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LawsuitsSkype Litigation Settled; Sale by eBay to Investors to ProceedAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on November 6, 2009 - 8:35am.
 San Jose,
Calif. - Skype parent company
eBay (NASD: EBAY) announced on Friday that litigation between an investor group looking to
acquire Skype and the creators of the Internet telephone service has been
settled, and that its sale of a majority stake in Skype will now proceed. As a
result of the settlement, the acquisition deal has been restructured, and Skype
creators Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis will now join the investor group, led
by Silver Lake, and make a "significant
capital investment" in exchange for a 14% stake in Skype.
tags: Deals | Law | Lawsuits | eBay | Acquisitions | Skype | Joost | Mike Volpi | Silver Lake Partners | Andreessen Horowitz | Janus Friis | Niklas Zennstrom |
No Doubt Sues Activision Over Avatars in "Band Hero"Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 5, 2009 - 11:13am.
 Los Angeles
- The rock band No Doubt has filed a lawsuit against "Band Hero"
video game publisher Activision (NASD: ATVI), alleging the company overstepped the
permission granted by the band to include their likenesses within the game, Reuters
reported. According to the lawsuit, the band did authorize its likenesses to be
used to create avatars to perform its own songs within the game, but did not
authorize the No Doubt avatars to perform songs by other bands.
Beatles to Release Re-mastered Catalog on $279 USB DriveAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on November 4, 2009 - 10:38am.
 London
- The Beatles' record label, Apple Corps, and EMI Music have announced plans to
release a limited edition apple-shaped USB drive, containing the entire Beatles
re-mastered catalog in FLAC and MP3 format. The 30,000 USB apples will become
available on Dec. 7 in the U.K.
and Dec. 8 in North America, with a price tag
of $279.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Music | Copyright | EMI | Apple Corps | The Beatles | BlueBeat | Hank Risan |
Report: Skype Creators, eBay, Investors Near SettlementAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on November 4, 2009 - 9:29am.
San Francisco - Litigation between the inventors and former
owners of Internet phone service Skype, current owner eBay (NASD: EBAY), and an investor
group looking to acquire Skype from eBay, could be nearing a settlement, The New
York Times reported, citing several people who have been briefed on the
situation. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis -- the inventors of Skype and the
peer-to-peer technology behind file-sharing service Kazaa and video portal
Joost -- sued the investor group in a bid to block their acquisition of Skype
from eBay.
Norwegian Court: ISP Telenor Need Not Block The Pirate BayAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on November 6, 2009 - 9:57am.
Oslo, Norway - International record label trade group IFPI
has lost its court case that sought to compel Norwegian ISP Telenor to block
its subscribers' access to file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, TorrentFreak
reported.
Judge Orders Site Selling Beatles Tracks to CeaseAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on November 6, 2009 - 9:04am.
Los Angeles
- A federal judge has ordered BlueBeat, a company selling unauthorized Beatles
recordings online, to immediately cease the practice.
Facebook Awarded $711 Million in "Spam King" LawsuitAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 30, 2009 - 9:47am.
Palo Alto,
Calif. - Facebook has won a $711
million judgment against an alleged spammer who the company said accessed
members' accounts without permission and sent phony wall posts and messages.
Swedish Court: Pirate Bay Operators Must Stop Running SiteAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 29, 2009 - 7:45am.
 Stockholm,
Sweden - A
Swedish court has ordered two of the operators of file-sharing hub The Pirate
Bay to cease their involvement in operating the site, or else face fines of
$71,000 each, TorrentFreak reported. The story notes that neither Gottfrid Svartholm
nor Fredrik Neij currently reside in Sweden,
nor is The Pirate Bay itself currently hosted on servers within Sweden.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | P2P | Copyright | The Pirate Bay | Peter Sunde | Gottfrid Svartholm | Fredrik Neij |
Dutch Court Orders Pirate Bay to Remove Torrents; Block AccessAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 10:51am.
Amsterdam
- The Amsterdam Court
on Thursday gave the operators of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay three months
to remove a list of copyrighted torrents, and block access to portions of the
site from Dutch users, or else face penalties of $7,500 each per day,
TorrentFreak reported.
Lawsuit Claims Apple iPhone Infringes Nokia PatentsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 8:34am.
 Espoo, Finland - Cell phone maker Nokia (NYSE: NOK)
has filed a patent infringement against Apple (NASD: AAPL), claiming that the iPhone uses
technology covered by ten Nokia patents without permissions. Filed in federal
court in Delaware,
the lawsuit alleges that Apple is infringing Nokia patents related to GSM, UMTS
and wireless LAN standards, and technology such as wireless data, speech coding,
security and encryption.
Pirate Bay Appeal Postponed Until Summer 2010Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 19, 2009 - 9:20am.
Stockholm,
Sweden - The
appeal of the copyright infringement convictions of the four operators of
file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay has been delayed, likely until at least next
summer, as questions over potential conflicts of interest of several judges
assigned to hear the appeal are considered, TorrentFreak reported.
Pirate Bay Four Appeal Judge Bias Claims to Supreme CourtAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 16, 2009 - 8:49am.
Stockholm, Sweden - The four operators of file-sharing hub
The Pirate Bay have taken their conflict of interest challenge against two of
the judges assigned to hear their appeal of a conviction on copyright
infringement charges to the Supreme Court in Sweden, TorrentFreak reported.
Court: Ringtones Not a 'Public Performance'; No Extra RoyaltyAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 15, 2009 - 10:28am.
 San Francisco
- A federal court has ruled that a cell phone ringtone sounded in public does
not constitute a "public performance" under copyright law, and
therefore performing rights organizations like ASCAP are not entitled
to additional royalty payments from ringtones. "When a ringtone plays on a
cellular telephone, even when that occurs in public, the user is exempt from
copyright liability, and [the cellular carrier] is not liable either
secondarily or directly," the court said in its ruling.
Skype Creators Seek Injunction Against Former Joost CEO VolpiAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 15, 2009 - 9:00am.
 Wilmington,
Del. - The creators of
peer-to-peer services Kazaa, Skype and Joost have asked a federal court for an
injunction against former Joost CEO Mike Volpi and Index Ventures, where he is
now a partner, to prevent them from using trade secrets in their bid to acquire
Skype from eBay. Developers Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis allege that Volpi
breached his duties to Joost while employed there by dangling a prospective
workaround -- that would eliminate the need for Skype to use Zennstrom's and
Friis' peer-to-peer technology -- to investors looking to acquire Skype from
eBay (NASD: EBAY).
tags: Deals | Law | Lawsuits | P2P | eBay | Acquisitions | Skype | Joost | Index Ventures | Mike Volpi | Joltid | Janus Friis | Niklas Zennstrom |
EMI Drops Suit Against Grooveshark, Licenses Music to ServiceAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 13, 2009 - 11:48am.
 London - Major record label
EMI has dropped its copyright infringement lawsuit against free music streaming
site Grooveshark, and has instead agreed to license both its recording and
publishing catalogs to the site for U.S. use, Wired.com reports. "We
think services like Grooveshark offer great music discovery options for
fans," Mark Piibe, EMI Music's global head of digital business development,
told Wired.com. "In turn, Grooveshark offers a new revenue stream for our
artists and will help us learn more about how we can better connect different
types of fans with artists."
Sony Faces Class Action Suit Over PS3 Firmware UpgradesAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 7, 2009 - 12:01pm.
San Francisco
- A class action suit has been filed against Sony Computer Entertainment
America, over firmware updates for the PlayStation 3 that allegedly
"bricked" some owners' consoles, refusing to play Blu-ray discs after
installation, Ars Technica reports.
Google Book Settlement Hearing Rescheduled for Nov. 9Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 7, 2009 - 9:29am.
 New York
- The judge overseeing the proposed settlement between Google (NASD: GOOG) and authors over
the company's creation of a digital books archive has set a new hearing date of
Nov. 9 to discuss a revised settlement plan, the Associated Press reports. A
hearing had been scheduled for Oct. 7, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin agreed to
a postponement in light of criticism from the Justice Dept. and others in
opposition to the deal as it was structured at the time.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | Google | Copyright | E-Books | Publishing | Books | Authors Guild | Google Book Settlement |
Report: Studio Attorneys Targeting Pirate Bay Hosting ProvidersAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 6, 2009 - 10:17am.
San Francisco - The website
for file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay was down most of Monday, the result of the
efforts of local attorneys in Sweden
for the Hollywood movie studios to go after
the site's hosting providers, CNET News.com reported, citing Tweakers.net. The
site's current hosting provider, NForce, reportedly complied with the legal
requests to shut the site down. In recent weeks, The Pirate Bay has also been
moved from sites hosted by a Ukraine-based ISP, and Netherlands-based Black
Internet as a result of legal threats, according to the reports. The site is
currently back online.
Nintendo, Developers File Suit Against Pirate Game ImportersAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 6, 2009 - 9:41am.
Tokyo
- Nintendo and 54 developers of games for its DS handheld game system have
filed a lawsuit seeking $4.4 million in damages from four importers of devices
that allow pirated software to play on the DS, Variety reported.
Report: YouTube Employees May Have Uploaded Viacom ClipsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 6, 2009 - 8:12am.
 San Francisco
- Viacom (NYSE: VIA), the media conglomerate that filed a $1 billion copyright infringement
suit against Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube, may have uncovered evidence that YouTube employees themselves
uploaded Viacom content to the site, CNET News.com reported, citing three
sources with knowledge of the case. The evidence is reportedly found in emails,
which "indicate that YouTube managers knew and discussed the existence of
unauthorized content on the site with employees but chose not to remove the
material," CNET reports.
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