“This settlement is another reminder that only paying customers enjoy full access to Dow Jones' highly valuable journalism, and anyone who free rides on our content will face serious financial repercussions.”

–Mark Jackson, general counsel of Dow Jones & Co.

Swedish company Cision AB and its U.S. subsidiary agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle a copyright infringement claim from Dow Jones. The New York-based publishing firm accused Cision of reproducing and distributing entire articles from publications including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and SmartMoney.

“This year, we've decided not to renew with ALEC, and it's because of positions they've taken not related to our business.”

–Michelle Wilson, general counsel of Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon.com announced last month that it was ending its affiliation with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative political group. ALEC lost more than a dozen corporate members following a campaign mounted by the advocacy group Color of Change, which objected to the conservative organization's reported support of voter ID and “stand your ground” laws.

“I was astonished and frustrated. This effectively said Mark [Hurd] need not come to work for a year-and-a-half.”

–Dorian Daley, general counsel of Oracle Corp.

Oracle and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) are duking it out in court over claims that Oracle breached a contract when it halted development of its Itanium microprocessor, which HP uses in many products. HP alleges that the contract—signed when former HP CEO Mark Hurd jumped ship for Oracle—stipulated that the partnership between the two companies would continue unchanged, and that Hurd would stay out of Oracle's hardware business for 15 months.