IraRothken
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Major movie studios finally file a lawsuit against Megaupload and Kim Dotcom
We're not sure what took so long, but the MPAA just announced that major movie studios (Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Columbia and Warner) have filed a civil lawsuit against former filesharing site Megaupload and the people who ran it. This comes over two years after federal investigators shut down the website, seized its files and filed criminal charges against founder Kim Dotcom aka Kim Schmitz. MPAA lawyer Steven Fabrizio (named its global general counsel late last year, he's won cases against Hotfile and IsoHunt) claims that at the time of its shutdown, Megaupload was "by all estimates the largest and most active infringing website targeting creative content in the world." Specifically targeting the site's Uploader Rewards program, the claim is that its business model was "designed to encourage theft." According to Dotcom, the rewards program was terminated six months prior to the site's shutdown, and Megaupload continued to grow without it.
iPhone 4 antennagate class-action lawsuit settled, owners to receive $15 or a free case (update)
According to CNET, a class-action lawsuit over the iPhone 4's troublesome antenna, aka Antennagate, has been settled. The planned resolution will net US residents who bought one and presumably either $15 in cash or (another?) free bumper case. CNET quotes co-lead counsel Ira Rothken (who, by the way, also represents Megaupload) saying that he believes the settlement is "fair and reasonable", affecting some 25 million people who will be notified by email and through print ads in USA Today and Macworld. Once they've received the heads up, they can go to www.iPhone4Settlement.com (not up and running yet) to register their claims. When the issue first came to light back in 2010 Apple suggested holding it differently before saying it would tweak its signal display formulas and, eventually, offering the free cases. Hopefully for the company and its users, this resolution puts the issue -- which is not a problem on the new 4S -- to bed.Update: We spoke to an Apple representative who confirmed that the settlement is for those customers who chose not to take a free case or return their phone back in 2010. It looks like holding out didn't get you much more than the option to take $15 cash instead, but we'll simply consider it a much-needed opportunity to reflect on the International Year of Biodiversity that was.
