Category: Legal

Legal

Judge rules that flying commercial drones is legal, for now

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As reported on Engadget. BY JON FINGAS The Federal Aviation Administration may want to go through some rigorous testingbefore it allows commercial drone flights on a broader basis, but the National Transportation Safety Board isn’t willing to wait that long. One of the Board’s judges has determined that the FAA currently has no authority to regulate drones; the move effectively makes drones legal, and it spares a pilot from a $10,000 fine for shooting a commercial with his unmanned aircraft.…

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Business Legal

Samsung throws money at Ericsson to end smartphone patent war

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As reported on Engadget. BY DANIEL COOPER We prefer it when companies make devices, not courtroom drama, so it’s delightful to see that Samsung has silenced another one of its litigation-frenemies this morning. The company has signed a cross-licensing agreement with former Sony beau Ericsson, with a figure of around $650 million being paid up-front, and an undisclosed regular payment to follow. Now that Samsung has appeased both Google and Ericsson, let’s hope we can get back to reporting on gadgets, or else…

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Google Legal

Traffic ticket for driving with Google Glass gets dismissed in court

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As reported on Engadget. BY MAT SMITH Pay attention to the road. At least, until the cars are able to drive themselves. That’s the rule, and it was probably one of the reasons why Google Glass early-adopter Cecilia Abadie got ticketed for donning the wearable at the wheel. It was a second citation, alongside speeding, although it was dismissed by San Diego Court Commissioner John Blair, noting that: “There is no testimony it was operating or in use…

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Legal

Samsung may have spied on sealed Apple-Nokia documents to aid patent deals

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As reported on Engadget. By Steve Dent If you’re going to horse-trade on patents, it might help to know how much other companies have paid for them, no? Samsung has now been accused of corporate spying for exactly that purpose. The company’s legal negotiator, Dr. Seungho Ahn, apparently told Nokia that its terms with Apple “were known to him,” despite the fact they were marked “highly confidential — attorneys’ eyes only.” This means they should have been for…

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Google Legal Microsoft

Following Comical Scrap With Google, Microsoft’s YouTube App Will Return To Windows Phone Today

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As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEX WILHELM Well, Windows Phone fans, you are almost home. Today Microsoft’s YouTube application for Windows Phone will return to the platform’s marketplace. At last, Google and Microsoft appear to have worked out a compromise that will allow for a fully featured YouTube experience on the latter’s mobile platform. Google and Microsoft have had a fraught year, bickering over email syncing, search dominance and mobile mapping. And the YouTube thing. Microsoft had pulled…

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Government Legal Microsoft

Microsoft Asks Attorney General To Release Gag Order On NSA Spying

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As reported on TechCrunch. by GREGORY FERENSTEIN Microsoft is tired of getting pummeled in the press over reports that it hands over emails and Skype conversations to the National Security Agency. Unfortunately, the federal gag order related to the NSA is so strict that companies can’t even talk about the existence of the program. Today, Microsoft begged issued a strongly worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder to release the gag order so that that they can dispel rumors. “I’m…

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Apple Legal

Apple releases statement on customer privacy, received over 4,000 government information requests in six months

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As reported on Engadget. By Mat Smith Following the likes of Microsoft and Facebook, Apple has publicly responded to the explosion in interest in the NSA’s PRISM program, and has been authorized to reveal some of the data on what it’s shared with the US government in the past. It apparently first heard of the program when the media started to ask about it earlier this month and has reiterated that it provides no government agency with direct access…

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Apple Legal

Apple agrees to $53 million settlement for some iPhones, iPods denied warranty coverage

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As reported on Engadget. By Richard Lawler Documents have been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for a $53 million settlement between Apple and customers denied warranty coverage on their iPods and iPhones due to water damage. The case is due to Apple’s policy not to extend warranty coverage on devices where the indicator tape inside them showed exposure to liquids, however plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit argued the indicator…

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Legal

Snow Fail: The New York Times And Its Misunderstanding Of Copyright

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As reported on TechCrunch. by RYAN LAWLER You remember Snow Fall, don’t you? It was that awesome interactive reporting piece by The New York Times that everyone talked about for a week. It was called “the future of online journalism.” It was praised as a way for The New York Times to courageously battle back against online upstarts like Buzzfeed and their non-serious cat spreads. Or to not change the company’s fortunes at all. It even won a Webby! (Oh yeah, and a…

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Legal

Three men charged with helping Boston Marathon bombing suspect destroy evidence

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As reported on The Verge. By Adi Robertson Three more suspects have been charged in relation to April’s Boston Marathon bombings — not for any role in the bombing itself, but for helping to destroy evidence for friend and alleged bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. According to documents released by the FBI, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth students Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov knew Tsarnaev from college. In the wake of the bombing, both these two and a…

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