Judge Cote ruled in a Wednesday morning teleconference hearing that Apple ceo Tim Cook must testify as part of the DOJ’s lawsuit against Apple in June. Reuters reported that Judge Cote cited the death of Steve Jobs as a key reason in ordering Cook’s deposition, which will last for a minimum of four hours. “Because of that loss, I think the government is entitled to take testimony from high-level executives within Apple about topics relevant to the government case,” she said. Apple had tried to insulate Cook from the trial, saying he was not named in the original antitrust complaint […]
Legal
More Objections On Closed Domain Names
Following the AAP’s objection to any issuance of closed–or essentially privately-operated–new internet domains such as .book, others have filed comments in opposition with ICANN as well. The AAP had objected specifically to Amazon’s filings–which also include .author and .read–because the company said it intends to operate the names on a closed basis “to protect its intellectual property rights” and “to support the business goals of Amazon.” Authors Guild president Scott Turow filed what appears to be a broader complaint to the idea of selling such domains to any private enterprise, regardless of whether they will open those domains to public registrations […]
AAP Objects to Amazon’s Application for Closed .Book Domain
As ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) solicits comments on applications for thousands of potential new “generic” domain names (from corporate names like .Bloomberg to regular words like .blog and .search), the AAP has objected to an application made by Amazon’s Luxmbourg subsidiary for the “.book” domain. Nine different companies applied for .book, including Google, a Bowker subsidiary and a company run by Proquest (and former Bowker) executive Annie Callahan. Reportedly, the application fee for the new domains was $185,000. The AAP objects specifically to the Amazon application but not the others, because Amazon said in their application […]
Penguin Ordered to Participate in States’ eBook Trial, For Now
Though Penguin agreed to settle the ebook lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice in December, the company has yet to finalize a settlement of the parallel state ebook price-fixing lawsuit. With that second suit still pending and heading to trial, on Wednesday afternoon Judge Cote formally denied Penguin’s request to sit out the June 2013 trial (in which Penguin is formally named the lead defendant in the states’ case.) Penguin therefore must submit an initial witness list by March 1, and has until March 15 to file a motion that would “assert its right not to defend against the […]
Judge Sets March 11 Meeting Date on Booksellers’ Suit
Judge Jed Rakoff, the Southern District judge named to preside over the suit filed by three independent booksellers against Amazon and the “big six” publishers, has stipulated a March 11 case management and scheduling conference among the parties. None of the parties have responded to the suit yet, which is not unusual, so the judge’s order indicates that “the fact that any party has not answered the complaint does not excuse attendance by that party or warrant any adjournment of the conference.” For now, the court “requires that this case shall be ready for trial on August 12, 2013,” though […]
ABA Supports “The Concerns” Raised In Booksellers’ Suit
In their first response to the lawsuit filed by three booksellers a week ago against Amazon and the six largest trade publishers, the American Booksellers Association acknowledged that the organization “was approached by one of the plaintiffs” in mid-2012. At that time, they say they were asked “to participate in an antitrust action solely against Amazon.com.” (Refer yourself back to the letter to the DOJ we cited in Friday’s Lunch.) The ABA writes that it “shares the concerns of the plaintiff booksellers regarding Amazon.com’s business practices, as raised in the recently filed lawsuit,” but the statement does not mention the […]