Legal

The National Security Agency is vacuuming up records of millions of phone calls made inside the United States, a top secret court order reveals.

A top secret order that was released this afternoon requires Verizon to hand over to the NSA "on an ongoing daily basis" information about all domestic and overseas calls -- "including local telephone calls."

The FBI obtained the secret order, which was disclosed by The Guardian newspaper, from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which meets behind closed doors and whose proceedings rarely become public. It was signed by FISC Judge Roger … Read more

NEW YORK -- Amazon acted like a bully and threatened the publishers when discussing a new e-book sales structure, according to two publishing CEOs who testified during the Apple e-book price-fixing trial over the last two days.

David Shanks, CEO of Penguin Group USA, and Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, said Amazon's e-book pricing, in which the publishers had little power, was the main factor that drove them to pursue deals with Apple that allowed them to set their own prices. But when the publishers attempt to change their agreements with Amazon to fall more in line … Read more

NEW YORK -- Two publishers testified this week that their e-book deals with Apple played a key role in their decisions to change digital book terms with Amazon and other retailers, giving weight to the government's antitrust case against Apple.

David Shanks, CEO of Penguin Group USA, and Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, said the price-matching clause in their contracts with Apple would have hurt them financially had they not also moved all other e-book retailers to a model where publishers set prices. The publishers had previously sold books at a heavily discounted rate on a wholesale … Read more

Apple and the George Lucas-founded audio-and-visual tech firm THX are attempting to settle a patent spat between the two companies, recently filed court documents revealed.

A legal filing late Tuesday noted that the two companies were "currently attempting to resolve this matter outside of this ligitation," Bloomberg reports.

THX filed its suit against Apple in March, accusing Apple of infringing on a patent covering sound direction from small speakers. In its complaint, THX said Apple's iPhone 4, along with iPads and iMac computers, were using that technology without a license, and were causing the company "monetary … Read more

Sure, Samsung won a victory over Apple when a judge imposed a limited sales ban on older iPhones and iPads. But Apple would survive such a ban virtually unscathed, according to Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster.

Tuesday's ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission found Apple guilty of infringing on certain Samsung cellular technology patents. Assuming the ruling stands, a ban on the infringing devices would halt sales of the AT&T models of the iPhone 4 and 3GS and the 3G versions of the first and second iPad.

A ban on most of those devices would … Read more

Jeffrey Feldman has won a reprieve from a federal court order that had given him until Tuesday to decrypt his hard drives for the FBI -- or face contempt of court.

A federal judge in Wisconsin today granted an emergency motion filed by Feldman's attorney for additional time to establish that her client's Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination would be violated.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa lifted the threat of contempt of court and jail time, at least temporarily, and asked for additional briefs from Feldman's attorney and Justice Department prosecutors. A hearing is likely to … Read more

Several older Apple iPhone and iPad models infringe on a patent held by Samsung, a judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission said on Tuesday.

In a final ruling (PDF), the ITC said Apple infringes on a Samsung patent related to cellular technology with AT&T models of the iPhone 3GS and 4, along with 3G models of the iPad 1 and 2.

As part of the ruling, the ITC has issued a limited order to bar those devices from sale in the U.S.

The decision is final, however Apple can appeal it to the Federal Circuit, … Read more

NEW YORK -- Apple argued that it had fought for equality among publishers big and small as it provided a rare glimpse into its negotiating tactics during the second day of the government's e-book price-fixing trial.

Kevin Saul, one of the key attorneys tasked with making deals for Apple's music, TV, books, and similar businesses, faced more grilling on Tuesday from U.S. Department of Justice attorney Mark Ryan over whether Apple knew and cared about the pricing of its competitors -- a key factor in the case, which accuses Apple of conspiring to control e-book pricing.

"… Read more

Apple apparently still has its eye on NFC, at least as described in a freshly won patent.

Awarded Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an Apple patent called "System and method for simplified data transfer" describes a way of automatically transferring data from one device to another.

Both devices would be configured to copy data from one to the other. The first device may be set up to save and transfer data associated with specific apps. Powering up the second device would automatically tell the first device to transfer the data. The devices outlined in … Read more