legal

The top law enforcement official for the state of New York wants to know more about how Sony's data server security was circumvented in a cyberattack on its PlayStation Network two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a subpoena to three of the company's business divisions--Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Network Entertainment, and Sony Online Entertainment.

The subpoena is the latest step in probes by legislative and law enforcement officials into what enabled a hacker to gain access to the names, addresses, birthdates, e-mail addresses, and passwords of more than 100 million … Read more

Like clockwork, the first lawsuit resulting from the security breach of the personal data of more than 75 million Sony PlayStation Network customers has been filed.

The suit was filed today on behalf of Kristopher Johns, 36, of Birmingham, Ala., in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Johns accuses Sony of not taking "reasonable care to protect, encrypt, and secure the private and sensitive data of its users."

He also believes Sony took too long to notify him and other customers that their personal information had been exposed. Because of that, the complaint … Read more

A Texas jury has ruled against Google in a suit that alleged some of its use of open-source Linux code amounted to patent infringement, something that could have big implications for other companies using Linux technology and other open-source systems. In the verdict, delivered last week, the jury decided that Google should pay $5 million for the infringement.

The suit was filed in June 2009 by a firm called Bedrock Computer Technologies, which also named the likes of Yahoo, MySpace, Amazon, PayPal, Match.com, and AOL as defendants in the suit. Bedrock, as was reported when the suit was filed, … Read more

Apple has filed a lawsuit against Samsung, alleging that the consumer electronics giant has violated Apple's intellectual property in the design of its mobile devices.

The suit, which was filed last week and picked up on by The Wall Street Journal, takes aim specifically at the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets, as well as other Samsung smartphones, for "copying" Apple's user interface and design features. In it, Apple--the maker of the trend-setting iPhone and iPad--claims Samsung is infringing on its patents and is practicing unfair competition.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for … Read more

A political activist and longtime blogger for The Huffington Post filed suit Tuesday against the digital publication, its founders Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer, and its new parent company AOL, citing its use of unpaid blogger talent. The plaintiff, Jonathan Tasini, is seeking class-action status; he filed on behalf of a "putative class" of the estimated 9,000 people who have been published on The Huffington Post without compensation.

"Arianna Huffington is pursuing the Wal-Martization of creative content and a Third World class of creative people," Tasini said in a press release. "Actually, that is … Read more

Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced that it has settled its contentious suit against infamous hacktivist George Hotz, aka GeoHot.

"Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us," said Riley Russell, general counsel for SCEA, in a statement. "Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal."

For those who haven't been keeping up, Hotz hacked Sony's PlayStation 3, jailbreaking it to run non-Sony-approved software and, potentially, pirated games.

The settlement itself was apparently reached on the March 31, but Sony only just made it public. Details of the settlement, however, weren't made available.… Read more

Microsoft has once again filed opposition to Apple's efforts to trademark the phrase "App Store."

In a new reply filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to get Apple's trademark application refused, Microsoft rebutted Apple's rebuttal from earlier this month. This is the same one Microsoft knocked for breaking the rules by being too long and using a smaller font size to get in more of an argument.

"The undisputed facts establish that 'app store' means exactly what it says, a store offering apps, and is generic for the retail store services … Read more

Apple is once again protecting its trademark turf, this time with a suit against Amazon.com that takes aim at the Web retail giant's use of the term "App Store."

The suit, which was filed last week and first reported by Bloomberg this afternoon, goes after Amazon's use of the "App Store" name, which Apple filed a trademark for following the release of the iPhone 3G.

The suit seeks to prevent Amazon from using the phrase on its site or in marketing materials, according to Bloomberg. Apple is also seeking damages.

Amazon spokesperson Mary … Read more

Perhaps no Google product has spawned a better blend of quirkiness and scandal than Google Street View--cameras pranked with staged sword battles, naked men emerging from car trunks, unsavory snapshots of dead bodies, and the ire of multiple governments, primarily in Europe, who believe that it's an invasion of privacy.

But in one of those countries, Germany, Google Street View has had a victory of sorts. A Berlin court has ruled, according to Deutsche Welle, that it's legal for Google to take the street-level pictures, striking down a lawsuit brought on by a German woman who sued Google … Read more