Tech Law

Apologizing for "inappropriate communications" among analysts during the tech stock boom of the 1990s -- but not admitting wrongdoing -- Merrill Lynch has reached a $100 million settlement with New York and other states. The company agreed to implement several changes in how it is organized inter...

The U.S. District Court judge presiding over the Microsoft antitrust settlement has posed several questions about the extent of proposed penalties to be levied against the software giant. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly indicated that while legal precedent affords her far-reaching powers to determin...

Two more companies have accused online payment site PayPal of using their technology without permission, and the company's relationship with MasterCard may be in jeopardy, PayPal disclosed in its quarterly report. The loss of MasterCard compatibility would be a significant blow because 15 percent...

A federal judge has denied a Russian software vendor's motion to dismiss criminal charges that allege the company violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by selling a product designed to break anti-copying technology. Lawyers and other free speech proponents said they are "extremely disappo...

Jupiter Media Metrix and Nielsen//NetRatings have settled a long-pending patent lawsuit in a deal that calls for NetRatings to provide struggling Jupiter with a much-needed capital infusion. According to the settlement's terms, NetRatings will pay Jupiter $15 million in cash to acquire two of Jup...

The nine states suing Microsoft for antitrust violations have accused the Redmond, Washington-based software maker of plotting to monopolize the media player market and edge out market leader RealNetworks. Bolstering that contention, an attorney for the states produced an e-mail sent in 1999 by M...

Hewlett-Packard has received a green light from a Delaware court to pursue its plans to merge with Compaq. The $18 billion deal hung in the balance while the court heard a suit brought by dissident shareholder and former HP director Walter Hewlett. But Delaware Judge William Chandler was not sway...

Lawyers have kicked off the trial between Hewlett-Packard and dissident scion Walter Hewlett in Delaware Chancery Court, trading fire over whether HP misled shareholders in an attempt to convince them to approve its mega-merger with Compaq. Among the evidence was a personal journal entry by Compa...

There's a case brewing in Louisiana that may blow the lid off virtual casinos everywhere. A U.S. appeals court faces the question of whether a trial court in Louisiana was correct when it ruled in February that the 1961 Wire Act does not apply to all forms of Internet gambling, but only sports wage...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Thursday that it has sued another Internet pyramid scheme that conned thousands of consumers. "Defendants operate what is commonly known as a 'pyramid scheme' that enriches the defendants at the expense of the majority of the participants in their s...

Copyright law has some muscle in this country, enough to fend off even young Shawn Fanning and his highly innovative music file-sharing service. Emotions are running high regarding this issue, but when all is said and done, how will anyone really dispute Napster's defiance of copyright law? Th...

With a landmark law authorizing the use of e-signatures having just taken effect, U.S. Congressional lawmakers hosted representatives of the budding industry in Washington, D.C. Wednesday and received hands-on demonstrations of the new technology.