If you read stories about movie piracy, you’ll hear the industry throw around some very specific numbers about how much money is lost to pirates by the U.S. movie business every year, but when it comes time to actually detail those damages in court, the MPAA says actual piracy damages “are not capable of meaningful measurement.” [More]
lawsuits
Passenger Sued By Southwest Worker After Taking Her Customer Service Gripe To Twitter
By 10.16.13
It’s very easy in these fast-paced technological times to take a customer service beef and basically broadcast it live over the Internet. But one Southwest passenger’s Twitter gripe over her four-year-old daughter getting assigned to a later boarding group has resulted in a lawsuit from the worker she complained about, alleging that the woman’s tweets and Facebook posts were defamatory and put the worker in a false light. [More]
Six Flags Points To Contractors In Death Of Roller Coaster Rider
By 10.16.13
You probably recall the recent incident at Six Flags Over Texas in which a roller coaster rider fell to her death and the subsequent lawsuit filed against the park by the rider’s family. Now the amusement park is responding to the allegations, and saying it can’t be blamed because it didn’t design or build the coaster. [More]
California Sues For-Profit College Operator For Lying To Students & Investors
By 10.11.13 — Updated: 6.23.14
California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed suit yesterday against a company that operates three for-profit colleges, alleging that it lied both to students about the prospects of job-placement, but also to investors about the success rate of its graduates. The complaint also accuses the colleges of illegally using military seals in its ads to lure in members of the armed services. [More]
Bartender Claims She Was Fired Over Pregnancy & For Failing To Dress Like A “California Hooker”
By 10.10.13
Even if your place of employment doesn’t have a uniform per se, many jobs like to foster a certain look. But one former bartender at a a bar in Studio City, Calif. says she was punished for not wearing risqué enough clothing, and also for the inconvenience of being pregnant. [More]
Broadcasters Want To Fast-Forward To Supreme Court Decision On Aereo
By 10.9.13
When the broadcast networks first sued Aereo over allegations of copyright infringement, the TV-streaming service was only available in the New York City area. In the short time since, it has expanded to Boston, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Salt Lake City, with plans to add around 20 more markets in the coming months. In a move that seems intended to preempt this growth, the networks are reportedly asking for their case to get Supreme Court attention ASAP. [More]
Just-Fired NHL Coach Sues Bank Of America For $3 Million
By 10.7.13
Peter Laviolette is probably still stinging after being given the boot as coach of my Philadelphia Flyers this morning, but perhaps he’s now pinned his hopes not on a Stanley Cup, but on a $3 million lawsuit against Bank of America. [More]
Trader Joe’s Loses Lawsuit Against Canadian Reseller Pirate Joe’s
By 10.7.13
Pirate Joe’s is a small retail store in Vancouver that sells only one line of merchandise: stuff purchased from Trader Joe’s and trucked across the border. People in Vancouver love Trader Joe’s, see, but the chain has no Canadian stores. Pirate Joe’s fills in the gaps for customers who don’t want to travel across the border but who really want pecan praline granola and chocolate-covered potato chips. [More]
Apple Makes Good On Pledge To Appeal E-Book Price-Fixing Ruling
October 4, 2013
Nearly three months after a federal court ruled that Apple had indeed conspired with the nation’s largest book publishers to anticompetively fix prices in the e-book market, the company has filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, possibly alleging that the court excluded important testimony that would have helped Apple’s defense. [via CNET] [More]
Exxon Sues FXX To Protect Its Good Name From Being Associated With Basic Cable
By 10.3.13
There are plenty of reasons to poke fun at Twentieth Century Fox’s new, completely unnecessary FXX network, but it’s unfair to pick on a channel that only has a single decent show (which had to be imported from FX). That hasn’t stopped ExxonMobil from taking a break from profiteering and polluting to sue Fox and FXX for having the gall to make a seemingly obvious logo design choice when presented with two consecutive Xs. [More]
Bank Of America To Pay $32 Million Over Robocall Allegations
By 10.3.13
Two of our favorites kinds of stories — big bank badness and robocalling — all wrapped into one breakfast burrito. Earlier this week, Bank of America reached a $32 million deal to settle complaints, filed on behalf of 7.7 million customers, that BofA repeatedly violated federal regulations by robocalling consumers’ mobile phones without permission. [More]
New York To Sue Wells Fargo For Failure To Comply With $26B Mortgage Settlement
By 10.2.13
Last spring, New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman threatened to sue both Bank of America and Wells Fargo, alleging that the banks had repeatedly failed to comply with the 2012 $26 billion settlement between multiple states and the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers. Now the AG intends to make good on that threat by actually filing suit against Wells. [More]
Shutdown Forces Justice Dept. To Press Pause On Attempt To Block US Airways & American Merger
By 10.1.13
It’s been more than six weeks since the Justice Dept. rained on the planned wedding between US Airways and American Airlines, and it looks like the fate of the two carriers may be further delayed by the current shutdown of the federal government. Earlier today, lawyers for the DOJ filed a motion for a stay in its lawsuit to block the merger because the shutdown is “creating difficulties for the Department to perform the functions necessary to support its litigation efforts.” [via Reuters] [More]
YouTube Copyright Bots Finally Tick Off Someone Who Understands Copyright Law
By 9.30.13
Harvard law professor and Creative Commons co-founder Lawrence Lessig knows a thing or two about copyright law. So when a record company demanded that he remove a video from YouTube that featured one of their artists’ songs, he not only fought back to keep the clip online, but has now sued that record company in the hopes of getting it, and others, to stop using auto-scanning technology to take advantage of consumers who may not know their rights. [More]
EA Ditches Plans For College Football Game After Settling Lawsuit With Former Students
By 9.26.13
For several years, reigning two-time Worst Company In America Electronic Arts has been fighting a lawsuit filed by former college athletes that accused the video game publisher, along with the NCAA and a third-party licensing firm, of illegally profiting off the likenesses of student-athletes. Now that it looks like the case could finally go to trial, EA has reached a settlement with the plaintiffs — and has ditched plans to put out a college football game in 2014. [More]
DOT Sued For Failing To Issue Rule On Rear Visibility In Cars
By 9.25.13
Everyone knows that the wheels of government don’t always turn quickly, but the folks at the Dept. of Transportation have been sitting on a Congressionally mandated new safety rule, one that could save an awful lot of lives and prevent even more injuries, for several years. In an effort to compel the DOT to finally act, several consumer groups and the parents of children who have died in auto accidents have sued the agency in a federal court. [More]
Wells Fargo Fails At Getting Federal Mortgage Lawsuit Dismissed
By 9.24.13
The same day that trial began in the Justice Dept.’s lawsuit against Bank of America, the DOJ had another victory in a similar suit filed last year against Wells Fargo, as the bank failed this morning in its attempt to have the suit dismissed. [More]
Bank Of America On Trial Over Countrywide’s “Hustle”
By 9.24.13
There are children in elementary school who were not yet born in 2007, when Countrywide Financial allegedly launched a program dubbed the “Hustle,” which removed virtually all the roadblocks in the mortgage approval process so the lender could write as many loans as possible and quickly sell them off to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for billions of dollars. Many of those mortgages proved toxic, and six years later, Bank of America has to answer in court for the bad behavior of the mortgage company it must now regret acquiring. [More]
