Tag: LEGAL

Four Google executives are in court in Italy today facing charges related to a video that was posted on the Italian version of Google Video in 2006. This isn't the first time that Google has faced pressure because of videos that were illegally uploaded to Google Video or YouTube. But this time we're not talking about copyrighted music videos or movies. The video in question shows four kids ...

We've all heard the anti-trust tirades before, but the EU just doesn't want to let up on Microsoft. They're not happy with claims that OEMs are "free to include other web browsers." Nope. That just won't cut it. The answer: more bloat for the end user! Yes, the European Commission is considering forcing OEMs to distribute alternative browsers with their systems. As someone who works in the ...

YouTube has been linking copyrighted videos uploaded by third parties to their respective content owners. This occurred with a Modest Mouse video, which YouTube linked to the official Modest Mouse page. The link says "Contains Content From: Sony BMG," and it may be YouTube's way of preventing content owners from removing videos uploaded by fans. Up until now, YouTube has said it shouldn't be ...

Perhaps it's a blatant F.U. to content creators everywhere or maybe it's just an F.U. to Rockstar, but the Pirate Bay has gone out of its way to temporarily rename itself "Liberty Bay" in honor of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV. The purpose for the publicity stunt is unclear, but -- considering the company's line of work -- it's likely to get the word out on the highly-rumored rumored Grand ...

We can't deny some of us here at Download Squad love open source software. But there's not a damn fool here that will disagree with the statement: "Bill Gates is an extremely intelligent man." We won't disagree that he's done amazing things for technology as a whole. And yes, we even wish heartily we had the faith in ourselves to say if we had that much moolah, we'd be even half as charitable with ...

Facebook may be synonymous with social networking these days. But just a few years ago, wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard, where the founders of ConnectU say he stole their idea for a web site where students could connect with one another. The two companies have been fighting things ou tin the courts for a while now, and today the New York Times reports that Facebook is ...

A couple is accusing Google of diminishing the value of their property and causing them "mental" suffering" for including their recluse home in the Google Maps Street View project. The road leading up to their house is apparently labeled "private", something the Street View operator must've missed. We checked the Street View footage up to the house and didn't notice any clear "private" signs, ...

If you like yourself some BitTorrent downloading action, we recommend you help Azureus fight BitTorrent throttling ISPs like Comcast, Adelphia, SusCom, and others by installing the Network Status Monitor plug-in for Azureus / Vuze. The plug-in monitors your network traffic for anything that might prohibit your computer from utilizing its broadband connection to the fullest. Lately, some ISPs ...

Due to another company trademarking "G-Mail" in Germany, similar to Google's "Gmail" in the US, the search engine giant lost an appeal to use "Gmail" in the European Union. G-Mail stands for "Giersch Mail" in Germany, where Daniel Giersch runs an electronic postal delivery service -- if that's not email, we couldn't say what it is. As a result, Gmail is now known as Google Mail in Europe. ...

Three little letters, about a year ago, had a death-grip on the music industry: DRM. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? DRM limits the unauthorized copying and sharing of music. We can see that argument. It also limits what music can be played on certain devices. Should you get a new computer or device and need to transfer your licenses, all we can say is -- good luck with that. We speak ...

Google is no stranger to lawsuits. Everyone from Viacom to the country of Thailand has taken legal action against the internet behemoth. Heck, we're betting at least half our readers have tried to file a suit against Google at one time or another. But we've now found the incontrovertible best lawsuit ever filed against Google. And by best, we mean funniest. And kind of the saddest. This ...

Last week NBC and News Corp announced the name of their new online video venture: Hulu. In the time since then, TechCrunch uncovered the fact that Hulu translates to "cease" and "desist" in Swahili. And now online publishing site Lulu has filed a lawsuit against Hulu. OK, so the names sound similar. But what exactly is Lulu alleging in its suit? Trademark infringement Unfair and deceptive ...

Google gets brought to court again in this classic case of trademark infringement for sponsored ads. This time American Airlines is in the high flying plaintiff's seat. American Airlines have dropped a trademark case on Google's doorstep because Google allowed the purchasing and bidding on their trademarked name, which just happens to be two generic names butted together. What will the outcome be? ...

Video sharing sites like Youtube and Veoh have become easy targets for lawsuits from content owners. But when Universal Music threatened to file a suit against Veoh, CEO Steve Mitgang he didn't want to wait for Universal to follow through on that threat. Instead, Veoh filed a preemptive suit against Universal. Basically, Mitgang's position is that Veoh is protected by the DMCA's safe harbor ...

The Associated Press reports that MySpace has found and deleted the profiles of 29,000 users who are registered sex offenders. That's four times the number MySpace officials had released two months ago. While that number might seem high, keep in mind MySpace hosts 180 million profiles. The numbers were released in response to requests from attorneys general of several states. Of course this is ...