Pa. school settles another webcam spying lawsuit (AP)

AP - A suburban Philadelphia school district has settled another lawsuit over its alleged spying on students through laptop webcams. Read more...

RIM faces verdict in ‘BBM’ suit, may have used BBX knowingly

RIM was found Friday to be facing another lawsuit over one of its core products. Broadcast group BBM Canada is now known to have sued RIM on August 12, 2010, and to face a hearing on January 11, 2012, for allegedly misusing the BBM term to refer to BlackBerry Messenger. Unlike most such cases, BBM Canada could point to genuine cases of confusion, the Globe and Mail said, with staff being mistaken for RIM workers and an analytics branch being mistakenly called for messaging help.... Read more...

Apple settles iTunes gift card class-action lawsuit

Apple has opted to settle a long-standing class-action lawsuit brought about by the change in pricing to some songs in the iTunes Store and the wording on gift cards that were available for purchase at the time, AppleInsider reports. Originally filed by Gabriel Johnson in July of 2009, the lawsuit charged Apple with deception by distributing cards that stated songs cost 99 cents, when it then raised the price of some songs to $1.29. Participants will receive $3.25 in iTunes credit.... Read more...

LVL sues Apple, whole US cellphone industry over patents

Largely unknown patent holder LVL Patent Group late last week quietly sued much of the US cellphone business and beyond for alleged patent violations (below). It claims that the iPhone, many Android devices, Symbian, and basic feature phones as well as their carriers violate one or more of a group of four generic patents, including data transaction servers and devices for entering transactions. Most of the patents were issued in or before 2000, but one of the device patents was only live on September 13, two days before the lawsuit was filed.... Read more...

Larry Ellison on HP’s Mark Hurd lawsuit: ‘virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together’

Uh, wow . Oracle CEO Larry Ellison just released a statement in response to HP suing former CEO Mark Hurd for taking a position as Oracle's co-president, and well, just read it: Oracle has long viewed HP as an important partner," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Read more...

Google agrees to pay $8.5 million to make Buzz privacy lawsuits go away

Remember back when Google's Buzz social networking app shared user's private information without their consent? Heck, do you remember Buzz at all? Suffice it to say that some unhappy folks sued, and it looks like they're about to accept a hefty settlement in place of their day in court. Though no money's exchanged hands quite yet and a judge has yet to approve, Google's agreed to drop $8.5 million and "disseminate wider public education about the privacy aspects of Google Buzz" as part of a class-action settlement, according to court documents Read more...

Lower Merion, PA school district cleared of Federal spying charges, approves new privacy policies

Though a now-infamous Pennsylvania school district admitted to taking thousands of pictures of schoolchildren without their consent, federal investigators have decided not to pursue criminal charges. That doesn't halt a class-action complaint against the district (which charges invasion of privacy and wiretapping) but a US attorney told reporters that FBI and police investigators hadn't found proof beyond a reasonable doubt that school employees had criminal intent to spy on students using their school-issued laptops. On a related note, students returning to Lower Merion for a new school year can set their minds at ease, as the school board just approved a new set of laptop regulations that (among other things) ban remote monitoring of microphones and webcams. Feel free to pick through for technical loopholes at our more coverage link, and let's hope this little LMSD soap opera is finally at an end. Lower Merion, PA school district cleared of Federal spying charges, approves new privacy policies originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EDT. Read more...