Alex Veiga

January 04, 2005 | Legaltech News

Although entertainment companies have recently targeted file-sharing services and their users with litigation, they have not been able to discourage insiders who supply so-called "ripping groups" with content. For online bootleggers, who authorities say represent the top of a distribution pyramid for pirated movies, software and music, it's all about the bragging rights from being the first to copy a hot title or release the best-quality replica.

By Alex Veiga

6 minute read

January 22, 2007 | Corporate Counsel

A hung jury forced a mistrial on Thursday in the cases of two men who blamed their heart attacks on Vioxx, the painkiller made by Merck & Co. that is now the subject of thousands of lawsuits. It wasn't clear when there might be a retrial of the lawsuits brought by Lawrence Appell and Rudolph Arrigale who argued that Merck failed to give sufficient warning of potential safety hazards of the drug. The company says the two men's heart problems were caused by pre-existing coronary heart disease, not Vioxx.

By Alex Veiga

4 minute read

December 15, 2004 | Legaltech News

Hollywood movie studios on Tuesday sued scores of operators of U.S.- and European-based computer servers that help relay digitized movie files across online file-sharing networks. The initial wave of lawsuits targets computer servers that index movies for BitTorrent users, but the industry is eyeing similar action against servers that direct data for the DirectConnect and eDonkey file-swapping services.

By Alex Veiga

4 minute read

January 04, 2005 | Law.com

Although entertainment companies have recently targeted file-sharing services and their users with litigation, they have not been able to discourage insiders who supply so-called "ripping groups" with content. For online bootleggers, who authorities say represent the top of a distribution pyramid for pirated movies, software and music, it's all about the bragging rights from being the first to copy a hot title or release the best-quality replica.

By Alex Veiga

6 minute read

May 05, 2003 | Law.com

The recording industry's decision to sue four college students it accused of making thousands of songs available online for illegal downloading has paid off -- and not just in money. The students will cease distributing copyrighted music and pay damages of between $12,000 and $17,500 each. But perhaps more significantly, the lawsuits may have prompted some 18 similar networks at universities to go off-line since the suits were filed.

By Alex Veiga

3 minute read

September 05, 2003 | Law.com

Students arriving for fall classes at colleges across the country are facing new restrictions and stern warnings to discourage the swapping of pirated music and movies over high-speed campus Internet connections. Some schools, worried about recording-industry lawsuits, are even using software to choke the amount of data that can flow in or out of a computer when students use file-sharing programs.

By Alex Veiga and Brian Bergstein

5 minute read

March 01, 2005 | Law.com

Religious and other conservative groups have shown little love for Hollywood or the recording industry over the years, decrying everything from explicit rap lyrics to Janet Jackson's bared breast at the Super Bowl. But a cadre of those groups are stepping up to back the entertainment industry in its moment of need: a high-stakes battle against online file-sharing services that has reached the nation's highest court.

By Alex Veiga

5 minute read

January 04, 2006 | Legaltech News

Weeks before the original Napster closed down in 2001, Internet users were flocking to alternative song-swapping programs. Now, like Napster founder Shawn Fanning before them, file-sharing barons are facing their own day of reckoning in the wake of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer. During the past four months, several Napster heirs have shut down and others are contemplating what they once couldn't abide: doing business by the entertainment industry's rules so they can survive.

By Alex Veiga

5 minute read

April 22, 2005 | Law.com

AOL markets itself as a safe place for children, but is the company doing enough to monitor the monitors? That question is central to a lawsuit filed by a California teenager who claims a chat-room monitor tried to seduce her online. The girl's lawsuit is the first such claim made against an employee at AOL or any other major Internet service provider, according to online child safety organizations and law enforcement agencies.

By Alex Veiga

4 minute read

September 22, 2003 | Law.com

Recording companies are cautiously eyeing a new generation of smart CDs that promise to stifle music fans' ability to use file-swapping networks while still allowing them some freedom to make copies and share music. The new technology could complement legal efforts against operators of file-swapping networks, though some recording industry executives are wary that the technology could be easily thwarted.

By Alex Veiga

4 minute read