Hasta La Gadget!

PayPal has been hit with a lot of grief recently, namely due to holding your funds under review for no reason and making changes to your account with your permission. Obviously, these things are what lead to users suing the company, so PayPal ended up updating their policy a few days ago, which now requires users to to mail in an “opt out” form if they want to retain the ability to sue PayPal in class action.

This is arguably one of the most deliberate moves we’ve seen a company make in order to protect itself from its users, and it shows that they know they’re making decisions that could get them sued by their fellow users. Obviously, they know that most users are too lazy to actually mail something nowadays. Then again, Sony is also guilty of this.

You have until November 1 to opt out, and the letter “must state that you do not agree to this Agreement to Arbitrate and must include your name, address, phone number, and the email address(es) used to log in to the PayPal account(s) to which the opt-out applies. You must sign the Opt-Out Notice for it to be effective.”

So, if you use PayPal on a regular basis (like I do), we would strongly recommend that you read over the updated PayPal policy. And if you’re not willing to ditch PayPal, then it’s probably in your best interest to mail in an opt-out letter. For your convenience, a letter template is already available for you, thanks to Engadget’s Darren Murph.

[via Darren Murph]

PayPal updates policy to prevent users from suing is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After a court battle that’s lasted just a couple weeks short of 7 years, Google and the Association of American Publishers are now announcing a settlement that will put their book-battle to rest. The situation was, back in 2005 that is, that Google was scanning books galore into their Google Library Project for sharing with the world – and five members of the AAP were not happy with that. The settlement that’s been reached has cash amounts unannounced – and they’ll likely remain unannounced as it’s been done out of court – and the publishers now have the rights to take or leave their works in Google’s care.

This settlement has the US publishers able to make available or choose to remove their works – books and journals of all kinds – digitized by Google for their Library Project. For works that the publishers decide to leave in the Library, Google will give the option of receiving a digital copy of for their use. This essentially means that if they want to use the digitized versions of their books in the future as made possible by Google, they’ll have to let Google work with a copy as well – but if they don’t, Google will toss the data entirely.

“We are pleased that this settlement addresses the issues that led to the litigation. It shows that digital services can provide innovative means to discover content while still respecting the rights of copyright-holders.” – Tom Allen, President and CEO, AAP

The agreement also works with Google Books, a program that already has users able to read up to 20% of a book before purchase. The agreement notes that books scanned by Google in the Library Project may be included by publishers in this program if they wish – of course the book would need to be submitted separately to the store, but that’s beside the point. Further details surrounding the settlement will likely remain confidential.

This case originally had a $125 million dollar settlement that would have allowed Google a registry of online books. This registry would have allowed US consumers and institutions of all kinds the ability to purchase access to the material. Judge Denny Chin overturned the decision in 2011 after an extended review starting in 2009, deciding that the court never had the power to set up a business arrangement such as the one that was made. It also noted that such an agreement would not allow anyone to possibly compete with Google, nor did it give Google any incentive to, as PC mag‘s recounting notes, “track down the authors of orphaned works.” Such is life!

[via AAP]

Google vs American Publishers suit settles with digital goodness is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Samsung is claiming that Apple’s billion-dollar August court victory is tainted by the fact that the jury foreman failed to disclose his 1993 bankruptcy and suing by former employer Seagate. More »

A legal standoff ended today, as Judge Lucy Koh has dissolved the sales injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 after Samsung’s appeal had been remanded to her by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Koh’s decision is based on the jury’s findings in Apple v. Samsung that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 didn’t infringe on Apple’s D’889 patent. If you’ll recall, the judge had previously denied Samsung’s motion to dissolve the injunction, having cited a lack of jurisdiction while the case was in front of the appeals court. Unsurprisingly, she decided to approve the motion once the case was kicked back to her courtroom. Whether we see the Galaxy Tab 10.1 hit the ban list again following the December 6th hearing remains to be seen, but in the meantime, perhaps you can kick back and enjoy the eye of the storm.

Update: In related courtroom drama, Samsung has filed the initial courtroom documents that assert the iPhone 5 infringes on its patents. At least the company is good for its word. [Reuters]

Filed under: Tablets, Apple, Samsung

Judge Koh lifts Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales injunction following Court of Appeals remand originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the hallmarks of the US judicial system is its seemingly inexhaustible system of appeals — a system for which Samsung is likely most grateful at the moment. Its earlier entreaty to Judge Lucy Koh to have the Galaxy Tab 10.1 preliminary injunction lifted may have been denied, but the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is giving the Korean company another bite at the Apple. That court has granted Samsung’s request to have the injunction issue remanded so that the trial court can re-consider Samsung’s motion to dissolve it. The ruling enables Samsung to argue that the injunction should be lifted because the jury failed to find infringement of the tablet design patent upon which the injunction is based. Will Judge Koh lift the ban? Perhaps, but we’re pretty sure that the crowd from Cupertino will be doing plenty to prevent that from happening. Stay tuned.

Filed under: Tablets, Apple, Samsung

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit tells Judge Koh to revisit Galaxy Tab 10.1 injunction originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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