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AI lawyer can help you with a thousand different legal issues
Over two years ago, Joshua Browder, now a junior at Stanford University, created a chatbot that could contest parking tickets in New York City and London. By June of 2016, DoNotPay had successfully contested 160,000 parking tickets -- a 64 percent success rate -- and earlier this year, Browder added capabilities to assist asylum seekers in the US, UK and Canada. Now, the bot is able to assist with over 1,000 different legal issues in all 50 states and across the UK.
Airbnb rentals are now legal in Japan
After some legal tussling between home owners, building owners, Japanese government and, well, Airbnb the country has decided to legalise sharing economy home rentals. The law was passed earlier today, allowing home-owners to let properties to guests for up to 180 days a year. Owners do, however, have to register with local authorities in the country. These authorities will also be able to add their own restrictions and rules to those that choose to rent their property.
Draft bill gives the government power to control your drone
Drones have been the focus of many security initiatives, like the "sky fence" in the Channel Islands that jams pilot signals to stop drones from bringing contraband into the prison. Remotely piloted aircraft can also be a force for good, like in Africa where drones are being used to stop poaching. In the US, you may not have to register your personal drones with the FAA anymore, but you might not want to fly them where they're not allowed. New draft legislation from the Trump administration would authorize the government to track, take control of, and destroy drones that the government thinks pose a threat to specially designated areas. In addition, courts would be unable to hear lawsuits arising from such activity.
Austria orders Facebook to delete hate postings
Facebook is having a hard time lately amid claims of fake news, political bias and sexism. The European Union considered legislation to encourage a more unified response to such postings and Germany supports fines for social networks that ignore hate speech. Similarly, today an Austrian appeals court ruled that Facebook must delete hate postings written about the leader of the country's Green party -- and not just in Austria.
Theranos' financial troubles are starting to pile up
Theranos has been having an awful time of it lately, mostly of its own making, with several lawsuits in place, including ones from Walgreens and hedge-fund Partner Fund Management (PFM). The company that promised investors a revolutionary blood-testing technique and custom analysis machinery has just settled the latter suit for an undisclosed sum. The original lawsuit sought recovery of a $96.1 million investment plus damages. A particularly large settlement could have a significant impact on the beleaguered company, of course, which told investors that it only had $200 million in cash as of the end of last year. The Wall Street Journal reports that Theranos has already spent $5 million on other recent settlements.
Federal appeals court upholds Nintendo's win in 3DS patent battle
Just months after the Nintendo 3DS launched in 2011, it faced patent infringement allegations. Tomita Technologies was accusing Nintendo's new handheld of using its glasses-free 3D display technology without paying royalties. Like most patent lawsuits, it dragged on for years -- first awarding a victory to Tomita before handing the win to Nintendo in appeals. Now, a higher court has confirmed Nintendo's victory. On Friday, the Federal Circuit court ruled that the Nintendo 3DS does not infringe Tomita's patent.
Owners of bricked G4 and V10 phones sue LG
It's been years since LG's G4 and V10 smartphones launched, but the people burned by a flaw that made those devices non-functional haven't forgotten. Four G4 and V10 owners filed a class-action lawsuit against LG earlier this week, alleging that the company "was aware, or reasonably should have been aware" of a hardware flaw that would force those two smartphones into a "boot loop" -- a state of endless rebooting that basically made the devices bricks. The filing (obtained by Ars Technica) goes on to say LG failed to make customers whole again by refusing to perform repairs or offering those customers refurbished units that were as prone to boot loop syndrome as the devices sent in for repair in the first place.
Uber used 'Greyball' tool to evade authorities around the world
Saying this week could've gone better for Uber is a massive understatement. After its SVP resigned over undisclosed sexual harassment investigations and its CEO argued with one of the company's own drivers for complaining about its lower pay, Friday might have seemed like the end of a long few days. It wasn't. The New York Times just released a report revealing Uber's years-long clandestine program to deceive authorities from across the globe.
Report: Fitbit tried to buy wearable arch-rival Jawbone
Jawbone is clearly struggling, having scaled fitness tracker production way back and reportedly not paying a customer service provider. Part of its problems stem from a protracted legal dispute with FitBit, but according to the Financial Times, Jawbone's arch-rival actually tried to buy it last year. Fitbit offered to acquire Jawbone's assets and settle any legal battles, but the deal reportedly fell through because the price was too low for Jawbone and its backers.
FBI allegedly paid Geek Squad for evidence
Last May, the defense in a child pornography trial alleged that the FBI used a member of electronics retailer Best Buy's tech support team, Geek Squad, to peer into the accused's computer on the hunt for evidence of child pornography. Since then, the defense's lawyers revealed that the FBI had cultivated at least eight of the company's IT handyfolk over a four-year period to serve as confidential informants, who all received some payment for turning over data. Obviously, this raises serious questions about whether sending devices into the repair shop forfeits a person's right to privacy or unreasonable search and seizure.
IMDb tells California it will continue to publish actors' ages
With age discrimination rife in Hollywood, California wanted to do something about it. That meant introducing a new law that didn't actually target the root cause of the problem -- i.e. penalizing the people who engage in the practice -- but instead stopped websites from publishing an individual's age. IMBb, the movie listing website owned by Amazon, was told in September that it would need to remove ages and birthdates of performers by January 1st, 2017. It's been a week since the deadline passed and IMDb hasn't done a thing.
Australia fines Valve $2.2 million over its Steam refund policy
Australia's federal court has fined Valve AUD$3 million (USD$2.2 million) after ruling that the company breached consumer law when it didn't offer refunds between 2011 and 2014. This is the maximum fine requested by Australia's competition regulator and it's 12 times more than Valve itself suggested it should pay, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Justice James Edelman said he imposed such a harsh penalty because Valve willfully disregarded Australian law.
UK judge grants girl's dying wish to be cryogenically frozen
In what's thought to be the first case of its kind, a UK judge granted a dying girl's last wish to be cryogenically frozen. The 14-year-old was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer last year, but as of this August was switched from active treatment to palliative care. She began researching cryonics and decided to be frozen following her death, but had to take the legal route to ensure her wishes were respected when her estranged father disagreed with what should happen to her body. After several hearings, a High Court judge granted her mother sole responsibility for making arrangements, and the girl now rests in the Cyronics Institute in the US.
DOJ sues DirecTV for conspiring against LA Dodgers (updated)
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that it is bringing suit against DirecTV for its role in an alleged collusion scheme involving the broadcast rights to Los Angeles Dodgers games. Specifically, the DOJ asserts that DirecTV and three of its competitors -- Cox, Charter and AT&T -- shared "agreed to and did exchange non-public information about their companies' ongoing negotiations" with SportsNet LA, the only channel authorized to show Dodgers games.
Playboy's legal victory could change your freedom to link
A European legal battle may have just set precedent for when you can and cannot link to material without permission. Playboy's Dutch publisher Sanoma sued commercial media site GeenStijl to take down links to their photos of a TV celebrity, claiming it earned them unfair profits. Back in April, the EU court of justice's Advocate General opined that the decision would likely favor the defendant's press freedom. He was wrong. The top EU court just decided in favor of Playboy, stating that posting hyperlinks to unowned content provides tangible profits, which is grounds enough for copyright infringement.
Lindsay Lohan's 'GTA V' suit against Rockstar Games dismissed
After a lengthy legal battle against Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games' parent company, Lindsay Lohan's case has been dismissed.
Uber takes legal action against TfL over new taxi rules
It's safe to say that Uber isn't particularly happy with the changes to London's private hire regulations. The Transport for London (TfL) board approved new measures earlier this year, but only recently did the authority publish the finer details, which paint them as more stringent than first thought. Last week, Uber kicked up a fuss over what it deemed to be a threat to "the livelihood of thousands of drivers," also asking users to lobby London's Mayor to revisit the new regulations. This conflict has taken a much more serious turn today, however, with Uber launching formal legal action against the transport authority.
Justice Department sued for old computers slowing FOIA requests
A researcher who specializes in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is suing the Justice Department for using really, really old computers to fulfil requests for information.
France fines Uber for illegal ridesharing
You may love Uber for enabling your wild drunken weekends, but there's clearly no love lost between the ride-hailing app and the French government. After a slew of suspensions and protests, a French court has slapped Uber with an 800,000 euro fine (about US$900,000), claiming its UberPOP service caused "durable disruption" of the transport sector.
Facebook hires U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal
Facebook is expanding its legal team -- perhaps just in time -- and its newest hire comes from behind the bench. U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal will join the company in late June as its Deputy General Counsel, after serving in the North District of California since being appointed in December of 2010. The Recorder first reported the move, noting that Grewal pulled out of several cases involving Facebook in January. In his time on the bench he has ruled on cases involving the social network before, like this ruling on parents trying to access messages in their dead daughter's account, or another case over an outside developer's storage and use of customer data.
