agreement

Google yanks ad-blocker apps from Google Play

Users in search of ad-blocking apps on Google Play won't have any luck as of today. Google has reportedly launched a campaign to remove apps that interfere with advertising from its app store.

Several app developers for apps such as AdBlock, AdAway, and AdFree received notices from Google today saying that their apps had been taken down, according to Phandroid. Apparently, these apps were in violation of Google Play's Developer Distribution Agreement.

This agreement says that developers must agree not to "engage in any activity with the market, including the development or distribution of products, that interferes … Read more

Is your landlord after your electronics?

Sometimes, readers send me things to incite an emotion or two.

Sometimes it's laughter. Sometimes it's nausea. Sometimes, though, it's mere bafflement.

An example of this last one came from a reader in Houston. She sent me a lease agreement created by a company called Fine Arts Apartments.

She asked me to focus on one particular clause: "No use of electronics in common areas."

This seemed so peculiarly draconian that I wondered how it might have come about.

Did it really mean that you couldn't walk along the corridors of one of Fine Arts … Read more

Execs' e-mails key in employee no-poaching lawsuit, judge says

E-mails reveal that executives at Apple and Google saw a substantial financial benefit to a mutual agreement not to recruit each other's employees, a federal judge said today.

The comments came in relation to a lawsuit brought by five former employees at various tech companies, alleging that an illegal conspiracy eliminated competition for talent. The lawsuit, filed in 2011, accuses Apple, Adobe Systems, Google, Pixar, Intel, and Intuit of conspiring to keep workers' salaries artificially low.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who is pondering whether to award class action status to the lawsuit, also ordered Apple CEO Tim … Read more

Apple's patent licensing pact with HTC released -- mostly

Most of the legal settlement between Apple and HTC were made public today, oddly enough thanks to Apple's dispute with Samsung.

When the Apple-HTC settlement was announced last month, few details were released, other than that it is a 10-year joint licensing agreement for all current and future patents from both companies. However, now it also appears that both companies have nonexclusive access to certain of each other's patents, according to a heavily redacted copy of the settlement agreement released this evening (see below). And while Apple agrees not to sue over certain products, it also appears that … Read more

Judge: Samsung gets to view Apple-HTC settlement details

Samsung will be privy to some details of a confidential settlement agreement between Apple and HTC, a California judge ruled today.

Samsung's lawyers were given the go-ahead to view confidential details of the agreement that made peace between Apple and HTC earlier this month, following an impromptu hearing ordered by Magistrate Judge Singh Grewal this morning.

That deal, announced November 10, put an end to all litigation between the two companies. Many expect the same thing to eventually happen between Apple and Samsung, but recent comments made by officials of the South Korean technology giant suggest even talks about a deal are out of the question. … Read more

Watchdog calls eBay's user policy 'underhanded'

A consumer rights group accused eBay of making it tough for users to pursue litigation against the company and said the auction site operator's new user policy goes against the company's "commitment to openness."

Public Citizen, which called eBay's new user agreement "underhanded," takes issue with a section in eBay's policy that details how eBay and users' will handle legal disputes. In the agreement (scroll down to the section about legal disputes), eBay says that all claims that arise against eBay should be "resolved exclusively through final and binding arbitration," … Read more

Did Apple and China Telecom strike an iPhone 4S deal?

Apple's dealings in China have been all over the Web lately due to an eye-opening New York Times report blaming Apple for extremely subpar working conditions in its manufacturing plants in southeast Asia. That story has cast a nasty shadow over Apple in China, and now there's some more news of a deal to bring the iPhone 4S to China Telecom, China's third largest wireless carrier.

Earlier this week Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty told investors that Apple would likely strike a deal with China Telecom and China Mobile (China's largest wireless carrier) to bring the … Read more

Bidding process for Yahoo at a dead end?

The bidding process for Yahoo has been stalled by the company's decision to ban potential suitors from talking with each other, sources familiar with the situation tell Reuters.

Most private-equity firms and potential buyers considering a bid for the Web pioneer have not reviewed the financial documents Yahoo began circulating two weeks ago because of a non-disclosure agreement that must be signed before they get access to nonpublic financial data, according to the report

The agreement, which forces bidders not discuss their bidding plans with any other company that might be considering making an offer, is designed to boost … Read more

Spotify closing in on label deals

The four major record labels are warming up to Spotify, the popular European streaming music service trying to launch in the United States.

Spotify is still without signed contracts to license music from any top label and there are still numerous points to be negotiated, but the company has never been closer to finalizing deals than now, said multiple sources with knowledge of the talks.

One of the ways that Spotify has stirred the labels is by offering big money advances, the sources said. The amount could not be verified. Spokespeople for Spotify and the labels either were not immediately … Read more