Dina Ehrenburg – Techcitement*

Apple’s Motion To Dismiss Denied, For Talking Too Damn Much

Dina Ehrenburg — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:50 +0000

Yesterday, Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in a 56-page decision, denied Apple’s motion to dismiss the federal antitrust complaint filed against it, which alleged that Apple spearheaded a conspiracy among e-book publishers to fix e-book prices by introducing “agency pricing” where the publisher, not the […]

Oracle Versus Google Trial Has No End In Sight

Dina Ehrenburg — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:00:50 +0000

This morning, Google and Oracle, with the permission of the judge, reached a stipulation, agreeing, among other things, to leave the question of damages out of the jury’s hands. As of now, the jury has found two counts of copyright infringement by Google, for nine lines of rangeCheck code and eight decompiled Java files. The […]

Judge Orders Apple And Samsung To Streamline Claims Or Delay Trial

Dina Ehrenburg — Fri, 04 May 2012 13:57:10 +0000

This week, Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California, ordered Apple and Samsung to pare down their list of complaints against one another. Judge Koh gave the parties until Monday to present a reasonable number of complaints to be presented in front of the jury at trial, scheduled to […]

Does CISPA Actually Protect Or Does It Overshare?

Dina Ehrenburg — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:15:47 +0000

Last week, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) by a vote of 248 to 168. The bill will allow (but not require) private companies to provide the government with the private information they collect, and the government may access and use this information without a warrant. Originally, the […]

Apple Accused Of Fixing E-book Prices, Conspiring With Publishers

Dina Ehrenburg — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:12:21 +0000

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal antitrust complaint against Apple and Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Simon & Shuster, Pearson, and Penguin, alleging e-book price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act. According to the complaint, after unsuccessfully trying to pressure Amazon into raising its e-book prices, the publishing companies found common cause with Apple. The […]

President Obama Is On Pinterest, With Cupcakes

Dina Ehrenburg — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:00:24 +0000

This week, President Obama’s campaign staff opened a Pinterest account. So far, the eight boards up feature typical Pinterest fare,with a political twist: Obama-themed cupcakes, clothing, someone’s decorated fingernails. The “Pet Lovers for Obama” board, featuring adorable animals (another Pinterest must), may or may not be a dig at Mitt Romney, who strapped the family […]

Apple Makes Deals To Stop Getting Pulped By Lawsuits

Dina Ehrenburg — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:00:14 +0000

According to the Dow Jones report, Apple has put forth settlement proposals to Motorola Mobility (recently acquired by Google) and Samsung, two of the largest manufacturers of Android devices. The proposed settlement would involve royalty fees of $5 to $15 per device. Meanwhile, Samsung has filed a new patent infringement claim against Apple in South […]

FBI Validates Supreme Court Concerns Over Privacy

Dina Ehrenburg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:43:26 +0000

On January 23, the U.S. Supreme Court issued three concurring opinions in U.S. versus Jones, two of which express strong concerns about government use of ostensibly public information about private citizens. As it turns out, the FBI hasn’t been idle either, and the Supreme Court’s worries aren’t at all theoretical. On January 19, the FBI […]

U.S. Supreme Court’s GPS Decision Avoids Real Issues

Dina Ehrenburg — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:00:24 +0000

This Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in U.S. v. Jones, both addressing and evading key concepts of privacy in relation to the Fourth Amendment and the ways in which emerging technology affects such privacy. The Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures “in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,” is […]

Some Good Old-Fashioned Product Liability With Quanta And AMD

Dina Ehrenburg — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:30:14 +0000

This week, Quanta Computer Inc. sued Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Inc. in federal court in the Northern District of California. Quanta is a Taiwan-based contract manufacturer of notebook computers, which assembles notebooks for companies such as HP, Dell, and Acer. In its complaint, Quanta alleged that AMD sold defective chips that Quanta used in manufacturing […]