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lawsuit

Report: Netflix, Wal-Mart sued for allegedly colluding

Netflix, the Web's No. 1 video rental service, and Wal-Mart are being accused in a class-action lawsuit of unfairly setting prices for their rental services.

According to the Web site of Video Business, the suit was filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court, Western District of Arkansas. The lead plaintiff, Marci Badgerow, alleges that Wal-Mart agreed in 2005 to exit the online rental business in exchange for Netflix's termination of DVD sales, according to Video Business.

The plaintiffs argue that the agreement promotes unfair trade and is illegal. They assert that the pact harmed customers because … Read more

Intel files $50 million suit against insurance firm

Update at 1:50 p.m. PST, with information from American Guarantee's lawsuit against Intel in the Delaware Chancery Court.

Intel has filed a $50 million lawsuit against insurance carrier American Guarantee and Liability Insurance, alleging breach of contract.

The alleged breach involves the insurance firm's failure to pay for Intel's legal defense related to antitrust lawsuits filed by rival Advanced Micro Devices and consumers.

Intel, in the lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, alleges that American Guarantee did not step up to the plate and begin paying for the … Read more

Heartland sued over data breach

Payment processor Heartland Payment Systems has been sued over a data breach it disclosed publicly on Inauguration Day last week.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J., alleges that Heartland failed to adequately safeguard the compromised consumer data, did not notify consumers about the breach in a timely manner as required by law, and has not offered to compensate consumers for costs they may incur in protecting themselves from identity fraud.

In a statement that coincided with President Barack Obama's inauguration events, Heartland said the breach occurred last year but that it … Read more

Apple reaches $22.5 million settlement in Nano scratch suit

Apple has reached a $22.5 million settlement agreement in the class action iPod Nano scratch lawsuit and potential claimants began receiving settlement notices this week, according to the plaintiffs attorney.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2005 in a California Superior Court in Los Angeles County, alleges Apple's iPod Nano is prone to scratches and its alleged defects were not disclosed by the company.

A $22.5 million cash settlement agreement was reached in late October and a court has preliminarily approved the agreement, said the plaintiffs attorney. But it wasn't until this week that notices of the … Read more

Palm, Apple posture over iPhone IP

Apple made it clear on its earnings call it won't tolerate any pilfering of its iPhone intellectual property. It was less direct, however, on who that is directed at.

But Palm, with its recently introduced Palm Pre, apparently is willing to play the game of corporate posturing, as well.

A Palm representative, according to an interview with AllThingsD, noted the company is comfortable with its innovation and has no problem defending its developments.

Said the Palm rep:

If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves.

Anyone want to keep watch … Read more

Psystar: We bought Mac OS fair and square

Psystar is still tilting at legal windmills in its battle against Apple, this time asserting its right to do whatever it wants with products obtained legally from Apple.

After a judge rejected Psystar's antitrust argument--considered its best chance of continuing to sell its Open Computers with Mac OS X preinstalled--the Florida clone maker was allowed to amend its claims against Apple to include other arguments. It has already suggested that Apple is abusing its copyright on the operating system, and now it plans to argue that since Psystar legally purchased its copies of Mac OS X from Apple … Read more

Supreme Court declines to hear cable DVR case

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified a service called Mystro TV. That service was tested by Time Warner Cable.

The Supreme Court has declined to hear what could be a watershed copyright case that has the potential to make it easier for people to record and watch their favorite movies and TV shows at home.

On Monday, the Supreme Court asked the U.S. Department of Justice to look at a case involving a new service proposed by Cablevision that allows people to record broadcast TV shows and movies on a digital video recorder that sits in Cablevision'… Read more

Lawsuit over Yelp review settled

The lawsuit filed by a San Francisco chiropractor against a patient who wrote a negative review of him on Yelp was settled on Friday, according to the attorney for the defendant.

"This case was settled with the mutual satisfaction of both parties," said Michael Blacksburg, who represented patient Christopher Norberg. The terms of the settlement agreement are confidential and the March trial date will be canceled, he said.

The case had spurred debate over how to best balance the rights of consumers to express themselves on community forum sites with the rights of businesses to protect their reputation. … Read more

Yelp user faces lawsuit over negative review

San Franciscan Christopher Norberg went to a chiropractor after being injured in a car accident in 2006. After a disagreement with the chiropractor over billing, he posted a negative review of the business on Yelp suggesting that the doctor was dishonest. Now he is facing a defamation lawsuit that could chill self-expression on the popular gripe Web site.

"If Christopher loses then anyone on Yelp who writes a negative review better be careful," said Michael Blacksburg, an attorney representing Norberg. "This strikes at the heart of Yelp's business model and other Web sites that provide a … Read more

Model sues Google over mean, nasty blog remarks

You just can't make this stuff up.

Liskula Cohen, a Canadian model, has sued Google because of offensive remarks made about her on a blog hosted by its Blogger publishing service, according to the New York Daily News.

The 36-year-old Cohen, who appeared on the covers of W and Australian Vogue magazines in the early '90s, wants to know the identity of an anonymous blogger who called her "our #1 skanky superstar," among other lovely epithets.

The blog is called Skanks in NYC, and it is devoted more or less to ridiculing photographs of Cohen, all of … Read more