You know who Microsoft hates? No, not Apple. It really hates DHL. Apparently, the delivery service has hit the folks in Redmond where it hurts: in the Xbox. It seems that 21,600 consoles were totally messed over by "impact damage, wetting, pilfering and shortage" when one of the company's freight trains derailed en route to Long Beach, California. The big M claims that DHL refuses to compensate for the lost goods, and has filed a complaint at a US District Court in Seattle, calling for $2 million in damages and stating that the shipper "negligently breached its duties as a common carrier, handler, bailee, warehouseman, agent, or in other capabilities." Harsh words, but really, who's to blame for this mess? Next time we suggest going with G.O.D.

[Thanks, Andrew S.]

AMD's breakup into two separate companies is certain to have wide-ranging impact in the industry, and unsurprisingly, Intel's among the first to react -- it's warning that it has "serious questions about this transaction" as it relates to its patent cross-licensing agreement with AMD and that it'll "vigorously protect" its intellectual property rights. That's about as aggro a patent attorney can get without coming to your house and peeing on the lawn (or, uh, filing a lawsuit), so we'll see how this shakes out -- for its part, AMD says that it's taken the deal into account, and that it'll "continue respecting Intel's intellectual property rights, just as we expect them to respect ours." That's a respect throwdown, right there -- you gonna take that, Intel?

It look like Hollywood's won the first round in court against RealNetworks' RealDVD DVD-ripping software -- Judge Maralyn Hall Patel (of Napster fame, remember her?) ruled yesterday that a temporary restraining order blocking sales of the software will stay in place indefinitely until she decides whether it violates the DMCA. The central issue is whether or not making a bit-for-bit copy of a DVD constitutes circumventing copy protection: the studios claim the encryption keys must be read off the disk under the terms of the license agreement, and RealNetworks obviously disagrees. There's a lot at play here, including the studios' argument that fair use doesn't serve as a defense to backing up DVDs, so we'll be tracking this one closely -- it's sadly clear to us that Hollywood's fight here is against consumers having flexibility with their media, since it lost the battle against actual piracy ages ago.

We knew Hollywood wouldn't let RealNetworks sell its RealDVD DVD-ripping-and-archiving software without a fight, and right on schedule, six major studios have filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent it from being sold. Of course, RealNetworks has been planning on hiding behind that Kaleidescape ruling all along, but straight CSS circumvention isn't really what's at the heart of the suit: according to the studios' request for a restraining order, consumers won't be able to contain themselves in the face of RealDVD's voodoo magic and will start ripping rental DVDs en masse -- seriously, the suit calls the incentive to do so "all but overwhelming." Here's a hint, guys: if you believe the temptation to do something is that strong, it probably means you can get people to pay to do it -- and you should probably be working out a business model that embraces consumers instead of funding new BMWs for your lawyers while actual piracy tears down the fragile house of cards your entire industry is built on. Or you know, whatever.

Though one may assume Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would have, um, more pressing matters on his hands these days, the man has somehow found time to address a complaint put forth by a-many travelin' Californians. Just this week Mr. Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that was put forth earlier this year that will legalize windshield GPS mounting once more. Granted, stipulations are present, but at least you won't be forced to point your retinas down at the cup holders in order to see your navigation system after January 1, 2009. In the new year, drivers in the Golden State will be able to suction their GPS unit in the "lower 7-inch corner farthest away from the driver or in the lower 5-inch corner closest to the driver." If you go pressing your luck and throw it smack dab in the middle, be prepared for whatever fine you're due.

[Via Gadling, image courtesy of GPS Tracklog]

Way back in December of 2006, NVIDIA and AMD were both pegged for potential price fixing, and nearly two years later it seems it'll finally be paying the piper. A settlement agreement is detailed in a recently filed 8-K form, which asserts that NVIDIA would pay $850,000 into a total fund of up to $1.7 million, with AMD / ATI probably left to make up the rest. Of note, the 8-K filing does mention that all of this is still "subject to court approval," but it's likely that the green light will eventually be given. Outside of that, we're also informed that NVIDIA will be handing over $112,500 to the individual plaintiffs who brought the case to court. Well, we're glad that's settled.

[Via CustomPC]

We always thought that the RIAA's first-ever filesharing trial victory against Jammie Thomas was a little suspect since the labels weren't required to prove that Thomas even had Kazaa installed on her machine or was the person using the account in question, and it looks like the court agrees -- it's just declared a mistrial and set aside the $222,000 judgment on the grounds that simply making copyrighted works available for download does not constitute copyright infringement. That's a huge decision -- the "making available" theory is the basis for most of the RIAA's legal arguments -- and it means that the RIAA will now have to prove the unauthorized transfer of each song it wants to collect damages on at the new trial. We'll see what effect this has in the broader sense -- we've got a feeling we're in for a slew of appellate decisions on both sides of the "making available" debate -- but for now it looks like the good guys are finally starting to score some points.

[Via ZDNet, thanks JagsLive]

Read - Wired article
Read - Decision [PDF]

We could start off by telling you just how much this decision will hurt Qualcomm and just how celebratory the mood must be at Broadcom, but instead, we'll key you in on this quote: "The appeals court also rejected Qualcomm's request for a new trial." At long last, we may have actually heard the end of what has seemed like a never-ending battle between the aforementioned parties. Today, a US Appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that Qualcomm had indeed infringed upon two Broadcom patents while ruling that a third patent in question was invalid. The ruling is obviously a huge win for Broadcom, who will soon be bathing in Benjamins as Qualcomm is forced to pay mandatory royalties for the chips it sells during the "sunset period" ending January 31, 2009.

[Via Reuters]

Not that we haven't seen victories over SMS spammers before, but this one is sure catching a lot of attention due to the names attached. GSI Commerce and Timberland have reportedly agreed to "establish a fund of up to $7 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against them for allegedly sending unsolicited text messages to wireless telephone users in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act." The settlement has already received preliminary approval from a judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, and while the aforementioned firms vehemently deny any wrongdoing, they concede that taking this to court would be "burdensome, protracted and expensive." More expensive than $7 million? Is that guilt we smell, or what?

[Via mocoNews]

If you had any urge whatsoever to try to your hand at drug trafficking over water while these "weird" economic times sort themselves out, uh, you may want to reevaluate your options. The ever-so-stealthy Stiletto has come to life after tracking down a remarkably quick drug-running boat near Florida; the bad guys were cruising at 42 knots, but that comic book-esque thing you're undoubtedly peering at above can reach speeds of up to 60 knots. The double-M-shaped hull enables it to navigate in extraordinarily shallow waters without trouble, and a plethora of sensors and radars give it all the power it needs to track down goons. Oddly enough, it's having a somewhat difficult time finding a government agency to truly call home, but if it continues to keep the coke out of our seas, we'd say it'll win over some hearts soon enough.

[Thanks, Laz]

Ruh roh. Those wildly flung patent infringement claims tossed out by Hillcrest Laboratories could have some merit, but even if not, it'll be the ITC making the call. The US International Trade Commission has given itself the green light to investigate the allegations made by the aforesaid company, which state that Nintendo infringed on four of its patents in order to make obscenely large quantities of cash with the hot-selling Wii. There's no telling how high (or low) this is in the agency's priority list, but we'll be keeping an ear to the ground for some sort of resolution, regardless.

It looks like the Apple options backdating mess is finally drawing to a complete close, as the last of the shareholder derivative suits against Steve Jobs and other Apple execs will reportedly settle for $14M pending the court's final approval on October 31. Apple has also agreed to reform parts of its options plan, but in the end all of this has basically come out to nothing -- particularly since shareholders in a derivative suit sue on behalf of the company, meaning the $14M is being paid by Steve and the other execs' insurance companies back to Apple, which doesn't really need it. Oh well, at least we briefly got FSJ out of it, right?

[Via AppleInsider]

Ooh, Qualcomm you been naughty. You might remember that last year Qualcomm was banned from selling various 3G chips that infringed on Broadcom's patents, but the big Q apparently believes that being in trouble is a fake idea, because it kept right on doing it -- to the point where a judge yesterday found the company in contempt for violating the injunction and ordered it to pay up gross profits from sales of its QChat push-to-talk tech to Broadcom. The court gave Qualcom 30 days to figure out how much it owes -- Sprint's paid over $93M to use the tech since last December, so it's not going to be peanuts. Qualcomm says it'll immediately comply, but is planning on appealing the order, so we'll how this all goes down.

LG and Quanta have been going at it over patents for eight years now, with LG notably seeking an injunction against the importation of Quanta-built Apple, HP, Dell, and Sony laptops, and the Supreme Court ruling that LG wasn't entitled to additional royalties, but it looks like the fight's finally over -- both sides say they've come to an agreement and will now negotiate royalty rates. No further details, but we're told BMW sales near the offices of LG and Quanta's law firms just skyrocketed.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about iPhone 3G reception issues. Whether they exist or not is largely irrelevant in a world dominated by sound-bite driven perceptions. Nevertheless, some industrious Swedes decided to apply a little scientific method to the argument and found something interesting: the iPhone 3G performed just as well (or just as poorly, depending upon your mood) as a Nokia N73 and Sony Ericsson P1 when compared head-to-head in a mobile communications test chamber. The test was conducted by real-life antenna engineers just like those camera-fumbling souls contracted by the FCC. Of course, who's going to let a few facts stand in the way of contrary opinion and litigation, eh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]