agreement

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

Google, Verizon in tiered-Net traffic talks

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Verizon & Google agreement may raise net fees RIP Google Wave FTC & Intel reach settlement Jailbreakme.com patch coming soon

Is Yahoo Japan poised to switch to Google Search?

In what would be a stunning blow to the massive search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo, Google is apparently zeroing in on a deal to grab the algorithmic search business for Yahoo Japan, said several sources.

The agreement between Yahoo Japan and the U.S. search giant could be announced as early as today in Japan, sources said, and could be part of a larger deal between the two companies around mobile or other products.

Financial terms of such a deal were unclear.

News of the deal could come when Yahoo Japan announces its financial results at 3:10 p.… Read more

Google attorney slams ACTA copyright treaty

PALO ALTO, Calif.--An attorney for Google slammed a controversial intellectual property treaty on Friday, saying it has "metastasized" from a proposal to address border security and counterfeit goods to an international legal framework sweeping in copyright and the Internet.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, is "something that has grown in the shadows, Gollum-like," without public scrutiny, Daphne Keller, a senior policy counsel in Mountain View, Calif., said at a conference at Stanford University.

Both the Obama administration and the Bush administration had rejected requests from civil libertarians and technologists for the text of … Read more

ACTA treaty aims to deputize ISPs on copyrights

Internet service providers could become copyright cops encouraged to block access to suspected pirate Web sites, according to a previously secret draft treaty made public on Wednesday.

One section of the proposed digital copyright treaty says that immunity from lawsuits would be granted to Internet providers "disabling access" to pirated material and adopting a policy dealing with unauthorized "transmission of materials protected by copyright." If the ISPs choose not to do so, they could face legal liability.

Both the Obama administration and the Bush administration had rejected requests from civil libertarians and technologists for copies of … Read more