Legal

U.S. antitrust investigators are examining the terms Apple placed this week on publishers wishing to sell digital subscriptions through the App Store, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cited people familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are interested in whether Apple is violating antitrust laws by routing customers through Apple's App Store and taking a 30 percent cut of each subscription, sources told the newspaper. Regulators' interest in the subscription terms is reportedly preliminary and might not lead to a formal investigation.

Representatives for Apple, the Justice Department, and the Federal … Read more

LG Electronics wants the U.S. International Trade Commission to bar the import of the PlayStation 3 into the United States, according to a complaint.

The complaint, filed Friday with the ITC and first reported by Bloomberg yesterday, claims that the Blu-ray player in the PlayStation 3 violates several of LG's patents. The company cited Sony, Sony Corporation of America, Sony Electronics, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Sony Computer Entertainment America in the complaint, according to the docket page on the ITC's Web site.

The ITC 337 Law Blog, which is run by a private law firm, posted the … Read more

Men, sometimes, cannot help themselves. This, it seems, includes civil servants.

I am moved to this dour view of life by the case of an Australian civil servant who took his government-issued laptop home.

The Sydney Morning Herald tells the tale of this man, a senior government employee, who, once at home, chose to google the word "knockers".

This, for those of you not influenced by English colloquialisms, is a pejorative word used by little English boys to refer to women's chests.

Unfortunately, the Australian Government has in its employ a program called Spector360, which tends to … Read more

Gamers on a forum accuse Sony of adding a rootkit to its latest version of PlayStation 3 firmware.

Rootkits, in general, have a bad reputation. Security watchers often associate them with malware. In this case specifically, though, the alleged rootkit would allow Sony to peer into users' system files without their knowledge.

A user dubbed N.A., who first mentioned the alleged rootkit last week on the Neogaf forum and cited work performed by developer Mathieulh, alleged that a rootkit in firmware version 3.56 allows Sony to "remotely execute code on the PS3" when users connect to … Read more

Sony has been granted a temporary restraining order against George Hotz, better known as Geohot.

"After consideration of the record and the arguments of counsel, the court finds that a temporary restraining order is warranted," Northern District Court of California judge Susan Illston wrote in a judgment dated Wednesday and released yesterday (PDF). "Plaintiff has submitted substantial evidence showing that defendant George Hotz has violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

Sony initially filed its request for a temporary restraining order earlier this month. It said at the time that Hotz bypassed "effective technological protective measures&… Read more

The legal battle between Nokia and Apple shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.

Apple on Tuesday sued Nokia in the U.K. claiming that one of the company's patents is invalid, according to Bloomberg. The patent in question describes a scrolling technology on touch-screen handsets and is one of the patents Nokia previously sued Apple for violating.

Nokia responded to the suit saying it is confident its patents are valid and it "will take whatever actions are needed to protect our rights."

Apple representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The legal tangle between the … Read more

Apple's Steve Jobs will be taking a medical leave of absence for the second time in two years but will remain CEO of the company, involved in strategic decision-making.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will assume responsibility for the company's day-to-day operations, amid continuing investor concerns over Apple's plans for eventual transition in the corner office.

The stock market is closed today for a federal holiday. Apple is scheduled to report its first-quarter fiscal 2011 earnings tomorrow after 1 p.m. PT.

Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, took a leave in the first half of 2009 to … Read more

Apple's effort to trademark the name "App Store" has run in to opposition from Microsoft, which argues the phrase is too generic to register and would restrict competitors' ability to use of the term to describe their own services.

A week after Apple launched its App Store for iPhone apps in 2008, the company applied for a trademark for "app store," a retail store offering "services featuring computer software provided via the internet and other computer and electronic communication networks," as well as other services, according to its application with the U.S. … Read more

Earlier this week Apple was sued, along with several app developers, for allegedly sending personal information to ad networks without the users' knowledge or consent. According to one industry lawyer, there could be more lawsuits on the way.

Speaking with InformationWeek on Wednesday, attorney Kevin Pomfret said the trend of consumers turning to the courts to protect their privacy is likely to continue. "I would not be surprise if there were more lawsuits," said Pomfret.

A lawyer who advises businesses on privacy issues, Pomfret said the law is "unclear" in this area.

Apple is no stranger … Read more