HTC may have made the world’s best Android phone with the HTC One, but the company has had trouble getting the device to potential customers in a timely manner. In addition to the HTC One’s delayed release date, the device is now facing an injunction granted by a Dutch court to rival manufacturer Nokia, which is alleging that key microphone components used for the HTC One violate an exclusivity deal between Nokia and ST Microelectronics. An unnamed source tells Engadget that “the issue is likely to be a breach of an NDA between Nokia and ST Electronics as the phone maker asserts that the ‘microphone components [were] invented by and manufactured exclusively for Nokia.’” While this sort of case may be irritating for European consumers who are hoping to get their hands on the HTC One, Engadget helpfully notes that at least it isn’t yet another patent dispute.
The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has issued a fine of €145,000 to Google for illegally accessing and recording data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. Regulators called the company’s acts “one of the most serious cases of violation of data protection” in German history. It was discovered that between 2008 and 2010, Google accessed insecure Wi-Fi networks with its Street View vehicles and illegally downloaded large quantities of personal data including emails, passwords and photos. The company has admitted wrongdoing and has since deleted the data from its servers. Regulators still aren’t satisfied, however. More →
Good news for Daily Show fans: You’ll still be able to watch clips of Jon Stewart on YouTube. The Los Angeles Times reports that Viacom has lost a major copyright suit against YouTube after “a federal judge in New York on Thursday ruled that YouTube had not violated Viacom’s copyright even though users of the popular online site are allowed to post unauthorized video clips from some of Viacom’s most popular shows.” U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton dismissed Viacom’s lawsuit and said that a safe-harbor provision within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects YouTube from copyright infringement charges. In response to the ruling, Google’s general counsel Kent Walker said that “this is a win not just for YouTube, but for people everywhere who depend on the Internet to exchange ideas and information.”
A hacker affiliated with LulzSec, a spin-off of hacking group Anonymous, has been sentenced for breaching computers belonging to Sony Pictures Entertainment and distributing information to other members in 2011. A U.S. District Judge in Los Angeles on Thursday sentenced 24-year old Cody Kretsinger to a year in prison, followed by home detention and 1,000 hours of community service, Reuters reported. The hacker, who was known online as “Recursion,” pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of unauthorized impairment of a protected computer last April. Sony has said that Krestinger and other LulzSec members cost the company more than $600,000 in damages.
The Federal Trade Commission’s new chairwoman doesn’t trust advertising companies to play by the honor system. AdWeek reports that FTC chair Edith Ramirez said this week that “consumers await a functioning Do Not Track system, which is long overdue,” thus implying that the current Do Not Track system is inadequate. Instead, Ramirez said that web users needed “a persistent Do Not Track mechanism that allows consumers to stop control of data across all sites, and not just for targeting ads.” Both Google and the Digital Advertising Alliance last year agreed to adhere to a Do Not Track system that lets users restrict the data that websites can collect about them through cookies. However, the DAA drew some significant criticism last year when it announced that its members would not honor the Do Not Track settings of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser because it made Do Not Track the default option for users.
Microsoft may not be tearing it up in the consumer mobile electronics market these days, but the company hasn’t lost its acumen for rent seeking. Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it has reached an agreement with Foxconn parent company Hon Hai in which Microsoft “will receive royalties” for all Foxconn-produced “devices running the Android and Chrome OS.” Horacio Gutierrez, the deputy general counsel at Microsoft’s Intellectual Property Group, said that the company is “pleased that the list of companies benefitting from Microsoft’s Android licensing program now includes the world’s largest contract manufacturer.” Microsoft has long padded its balance sheet with Android licensing fees and starting in 2011, the company is reportedly making more money from Android devices than it makes from its own Windows Phone platform.
Samsung has been known to go on the offensive with its marketing and advertising, but a new accusation alleges that Samsung might have gone too far with a recent campaign. According to a complaint filed in Taiwan, Samsung has been accused of hiring students to publish articles on the web that attacked HTC and recommended Samsung cell phones. The allegations are now being investigated by the Fair Trade Commission and could face an $835,000 fine, AFP reported. While the company hasn’t discussed any specific allegations, Samsung did admit fault to an extent due to employees’ “insufficient understanding” of its marketing principles, and it has issued the following statement to the media: More →
European antitrust regulators are said to have accepted Google’s settlement terms following a two-year antitrust investigation into the company’s search and advertising practices. The European Union launched an investigation after several companies alleged that Google was promoting its own services ahead of the competition. The company recently proposed a deal that would have it specifically label its own properties within its search results and also display links from rival search engines in certain situations. The New York Times reports that regulators have accepted Google’s settlement offer, and the deal won’t require the company to change its search algorithm. More →
When a Microsoft (MSFT)-led group called Fairsearch Europe filed an antitrust complaint against Google (GOOG) and its Android platform this week, it didn’t merely say that the company was rigging its search results to benefit its own products. Instead, it went a step further and said that Google was unfairly promoting Android to device manufacturers by making it free to use, while also accusing the company of employing “predatory distribution of Android at below-cost.” Ars Technica’s Timothy Lee finds this sort of attack on Android to be very dangerous on Microsoft’s part since it seemingly isn’t just attacking Google but the entire nature of open-source software. More →
BlackBerry (BBRY) is very unhappy with Detwiler Fenton analyst Jeff Johnston. The company is accusing Johnston of making false claims about BlackBerry Z10 return rates in the U.S. and it plans to ask regulators in both the United States and Canada to launch a formal investigation into the matter. Johnston on Thursday claimed that “key retail partners have seen a significant increase in Z10 returns to the point where, in several cases, returns are now exceeding sales, a phenomenon we have never seen before.” BlackBerry Chief Legal Officer Steve Zipperstein says that these claims are “materially false and misleading” and says that they were “deliberately purveyed for the purpose of influencing the markets.” BlackBerry’s full press release is posted below.
The plethora of patent suits filed by or against Apple (AAPL) and Android vendors over the past couple of years has driven many judges to angry tirades. Now, U.S. District Judge Robert Scola has joined this elite club by slamming both Apple and Google (GOOG) for allegedly abusing the patent litigation system. Bloomberg reports that Scola issued an order on Wednesday that lambasted the two companies for allegedly having “no interest in efficiently and expeditiously resolving this dispute” and of “using this and similar litigation worldwide as a business strategy that appears to have no end.” More →
A small Internet company in the United Kingdom has filed a lawsuit against Google (GOOG) for allegedly promoting its own services ahead of the competition in its search results. Streetmap, an Internet maps provider similar to Google Maps, claims that Google’s “cynical manipulation of search results” has resulted in its products becoming “harder to find,” Bloomberg reported. In addition to a similar suit that took place in Brazil last fall, Google is currently being investigated by the European Union over it controversial search practices. A Google spokesperson declined to comment, telling Bloomberg that he hasn’t seen Streetmap’s complaint.
