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Florida Invokes Extinction Fears In Legal Bid To Halt OpenAI Development

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The state of Florida is seeking a temporary injunction to stop OpenAI from continuing to develop what it calls a "reckless, unacceptably risky product" without the deployment of "third-party approved safety guardrails." The new legal motion (PDF), filed Monday morning, is part of a civil lawsuit the state of Florida originally filed in June, arguing that ChatGPT represented "a threat to the public safety of Floridians," specifically by preying on vulnerable populations like children and violent or delusional adults. [...] In arguing for this injunction, the state points to the Hugging Face incident as well as recent high-profile misalignment cases involving unintended and unauthorized attempts to access Australian and US government servers. Florida also cites AI industry leaders, including many from OpenAI, in arguing that the AI industry is literally asking for this kind of outside regulation. The motion points to statements from Paul Christiano, who said on joining the company's board this month that he believes "there is a meaningful risk that rapid acceleration in AI capabilities leads to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term." The motion also points to OpenAI's own "An Alien Mind" essay and an open letter from 1,300 AI industry employees, both of which call for enforced slowdowns on frontier AI development, if necessary. Citing laws that allow the state to exercise control over companies that are a "public nuisance," Florida argues that OpenAI is "the greatest public nuisance ever created by the hand of man, capable of laying waste to global civilization." "It is only by the grace of the Almighty that one of Defendants' AI agents hasn't compromised a water supply or shut down a power grid -- yet," the state writes in the motion.

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Apple Faces $5.7 Billion Patent Infringement Verdict Over iPhone And Apple Watch Haptics

"A federal jury in San Diego awarded Taction Technology more than $5.7 billion in damages Friday after finding that Apple infringed claims from two haptics patents," reports CNBC: Taction sued Apple in 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The company alleged that Apple was improperly "capitalizing on Taction's innovation and success" by selling devices that infringed on its vibration technology, according to the complaint. Apple initially won dismissal in 2023, and the Federal Circuit later revived the case.... Taction argued that Apple's "Taptic Engine," which is embedded in its Apple Watches and iPhones, uses its inventions without proper license or authority. Taction's lead counsel told CNBC "Taction waited five and a half years for this case to get to trial, so it was a long time coming." CNBC also reported that the jury "did not find Apple's infringement willful" — and that Apple said they'd appeal.

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Apple Sued For $2.7 Billion Over App Tracking Transparency Rules

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD
A former UK competition official has filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Apple on behalf of app developers, alleging its App Tracking Transparency rules unfairly disadvantaged third-party apps while favoring Apple's own advertising ecosystem. Engadget reports: ATT debuted in 2021, ostensibly to give users more control over how much of their activity app developers can track across other apps and websites. The company told Reuters it was "bound by the exact same requirements as all developers." However, regulators across Europe including in France, Italy and Poland have investigated ATT. Germany's competition regulator, the Federal Cartel Office, last month determined that Apple was favoring its own apps over those from external developers. It said the ATT pop-ups Apple used for its services "had the potential to encourage users to give their consent, whereas they had the potential to discourage consent for third-party apps." As such, the company agreed to make some changes to how ATT works in the European Union. That follows the French Competition Authority fining Apple $175 million at current rates over ATT last year.

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Google Engineer Accused of Polymarket Insider Trading Says He Was Just Gambling

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Michele Spagnuolo, the Google engineer arrested in May by U.S. authorities for alleged insider trading on Polymarket, is making a new bold bet. On Wednesday, his legal team filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him. Spagnuolo isn't outright denying that he made money using internal information from Google. Instead, his legal team says that the wagers were not financial instruments subject to regulation by the United States' Commodities Exchange Act but rather good old-fashioned international betting that the U.S. has no authority over. Spagnuolo, who has been placed on leave from Google, is accused of committing commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Using the alias "AlphaRaccoon," he allegedly made a series of wagers on Polymarket's flagship platform that resulted in profits totaling over $1.2 million. According to the criminal complaint, "AlphaRaccoon" correctly wagered that the singer D4vd, who gained notoriety for his suspected connection to a grisly killing, would be Google's most-searched person of the year in 2025. (D4vd was later charged with murder; he pleaded not guilty.) [...] Spagnuolo's lawyers argue that defining swaps to include wagers like who the most-searched person on Google will be each year "would fly in the face of the statute's purpose and history" and lead to "absurd results." They say it would make it so that any wager in the world, from a charity raffle to a local Ping-Pong match, could be classified as a financial instrument. "Spagnuolo is basically making the same argument as the states that are suing prediction markets," says a financial services regulation expert Todd Phillips. "This is the issue that will likely go up to the Supreme Court." Featured Video In addition to disputing the idea that prediction markets offer swaps, Spagnuolo's legal team argues that the U.S. government had no jurisdiction over him in the first place because he's a non-U.S. citizen who was wagering on a non-U.S. platform. Although Polymarket is headquartered in New York, the company's flagship prediction market is banned in the United States and technically is administered by an ostensibly Panama-based entity known as Adventure One QSS. Spagnuolo was living in Zurich, Switzerland, when he allegedly made the Google-related trades on Polymarket. "The extraterritorial argument is interesting and raises the question of whether the U.S. should be the world's prediction markets cop," Philipps says. Spagnuolo's team also claims that the charges should be dismissed because the internal information he supposedly leveraged did not have any commercial value to Google.

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Google Defeats US Bid to Force Ad Tech Sale

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Alphabet's Google escaped a breakup of its advertising technology business on Wednesday, when a judge in Virginia rejected U.S. antitrust enforcers' bid to force a sale of Google's online advertising exchange. While the ad exchange is a small part of Google's business, the ruling is the second powerful symbolic victory against the U.S. Department of Justice in its efforts to force Google to sell assets to address illegal monopolies. U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, declined to make Google sell AdX, where publishers pay Google a 20% fee to sell ads in auctions that happen instantly when users load websites. She accepted most of the parties' proposed behavioral remedies. The DOJ and a broad coalition of states sued Google in 2023 over its dominance in markets for advertising technology used by online publishers and websites. In April 2025, Brinkema ruled that Google holds illegal monopolies on servers that host publisher ads and ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers. Google unlawfully locked publishers on its ad server into using its AdX, the judge found. The tech giant's anticompetitive conduct "substantially harmed Google's publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web," Brinkema said at the time. At a trial last year on remedies in the case, the DOJ argued that Google cannot be trusted to run AdX, given its past behavior. Google argued that a forced sale would be technically difficult and result in a long and painful transition that would hurt customers. During the remedies trial, Google's lawyers warned that forcing it to sell parts of its ad-tech business would cause disruption and damage. [...] The ruling is the third time in a row that a judge has rejected a bid by U.S. antitrust enforcers to break up Big Tech in a crackdown that started during President Donald Trump's first term. In another major Google antitrust case, a judge similarly rejected the DOJ's push to force Google to sell Chrome. It is likely to fuel questions about whether courts are up to the task of checking the industry's unprecedented power over the U.S. economy.

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FTC Sues Amazon, Accusing the E-Commerce Giant of Misleading Advertisers

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD
The FTC and 22 state attorneys general are suing Amazon, accusing the company of secretly inflating advertising prices through undisclosed changes to its auction system that may have extracted more than $20 billion from advertisers since 2019. "Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices," FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. "These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers." CNBC reports: The complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, centers on Amazon's sponsored products ads, brands ads and display ads that run alongside search results on its sprawling webstore. Amazon has amassed the third-largest digital advertising business globally, trailing only Google and Meta. The company hauled in more than $68 billion in ads revenue last year, with the lion's share coming from sales of sponsored products ads. Third-party sellers who hawk their wares on Amazon's marketplace have recently criticized surging advertising costs on the site, including a string of recent policy changes, which led to some top merchants withholding their ad spend in a boycott. The company has traditionally used a "second-price" auction system, wherein it told advertisers they "only pay the least bid amount needed in order to win," the complaint states, citing Amazon's own marketing materials. The FTC alleges in its complaint that Amazon in 2019 changed its auction rules without notice by adding an undisclosed surcharge it referred to as a "soft reserve price," which led to higher ad prices. "Amazon made this surreptitious change to its auction because it was unhappy about how much revenue its advertising auctions were generating," the agency said in its complaint, which cites internal communications between Amazon ad executives. In one exchange, a company executive allegedly acknowledged it uses an "invented auction participant" to increase prices, the FTC said. The FTC and the states alleged Amazon's practices violate federal and state consumer protection laws, and they're seeking civil penalties, restitution and other unspecified damages. In a blog post, Amazon called the FTC's lawsuit "misguided" and said the complaint "fundamentally misunderstands how advertisers operate." The company added that the agency's lawsuit doesn't include evidence of consumer price increases. "We've provided advertisers with guidance about our auctions and pricing in the main tools they use to manage their campaigns, and we continue to update that guidance," the company said. "We look forward to making our case in court."

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Meta Reaches $18 Billion of Settlements Over Children's Social Media Addiction

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD

🤖 AI Summary

Metaは、子供のソーシャルメディア依存症をめぐる主な州48とワシントンD.C., ポートリコ, アメリカサモア,ノーザンマリアーナ諸島からの提訴に対し、10年間にわたり青少年に2時間の利用制限や深夜から朝6時までの使用禁止(保護者の承認なしでは)、最高で180億ドルの和解を結んだ。Metaは個人ized推奨やターゲット広告を続けて利用できるが、 AlphabetのYouTubeとByteDanceのTikTokも子供向けの同様の保護措置を導入することが条件となっている。

和解には、カリフォルニア州が最高額の22億ドルを受け取るとともにニューヨーク州とテキサス州もそれぞれ10億ドル以上を受け取る。この合意金の一部は、YouTubeやTikTokも同様の保護措置を適用するかどうかによります。

この和解には、米国地方裁判所のYvonne Gonzalez Rogers判事の承認が必要で、彼女は8月18日から始まった訴訟を手がけています。Metaは個人と学校 districts, 地方自治体による数千件の新たな訴訟にも直面しており、10月にはロサンゼルスで次回の裁判が開かれる予定です。

関連記事:
- ファイヤフォックス157はJPEG XLをデフォルトで全てのプラットフォームに導入
- Metaはソーシャルメディア依存症に関連する最大約1.4兆ドルの責任を背負う可能性がある最新の裁判に対し提訴されている。
- アマゾンはDuckLabsを買収し、DuckDBのチームを追加している。
Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion and make major changes to Facebook and Instagram to settle claims from most U.S. states that the platforms were designed to addict children and misled users about their safety. For the next decade, teens will be limited to two hours a day and blocked from using the apps between midnight and 6 a.m. without parental consent. Meta will, however, still be allowed to use personalized recommendations and targeted advertising. Reuters reports: The settlements include more than $17.6 billion of payments to 48 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Meta will also pay $459 million to resolve states' privacy claims related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the British consulting firm collected personal data of millions of Facebook users. California would receive the highest payout, $2.2 billion, and New York and Texas would each receive more than $1 billion. Some of the payout is contingent on whether Alphabet's YouTube and ByteDance's TikTok impose similar protections for children. [...] The settlement requires approval by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who oversaw the trial that began on August 18. Gonzalez Rogers still oversees thousands of lawsuits by individuals, school districts, and state and local governments accusing social media companies of harming children. Meta itself still faces thousands of lawsuits by individuals, school districts and municipalities. The next trials are slated for October in Los Angeles.

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SCO Successor Xinuos Asks Court to Rehear Its Claims Against IBM/Red Hat Over Project Monterey

🤖 AI Summary

SCOの継承者であるXinuosは、IBMとRed Hatに対するプロジェクト・モンテレー関連の主張について再審を要求し、長期にわたるLinux著作権の法的対立がついに終わりを見せる可能性があると報じられています。

2021年にSCOの後継者であるXinuosは、IBMがProject Montereyのコードを提供した際には非独占的なライセンスしか持っていないことから、IBMがその約束を破ったことを主張しました。Xinuosはニューヨーク南区地方裁判所に訴訟を提起し、2023年8月10日に二審法廷で再考の機会を求める権利があると判示されました。

二審法廷は、当初の法律文書により再検討する時期ではないと判断しました。Xinuosがライセンス問題ではなく所有樁に関する主張を行ったことを指摘しています。Xinuosは全判事会による再考を望んでいますが、これは通常起こらないほどまれなケースです。

関連記事:2000年にSlashdotではSCOの一つの社長とのインタビューが行われました。 SCOは約50年前に起きた「誰がUnixの所有者か?」という訴訟に関連していると指摘しています。
関連リンク:
- AIがWebページ作成の1/3を占めている、Pew Researchによる調査
- SCOのUnixの所有権に関する質問への回答
- 50年前に再燃したLinux関連訴訟
The long legal battle over ownership of Linux "is closer than ever to ending," reports the Register, "after a panel of three judges ruled a claim against IBM and Red Hat isn't valid, and that time has expired for further action." In 2021, an heir to SCO settled with IBM for $14.25 million — a sum that reflects the fact SCO had for years failed to produce strong evidence to back its claims. Another of SCO's legal successors, Xinuos, filed a new claim that IBM should be on the hook because Big Blue knew it did not own the code it contributed to Linux but instead had a non-exclusive license to use it. Xinuos argued that when IBM contributed Project Monterey code to Linux [25 years ago], it breached that license. Xinuos eventually took that argument to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York — and failed to convince it that IBM and Red Hat had a case to answer. Xinuos appealed, and on August 10th the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decided [PDF] not to revisit the District Court's decision, agreeing that the original legalese governing Project Monterey means it's too late to re-litigate the matter. The Appeals Court also agreed that Xinuos tried to frame the case as a licensing issue but failed, instead arguing that the issue was really about ownership. That ain't all, folks, because Xinuos intends to file a petition to have the case re-heard by the full bench of the Court of Appeals. That hardly ever happens, unless the court finds significant errors or major legal issues that make a rehearing worthwhile. Law firm Kaplan says the Second Circuit has allowed reviews of less than 0.03 percent of the cases it has handled. So perhaps this matter is now close to a final resolution. Back in 2000 Slashdot interviewed one of the presidents of SCO.

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Defamation Suit Demanding Elsevier Retract Paper Heads Closer To Trial

🤖 AI Summary

Global Plasma Solutions (GPS)とElsevierとの間で起こっている1億ドル相当の名誉毀損訴訟は、来月7日に裁判日が設定されました。2021年にBuilding and Environment誌に掲載されたGPSの針点双極イオン化技術に関する論文に関して、審査を拒否したにもかかわらずElsevierが再tractionを拒否したことから始まった訴訟です。この論文はCOVID-19パンデミック中に主要な空気清浄機として宣伝され、GPSには大規模な財政損失が生じたと主張されています。

裁判所の判断により、原告であるGPSは「実際に悪意」を示していると認められました。これは、「事実の誤りを知っていながら真実性に対する注意を怠る態度」を指します。2024年5月にDavid Keesler法廷誌が判決を下し、2025年7月にはMartin Reidinger法曹も同様の推薦を認めていました。

訴訟では、Elsevierは19種類のジャーナルを評価した結果、1,200以上の論文が審査なしで掲載されたり、編集者の推奨に反して発表されたことを主張しています。また、この事件はすでに Elsevier に対して1万ドルの罰金を科せられています。

この裁判は来月7日に始まり、GPSとElsevierが争う焦点は、論文掲載の際の適切な審査プロセスの欠如や、その結果として生じた財政的損失についてです。
Retraction Watch reports: A trial date has been set in a $1 billion defamation case against Elsevier that alleges the company published what plaintiffs say was a manipulated study about an air purifying technology over objections from peer reviewers. The case has already cost Elsevier a $10,000 sanction from a judge. Global Plasma Solutions (GPS), which makes air quality products, sued Elsevier in 2022 after the publisher declined to retract a 2021 paper in Building and Environment about GPS' needlepoint bipolar ionization technology, which it heavily marketed during the COVID-19 pandemic as an air purifier. The complaint claims Elsevier is responsible for the authors' alleged omission of data and misleading conclusions in the paper that fueled "massive" financial losses for the company, its lawyers claim. Elsevier knew the paper "failed peer review" under its "own standards," but moved forward with the article despite this knowledge, according to GPS, which now goes by GPS Air. The complaint has survived a bid by Elsevier to dismiss the case, and a trial has been set for Dec. 7. In allowing the case to proceed, U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler said in a May 2024 opinion that GPS has "plausibly alleged actual malice" by Elsevier defined as "knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth." Chief Judge Martin Reidinger of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina upheld Keesler's recommendation in July 2025... Citing internal and discovery documents, GPS alleges an assessment of 19 journals revealed Elsevier has published more than 1,200 articles either without any peer review, or against the recommendations of the reviewers. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sandbagger for sharing the article.

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Music Publisher Round Hill Files $1 Billion Copyright Infringement Suits Against Suno, Anthropic

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD

🤖 AI Summary

Round Hill, an independent音乐出版社,已向Suno和Anthropic提起版权侵权诉讼,指控其未经授权使用了数百首受版权保护的歌曲来训练AI系统。Round Hill表示潜在赔偿可能超过10亿美元,并指出在利用版权材料构建价值数十亿美元的企业时,权利持有者却无任何收益,这是不公平的。公司提供的侵权歌曲列表中有500首,计划进一步添加多达一万首作品,总索赔额或达10亿美元以上。

代表Round Hill的著名音乐律师Richard Busch在诉讼中写道:“在其他版权侵权案件中,被告曾盛赞进步和AI对社会的价值,但这种‘便利性’论点完全站不住脚。Suno和Anthropic通过非法复制受版权保护的作品构建其多亿美元的企业时获得了巨大收益,而权利持有者却一无所得。”

此外,Universal Music Group 和Sony Music Group也向Suno提起了诉讼。

该报道指出,Round Hill是知名的音乐出版商,拥有包括Goo Goo Dolls的"Iris"、Bonnie Tyler的 "Total Eclipse of the Heart"在内的版权。Busch强调,利用侵权行为来纯粹为了商业目的构建多亿美元的企业是不公平的。
Independent music publisher Round Hill is suing Suno and Anthropic for allegedly using hundreds of copyrighted songs without permission to train their AI systems. The company says potential damages could exceed $1 billion, arguing there is "nothing fair" about building multibillion-dollar AI businesses on copyrighted material while rights holders receive nothing. From The Hollywood Reporter: Round Hill is a prominent music publisher whose copyrights include the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris," Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart," the Kinks' "Lola" and Dio's "Holy Diver." The company provided a list of 500 songs that the defendants had infringed upon. Round Hill said in the suits that the company plans to "amend to list potentially ten thousand or more of their musical compositions," with those damages potentially exceeding $1 billion. "While in other cases for copyright infringement, Defendant has waxed poetic about the necessity of progress and AI's value to society, there is simply no reason -- other than rote expediency -- to have that progress come at the cost of copyrights holders," prominent music attorney Richard Busch, representing Round Hill, wrote in the suits. Round Hill further argued that the latter "'expediency' arguments completely falter" when taking into account Suno and Anthropic's significant cash valuations they've earned while "exploiting illicit copies of copyrighted works, including the Round Hill Works." "There is simply nothing fair about a company using theft to build for purely commercial purposes a multi-billion dollar business while those from which they steal receive nothing," Round Hill said. Suno also faces a lawsuit from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Group.

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Disney, ABC Sue FCC Over Threats to Broadcast Licenses

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD

🤖 AI Summary

ディズニーグループとABCは、FCCによる放送ライセンスの早期審査阻止を求め、トランプ政権が不快な編集内容に対して規制力を行使しているとして訴訟を起こしました。Reutersによると、ディズニーはFCCが「メディア拒否するネットワークへの圧力と報復」を企んでいると主張し、「言論の過度な攻撃」として批判しています。

トランプ大統領はメディアに激しい攻撃を行い、この訴訟はディズニーグループとの2年間にわたる対立の中で最新の事件です。直近では1ヶ月前に、ディズニーが選挙に関するプライムタイムスピーチを放送しないことに抗議してABC局のライセンス取り消しを要求しました。

ディズニーとABCは、FCCに対する一時的な制止命令発令を求めています。彼らは公聴期間が終了しているためFCCがいつでも行動できるとしています。訴訟では、トランプ政権が第一修正権(言論の自由)を侵害しており、「ディズニーとABCに対して不快な編集内容に対する報復」と主張しています。

FCCは、ディズニーグループの多様性政策が違法な差別に当たる可能性があるとして1年間の調査を行ったが、その主張を否定している。司法省のローレン・アリカン判事は両者の申し立て内容を検討するスケジュールを作成するようFCCに命令しています。
Disney and ABC are suing the FCC to block an early review of eight station licenses, arguing the Trump administration is using the agency's regulatory power to punish the network over programming and editorial decisions it dislikes. Reuters reports: In a lawsuit (PDF) filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Disney said the FCC was seeking to coerce and retaliate against "a network that refuses to bow to the administration's demands," calling the agency's actions an "extraordinary assault on free speech." Trump has waged an aggressive series of attacks on the news media and the latest move follows a two-year-long battle between Trump and Disney. Last month, Trump again called for ABC stations to lose their licenses because the network refused to air a prime-time speech on elections. The court case will pose a key test of the free speech rights of media outlets. Disney and ABC asked the court (PDF) to quickly issue a temporary restraining order halting the license renewal proceedings and preventing the FCC from scheduling a hearing. The company said the public comment period ended earlier this month and the FCC could act at any time. The lawsuit alleges that the administration is violating the company's First Amendment free speech rights, saying that the FCC "is using its regulatory power to retaliate against (Disney and ABC) for programming and editorial decisions the administration dislikes." The FCC said the move stemmed from a year-long investigation into whether Disney's diversity policies amounted to unlawful discrimination, an allegation the company denies. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan issued an order on Tuesday directing the company and the FCC to propose a schedule for considering the request for a temporary restraining order and told the agency to notify her if it moves to start the process of revoking the ABC licenses.

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Supreme Court Rejects Verizon Bid For $47 Million Refund of FCC Fine

✇Slashdot
著者: BeauHD

🤖 AI Summary

### サマリー

【記事概要】
最高裁判所は、VerizonがFCCから4億7000万ドルの罰金返還を求める申し立てを却下した。この決定により、Verizonは低裁に罰金を検討させることも不可能となった。ただし、AT&TとT-Mobileは、モバイル利用者の位置情報を顧客の許可なく販売したことが違法とは限らないとして似たような罰金に対する争いを継続している。

【事実】
2024年に、AT&T、T-Mobile、Verizonは合計19億6000万ドルの罰金を支払った。3社は位置情報をデータアグリゲーターに販売したことにより顧客の許可なく利用者の位置情報を提供したとしてFCCから罰金を科せられた。各社は罰金を支払い、裁判所で違法性を争うために第七 Amendementに基づく陪審権侵害を主張したが、最高裁は6月に裁かれてVerizon側の主張は却下された。

【判決詳細】
最高裁は、FCCの罰金処置過程が第七 Amendement違反ではないと判断し、各社は罰金を支払わなかった場合に政府からの収支訴訟を通じて陪審権を得ることができるとした。この判決は8対1で行われた(トマス最高裁判官だけが異議を唱えた)。
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Supreme Court today rejected Verizon's attempt to get a $47 million refund from the Federal Communications Commission. In a list of orders (PDF) issued by the court, Verizon's petition was denied without explanation. The denial apparently ends any possibility of Verizon asking a lower court to review the fine and order the FCC to issue a refund. However, AT&T and T-Mobile are continuing to challenge similar fines on grounds that selling device-location data did not violate US telecom law. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon were fined a total of $196 million in 2024 for selling mobile users' real-time location data without their customers' consent. The carriers sold device-location information to data aggregators, who resold it to other firms. The carriers paid the fines and sought to have them overturned in courts, claiming their Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial was violated. Challenges by AT&T and Verizon were combined into a single case, and the Supreme Court ruled against the carriers in June of this year. The court ruled that the FCC penalty process does not violate the Seventh Amendment because the carriers could have obtained jury trials if they refused to pay the fines and waited for the government to try to collect. The ruling (PDF) against the carriers was 8-1, with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting.

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Meta Faces $1.4 Trillion Reckoning In Latest Trial Over Social Media Addiction

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著者: BeauHD

🤖 AI Summary

Metaは、複数の州による訴訟が今週初めに開廷する予定で、同社を14兆ドルもの罰金課せられかねない重大な問題に直面している。この訴訟は、Metaが故意に依存性が高い機能を作り出し、安全性について誤った情報を提示し、13歳未満のユーザーからデータを集めたとする主張に基づいている。

オークランド地方裁判所で開かれるこの審理には、Metaの上層部やマーカス・ザッカーバーグCEOらが証言する可能性がある。また、加害者保護法(COPPA)違反でも訴えられており、同社は未成年者のデータを収集していたと主張されている。

このケースは数千件に上る類似の訴訟にも影響を与えかねず、Metaの法律費用も増大している。昨年第2四半期には約24億ドルが法的費に使われたという。Meta側は、その請求額は不合理であり、現実的なものではないと主張している。

審理ではジャッジが最終決定権を持つため、大きな影響力を持つ可能性がある。AudioもYouTubeチャンネルでライブ配信される予定だ。
Meta is heading to trial in a case brought by dozens of states accusing it of deliberately designing addictive features, misleading users about safety, and illegally collecting data from children under 13. Meta says the states are seeking penalties as high as $1.4 trillion, though the judge has already called that figure "unreasonable." The case could, however, influence thousands of similar lawsuits against the company. Engadget reports: The trial kicks off Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, after Meta lost a last-ditch attempt to get the case dismissed last week. It could see testimony from top officials at Meta, including Mark Zuckerberg, and could result in record-breaking penalties for the company. The case stems from a 2023 lawsuit brought against Meta from dozens of states, which accused Meta of intentionally creating addictive features and violating consumer protection laws. The action came after a multi-state investigation into the company's safety practices that officials said revealed serious harms to children and teens. During the trial, federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will hear claims from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey that Meta violated state consumer protection laws by intentionally misleading the public about the safety of its apps. Those four states and 25 others are also suing Meta over alleged violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The states allege Meta broke the law because it knew Instagram and Facebook had users under the age of 13 and collected data about them without permission. [...] For Meta, the stakes are especially high because the company is currently facing thousands of other lawsuits that accuse it of harming users. Juries in Los Angeles and New Mexico have already ruled against Meta in high-profile trials that deal with similar issues. (Meta has said it will appeal in both cases.) Another loss could not only be a financial blow, it could give other lawsuits an easier path forward. And while Meta isn't exactly hurting for money, its legal costs are adding up. The company said it spent $2.4 billion on legal costs in the second quarter of 2026 alone. The jury in the case has already been selected and opening arguments are set to begin Tuesday, August 18. The trial is expected to last about six weeks. Unlike in a standard jury trial, the eight-member jury will serve in an "advisory" role, as Law360 explains. The judge will have full power over the final verdict and penalties. Along the way, the trial could also see testimony from some of Meta's most visible executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. Both men are likely to testify, according to Reuters. [...] Audio from the trial will be live streamed on the court's YouTube channel. A spokesperson for Meta issued the following statement: "The State AGs may call this a landmark case, but their limited claims are unsubstantiated and their financial demands are vastly disproportionate. The AGs offer no proof anyone in their states was misled, claim benign features like having an additional Instagram account somehow harmed their residents, and attempt to penalize Meta for industry-wide challenges like age verification," the spokesperson continued. "Rather than sticking to the facts or the law, the states have instead decided to chase an outlandish payout. We stand by our record of creating strong protections for teens, and look forward to making our case in court."

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US Tries to Override New York Gambling Laws, Orders Kalshi to Keep Operating

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著者: BeauHD
The CFTC has ordered Kalshi to keep operating in New York, claiming the state's lawsuit against the prediction market created a "market emergency." They said it acted "to ensure market stability" and "ordered the exchange to continue to operate in accordance with the Commodity Exchange Act's Core Principles." Ars Technica reports: The market emergency alleged by the CFTC is that New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Kalshi on July 31. James' lawsuit seeks a court order to permanently enjoin Kalshi "from operating an unlawful gambling business" in the state. The lawsuit also demands that Kalshi "make full restitution to customers who have engaged in betting" and pay financial penalties. "New York intends to make event contract derivatives waste away under its iron curtain of state gaming laws before the courts get the chance to issue final rulings," CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said yesterday. "Congress did not intend for derivatives exchanges to be regulated under a patchwork of state gaming laws... New York has no business regulating these interstate financial markets. The commission is required by law to ensure order in these markets, and that is what we have done today." [...] The CFTC says it alone has the power to regulate platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket under the Commodity Exchange Act, a US law that gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over designated contract markets (DCMs). "These are financial exchanges that offer financial instruments and operate across state lines," Selig said yesterday. "They match the bid from a resident of one state with the offer of a resident from another state and submit the trade to a clearinghouse that backstops the transactions of customers throughout the country."

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Court Orders Meta To Establish $567 Million Fund To Abate Harms To Youth

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著者: BeauHD

🤖 AI Summary

ニュメキキ州裁判所は、Metaに5億6700万ドルの基金を設立するよう命じた。この決定は、Metaがプラットフォームで若者のメンタルヘルス問題や児童性的虐待に関与しているとして公害と見做されたためである。判決文によると、「ニュメキキ州は青少年のメンタルヘルス危機に直面しており、その原因の一つとしてMetaのプラットフォームが指摘されている」という。

この決定は、Metaがニュメキキ州に対して3億7500万ドルの民事罰金を科された上に加えて行われた。ただし、無限スクロールやオートプレイなどの機能変更については命じられなかった。これは、第一修正条項とセクション230条文に反する可能性があるためである。

ニュメキキ州総務卿ラウエル・トレスは、Metaがプラットフォームの安全性について虚偽の声明を発表していたにもかかわらず、内部ではその製品が児童性的虐待に関与していると認識していたとして訴えた。裁判所はMetaのセクション230防御を否決した。

この決定はニュメキキ州v. Metaプラットフォーム株式会社の第2段階に続くもので、その中心的な問題はMetaのプラットフォームがニュメキキ州において公害を成しているかどうかであり、それが真実である場合にどのような措置が必要かであった。
A New Mexico court ordered (PDF) Meta to create a $567 million fund to address harms linked to youth mental health and child sexual exploitation after finding its platforms constituted a public nuisance. "In sum, the Court finds that New Mexico is in the midst of a teen mental health crisis affecting public health and public safety in and throughout the state, and that Meta's platforms are a significant contributing cause to the crisis," wrote Chief Judge Bryan Biedscheid in the decision. The fund comes on top of $375 million in civil penalties, though the judge declined to mandate changes to features such as infinite scroll and autoplay, citing potential First Amendment and Section 230 concerns. Tech Policy Press reports: The decision follows the second phase of in the State of New Mexico v. Meta Platforms Inc., which consisted of a bench trial. Its central question was whether Meta's platforms amounted to a public nuisance in New Mexico, and, if the court found that they did, what remedy would be needed to address it. In March, a Santa Fe jury found Meta liable for violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act, awarding $375 million in civil penalties. The jury deliberated less than a day following that nearly seven-week trial. The $567 million abatement fund would be in addition to the civil penalties, according to today's decision. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez sued Meta in December 2023, alleging the company made false public statements about the safety of its platforms while knowing internally that its products facilitated child sexual exploitation. The court denied Meta's Section 230 defense in May 2024. In today's decision, the court again asserted that "Section 230 does not preclude the State's public nuisance claim," but the decision attempted to thread the needle on issues that the court determined might have run "afoul" of the statute, or of the First Amendment, such as issuing remedies around any particular product feature.

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Apple Says More Ex-Employees May Have Taken Confidential Data to OpenAI

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著者: BeauHD

🤖 AI Summary

Appleは、元社員が秘密情報をOpenAIに持ち込んだ可能性が高いと主張し、更なる証拠を求めています。TechCrunchによると、Appleはジョニー・アイ氏のio起業や開発者たちに対して仮差止 injunction の要求をしています。

主なポイント:
1. Appleは新たに、チェン・リウとタン・ユイウーンなどの元社員が秘密情報をもたらし、さらに11人の他の元社員も関与している可能性があると主張。
2. これらの証拠には、ある元社員が未発表製品の機密情報について説明を受けたという報告書などが含まれています。
3. Appleは迅速な調査を求めており、不正行為が訴状に挙げられた元社員以外にも関与者がいる可能性があると主張しています。

OpenAI側は、このような申し出が虚偽であり必要ないという立場を示しており、「私たちは革新的な製品と技術を開発することに興味があります」と述べています。
Apple is now seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent OpenAI and Jony Ive's io startup from developing AI hardware allegedly based on stolen Apple trade secrets. "The iPhone maker also claims that more of its former employees may be involved with the trade secrets theft," reports TechCrunch. From the report: In a new filing, Apple is requesting expedited discovery from the accused OpenAI employees, senior systems engineer Chang Liu and Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan; OpenAI, and its foundation; and io, the device startup co-founded by Apple's former lead designer Jony Ive. Apple also notes that its continued investigation has so far revealed 11 other former Apple employees beyond Liu and Tan may have been witnesses or otherwise involved in the case, and others who were previously named in the original complaint, like OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng. The filing marks an escalation in Apple's legal battle with OpenAI, as it suggests Apple has uncovered new evidence that the misconduct goes beyond the former employees named in the original complaint. "For example, another former Apple employee seems to have met with Mr. Liu and Ms. Peng in advance of Ms. Peng's interview at OpenAI and discussed with them during that meeting Apple proprietary information relating to unannounced products," the filing states. "Yet another former Apple employee took screenshots of confidential Apple documents relating to an unannounced Apple product before an interview at OpenAI." "And, after Apple filed its complaint, multiple former Apple employees now working at OpenAI reached out to discuss returning Apple-issued work devices they kept when they left Apple," Apple claims, suggesting there were more who were possibly involved with the scheme. Apple is pushing the court to allow for expedited discovery because it believes it has good cause to suspect that there are others involved in the theft of its intellectual property. The company noted that its motion for a preliminary injunction is also pending. Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is "both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," said OpenAI in a blog post. "We're much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier," OpenAI's statement reads.

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New York Sues Kalshi For Running 'Illegal Gambling Operation'

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著者: BeauHD
New York has sued prediction-market platform Kalshi, alleging it operates an "illegal gambling operation" without state authorization. "No matter what they call themselves, prediction markets like Kalshi are gambling platforms, plain and simple," said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a press release announcing the lawsuit. "By ignoring our laws, Kalshi is running an illegal operation and harming New Yorkers in the process." CNBC reports: In a case filed in a Manhattan state court (PDF), the lawsuit claims that Kalshi accepts wagers as a gambling business in disregard for the state's constitution and laws by not being registered with the New York State Gaming Commission. Governor Kathy Hochul in the press release said the state is taking the action to stop what it views as illegal behavior and bring the company into compliance with New York law. The lawsuit is seeking a permanent injunction against Kalshi. The suit by the state is also seeking a total restitution to users who have placed trades on the platform, a $100,000 penalty for each attempt to offer sports wagering, and another penalty three times the amount the company has gained while allegedly operating in violation of New York law. The state estimates that could total $36 billion.

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