Business, Financial & Legal - Page 150

In a move that should help to keep innovation from being stifled, Judge Alsup, the judge presiding over the Oracle v Google trial, has ruled that sequence, structure, and organization (SSO) is not covered by today's copyright law. This, in turn, allowed him to dismiss the claims by Oracle of Google infringing on their copyright.

Instead of creating a massive precedent by making a wide ruling, Judge Alsup focused very narrowly on specific factors in the case which lead to the decision. This way he didn't create a massive precedent. He has also been very careful throughout the trial. So even though appeals are possible, it is likely his decision will be upheld.

From the judge's ruling:

It has been confirmed that Activision and Jason West and Vincent Zampella have settled their lawsuit out of court after a brief meeting on Thursday. This settlement brings to an end the two year lawsuit stemming from the termination of their employment. There was a lot of he said she said, but in the end, it seems to boil down to the fact Activision didn't want to pay them royalties.

The settlement terms, as par for the course, were not discussed and are highly secretive. This settlement also settles another lawsuit Activision was involved with. This other lawsuit was over royalties as well. When West and Zampella left, 40 or more developers left shortly after. They too filed a lawsuit saying they didn't get their royalty checks.

"All parties have reached a settlement in the dispute, the terms of which are strictly confidential," said Robert Schwartz, an attorney representing West and Zampella. West was in the courtroom, but only grinned widely as he left. Others in the game industry watched closely as it could produce some new case law that would affect somehow.

Could those words be any more mysterious? Apple CEO Time Cook when questioned about the lack of Facebook integration on iOS, said "Stay tuned". Considering that Facebook have nearly 1 billion users, and Apple's handshake with Twitter and its integration with iOS, we have to wonder, 'why not Facebook?'

Cook adds "Facebook is a great company, and the relationship is solid. I saw Sheryl (Sandberg) earlier outside. We have great respect for each other."

When Swisher reffered to Jobs calling Facebook "onerous", Cook responded with:

Attorneys representing the now defunct upload site MegaUpload have filed a motion with the court to dismiss criminal piracy charges due to the fact the US had no jurisdiction. "Megaupload does not have an office in the United States, nor has it had one previously," MegaUpload's lawyers wrote in their motion to dismiss. "Service of a criminal summons on Megaupload is therefore impossible."

The filing came today and is just the latest in a long drawn out court battle between MegaUpload and the United States. The sad part is that millions of legitimate users have been affected and their files, some the only copy, have been put into jeopardy at the hands of the US government. The issue at hand is that MegaUpload has never had a US-based agent or office:

The company's lawyers have once again asked for funds to be released to allow for a proper defense. DotCom and three other managers are in New Zealand where they continue to fight extradition. "We told the court that the United States lacked probable cause to take down the entire site," said Ira Rothken, the attorney leading MegaUpload's worldwide defense. "It would have to hold the company criminally responsible for the acts of copyright infringement committed by its users. And there is no such thing as criminal secondary copyright infringement."

The Megaupload case continues, with Kyle Goodwin, an EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) asking the court to return the files, that were legal, back to Goodwin.

Goodwin lost his files when Megaupload was seized in January, since then they've been to court, both for a hearing and a mediation, but nothing has changed according to the EFF. The problem between Goodwin's files and the court, is that the government isn't helping third parties like Goodwin to get access back to their data. This leaves no choice but court.

On May 24, EFF filed a brief asking the court to order Goodwin's rightfully owned data returned. But the problem is, is that's not just Goodwin'd files, it's the thousands upon thousands of other Megaupload users who had data on their servers, where they thought it was safe.

Would you decline $75 million? Heck, $75 for free wouldn't be too bad these days. On the flip side, Apple CEO Tim "Good Guy" Cook has declined a $75 million payout in restricted stock dividends owed to him. Yes, declined.

Apple announced plans last week where they would pay a $2.65 per share dividend on restricted stocks held by Apple employees. This is rare for a company to reward its employee stockholders like this, and even more strange for a high level executive to decline the money they are entitled to.

But, it's not all bad. AllThingsD reports that this could actually benefit both the company, and Cook in the long run. This move gets positive press for not just Apple, but Cook, which could, and most likely will, translate into more stocks sold. It also shows the kind of person Cook is, in this world of increasingly greedy CEOs and executives.

This is one of those moments where you just want to know what a person was thinking. But until someone develops a mind-reading machine, we won't know for sure. As an epitome of United States corruption, ignorance, and waste, the Berkeley, California chief of police sent out ten of his officers to track down his son's stolen iPhone.

Guess what! They didn't manage to find the device even though it had tracking software installed on it. The officers sent to find the device weren't just regular officers, although some were. Michael Meehan, the chief, also sent officers from the drug task force to aid in the search. All of this was over a replaceable iPhone that couldn't cost more than $500.

The hunt most likely cost taxpayers a few thousand dollars. It could have potentially cost even more as only some of the officers received overtime pay for their participation in the search. This truly is an epitome of selfishness. Meehan used his position to do his personal bidding while wasting my taxpayer dollars. As a California resident, I'm not exactly happy with this story. Did Meehan cross a line or was this an acceptable use of money? You be the judge and let us know in the comments.

As part of PayPal's effort to move out of the digital world into the real world, PayPal has been courting big retail stores to add the option to pay with PayPal at the point-of-sales terminals. Home Depot was the first to jump on board and has been offering the option of paying with PayPal when checking out since at least March of this year.

PayPal wants to compete with the credit card companies along with other emerging payment systems such as Google Wallet. The announcement was made at a press event today to show the progress PayPal is making with its real world payment system. PayPal still has to convince consumers that maintaining another payment method is worth the hassle.

But, if PayPal makes it simple enough and available at enough locations, it is a viable alternative to credit cards and cash. It would be especially nice if someone were to forget their wallet or not have enough cash with them. Currently, users just have to type in their phone number and a pin to pay which is pretty simple. If they add in the features they are looking to, it will be quite the competitor.

The Facebook IPO may now be part of a Securities Fraud Lawsuit, but there's some more interesting news building at the moment. Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is not around to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Zuckerberg's last public appearance was the day he rang the Nasdaq opening bell, the same day the shares went public and this problem became an issue for thousands across the world.

The only other appearance from the social networking guru is the wedding picture he posted over the weekend. It's been five days since then, and there has been nothing on his Facebook page either. The shares are steady on $32 a piece, and this just adds to the hysteria that is the Facebook IPO.

Zuckerberg and co have a large hole to dig out of, and while Facebook is a seemingly invincible brand, nothing is ever indestructible. I have seen on my ventures through the jungle that is the Internet, other sources claiming that "Facebook could destroy the U.S. economy", which may sound ridiculous, but it's not a random blog saying this, it's Market Watch, which gives it some credibility.

It seems that the ongoing tanking of the Facebook shares is now getting worse, with the Facebook IPO now the subject of a Securities Fraud Lawsuit filed in the United States District Court in New York. The lawsuit is built upon certain Facebook IPO documents containing untrue statements of material facts and omitted other facts necessary to make such statements not misleading.

But, it gets worse, the fraud lawsuit goes on to say that the Facebook IPO documents weren't prepared in accordance with Federal rules and regulations governing their preparation, thus, violating Federal Securities Laws. But, you might be safe, if you purchased, or acquired shares in Facebook common stock (FB), traceable to the Facebook IPO, on or around May 18, 2012, you can contact the Securities Fraud Attorneys to discuss your rights to recovery.

If you have purchased or acquired shares in Facebook, and want to go through with this, here are some contact details:

We previously reported that anonymous sources were saying HP was going to lay off 25,000-30,000 people. We now know that those numbers were correct as Meg Whitman has announced a restructuring plan which will result in 27,000 workers being let go. To put that number in perspective, it is about 8% of HP's 325,000-person workforce.

People won't be losing their jobs immediately as these layoffs are part of a multi-year restructuring plan. As such, the cuts will only be fully implemented by October 2014 which gives employees plenty of time to find new jobs. The move is aimed at making HP more innovative and cost efficient and will include an early retirement program and a one-time charge of $1.8 billion.

"We are making progress in our multi-year effort to make HP simpler, more efficient and better for customers, employees, and shareholders," said Meg Whitman, HP chief executive. "This quarter we exceeded our previously provided outlook and are executing against our strategy, but we still have a lot of work to do."

Seagate is looking to expand their grasp in the consumer market and what better way than acquiring a company that already produces consumer storage devices? Seagate has extended an offer to LaCie's CEO to purchase the CEO's and his affiliate's stock in LaCie which would give Seagate 64.5% of the outstanding shares, which is enough to have majority control.

Of course, this offer is pending approval by governmental regulatory agencies. Once Seagate gets these approvals, "Seagate would commence an all-cash simplified tender offer (followed as the case may be by a squeeze-out procedure) to acquire the remaining outstanding shares in accordance with the General Regulation of the French Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF)."

The offer to the LaCie CEO by Seagate is pretty good. The offer is at €4.05 with a potential adjustment depending on LaCie's cash and debt position of LaCie at closing. The price could also possibly increase by up to 3% "in the event that the threshold of 95% of the shares and voting rights of LaCie would be reached by Seagate within 6 months following closing."

It what can only be considered a win for programmers around the country, Google has been found not guilty of infringing on Oracle's patents. It took the jury an entire week of deliberations to come to this conclusion. Of the eight claims across two patents, RE38,104 and 6,061,520, Google was acquitted of every single one.

Now that we have this decision, there is no need for the trial to move onto the damages phase as there are no damages to be awarded. The jury is no longer needed in the trial as the final decision as to Fair Use has been left to Judge Alsup to decide. The judge thanked the jurors and dismissed them adding that "this is the longest trial, civil trial, I've ever been in."

Google had been found to be infringing on Oracle's copyrights on a couple of counts, but it is unclear whether or not this was fair use. The jury was unable to decide unanimously if it was. The jury found Google guilty of just one count of infringement, but Judge Alsup later ruled they infringed on 8 other minor counts.

If you want a new Xbox, you better get one now. The judge in the Motorola versus Microsoft patent infringement case has recommended to the six-person review commission that they ban imports of the Xbox 360 due to it infringing upon 4 of Motorola's patents. I can see where this could put a massive kink in Microsoft's current "buy a computer, get an Xbox" promotion.

In court documents that were released Monday, Judge Shaw recommended that the Xbox 360 4GB and 250GB be blocked and that Microsoft should have to post a bond worth 7% of the wholesale value of unsold Xbox's currently in the country. This ruling follows Shaw's previous ruling last month that Microsoft was in fact infringing on some of Motorola's patents.

"It is recommended that the Commission enter a limited exclusion order against infringing Microsoft products," Shaw wrote in his finding. "It is further recommended that the Commission issue a cease and desist order. Additionally, it is recommended that Microsoft be required to post a bond for importation of accused products during the Presidential review period."

Yesterday I reported that Facebook shares were down 11-percent from the IPO launch price of $38 per share, to a shave over $34 per share. Today, they've dropped even more, down a total of 18.1-percent from $38 per share to $31.12 per share.

An 11-percent drop, is significant in itself, but an 18.1-percent drop is even more significant as it's barely days from its IPO launch. Business Insider has a great piece on it, where they've explained that once again, Wall Street insiders had some great information, where small investors an individuals were left out in the cold.

It seems that Facebook was not as powerful on the stock market, and that this information was shared among the elite before the IPO itself. If we take note that Mark Zuckerberg himself sold 30.2 million Facebook shares, netting him (before tax) a very tidy $1.1 billion. Various people along the line who have the means and power to have much more knowledge than you or I, or the normal investor, were told to cut estimates.

Customers of Comcast's Xfinity Voice will be getting some new features which could help customers save money. The new feature is called "Voice 2go" and will allow users to make calls over WiFi using their home phone number. The new service will also allow users to text from the number while on WiFi.

"We continue to enhance our Xfinity Voice service by adding new features consumers have come to expect from smartphones and mobile technology," said Cathy Avgiris, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Data and Communications Services. "These new tools enable customers to stay connected to their home phone service and take it with them virtually wherever they go."

Using the newly redesigned Xfinity Connect Mobile app, customers can make and receive calls and texts messages for free while using WiFi. The service will also work over a mobile phone's 3G or 4G data connection and not use any minutes. These text messages can also be sent internationally to over 40 countries, including Canada, Brazil, China and, soon, Mexico.

Motorola has had a good run as its own company. They literally invented the mobile phone. But, as of late, they haven't been doing so well and Google has been courting them for some time. The deal has finally closed over seas in China, which is the last place that was holding back approval of the acquisition. Google has acquired MMI for $40.00 per share in cash which totals near $12.5 billion.

The CEO of Motorola Mobility has stepped down and Google has replaced them with one of their own. Dennis Woodside, formerly President of the Americas region for Google, will step up and become Motorola's next CEO. Google will continue to run Motorola as a separate company as well as keeping Android an open operating system.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said:

Online video creator, Machinima has had a great funding round, where they received $35 million in funding. This was led by Google, which also included existing investors found in Redpoint Ventures, and MK Capital. If you remember, Google's YouTube were after some original programming, and have been investing heavily to do so.

At the moment, Machinima's network is the largest single page view generator for YouTube, where it enjoyed more than 1.6 billion video views in the month of April. So we can see why Google ponied up for the online video creator.

YouTube is also an invaluable partner of Machinima, as YouTube is the company's primary distribution and monetization platform. Machinima plans to spend the money on investing in content and global sales, as well as international expansion and distribution. This latest move from Google shows just how important online video will be in the future, while it's not a huge investment, Machinima by itself brings in some serious viewers.

Foxconn are close to getting their cheque book out and writing a fat one for Apple to the tune of $210 million for a new production line that would be used by Apple, exclusively. The new investment would pave the way for the project to start in October in Hua'an City, part of the Jiangsu province in China, reports the China Daily.

The new plant will be of a decent size, measuring 40,000 square meters, and should hire 35,800 new employees. This is great for the local economy. The annual output of the new plant is set to be between $949 million and $1.1 billion, with the import and export value sitting at around $55.8 million.

35,800 new employees might sound good, but the Foxconn Zhengzhou Technology Park that is dedicated to making iPhones employs 120,000 people, while the Shenzhen-based plant employs an insane 200,000 people.

Yahoo have been having a hard time lately, with increased competition from Google and others, and have just announced today that they have reached a deal to sell part of their stake in China's biggest internet company, Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.

The deal will have Alibaba buying back half of Yahoo's 40-percent stake in the group for a nice $7.1 billion. Alibaba will wave $6.3 billion in cash in front of Yahoo, as well as $800 million in Alibaba preferred stock. Alibaba are also required to buy back a quarter of the remaining shares at the price of a future IPO, or alternatively, allow Yahoo to sell them in the expected public offering in the near future.

This deal now pits Alibaba Group's worth at around $35 billion. Alibaba CEO Jack Ma said in a statement to Bloomberg: