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The Associated Press Threatens Legal Action against Google, Other News Aggregators

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:26:45 -0500

News spreads like wildfire on the internet. However, print publications and news agencies, which spend their precious human and financial resources on accumulation of news stories, are forgotten in this rapidity. Though many major websites do compensate news agencies, a lot of the websites don’t even bother with properly crediting them. The Associated Press has now adopted a more stringent approach towards unauthorized reproduction of its content.

Dean Singleton, the man who heads the news cooperative, delivered a stern warning to websites that unlawfully reproduce content owned by it. Singleton threatened intransigent offenders with legal action at the cooperative’s annual meeting in San Diego.

"We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories,” Singleton said, tacitly pointing to the “fair use” legal doctrine. AP executives revealed to The New York Time that they were concerned about search engines and news aggregators.

But Google doesn’t seem to share any such concerns. "We believe that both Google Web Search and Google News are fully consistent with copyright law -- we simply link users to the site at which the news story appears,” a Google spokesperson told InformationWeek. The spokesperson went on to add that it is technically possible for the news agencies to prevent their content from being indexed by Google.

The news cooperative is working on technology that will help keep a tab on the spread of its content. The only problem is that the internet is virtually nebulous and news stories spread like wildfire on the internet. So will it pursue everyone guilty of unauthorized reproduction of its content? “Everyone” may imply millions of bloggers. Will it do a RIAA and opt for mass lawsuits? No, it doesn’t appear to be the case. It is, ostensibly, keen on going after the big fish.

Google Execs Face Criminal Charges Over Online Video

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:38:54 -0600

Four Google employees have been slapped with criminal charges of defamation and privacy violation in Italy. Their legal woes began when an Italian organization complained against a video on Google Video – uploaded a couple of years ago – that shows four imbeciles tormenting a disabled person.

Although Google removed the video as soon as the complaint was made, Italian prosecutors decided to persist with personal criminal charges – an unprecedented move - against the four Google executives. Their trial will begin on Tuesday in Milan, Italy. These Google execs may even be consigned to an Italian prison for up to three years, if the charges against them are upheld.

It has vowed to “vigorously defend” its employees. "Seeking to hold neutral platforms liable for content posted on them is a direct attack on a free, open Internet" a spokeswoman for Google argued.

Image Credit: Gamespot

Steve Jobs and Other Apple Honchos Face Serious Fraud Charges

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:21:32 -0500

The ghosts from Apple’s past have returned to haunt the company. A couple of years ago, an internal inquest was launched into the alleged backdating of stock options grants at Apple made between 1997 and 2001. The investigation uncovered several irregularities - and forgeries - that eventually prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to step in.

Although SEC filed charges against then Apple CFO Fred D. Anderson and general counsel Nancy R. Heinen, the company’s top brass including Steve Jobs were given the clean chit and lauded for their cooperation in the investigation.

However, disgruntled Apple stockholders Martin Vogel and Kenneth Mahoney believe there is more to the stock-option-backdating story than what met SEC’ keen eye. a class-action suit against Apple CEO Steve Jobs, already beleaguered Anderson and Heinen, and four others from the Board of Directors.

The plaintiffs alleged that Apple’s blue-eyed boy Steve Jobs was the beneficiary of one such backdated stock option and profited to the tune of $20 million, and that Apple’s account department didn’t deem it necessary to record this spending in their books.

Also up for legal debate will be the catastrophic decline in Apple stocks – that wiped $7 billion in share value within two weeks – after Apple’s announcement of the internal investigation and whether shareholders deserve to be redressed for it.

Image Credit: Gear Fuse