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O2 offers early iPhone 4 upgrade amnesty in bid to retain customers
Would you look at that. Following in the footsteps of AT&T, O2 has today announced it'll allow current customers to pay off the remainder of their contracts at a discounted rate when they re-up with the network for the iPhone 4. Irrespective of how much you're paying now, the UK carrier will charge you a flat rate of £20 ($29) for each leftover month. Considering most iPhone users rock out at £30 and above, that's a solid 30 percent discount (or contract amnesty, however you wanna view it) for the impatient types. Of course, you'll be trading away your usual 14-day cooling off period if you take them up on this deal, so you'd better make doubly sure you want the iPhone 4 on O2 before taking the plunge.
The Lawbringer: The history of Blizzard and MDY (Glider)
It's a Glider! Sorry, that's as good as the jokes are going to get. Greetings from The Lawbringer, WoW.com's weekly look at the intersection between law and the World of Warcraft. I'm a newly minted law school grad acting as your tour guide between bar prep sessions. In the last two weeks, we looked at the difference between purchases and licenses. This is of vital importance as a major bit of cyberlaw plays out in the Ninth Circuit, namely the next stages of MDY v. Blizzard, Vernor v. Autodesk, and UMG v. Augusto. Today seems like an excellent time to review the case of MDY v. Blizzard, as we've covered the other two a bit. My source for this history will be the excellent collection of files at Justicia.com, which includes all documents filed in the district court of Arizona in this case. Let's get started!
AT&T: upgrade to iPhone 4 up to six months early
So look, we know the dilemma you're in. You nabbed that iPhone 3G or 3GS a little late in the game, and now you've got to wait until December in order to snag the iPhone 4 at a discounted rate. Lucky for you, Apple and AT&T have worked to give folks like you a little leniency, with existing AT&T users able to upgrade to the iPhone 4 "up to six months early." In other words, if your current iPhone contract expires at any point in 2010, you're now eligible to grab an iPhone 4 at $199 (16GB) or $299 (32GB) so long as you agree to stay faithful to a carrier you may or may not loathe for another two years. Good thing you've got until the 24th to really think it over. Update: Good news, addicts! AT&T just pinged us to clarify that so long as your upgrade date is anytime in 2010, you're now eligible to spend an additional two years paying dues to AT&T. In other words, a fair amount of you will be able to buy one of these at contract price on day one. The full statement is after the break, along with AT&T's full pricing release.
The Lawbringer: License v. Purchase -- Sgt. Joe Friday Edition
Welcome to The Lawbringer, WoW.com's weekly look at the intersection of law and the World of Warcraft. I'm a recent law school grad acting as your tour guide and trying not to think about the Bar Exam in a few weeks. Last week's discussion of seems to have left many of y'all rather confused. The occasional hazard of having an idea that is fun to write is discovering that it isn't always as much fun to read, so I apologize for that. This week we'll be skipping the dramatization about License v. Purchase issues to get just the facts, ma'am. (If you were one of those who really enjoyed last week, you might want to check out my fiction.) We'll begin by noting that the program of World of Warcraft comes with an End User License Agreement. While vocabulary isn't everything, one has a difficult time arguing that the relationship isn't a license when one has signed a license agreement.
AT&T follows Verizon, jacks up ETF on netbooks and smartphones
There's the good kind of follow-the-leader, and then there's this. While the world cheered as all four major US wireless carriers implemented prorated early termination fees, we can all hang our heads accordingly for this one: AT&T has just followed Verizon Wireless' march into the dark, evil corners of contractland by adjusting ETFs higher for netbooks and smartphones. In an email sent out to select customers, the carrier notes that beginning on June 1st (that's less than a fortnight away), customers who select "advanced, higher-end device[s], including netbooks and smartphones, will have an ETF of $325, reduced by $10 for each month during the balance of the service agreement." That's up significantly over the $175 ETF that affects all of AT&T's handsets today, though still $25 less than VZW's plan. The silver lining -- if you could call it that -- comes with this point: customers "who are buying basic and quick messaging phones will have a lower ETF of $150, reduced by $4 for each month during the balance of the service agreement." Naturally, existing contract customers won't see any immediate change, but you can bet you'll be nailed with the new terms once you head in this summer to pre-order that iPhone 4G. The full memo is posted after the break -- so much for "rethinking possible," huh? Update: AT&T has published an "open letter" explaining the changes. Thanks, Daniel! [Thanks, L.]
AT&T's original deal on iPhone was for five years
It's what we thought... until the Wall Street Journal told us we were wrong. It's what USA Today originally reported, although nobody else was ever able to confirm it... until now. Nilay Patel at Engadget has unearthed some 2008 filings in a 2007 class-action lawsuit that clarify the matter: the AT&T/Apple deal for exclusive domestic service on the iPhone, which has caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth, was originally set for a five-year term. That would put the earliest appearance of a Verizon iPhone into the summer of 2012 -- assuming that there wasn't any reason for one or the other party to break off the agreement. Those disclosures are a couple of years old now, and the circumstances may have changed a bit (exclusivity may have been extended since then), but at least there's some grounding for what the original half-decade setup was intended to be. Even though recent analyst musings led to the surmise that the iPad's bargain data plans, which are delivered sans contract, might have been a carrot in extending AT&T's hold on the iPhone for a few more months, it's not at all clear that an extension would have been necessary to lock in sales through the end of this year.
Confirmed: Apple and AT&T signed five-year iPhone exclusivity deal -- but is it still valid?
The term of Apple and AT&T's iPhone exclusivity deal has long been a mystery -- although USA Today reported a five-year arrangement when the original iPhone came out in 2007, that number has never been independently confirmed, and it's been looking suspect in recent weeks as Verizon iPhone chatter has gotten louder. But we've been doing some digging and we can now confirm that Apple and AT&T entered into a five-year iPhone exclusive in 2007, based on court documents filed by Apple in California. Read on!
Ousted Infinity Ward founders 'plan to have an announcement very soon,' lawyer says
"Since being fired by Activision, Jason and Vince have taken steps to regain control over their creative future and plan to have an announcement very soon," Robert M. Schwartz, attorney for ousted Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, told IGN. Responding to the claims made by Activision in the countersuit filed today, Schwartz described Activision's statements as "false and outrageous" and argued that, while West and Zampella did in fact hire a Hollywood agency to represent them and consider spinning off the studio, both of those actions were driven by Activision. Their rationale for hiring the Creative Artists Agency was only to "advise them in their negotiations with Activision, and not to breach their contract," and it was Activision itself who came up with the original spinoff plans for the studio, Schwartz said. Even if the claims were true, says the attorney, West and Zampella's actions haven't "had any negative affect on Activision -- none," before pointing out that "Modern Warfare 2 has been the world's most successful video game." Schwartz says that West and Zampella "would still be at Infinity Ward developing new games" if Activision hadn't "kicked them out." With plans to announce something "very soon" relating to their "creative future," we expect them to be back to developing new games. Just not at Activision, of course. And under an umbrella of legal intrigue. Full statement after the break:
The Lawbringer: Kids and Contracts
Welcome to The Lawbringer, WoW.com's weekly visit to the intersection of law and the World of Warcraft. I am a third year law student acting as your crossing guard and trying not to get run over myself. For this week, we'll turn to my mailbag: I've turned 18 and am on an account my father WAS paying for. Is there any way without having the Ban Hammer brought down on me for me to have exclusive rights to the account? Because I'm pretty sure my father does not play and never really has. Thanks- Tom Tom's situation is not that unusual, but before we get into his question, I feel the need to reiterate something: I am not a lawyer. While I do appreciate the fact that I'm likely the closest thing to a lawyer that many of y'all feel comfortable contacting, I can't help you with real legal problems. That's a little no-no known as practicing law without a license; doing so could make me ineligible for the bar exam. And let me tell you, I do not want to end up with a loan bill bigger than my parents' mortgage without the piece of paper necessary to pay that debt off. I can tell you what the EULA and TOU says, what the current law is, what policies Blizzard has in place, but I can't tell you what you should do. (I also feel compelled to note that I am female. For those wishing to accuse me of blind loyalty to Blizzard: if I were a fanboy, the byline would read Gregory Rummel.)
The Lawbringer: Interfering with gold farmers
Welcome to the Lawbringer, your weekly tour of the intersection between law and Warcraft. I am a third year law student specializing in intellectual property law acting as your crossing guard, trying desperately not to get run over myself. So last week we engaged in some speculation about how WoW might change if Blizzard permitted gold sales. Personally, I think that the damage to the game economy and culture would be far more damaging than any legal issues that might develop, but it's worth noting that legal issues could easily develop. As for the here and now, certain facts about gold selling remain: Gold selling is against the terms of both the North American and European EULA and TOU. Gold selling is performed by a number of companies, many of them located outside the Unites States. Gold sellers acquire their gold through obnoxious farming behaviors and account hacking. Gold sellers exist because of gold buyers. Given all this, what can we as players do to stop these locusts? The biggest thing is obviously to NOT buy gold. I really don't think this point can be emphasized enough. Beyond that though, we may be able to take advantage of a legal theory known as tortious interference in contract.
EFF releases iPhone developer license agreement
In a step towards transparency, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has made the entire iPhone Developer Program License Agreement available for the general public. This is the document that all iPhone developers must agree to when they become part of the iPhone developer program. As EFF points out, public copies of the license agreement are pretty scarce thanks to developers being locked under a non-disclosure agreement as part of the contract. EFF used the Freedom of Information Act to get its copy from NASA, which is the version from approximately a year ago (Rev. 3-17-09). The agreement has been updated since then. The EFF characterizes the agreement as "a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn," and that's not an overstatement. Some of the clauses and conditions in the Apple developer agreement do smack of "our field, our ball, our rules" thinking from Cupertino. Highlights from the 28-page document include: A ban prohibiting developers from making public statements about the license agreement; however the contract itself is not considered "Apple Confidential Information." Apps developed from Apple's SDK are only allowed to be sold through the App Store. You can't push it anywhere else (Cydia, etc.), even if Apple has rejected the app for any reason. Developers are forbidden to tinker with any Apple products, not just the iPhone. This includes jailbreaking. Apple is not liable for more than $50 in damages in case something happens on their end to your app. This is laughable, and I'm honestly surprised that Apple has not had a legal challenge over this yet. Devices used for testing purposes could be locked into a "testing mode," and may not be able to be restored to their original condition. That is one way to brick your device. I discussed the EFF's post with Mike Rose, and he offered some editorial comment; read on for more.
Raytheon scores $886 million contract to improve GPS capabilities
Don't count on your navigation unit seeing a sudden improvement anytime soon, but Raytheon has announced that it's landed an massive $886 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to develop a new element of GPS called the advanced control segment (or OCX, somehow). Once complete, that promises to not only provide a range of enhancements for military GPS use (including anti-jam capabilities and improved security), but improved accuracy and reliability for civil GPS users as well. Details are otherwise a bit light, and this contract only represents the first of two development blocks, but it looks like GLONASS and Galileo may have to step up their game a bit further if they want to stay competitive in the great sat-nav race.
Editorial: the American phone subsidy model is a RAZR way of thinking in an iPhone world
The concept is simple enough -- pay more, get more. So it has gone (historically, anyway) with phone subsidies in this part of the world, a system that has served us admirably for well over a decade. It made sense, and although it was never spelled out at the customer service counter quite as clearly as any of us would've liked, it was fairly straightforward to understand: you bought a phone on a multi-dimensional sliding scale of attractiveness, functionality, and novelty. By and large, there was a pricing scale that matched up with it one-to-one. You understood that if you wanted a color external display, a megapixel camera, or MP3 playback, you'd pay a few more dollars, and you also understood that you could knock a couple hundred dollars off of that number by signing up to a two-year contract. In exchange for a guaranteed revenue stream, your carrier's willing to throw you a few bucks off a handset -- a square deal, all things considered. So why's the FCC in a tizzy, and how can we make it better?
The Lawbringer: Unconscionability
No, no, please, AHHH!!!! I never agreed to this! Oh yes you did -- see the "Being tortured by random NPCs" clause in your EULA.* There's no such thi-aieeeee! So the last two weeks we've talked about some provisions in the End User License Agreement and Terms of Use that you might not have known about. Remember, all your pixels are belong to Blizzard, and Blizzard is in ur raid, banning ur cheaters. Given that, you may be wondering if there is any way for you to get some of those provisions changed while still being allowed to play the game. (Like all addicts we know quitting is not an option.) The answer is "Technically, yes," using a concept called unconscionability. (I have been informed that this concept is far more beloved of crusading law students than practicing lawyers, so I apologize for last week's improper characterization.) Before we get too far into this idea, I want to make something perfectly clear: your odds of winning a court battle to get a contract provision altered for unconscionability are about the same as successfully raiding Ulduar in blues. Yes, it can be done, but that guild run took insanely skilled players, lots of tries, and an immense amount of luck. In the unconscionability case below, it took an excellent legal team, enough money to finance going to court, and a judge sympathetic to a plaintiff who didn't like his videogame contract.
Verizon to double ETFs on FiOS TV contracts
You might think that if only Verizon's FiOS service was available in your area, then life would be nearly perfect. And although FiOS offers some of the fastest internet in the US as well as some of the highest quality HD and a fantastic selection, it isn't all rosy over there. In fact the service has been riddled with billing issues since its launch in 2005 and in order to take advantage of some of the great promotional offers, you're forced to sign a two year contract. Up until January 16th 2010, that ETF has been $179, and according to DSL Reports on the 17th, that fee is set to go up to $360. That's not it though, as Verizon is expected to raise the price of services another $10 or $20 a month. You can of course avoid this by not signing a contract and going month to month, but of course this'll only work out saving you money if you end up canceling, and really if you had fiber to your home do you really think you'd cancel? Us either. Regardless, if you were thinking of switching to FiOS or taking advantage of a new promotion, we wouldn't waste any time getting it before the terms change next week. And as always be sure to read the fine print before signing anything.
Contract-free refurb 8GB 3G $430 with free shipping
TUAW reader Conrad N. tipped us off to a nice 3G iPhone deal this morning. Buy.com is offering an 8GB 3G for just $430 with free shipping. While I wouldn't classify this as a red hot deal (a 3GS would have qualified) it's not bad for anyone who wants to pick up an inexpensive contract-free unit, for generous interpretations of the word "inexpensive". The 3G model works right out of the box with any AT&T SIM, although AT&T encourages you to sign up for an iPhone-specific plan. If you're only interested in basic phone service without data, you can buy a $10 O2 SIM at Best Buy (it's a re-branded AT&T SIM) good for 3 months of use, at 5 cents a text message and 17 cents per minute of airtime. That's great for developers who want to add a telephony-ready unit into their testing arsenal without signing up for a full contract, who don't want to use the phone except for testing and occasional use. If you want to use data, however, your best economy bet probably lies in jailbreaking and unlocking (with a tool like blackra1n or pwnage) and using one of T-Mobile's better-priced data plans. But be aware: because T-Mobile uses a different 3G frequency than AT&T, their data plans can only use EDGE service when accessed on the iPhone 3G. Want to use an existing AT&T data-plan enabled SIM? It should work out of the box but AT&T generally disapproves of that approach, and may (ahem) "encourage" you to upgrade to a (contract-enforced) official iPhone plan. So is the 3G a good iPhone to buy for four-hundred-plus dollars? Recall that the 3G is just a 1st generation system (model 1,2 -- i.e. 1st gen, 2nd iteration) with a few extra bells, whistles, and case design beyond the original model. The 3GS (model 2,1) is a far better system in terms of processor power and features, and we're half a year out from what will likely be the next (model 3,1) iPhone, let alone any (possibly mythical) tablet. I'd call this a "warm deal" at best.
Joojoo terms of sale violate PayPal rules
It would seem that the Fusion Garage lawyers have become so embroiled in the Michael Arrington litigation that they've neglected to read the PayPal User Agreement. There in section II, subsection 4, dubbed "Prohibited Transactions," it states that the seller agrees "not to use [his] PayPal account to sell goods with delivery dates delayed more than 20 days from the date of payment." Why does that matter -- well, because the sole means to purchase the Joojoo at present is by placing an 8 to 10 week pre-order, payable exclusively through PayPal. We shouldn't jump to conclusions though -- maybe Fusion Garage freed itself from the pesky rules by offering to sell a few special edition PayPads?
Recycle that contract-free iPhone as a holiday gift
We're sure this will be a hit for the holiday season: Apple recently updated one of the iPhone support articles, explaining how you can continue using an iPhone as a quasi-iPod touch, if you no longer have a cellphone contract with your carrier. Let's give an example: Your iPhone 3G contract was eligible for the upgrade pricing not too long ago, so you purchased an iPhone 3GS. You have your old iPhone 3G lying around the house with no purpose. Obviously, you could try and sell it... but maybe your child has been begging you for an iPod touch for Christmas. Apple wants to see these devices be re-used and not thrown into the trash, so they've outlined how to activate your iPhone (1st gen, 3G or 3GS) in the article. It all boils down to this: never get rid of your SIM card. For the iPhone 1st generation, you have to keep the original SIM card in place at all times. Without this, it will not activate in the next software update. The iPhone 3G and 3GS do not need a SIM card installed for day-to-day use. However, you still need a SIM card for the required activation after a software update. This differs a bit from the iPhone 1st generation: with the iPhone 3G and 3GS you can use any SIM card from your authorized carrier. Either way, it's silly not to leave the SIM card in each generation of iPhone as long as you don't need the SIM card for your new phone. Now you won't get stuck at the "Connect to iTunes" screen forever.
First Look: Breaking the print / sign / fax cycle with Zosh for iPhone
Does this scenario sound familiar? You're out of town or away from your office, and you get a call from a client. They need for you to fill out and sign a contract, and then return it to them as quickly as possible. Right now, you'd probably pull out your laptop, pull up the email with the contract, print it out, fill out the information and signature by hand, and then find a fax machine to send the document off to the client; or, if your client is savvy enough, you could electronically sign a PDF version of the contract. What if you could do all of that from your iPhone? Zosh [$2.99, iTunes Link] provides a way to do just that. It's an iPhone-based tool for marking up and signing PDF documents with text, dates, and signatures. The company says that Microsoft Word document support will be available soon. Zosh works in concert with a secure file server to make the documents available to your iPhone. When you receive a document as an attachment to an email message, you just forward it from your Zosh account email address to a special zosh.com address. Zosh recognizes your email address and then stores the document folder; the contents of that folder are visible on your iPhone on a Documents screen. For training purposes, Zosh has created a "Getting Started with Zosh" PDF that you can read for step-by-step instructions and hands-on demonstrations. To view the document, you simply tap on its name. When you find a place that you need to annotate with a date, text, or signature, you simply tap on the Insert button and you're given a choice of what to insert. If you choose date, a date picker with several different date formats appears. Selecting text brings up a text edit field into which you type the text you want to annotate the PDF with. To add a signature, an automatically scrolling window appears into which you write your name on the touchsc. I found that using a stylus like the Pogo Stylus helped me to create a more accurate signature than my finger. Any of the annotations can be in a choice of four colors -- blue, black, gray, and red -- and can be moved around the page, rotated 360°, resized (bigger or smaller), or deleted. For text annotations, you can choose from a variety of fonts, although none of them really stood out as being unique. Of course, if you're annotating a contract or other legal document, I'm not sure you want to put text in some sort of oddball font. Once you're done signing the document, you "transmit" it back to your email address or that of another recipient. There's no need to print the original, find a pen to sign the document, then scan and or fax the document before sending it on. Zosh does exactly what it sets out to do, breaking the cycle of wasteful printing and faxing, and it does it on the iPhone alone. While testing the app on a business trip, I had the opportunity to use Zosh to annotate and sign a couple of documents, and I found it to be a lifesaver. While Zosh isn't for everybody, if you are the type of person who needs to receive, annotate, and sign documents, and then return them to another person, the app is worth much more than the $2.99 price tag.
Samsung Go netbook gets $100 cheaper with one-year Times Reader 2.0 subscription
Publicly, at least, The New York Times has seemed perfectly kosher with the way things are moving in the newspaper industry. Rather than freaking out and wondering why they didn't make the move to digital earlier, it's apparently looking to push the digital distribution of its content via discounts and partnerships with hardware providers. In a rather unique and unprecedented move, the paper has today announced that prospective readers can receive $100 off of a Samsung Go netbook if they subscribe to Times Reader 2.0 for a year. The machine will come pre-loaded with the Adobe AIR-based application -- which pushes published content to one's machine on the double -- and will be sold exclusively through J&R Music and Computer World. Of course, NYT wants $179.40 for a one-year sub, so the deal's not exactly awesome or anything, but the offer stands for first-time subscribers until March 2010 if you're interested.
