Courts

A Windows 10 user is suing Microsoft for the "forced obsolescence" of cutting support for his two laptops. Lawrence Klien says it's an anticompetitive attempt to dominate the generative AI market. The lawsuit seems to be more about making a point ... than changing Microsoft's plans. It isn't seeking a financial fortune and the timeline makes it almost impossible it will have a practical effect. Klein makes many valid points in his filing, most of which will be familiar to those who've followed the story. His two laptops cannot upgrade to Windows 11 because they don't have TPM (trusted platform ... (view more)

A court has blocked a "click to cancel" rule that would have made it easier to end unwanted memberships and subscriptions. The rule, introduced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), would have made canceling as easy as signing up in the first ... place, meaning a simple website button in some cases. The rule was scheduled to take effect on July 14, 2025, but was blocked by a federal appeals court. The block wasn't based on the measures themselves, but rather the procedural technicalities of the way the FTC made the rule. Auto-Renewals Restricted Officially titled the Negative Opinion Rule, the ... (view more)

An AI company acted lawfully by training its models on published books without the author's consent, a judge has ruled. But Anthropic will be on the hook for downloading more than seven million pirated books to use in the training data. The case was ... brought by three authors who said Anthropic had breached their copyright by adding the text of their books to a training database for Claude. That's a large language model (LLM), which works a little like autocorrect on a phone's texting tool. The difference, other than the speed and power, is that the LLM doesn't predict words based on one person ... (view more)

All 50 states have now introduced a "right to repair" bill aimed at making it easier for users to fix their own electronic devices. But only six have passed laws, with lawmakers in many states having abandoned their efforts. The specific wording of ... a right to repair bill varies significantly from case to case. Some of the most common principles include users having the legal right to source components or hire a third-party specialist to perform a repair. In other cases, users may have the right to access repair manuals. A common point of debate is what happens with warranties. In some cases, ... (view more)

The Supreme Court is to rule on a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the US. The timing of the hearing means there may be little room for nuance. The law follows ongoing debate about whether the Chinese-owned app poses a threat to US security. ... The app is already banned on devices owned by the US federal government and those in many states, though previous state laws that would have banned TikTok from app stores have been blocked. Critics of the app believe it accesses more customer data than is necessary for its stated purpose and that there's a risk the Chinese government may have or ... (view more)

Google has suffered a major court defeat over its Play store. It will mean much greater access for third party app stores and apps, though could prompt a continuing argument about security. The ruling came in a case brought by Epic Games, makers of ... the popular game Fortnite. It's had similar battles with Apple and its possible this case will have an effect there too. Epic had argued that Google unfairly exploited a monopoly over access of app developers to the Android system by the way it controlled the official Play store. It said that monopoly existed despite the fact that Android users can ... (view more)

A man who earned $12 million in royalties after "writing" hundreds of thousands of songs has been charged with fraud. Michael Smith allegedly created the songs with artificial intelligence, then used bots to "listen" to the music on streaming ... services to generated revenue. The case against Smith is not that the music itself was "not real" but rather that he was falsely claiming credit for listeners. Prosecutors say that not only did he steal money from the streaming sites, but that legitimate songwriters missed out. That's because some streaming sites divide a fixed ... (view more)

A US company that used billions of online photos without permission for facial recognition faces a fine of more than $35 million. Regulators say they may hold directors of Clearview AI personally responsible after the company said the fine was ... unenforceable. Clearview has attracted the attention of regulators in several companies for the way it does business. It produces and licenses facial recognition software to law enforcement agencies, for example, to identify alleged offenders from crowd photos or live video. The software works thanks to a massive database of pictures which Clearview ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made it illegal to buy or sell fake reviews in return for payment. The new rule also outlaws lying about who wrote a review and includes several other measures designed to make reviews more trustworthy. The ... "Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials" was approved unanimously by the FTC and, once formally published, will take effect after 60 days. It follows a consultation and review spanning nearly two years. Threats Outlawed The rule is wide-ranging, banning the following actions based on creating, buying or selling a fake ... (view more)

Google has acted unlawfully to maintain its monopoly in the search market, according to a US court ruling. Whether it will face any practical consequences remains to be seen. The ruling was in a case brought by the Department of Justice alleging ... violations of the Sherman Act. That makes it a felony to intentionally act or conspire to have or maintain a monopoly in a particular market. Previous cases have established that this isn't simply about market share but rather the ability to exploit monopoly power. The judge in the case did not mince his words, stating that "Google is a monopolist, ... (view more)