Corporate and legal

Google has settled a long-running dispute with Belgian newspaper publishers that accused the search giant of copyright infringement over its practice of linking to French- and German-language Belgian newspapers.

The group, Copiepresse, sued Google in 2006, alleging that the search giant's use of headlines and snippets of Belgian newspaper articles in its Google News aggregation service, and its practice of providing links to cached copies of the articles in its main Web search results, violated copyright. A Belgian court sided with Copiepresse last September, ordering Google to remove the links.

Google complied with the order, but the two parties … Read more

Despite major TV networks claiming Aereo's illegitimacy, the streaming service now has an official cable TV partner: Bloomberg.

Aereo struck a deal with Bloomberg TV today to allow streaming news, according to The Wall Street Journal. Reportedly, Aereo will pay Bloomberg TV for its content, but the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We believe that our members will see deep value adding in Bloomberg Television as their 'go-to' source for financial news," Aereo founder Chet Kanojia said in a statement, according to the Journal. While Bloomberg TV announced that it was "pleased to have … Read more

Yahoo has just injected its board with a whole lot of Silicon Valley firepower by adding PayPal cofounder Max Levchin.

Also serving as the chairman of boards at Kaggle and Yelp and as a director at Evernote, Levchin is a Silicon Valley all-star. He was PayPal's CTO until eBay bought the payment services company, after which he started the social media company Slide. Levchin sold Slide to Google in 2010, and is now leading HVF, a company that focuses on big data.

His appointment was coupled with the departure of two board members, Weather Channel CEO David Kenny and … Read more

A consulting firm owned by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has inked a deal with venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.

RiceHadleyGates announced today that it will provide "strategic insight" to Khosla Ventures in an effort to help the venture-capital firm's portfolio companies "make critical business decisions around expanding to markets like China, India, and Brazil."

"We look forward to putting our network and experience to good use by helping the Khosla companies navigate the tricky waters of political, policy, and regulatory issues around the world," … Read more

Samsung Electronics may be looking to blur the lines between a phone and tablet even further.

The Korean electronics giant is working on a bigger, 6.3-inch display for the eventual Galaxy Note 3, according to the Korea Times.

Samsung has pioneered the category that some refer to as the "phablet" segment, or something between a smartphone and tablet. Initially mocked for the size of the device, Samsung saw decent sales of the first big-bodied Galaxy Note, and pushed for wider distribution with the successor Galaxy Note 2, which saw its display grow to 5.5 inches from … Read more

Foxconn International Holdings, another manufacturing division at Hon Hai that hasn't reached the same success as Foxconn Technology Group, is getting a new chairman.

The company's board of directors announced (PDF) today that Samuel Chin, its current executive director and chairman, will retire on January 1 to spend more time with his family. Tong Wen-hsin, another company director, will replace Chin as chairman. However, Chin will stay on an adviser to the chairman for 12 months.

"The company would like to take this opportunity to express its gratitude to Mr. Chin for his valuable contribution to the … Read more

Talks between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire are heating up.

Sprint confirmed via a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made public today that it is in talks with Clearwire to buy out the remaining stake in the upstart wireless provider that it doesn't already own.

The company said it believes that it would cost $2.1 billion to buy out the remaining 49 percent stake in Clearwire, valuing the company at $2.90 a share, or a 5.5 percent premium to its closing price on Wednesday.

Clearwire also submitted a filing confirming the talks, but declined to … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission wants to require all cellular carriers and Internet-based messaging providers to support text-to-911 messages.

While the four largest U.S. wireless carriers have already signed on to the plan, the U.S. agency today proposed guidelines that would require "over the top" text messaging apps -- those capable of sending text messages to phones -- to be part of the initiative, which is expected to operational by 2014. Apps that would presumably be part of the initiative include Apple's iMessage, BlackBerry's BBM, Android's MightyText, and Saumsung's ChatOn, among others.

While … Read more

Whether people call a taxi or hail one can be a contentious matter in New York City -- because of rules set up between yellow cabs and for-hire vehicles. So, it's no surprise that a smartphone app that lets users beckon yellow cabs has been a topic of hot debate with the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The commission announced Wednesday that it will vote on whether to allow such apps in a pilot program, according to the New York Times. The vote is scheduled for Thursday. Update December 13 at 10:04 a.m. PT: On … Read more