, The New York Times reported.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Google | Copyright | DOJ | Publishing | Books | Authors Guild | Association of American Publishers |

Justice Dept. Probes Hiring Practices at Big Technology Firms

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 3, 2009 - 10:49am.
San Francisco - The U.S. Justice Department has launched an antitrust probe into the recruiting practices at technology firms including Google (NASD: GOOG), Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) and Apple (NASD: AAPL), The Washington Post reported, citing people with knowledge of the investigation. The reportedly "industry-wide" review is said to center on purported agreements between the companies not to hire away top talent from one another.
tags: Law | Policy | Moves | Apple | Microsoft | Yahoo | Google | DOJ | Intel | IBM | Genentech |

Justice Dept. Sides With Cablevision in Network DVR Dispute

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 1, 2009 - 12:05pm.
Washington - The U.S. Justice Department has weighed in on the side of Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) in a legal dispute between the cable TV provider and the Hollywood TV networks and movie studios, over its planned "remote storage" digital video recorder that would store recorded programs on the company's servers rather than a consumer set-top box, Dow Jones Newswires reported. U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to decline to hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that said the technology does not violate federal copyright laws.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Policy | TV | Movies | DVR | Cablevision | DOJ | Elena Kagan |

Justice Dept. to Probe Google Book Settlement With Authors

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 29, 2009 - 7:30am.
Washington - The U.S. Justice Department has launched an antitrust probe into the settlement being negotiated between Google (NASD: GOOG) and authors over the company's book-scanning service, The New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the matter. Justice Department lawyers have reportedly been in conversations in recent weeks with groups that oppose the deal, such as the Internet Archive and Consumer Watchdog.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Policy | Google | Copyright | DOJ | Publishing | Books | Authors Guild | Internet Archive | Google Book Search | Consumer Watchdog |

Obama Appoints 5th Former RIAA Attorney to Justice Dept.

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 14, 2009 - 12:34pm.
Washington - Despite calls from over 20 interest groups last week that he "diversify" his intellectual property-related appointment to the Justice Department, President Barack Obama has appointed former Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) attorney Ian Gershenorn as deputy assistant attorney of the DOJ's Civil Division, Wired.com reported. Gershengorn was a partner at Jenner & Block, which represented the labels in their landmark case against the Grokster file-sharing service -- and represents the fifth RIAA lawyer to be appointed to DOJ by Obama.

tags: Law | Policy | Moves | RIAA | Copyright | DOJ | Barack Obama |

Ticketmaster Probed on Secondary Sales; Backs Schumer Bill

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 6, 2009 - 10:13am.
Washington - Ticketmaster (NASD: TKTM) has been subpoenaed or received requests for information from the Justice Dept., Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and New Jersey's Attorney General over the resale of tickets on secondary ticketing websites, Reuters reported, citing TicketNews.com. Bruce Springsteen and many of his fans complained when they were recently directed to purchase tickets at greatly inflated prices on Ticketmaster's TicketsNow secondary ticket sales website before all available tickets to the concerts on Ticketmaster.com were sold out.
tags: Law | Policy | Music | FTC | DOJ | Ticketing | TicketsNow | Irving Azoff | Chuck Schumer |

Groups Press Obama to Diversify IP-Related Appointments

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 3, 2009 - 9:12am.
Washington - A coalition of public interest groups has written to President Obama, calling on him to "diversify" future appointments to intellectual property policy positions, after Obama named several former attorneys from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to top positions within the Justice Department. The 19 organizations signing onto the letter included the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Public Knowledge, Consumer Electronics Association, American Library Association and Wikimedia Foundation.
tags: Law | Policy | CEA | RIAA | Copyright | EFF | DOJ | Washington | Public Knowledge | USTR | Barack Obama |

Obama Justice Dept. Sides With RIAA in File-sharing Lawsuit

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 23, 2009 - 9:28am.
Washington - The Obama administration's Justice Department has weighed in on the side of the major record labels in a federal lawsuit where an accused music file-swapper has argued that current law providing for $150,000 in damages per copyright violation is "punitive," CNET News.com reported. Harvard law professor Charles Neeson and his students are arguing in the case of Joel Tenenbaum -- a student accused of sharing music on file-sharing networks -- that current copyright law provides for damages so excessive that they violate due process rights, and are therefore unconstitutional.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | P2P | Music | RIAA | Copyright | DOJ | Barack Obama | Joel Tenenbaum | Charles Neeson |

Justice Dept. Seeks More Info on Live Nation-Ticketmaster Deal

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 20, 2009 - 7:18am.
Los Angeles - Concert promotion giant Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) and Ticketmaster Entertainment (NASD: TKTM) announced on Friday that they have each received an "expected" second request from the U.S. Justice Department, for additional information regarding their proposed $2.5 billion merger.
tags: Deals | Law | Policy | Music | Acquisitions | Live Nation | DOJ | Ticketmaster | Ticketing |
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