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Swedish Courts Dole Out First File-Sharing Fines

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 20, 2006 - 2:07pm.
London - Two Swedish men who uploaded movies and music to the Internet were convicted and fined by Swedish courts this week, according to The Register, which cited a report from Swedish site The Local. In the first case in Sweden where someone was fined for music file-sharing, a 44-year-old man from Boras paid an undisclosed sum for making songs available from artists including the Eurythmics and Roxette. In a separate case, a 32-year-old man from Norrkoping was convicted and fined for posting a Swedish film online. The cases are of note because both convictions came as a result of supporting evidence consisting of an IP address linked to a file-sharing network, which a Swedish judge in a case in September ruled was insufficient to prove guilt.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Tech | Piracy | Europe | Sweden | Rulings | File-Sharing | Fines |

FTC Fines Social Network Xanga $1 Million for Underage User Accounts

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 8, 2006 - 2:16pm.
Washington - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week that social networking site Xanga.com will pay the largest civil penalty levied thus far -- $1 million -- for allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Act. The company is alleged to have allowed some 1.7 million accounts over the past five years to be created by persons whose stated age was younger than 13.
tags: Internet | Law | Online Publishing | Social Networking | FTC | Children | Fines | UGC | Xanga | COPA |

Judge Orders Illinois to Pay $500K in Attorney's Fees to Video Game Industry

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 10, 2006 - 1:21pm.
Washington - The State of Illinois has been ordered by a federal judge to pay the video game industry over $500,000 in attorney's fees, to compensate for the industry's legal expenses in suing the state to have a law banning the sale of violent games to minors overturned.
tags: Games | Law | Lawsuits | Commerce | VSDA | Retail | ESA | Fines | Illinois |

Virgin France Fined $750,000 for Piracy of Madonna Song

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 30, 2006 - 2:47pm.
London - Virgin France, a unit of Lagardere, has been fined over $750,000 by a French court for copyright violations, after it posted a Madonna song for sale on its website that was under an exclusive deal between Warner Music France and French wireless operators Orange and France Telecom, the International Herald Tribune reported.
tags: Law | Piracy | Music | France | Copyright | Warner Music | Fines | Madonna | Virgin France |

Game Developers Who Undermine Ratings to Suffer $1 Million Fine

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 16, 2006 - 12:51pm.
Washington - At a Congressional hearing this week on the video game industry, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), an industry self-regulatory group that determines game ratings, announced a new $1 million fine on game publishers whose games turn out to be inaccurately rated as a result of their submitting incomplete descriptions.
tags: Games | Law | Ratings | ESRB | Regulation | ESA | Fines | Games Ratings |

Minnesota Passes Law Fining Minors Who Try to Buy 17+ Video Games

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 2, 2006 - 12:03pm.
St. Paul, Minn. - Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) yesterday signed a bill into law that slaps a $25 fine on minors who attempt to purchase video games rated "M" for Mature or "AO" for Adults Only.
tags: Games | Law | Commerce | Legislation | ESA | Minors | Fines | Minnesota | Mature Games |

Bill Fining Minors Who Purchase Violent Games Passes Minnesota House

Authored by dmw on May 22, 2006 - 7:03pm.
St. Paul, Minn. - The Minnesota State House has passed a bill that would compel retailers to post clear signs informing consumers of the video game ratings system, and -- in a twist not yet seen in such state-sponsored legislation -- would impose a $25 fine on minors under 18 who try to purchase Mature- or Adults Only-rated games. Introduced by State Rep. Jeff Johnson (R-St. Paul), the bill passed the House in a 114-17 vote. "We were trying to pass the narrowest bill possible just to try something different from a constitutional challenge standpoint," Rep. Johnson told GamePolitics.com. To date, similar laws passed in a number of states have been routinely struck down by the courts as unconstitutional restrictions on First Amendment free speech protections. Johnson's bill will now move to the Minnesota Senate.
tags: Games | Law | Commerce | Violent Games | Bills | Ratings | Minors | Fines |

EU to Wait Until July to Decide on Additional Microsoft Fines

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 31, 2005 - 5:25am.
Brussels -- The EU announced on Tuesday that it plans to wait until the end of next month to decide whether to impose extra fines on U.S.-based software giant Microsoft, despite the fact a compliance deadline ends tonight at midnight. EU spokesman Jonathan Todd, who said the EU was confident Microsoft would respond to anti-compliance charges on time, told Business Week that it would likely take several weeks to analyze the company's proposal properly. "We're in regular contact with Microsoft, and we have no reason to believe they will not make their final offer before midnight tonight," Todd told Business Week. "I can't say whether they're going to fall into line or not." If the EU is dissatisfied with Microsoft's proposal, it will be able to fine the company as much as 5% of its daily global sales for each day that it continues to breach the terms of a recent antitrust ruling against it.
tags: Microsoft | Fines | EU | Additional |