US Supreme Court rules antitrust case can proceed against Apple's 'monopolistic' App Store practices
The US Supreme Court has said that consumers can sue Apple for allegedly violating antitrust laws with its App Store.
A group of iPhone owners were seeking to bring a class action lawsuit against the company, and now Justice Brett Kavanaugh has said they can do so. The group says that in charging a 30 percent commission, Apple was making users overpay for apps, and that the requirement for apps to be sold through the App Store was unfair.
Apple and Qualcomm bring their global legal fight to an end
Apple and Qualcomm have been suing each other since January 2017. The iPhone maker first sued Qualcomm for over $1 billion, contending that the chip maker was overcharging for its patent licenses, and in response Qualcomm counter-sued and tried to get iPhones banned in a number of countries, siting patent infringement.
In total, there were over 80 ongoing lawsuits in effect globally between the two tech firms, and yesterday saw the start of what was expected to be a three-week trial in a federal court in San Diego.
Dread Pirate Roberts 2, the 'guiding mind' of Silk Road 2.0, jailed for over 5 years
Thomas White, the founder of notorious website Silk Road 2.0, has been jailed for five years and four months by a UK court.
White, also known as Dread Pirate Roberts 2, was charged with not only running Silk Road 2.0 -- the site through which he earned hundreds of thousands of dollars per day on the dark web -- but also the possession of hundreds of indecent images of children.
GDPR rules could be used by the UK to fine tech firms for 'harmful content'
The UK is looking at hitting technology companies with financial penalties if they fail to do enough to counter "harmful content" on their platforms.
Jeremy Wright, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) secretary, says that tech firms need to be made to "sit up and take notice" when it comes to dealing with problematic content. While clearly aimed more at social media companies, the proposals would encompass other technology firms as well. The plans also suggest that search engines should remove links to offending websites, and that some sites could even be blocked completely.
/r/Piracy is going on a massive deletion spree to avoid a Reddit ban
Reddit has never been much of a stranger to controversy, and the site has faced mounting pressure from copyright-holders to do something about piracy.
Moderators have been fighting a losing battle to keep illegal content in check, but with complaints still flooding in, the /r/piracy subreddit is taking drastic action. Having spoken to the community about initiating "The Nuclear Option", the decision was taken to delete nearly a decade's worth of content.
Article 13: EU approves controversial copyright law despite massive opposition
The European parliament has voted in favor of major changes to copyright law, including two highly controversial clauses -- article 11 and article 13.
Known respectively as the "link tax" and the "upload filter", these two clauses have generated a great deal of interest from internet users and the technology industry alike. In particular, article 13 has proved especially controversial, holding websites responsible for material uploaded without a licence -- something critics say could only be adhered to with content filters.
House of Lords wants to rein in big tech with a new 'Digital Authority'
A House of Lords committee has called for the creation of a new Digital Authority to help co-ordinate existing regulators, as well as recommending new powers. The "super regulator" would have oversight over the current range of digital regulators, and would help to tackle problems of online harm which the UK government feels technology firms have not done enough about.
There is a strong feeling from the government that self-regulation by technology companies has failed, and a report entitled Regulating in a Digital World sets out a series of principles that would underpin a new approach.
Facebook says it is 'open to meaningful regulation' following damning report of the 'digital gangster' that considers itself 'ahead of and beyond the law'
A detailed report about fake news by a parliamentary committee in the UK has accused Facebook of being a "digital gangster" that has deliberately broken privacy and competition laws. The report by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee calls for the social network to be subject to statutory regulation.
The report comes after an 18-month investigation, and it is damning of Facebook and its executives in general, and Mark Zuckerberg in particular. Criticism is levelled at the lack of action taken against fake news and misinformation on the social network, and there is concern that current election laws were not enough to prevent sites such as Facebook being used by hostile foreign agents to interfere with the democratic process.
Final text of new EU Copyright Directive retains controversial content blocking of Article 13
In an attempt to bring aging copyright laws up to date for the digital age, the European Parliament and European Commission have agreed the final text of the EU Copyright Directive.
After several rounds of intense negotiations, it was decided to retain the controversial Article 13 which can be used to block the uploading of content, and Article 11 which has been described as the "link tax". The directive will place the onus on the likes of Google and Facebook to ensure that users do not upload copyrighted content, leading to fears that this could mean the introduction of restrictive upload filters and make life difficult for smaller companies.
My AMC Stubs A-List subscription is a bad B-movie
Earlier this week, movie theater chain AMC dumped coal in my Christmas stocking when I attempted to cancel the $19.95-a-month, watch-three-movies-a-week Stubs A-List subscription. One, and then another, customer representative informed me that at signup, the terms of service explicitly states that commitment is for three months. He, then she, warned that cancellation would trigger immediate charge for the remaining two months. But the ToS restriction shouldn't apply to me, being a returning customer.
Everything comes down to the meaning of one word: Initial. When A-List launched, on June 26, 2018, my wife and I joined. We ended our membership about 90 days later. The ToS states: "A-List has an initial non-cancelable term of three (3) monthly membership periods (the 'Initial Commitment')". We were good with accepting that requirement, which we met. But on November 18, with a few holiday movies of interest, I resubscribed, presuming that by making a second commitment I could cancel whenever. However, AMC service reps claim that my 3-month obligation reset and initial is the applicable word. Oh, did I futilely argue the semantics of that. C`mon? Doesn't initial mean first time?
Microsoft says it is time for government regulation of facial recognition
Facial recognition is becoming more widely used in both general computing and in the wider world. Smartphones and computers can be unlocked with your face, but the technology is also used for security and policing purposes.
While most uses are legitimate and helpful, there is scope for abuse. Microsoft thinks it is time for regulation to help avoid this. The company is calling on government around the world to introduce new laws, but also on the technology industry to introduce safeguards to protect against abuse and bias.
Apple is developing an online tool for police to request data
Apple is looking to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to request user data and is working on an online tool to help facilitate this.
A letter seen by Reuters shows that Apple is not only developing a data request tool, but also planning to train police about the data that it can and cannot provide. A new online system will make it easier and quicker to track data requests, and would be far more efficient than the current method of communication -- email.
Who cares what Trump thinks about Europe's record fine for Google?
It's just days since the Europe hit Google with a record fine for what it described as "very serious illegal behavior" in an antitrust case about the company's abuse of Android to dominate the competition.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of people have an opinion not only about the way Google has acted, but also of the European commission's ruling itself. Among those with an opinion to share is none other than Donald Trump who used the fine as a way to paint the US as a victim at the hands of Europe.
Satya Nadella speaks out against 'cruel and abusive' border policy and explains Microsoft's involvement with ICE
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has publicly shared an email he sent to employees, in which he speaks out against current US immigration policy.
Describing the separating of children from their families as "cruel and abusive", he stresses that while Microsoft does work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the work amounts to support for "legacy" services and is in no way related to child separation. The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, also used a blog post to set out the company position on the matter.
Senate opposes Trump and votes to reinstate US ban on ZTE
ZTE has had a tough time of things in the US, having been slapped with a Denial Order that forced it to close its main operations. Despite the sanctions, President Trump expressed a desire to get the company back up and running, implementing a huge fine which ZTE agreed to pay in order to be allowed to operate in the US again.
But in a blow to the Trump administration and its work with Chinese president Xi Jinping, the Senate has voted to amend the National Defense Authorization Act to reinstate sanctions on the company.
Recent Headlines
Most Commented Stories
BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.
Regional iGaming Content
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.