settlement

Debts the pitch

Debt Settlement offers some advice on handling your debts and dealing with creditors. While this e-book isn't difficult to understand, it never felt like essential reading. The information it offers seems solid enough, but it's too brief, and it doesn't offer anything you couldn't find just as easily online. There's a definite slant to its advice, too.

The program's functions are easy to operate, and its layout is simple: just a single PDF page, but it's disappointingly brief. The document itself is written in layman's terms and was never hard to understand, … Read more

Antitrust concerns linger in Google Books deal

The revised Google Books settlement agreement may quiet international opponents, but it still gives Google a monopoly on commercializing out-of-print books where the copyrights are unclaimed and fails to protect consumer privacy, opponents said on Monday.

"We're at a cross roads," Internet Archive Director Brewster Kahle said during a panel late Monday on the Future of Books at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. "Is it going to be a subscription life...where one or two companies own the distribution and presentation (rights) to these books?"

In response, Google Books Engineering Director Dan Clancy said: &… Read more

Google Books settlement sets geographic, business limits

A revised settlement filed late Friday over Google's right to scan digital books places additional limits on the company.

The settlement allows out-of-print books from only English-speaking countries to be scanned, restricts the ways that Google can make money from scanning and digitizing out-of-print books, and requires a registry to seek out copyright holders who do not come forward.

The amended settlement comes after Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted on Monday a deadline extension to the parties to try to resolve issues that the U.S. Department … Read more

Yahoo settles pay-per-click fraud suit

Yahoo has settled a lawsuit over pay-per-click ads sold by Yahoo that wound up in some shady corners of the Internet.

Back in 2006 Yahoo was sued by a class of advertisers who alleged that Yahoo sold them ads that were supposed to appear on "highly targeted" sites and instead wound up on sites filled with spyware or run by typo squatters. Without admitting any wrongdoing, Yahoo has agreed to settle the lawsuit and change the way it sells certain ads across its sites, according to a settlement notice posted by Rust Consulting, the settlement administrator.

Yahoo will … Read more

Coalition to challenge Google Books settlement

The Internet Archive is enlisting some heavy hitters in its challenge of Google's proposed settlement with book publishers and authors.

Microsoft, Amazon, and Yahoo are joining with a few library associations to oppose the settlement, Peter Brantley, the Internet Archive's director, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. The coalition, which is expected to be announced in a couple of weeks, will be co-led by antitrust lawyer Gary Reback, Brantley said.

It's an unusual reunion for Reback, who marshaled industry opposition to Microsoft's efforts to squeeze Netscape from the browser business. Reback, who until 2000 … Read more

Reports: DOJ steps up Google Books settlement probe

The Justice Department appears to be stepping up its antitrust probe of Google's settlement last year of a class-action lawsuit filed by groups representing authors and publishers, according to reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The Justice Department has sent formal requests for information, called civil investigative demands, or CIDs, to publishers involved in the settlement, according to the reports. The increased scrutiny may signal the Justice Department's opposition to the settlement, which still requires court approval.

Under the proposed $125 million settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, … Read more

Qualcomm, Broadcom reach $891 million settlement

Qualcomm and Broadcom announced Sunday that they have agreed to end patent litigation between the companies worldwide, with Qualcomm paying Broadcom $891 million, according to the announcement.

On Wednesday, Qualcomm delayed its second-quarter earnings statement, citing advanced settlement discussions with Broadcom.

Qualcomm made this statement Sunday: "Qualcomm and Broadcom today announced that they have entered into a settlement and multi-year patent agreement. The agreement will result in the dismissal with prejudice of all litigation between the companies, including all patent infringement claims in the International Trade Commission and U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, as well as the … Read more

Authors to Google Book Search: Pay up!

Authors and publishers of tens of thousands of out-of-print books have submitted claims for compensation from Google Book Search as called for in a settlement agreement to a copyright lawsuit, a lawyer in the case said on Wednesday.

Under a $125 million settlement Google reached in October with book authors and publishers who sued over the company's book-scanning project, the search giant is required to provide notice to authors, publishers, and their heirs and successors that they may be eligible for payment.

The notice is being published in 218 countries and 72 languages, according to a statement from Boni &… Read more

ConnectU founders get $65 million from Facebook?

Talk about spilling the beans: A marketing brochure for law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, which represented would-be social network ConnectU in its much-publicized suit against Facebook, claimed that the final settlement netted the site's founders a handsome $65 million in Facebook stock and cash.

Oops.

A Law.com article dug up the brochure and its claim, and has posted a .pdf file on the Web. According to the same article, principals at the law firm now regret posting the results. Meanwhile, ConnectU remains in a fee dispute with Quinn Emanuel, a fact which came to light … Read more