It’s no secret that Comcast is not the most loved company, but only a few days ago some folks were happy with Comcast after a court document showed it had provided information indicating that lawyers for porn producers had planted material on a file-sharing site. Now Comcast is claiming that its copyright has been violated by the news site that published the publicly available document. [More]
lawsuits
Comcast Claims Copyright On Publicly Available Letter, Threatens To Sue Site For Publishing It
By 8.21.13
Comcast Letter Indicates Porn Troll Lawyers Planted Material On Pirate Bay
By 8.19.13
Not even a year ago, lawyer John Steele was touting himself as the “original copyright troll,” talking up his efforts to fight online porn pirates. Now his law firm is on the other end of legal boot, accused of planting copyrighted content online with the sole purpose of tracking — and threatening to sue — the people who shared those files. [More]
Time Warner Cable Customers Sue Over CBS Blackout
By 8.16.13
It’s two weeks into the Time Warner Cable vs. CBS staring contest and millions of TV viewers around the country still have no access to the network or its premium counterpart Showtime. That means it’s apparently time to call in the lawyers. [More]
Publishers: Proposal To Punish Apple Hurts Us Instead
By 8.8.13
Last week, the Justice Dept. offered its first proposal of how Apple should be punished now that it’s been found to have colluded with publishers to fix e-book prices. Among those suggestions is that Apple cancel its existing pricing arrangement with the publishers in question and that it not enter into similar arrangements for another five years. But publishers claim that this ultimately hurts the content providers and not the retailer. [More]
Aereo Announces Launch Dates For Service In Miami, Houston, Dallas
By 8.8.13
Even while it’s being sued by all the major broadcast networks, video-streaming service Aereo continues to expand into new markets with the announcement today of launch dates for customers in the Miami, Houston, and Dallas/Ft. Worth areas. [More]
DOJ Sues Bank of America For Lying About Sketchy Mortgage-Backed Securities
By 8.6.13
Even though Bank of America execs appear to have avoided criminal prosecution for their part in the recent economic collapse, BofA continues to be slapped upside its head with civil suits for its bad behavior. The latest comes from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, which sued BofA and a number of its affiliates, alleging the defendants misled investors by telling them that mortgage-backed securities were A-OK, when in fact they were more toxic than a house full of lead paint and asbestos. [More]
DOJ Proposal: Apple Must Let Amazon, Barnes & Noble Sell E-Books Through iOS Apps
By 8.2.13
Though there are Kindle and Nook apps for iPhone and iPad, restrictions put in place by Apple prevent users from actually making e-book purchases via those apps without those companies having to pay a hefty commission to Apple. You can’t even see the prices Amazon and Barnes & Noble charge for e-books, thus making it difficult to comparison shop. But as part of the proposed remedies following Apple’s loss in the recent e-book price-fixing case, the Justice Dept. says consumers should have the option of buying e-books on iOS devices from Apple’s competition. [More]
EA Makes Case That It Shouldn’t Be Part Of Lawsuit Over NCAA Games
By 7.31.13
Even though reigning, two-time Worst Company In America Electronic Arts is no longer in the video game business with the folks at the NCAA, the once-inseparable couple are both defendants in an antitrust lawsuit brought by former college athletes who allege that NCAA-branded games illegally made money from the players’ likenesses. Now EA is distancing itself even further from NCAA, claiming it was just doing what NCAA told it to do. [More]
Apple Store Employees Claim They Lost Wages While Proving They Weren’t Stealing On The Job
By 7.31.13
Former employees at Apple stores who worked on an hourly basis in New York and Los Angeles have filed a class action suit against the company, claiming they had to submit to off-the-clock searches to prove they hadn’t pilfered products after every shift. That time spent waiting in line for bag checks means they lost about $1,500 per year in wages, alleges the lawsuit. [More]
Court Strikes Down Fed’s Debit Card Swipe-Fee Rules
By 7.31.13
One of the more contentious aspects of the recent financial reforms was a directive from Congress for the Federal Reserve to set a cap for swipe fees — the amount charged to retailers for each debit card transaction — in order to bring the fees in line with what it actually costs to process the transactions. This morning, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the Fed disregarded the intention of the reforms by setting that cap much higher than it should have been. [More]
Straight Talk Users Sue Walmart And TracFone Over Throttling Of Unlimited Data Plans
By 7.30.13
Once again, a lawsuit calls into question the definition of “unlimited” when it refers to smartphone data plans. This time, the plaintiff claims that Straight Talk Wireless (a partnership between TracFone and Walmart) is effectively putting monthly data caps in place by throttling data speeds for users once they use a certain amount of data. Furthermore, alleges the complaint, users aren’t being told about the throttling until it’s too late. [More]
NYC’s Big Soda Ban Crushed By Appeals Court
By 7.30.13
Nearly five months after a last-minute ruling by a NY State Supreme Court judge took the fizz out of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to ban the sale of large sodas in city-regulated stores and restaurants, the ban has once again been dealt a blow, as an appeals court panel agreed that the city overstepped its authority. [More]
10 Reasons Why You Should Watch Tonight’s Frontline On Assisted Living
By 7.30.13
Once upon a time, assisted living facilities were created as a happy medium between simple retirement communities and skilled nursing homes. Elderly residents would live largely independent existences but would, as the name implies, receive largely non-medical assistance for things they could no longer do on their own. But that has all changed, as more Americans lived longer and assisted living operators realized they had a virtually unregulated goldmine on their hands. [More]
Delta Passenger Claims Airline Made Him Crawl Across Tarmac Rather Than Offer Assistance
By 7.29.13
A man from Hawaii who was left without the ability to walk following a car crash in 2000, has sued Delta Air Lines, claiming the carrier gave him no option but to crawl down the aisle of the plane and across a tarmac instead of him providing the assistance he says he’d been promised in advance. [More]
Dish Wins Another Battle In War Over Ad-Skipping Hopper DVR
By 7.25.13
Though the legal battle between broadcasters and Dish Network over the satellite provider’s Hopper DVR — which completely skips the ad breaks on recorded, prime-time network programming — is far from over, Dish pulled out an important victory yesterday when a federal appeals panel decided not to issue a preliminary injunction against the Hopper service. [More]
Lawsuit Accuses Walmart Of Overcharging Taxes On Coupon Purchases
By 7.25.13
A Pennsylvania man’s purchase of two cans of shaving cream at Walmart has ballooned into a lawsuits against the nation’s largest retailer, which stands accused of not taking coupons into account when calculating sales tax. [More]
Vitaminwater Labeling Lawsuit Can Continue, But Plaintiffs Probably Won’t Be Able To Seek Damages
By 7.19.13
It’s been more than four years since the Center for Science in the Public Interest and others filed its lawsuit against Coca-Cola for allegedly overstating the health benefits of vitaminwater and the case has still not been resolved. It has, however, inched closer to trial after a federal magistrate recommended that the case go forward as a class-action suit with regard to the products’ labeling, but that the plaintiffs could not sue for damages as a group. [More]
More Than 286K People Ask McDonald’s To Stop Franchisees From Paying Employees With Debit Cards
By 7.17.13
A month after an ex-McDonald’s worker in Pennsylvania sued her former employers because they required that all employees receive their pay via a fee-laden Chase prepaid debit card, she has put together a petition asking McDonald’s leadership to put an end to the practice at McDonald’s nationwide. [More]
