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Senate introduces bill to limit the FBI's new hacking rules
A bipartisan group of senators have introduced a new bill called the Stop Mass Hacking Act that would block expanded hacking powers the U.S. Department of Justice claims are necessary to keep up with "sophisticated 21st century criminals."
Ahead of Supreme Court trial, Aereo opens lobbying and advocacy site
The United States Department of Justice says that streaming TV service Aereo is violating copyright law. Aereo, unsurprisingly, disagrees. In five days, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments from both sides. The former has already made its case to the Supreme Court in a filing; today, Aereo fights back with its own lobbying effort: a website named "Protect My Antenna" that both makes arguments for Aereo's position and compiles various legal documents for the public to read. "We remain steadfast in our conviction that Aereo's cloud-based antenna and DVR technology falls squarely within the law," Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia said in an email to users announcing the site.
Judge to determine damages in Apple e-book case
The Mac Observer's Jeff Gamet has written a thoughtful analysis of the continuing Department of Justice legal battle against Apple regarding e-book pricing. As you'll remember, Judge Denise Cote found Apple guilty of conspiring with a group of book publishers to raise book prices. Now Judge Cote has said that she'll bring the company back to the courthouse in May 2014 to impose damages. The US Department of Justice, which brought the case against Apple in the first place, has asked Judge Cote to slap the company with a 10-year plan that would force oversight of Apple's contract negotiations and business activities. Apple's already responded to the plan, calling the proposal "draconian," "punitive" and "wildly out of proportion." The company has a good point -- the government is proposing to use injunction as a way to regulate Apple's businesses, and the 10-year plan goes well past the duration of the legal issues in the case. Apple has filed an appeal, noting that Judge Cote made errors in the trial by refusing to allow certain evidence and disregarding other evidence in her ruling. If Apple can win the appeal, the remedies imposed by the court would be dropped. Should the company lose the appeal and the Department of Justice has its way with imposing unprecedented government control on Apple's business dealings, the company stands to lose out on the e-book market. As Gamet notes in closing, Apple isn't going down without a fight, and the company has the resources to take the case all the way to the US Supreme Court if necessary. In the meantime, Amazon continues to sell books at loss-leader pricing and driving competitors out of the market.
Former senior manager at AU Optronics found guilty of involvement in LCD price fixing
The name of Taiwanese display manufacturer AU Optronics is rarely out of the courts when LCD price fixing is involved, and now another of the company's heavyweights has been convicted for the part he played in such crimes. The US Department of Justice announced that Shiu Lung Leung, formerly a senior manager at AUO, has been found guilty for his role in a "conspiracy" which artificially raised the prices of LCD-packing gear in the US. From 2002 through to 2006, Leung is said to have been privy to secret monthly meetings with his company's competitors, where they discussed price fixing (and presumably, sinister cat stroking) in "hotel conference rooms, karaoke bars and tea rooms." Leung joins a couple of other AUO execs and many from different companies who've received similar judgments, and when sentenced, could face up to a dime in the slammer and a hefty fine -- although we doubt any of that cash will be put towards a long-overdue rebate.
US gives its blessing to Google's Moto purchase
When it rains, it pours. Just hours after European regulators gave the green light to Google to snatch up Motorola Mobility, the US Justice Department gave the couple its own blessing. The $12.5 billion purchase has drawn serious scrutiny from both regulators and Big G's own partners, though, consensus seems to be that Mountain View is more interested in Moto's patents than in entering the hardware business. Though the Justice Department doesn't see the merger as an immediate threat to competition, it did issue a stern warning that it "will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action to stop any anticompetitive use of SEP (standard essential patent) rights." The concern is an understandable one since all the major players in the mobile space, Motorola included, have been at each other's legal throats for some time now. There are still a few more interested parties who will have to give their own consent to the combination including China, Israel and Taiwan. But, with two of the biggest potential blockades giving Google the thumbs up, it's looking more and more likely that the purchase will go through.
AT&T may get a discount if T-Mobile bid concessions prove too expensive
When the DOJ blocked AT&T's deal to snatch up T-Mobile, did you think Ma Bell would end up shelling out some ridiculous sum to lock things up? Well, the opposite may be the case -- according to Bloomberg, the company can get a reduced rate if regulator's requests become too pricey. A discount of sorts would be available to AT&T if the remedy to-do list surpasses 20 percent of the deal's original $39 billion price tag (about $7.8 billion). Also of note here: the company could leave the proverbial table altogether if the concessions top the 40 percent mark, only owing a break-up penalty... and shelling out the $3 billion contingency fund to Deutsche Telekom AG.
AT&T willing to make concessions to save T-Mobile merger, sources say
Now that the US government has moved to block its merger with T-Mobile, AT&T is gearing up for a long and potentially pricey legal battle with the Department of Justice. According to Reuters, however, the provider is also working on a settlement offer, in the hopes of bypassing the courtroom altogether. Sources close to the matter say AT&T will soon present its proposal to antitrust regulators, who are concerned that the company's purchase of T-Mobile may hinder market competition. Details on the proposal remain vague, though it will likely include promises to keep T-Mobile's low-cost data and calling plans, along with pledges to sell off some of its own assets. But some insiders say the carrier may have to sell up to 25 percent of T-Mobile's business in order to put regulators' minds at ease. AT&T has yet to comment on the report, though one of Reuters' sources claims that its lawyers are "pretty determined that they can find a solution, and they are pretty confident."
Three more executives indicted in LCD price fixing scheme
Protip, if you were involved in LCD price fixing between 2001 - 2006, just turn yourself in because the U.S. Department of Justice is still coming. To the surprise of anyone who thought the last couple months of guilty pleas and fines were the end, a DOJ statement today spells out indictments returned by a federal grand jury in San Francisco against two former Chungwha Picture Tube execs and one from LG Display. All the legal details in the case against Cheng Yuan Lin, Wen Jun Cheng and Duk Mo Koo are in the statement beyond the read link, but hey man, we're still waiting on our refunds.[Via Reuters]
