settlements

Google today said that a settlement for a class action suit by Gmail users over privacy violations related to Google Buzz has been granted preliminary approval by a federal district court judge. The approval was reached on October 7 but the company released the news today as it is preparing to notify Gmail users about it.

The settlement, proposed in September, calls for Google to pay $8.5 million toward a fund for organizations focusing on Internet privacy policy or education. In a statement today, Google said:

We are satisfied with the agreement and are glad to move forward, We … Read more

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to pay the U.S. government $55 million to settle charges that it paid kickbacks to technology partners for recommending HP products to federal agencies.

This final agreement, announced Monday by the Department of Justice, follows a tentative settlement reached earlier this month in which HP agreed in principle to resolve the case. The settlement closes the book on the DOJ's allegations that HP defrauded the General Services Administration (GSA) and other government agencies by paying "influencer fees" to third-party vendors.

"Contractors must deal fairly with the government when doing business with federal … Read more

LifeLock has agreed to pay $12 million to settle charges that the company failed to protect customers against identity fraud as advertised and put customer data at risk.

The company was known for its bold marketing tactics, including one that backfired after Chief Executive Todd Davis put his Social Security number in ads to promote the company's service and then had someone use his identity to take out a loan in 2007.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 35 state attorneys general had accused the Tempe, Ariz., company of deceptive business practices for making false claims to promote … Read more

NEW YORK--The disparate and dissenting constituencies that showed up to federal court here on Thursday to comment on Google's plan to create a digital library illustrated just how polarizing and far reaching the effort has become.

The gallery at the federal court house here filled not one but two rooms (one room watched the proceedings via close-circuit TV). Foreign dignitaries squeezed onto benches with cane-wielding advocates for the blind, college professors, literary agents, authors of children's books, and, of course, lots and lots of lawyers.

The one thing that most in attendance shared was a passionate view of … Read more

NEW YORK--Federal Judge Denny Chin kicked off the much-anticipated Google Books hearing Thursday morning here by making one thing clear: there will be no quick ruling in the case.

"I'm going to say right off, I'm not going to rule today," Chin said, highlighting the droves of written submissions that have come in from passionate parties on all sides of the case. "I'm going to listen to opinions carefully and I'm going to ask a few questions."

And that he's already done in morning testimony, which has been going on for … Read more

Although the amended settlement agreement for Google's Book Search addressed some concerns the U.S. Justice Department had, it still could give the company anticompetitive advantages in the digital book marketplace, the agency said on Thursday.

The Department of Justice advised the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that "class certification, copyright, and antitrust issues remain" in a court filing.

The settlement--reached between Google and the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers--would allow Google to partially display in-copyright but out-of-print books alongside books authorized by publishers and public domain works … Read more

Update 12:01 p.m. PT: To include quotes from Joe Sibley, one of Jammie Thomas-Rasset's attorneys.

The four top recording companies on Wednesday made a settlement offer to Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Minnesota woman who was found liable last summer of willful copyright infringement and ordered by a jury to pay $1.92 million in damages.

And wasting little time, Thomas-Rasset's attorneys rejected the settlement offer almost immediately.

Days after a federal court judge reduced the damage amount to $54,000, the Recording Industry Association of America forwarded settlement terms to her attorneys, according to a copy of … Read more

Debt Settlement offers some advice on handling your debts and dealing with creditors. While this e-book isn't difficult to understand, it never felt like essential reading. The information it offers seems solid enough, but it's too brief, and it doesn't offer anything you couldn't find just as easily online. There's a definite slant to its advice, too.

The program's functions are easy to operate, and its layout is simple: just a single PDF page, but it's disappointingly brief. The document itself is written in layman's terms and was never hard to understand, … Read more

The revised Google Books settlement agreement may quiet international opponents, but it still gives Google a monopoly on commercializing out-of-print books where the copyrights are unclaimed and fails to protect consumer privacy, opponents said on Monday.

"We're at a cross roads," Internet Archive Director Brewster Kahle said during a panel late Monday on the Future of Books at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. "Is it going to be a subscription life...where one or two companies own the distribution and presentation (rights) to these books?"

In response, Google Books Engineering Director Dan Clancy said: &… Read more