legal

Apple cloning: Worth it?

It doesn't take much to put Apple in the news, and this afternoon's excuse is that a Miami-based company called PsyStar is selling a Mac clone.

Its Web site was down earlier--ostensibly because of the overwhelming reaction to its product. As Computerworld's Gregg Keizer reports:

Before its site went dark Monday, PsyStar was pitching an Intel-based system it said could be configured to run Leopard, Apple's Mac OS X 10.5. The machine, which was priced at $399 minus Leopard, $554 with it already installed, is powered by a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor … Read more

Did a new court development spark Facebook-ConnectU settlement?

Earlier on Monday, reports surfaced that Facebook may be close to a settlement on its longstanding legal dispute with former rival ConnectU, after several years of dismissals, appeals, and general unpleasantry. But a recent court ruling suggests that the timing may not be entirely random: a judge in a U.S. court of appeals ruled that ConnectU was allowed to reinstate its case, reversing Facebook's request for dismissal.

Documents filed last Thursday from ConnectU vs. Zuckerberg et al., which has been handled in a Massachusetts district court, reveal that a senior circuit judge in the court of appeals opted … Read more

Facebook reportedly will settle ConnectU lawsuit

You're likely to be disappointed, those of you who were secretly hoping for an over-the-top, preppies-gone-nasty legal battle between Facebook's founders and the former Harvard classmates who claimed they filched their business plan.

According to Brad Stone of the New York Times, Facebook is reportedly close to settling the lawsuit that the founders of onetime social-networking site ConnectU have been pursuing for several years now.

According to the founders of ConnectU, twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their business partner Divya Narendra, they hired current Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a programmer for ConnectU when they were all … Read more

Adobe drops unpopular online Photoshop terms

Responding to criticism, Adobe Systems has modified the legal terms for using its online Photoshop Express service, a move the company promised would happen.

"Adobe has retained only those limited rights that allow us to operate the service and to enable you to do all the things the service offers," the company said in a statement. "If you decide to terminate your Photoshop Express account, Adobe's rights also will be terminated."

The earlier Photoshop Express terms of service had raised hackles among those concerned about a clause that gave Adobe sweeping rights to photos stored … Read more

Craigslist to fan blog: Give us your domain, now

You don't mess with Craigslist, apparently.

A fan-run blog called Craigslist Blog has been served a takedown notice from the massive classifieds site, according to a post from blogger Tim White on Thursday.

White posted the e-mail he'd received from Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster, which claimed that White's URL "craigslistblog.org" was "infringing" and that its name was "needlessly confusing to members of the media and the general public, and must be changed." Buckmaster did not demand that White stop blogging, but he did request that he stop using the domain, … Read more

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a...copyright fight?

"Truth, Justice, and the American Way," the long-time slogan of Superman, possibly has a new meaning for the heirs of his co-creator, Jerome Siegel. A judge in Los Angeles has found that Siegel's estate is the proper owner of the copyright to the characters created in the first issue of Action Comics, which detailed the debut of Superman. Generally credited with jump-starting the comic book medium in 1938 and with being the first superhero, the Superman copyright has spent its 70-year career under the sole proprietorship of DC Comics, now owned by Time Warner.

In unusually concise … Read more

Agree2 creates binding legal documents that won't hold up in court

Update: Agree2 CEO Pelle Braendgaard takes issue with my argument about the quality of the agreements on his service. Read his rebuttal here.

Agree2 is one part great service and one part really scary idea. It allows users to create, collaborate on, and digitally sign binding legal agreements. But it does nothing to ensure that the agreements are legally sound.

Good part first: with this service, you can either create a new agreement from scratch, or use a template on the service, and easily define the fields (such as the parties in the agreement or the monetary value of it) … Read more

EU slaps Microsoft with $1.35 billion fine

This post was updated several times, most recently at 7:40 a.m. PST, with additional reporting provided by CNET News.com's Dawn Kawamoto.

European Union regulators on Wednesday fined Microsoft a record 899 million euros, or $1.35 billion, for failing to comply with sanctions.

The fine specifically addresses sanctions over the pricing structure Microsoft had set for licensing of its interoperability protocols and patents.

The pricing issue is the last of three parts of the European Commission's historic March 2004 antitrust order, which called for the software giant to provide complete and accurate interoperability information to … Read more

Lies we lawyers tell you

It's Alfresco's end of quarter, and so as ever I'm spending my last few weeks of the quarter wading through contracts. If you've had the joy of working with contracts and those who make a living reviewing, editing, or creating them, you will have heard or read these words:

"I was able to accept most of the changes. There are just a few last items to discuss. I think we're almost there."

Translation?

"I approved all of your formatting changes but we're still oceans apart on the truly nettlesome issues that … Read more