Apple can’t get out of facing a class-action lawsuit over AirTags stalking claims

A San Francisco judge has ruled that Apple must face a lawsuit accusing the company of negligence over the potential stalking risks created by its AirTags, Bloomberg reports. While the bulk of the roughly three dozen claims in the class-action suit were dismissed, US District Judge Vince Chhabria denied Apple’s bid to have the suit thrown out based on three plaintiffs’ claims alleging that “when they were stalked, the problems with the AirTag’s safety features were substantial, and that those safety defects caused their injuries.”

While the suit argues that Apple was warned of the potential for its Bluetooth item trackers to be misused and thus should be held liable under California law, Apple disagrees, according to Bloomberg. After it released AirTags, Apple later rolled out safety features designed to thwart stalking attempts, like an update that made it so AirTags would emit a loud sound when they get a certain distance from their owner and notifications about unknown trackers. Apple and Google also last year announced that they’re working together on developing industry standards to proactively fight the misuse of tracking devices.

Nevertheless, the lawsuit argues that AirTags have “become the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers,” Bloomberg reports. The case was filed in the Northern California district court.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-cant-get-out-of-facing-a-class-action-lawsuit-over-airtags-stalking-claims-184329639.html?src=rss

Tesla settles long-running racial discrimination court battle with former worker

Owen Diaz's lengthy court battle against Tesla is officially over, now that both parties have agreed on a settlement. Attorney Lawrence Organ, Diaz's lawyer, told CNBC that that the "parties have reached an amicable resolution of their disputes," but that the "terms of the settlement are confidential." If you've been following this case for a while now, that means you won't get to find out how much Diaz is getting after the massive $137 million in damages he was originally awarded got dramatically lowered to $3.2 million. 

The former elevator operator famously sued the automaker for enabling a racist workplace, saying that he faced discrimination "straight from the Jim Crow era" as a Black individual. He said his fellow workers left left drawings of swastika and racist graffiti, such as ones of Inki the Caveman, on his workspace and around Tesla's Fremont assembly plant. Diaz also said that he and other Black workers were subjected to racial slurs, and that the company failed to address thes behaviors despite repeated complaints. 

In 2021, a San Francisco court ordered Tesla to pay $137 million in damages to its former worker, which was one of the highest amounts awarded to a plaintiff suing on the basis of discrimination. However, a judge during the appeals that followed found the amount excessive and lowered it to $15 million, even though he upheld the original jury's verdict. The parties went back into trial after Diaz refused the lowered amount, but a jury lowered the damages Tesla must pay even further to $3.2 million. At the time, Diaz's lawyer said he was wrongly attacked by the defense and that they had already requested a new trial due to misconduct. It looks like both parties have since agreed to negotiate behind closed doors. 

While Diaz's case is done, Organ also represents Marcus Vaughn, who filed another lawsuit against the automaker for racial harassment. Vaughn called Tesla's Fremont plant a "hotbed for racist behavior" and petitioned the court last year to give his lawsuit class action status so that he could add 240 Black colleagues to his complaint. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-settles-long-running-racial-discrimination-court-battle-with-former-worker-133036456.html?src=rss

Tesla settles long-running racial discrimination court battle with former worker

Owen Diaz's lengthy court battle against Tesla is officially over, now that both parties have agreed on a settlement. Attorney Lawrence Organ, Diaz's lawyer, told CNBC that that the "parties have reached an amicable resolution of their disputes," but that the "terms of the settlement are confidential." If you've been following this case for a while now, that means you won't get to find out how much Diaz is getting after the massive $137 million in damages he was originally awarded got dramatically lowered to $3.2 million. 

The former elevator operator famously sued the automaker for enabling a racist workplace, saying that he faced discrimination "straight from the Jim Crow era" as a Black individual. He said his fellow workers left left drawings of swastika and racist graffiti, such as ones of Inki the Caveman, on his workspace and around Tesla's Fremont assembly plant. Diaz also said that he and other Black workers were subjected to racial slurs, and that the company failed to address thes behaviors despite repeated complaints. 

In 2021, a San Francisco court ordered Tesla to pay $137 million in damages to its former worker, which was one of the highest amounts awarded to a plaintiff suing on the basis of discrimination. However, a judge during the appeals that followed found the amount excessive and lowered it to $15 million, even though he upheld the original jury's verdict. The parties went back into trial after Diaz refused the lowered amount, but a jury lowered the damages Tesla must pay even further to $3.2 million. At the time, Diaz's lawyer said he was wrongly attacked by the defense and that they had already requested a new trial due to misconduct. It looks like both parties have since agreed to negotiate behind closed doors. 

While Diaz's case is done, Organ also represents Marcus Vaughn, who filed another lawsuit against the automaker for racial harassment. Vaughn called Tesla's Fremont plant a "hotbed for racist behavior" and petitioned the court last year to give his lawsuit class action status so that he could add 240 Black colleagues to his complaint. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-settles-long-running-racial-discrimination-court-battle-with-former-worker-133036456.html?src=rss

Whoops! Amazon served costly ads for products people couldn’t actually buy

It can be quite annoying to click through an Amazon ad in your results only to find out that the product you want can't be shipped to your place. Now, imagine you're the small business owner being charged for those ads. (Forget corporations and drop shippers, I know you all hate them.) There you are, thinking you're going to make a killing based on how much ad action you're getting. Except those ads don't translate to sales, because Amazon has been serving them to people who can't even buy your products. That's apparently what happened to at least one seller who told Bloomberg that he was charged between $200,000 and $300,000 for ads served to California residents, where he can't sell his advanced gaming computer items. 

The seller stopped shipping to California due to the state's personal computer power consumption regulations, which would require him to get costly lab reports for his products. But Amazon's automated system apparently continued advertising his products there and allegedly denied that there was an issue when he flagged the problem and followed up for several weeks. Since he was being charged thousands, the seller, who employs 80 people in Virginia to assemble custom computers, reportedly made zero profit in November, December and January. 

Amazon has acknowledged the issue in a statement sent to Engadget. It told us that it had investigated the matter and found that it only affected "a tiny fraction" of sellers. It also said that it had already apologized to the seller who talked to Bloomberg and that the company is in the process of refunding him $15,000. That's a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands the seller said he'd lost, but Amazon says it only served "a very small portion" of his listings to California residents. "We will similarly contact and refund any affected sellers, and are updating our processes to ensure any such ads are not charged going forward," the spokesperson said. 

The company's advertising system generally can't geo-target advertisements like Google ads can, because it focuses on matching buyers to certain brands or products they may be interested in. It also can't ensure that the product it's advertising complies with state regulations and, hence, can be shipped to its residents. As Bloomberg notes, this is far from the first time Amazon faced an issue regarding its advertisements. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company, and one of the regulator's accusations was that it was "deliberately increasing junk ads that worsen search quality." A report that came out after the lawsuit revealed that Amazon can strike deals with other companies to make sure their listings are devoid of junk ads, though, which is why Apple's official product pages might look cleaner and less cluttered compared to its competitors'.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/whoops-amazon-served-costly-ads-for-products-people-couldnt-actually-buy-123046646.html?src=rss

The SEC accuses Elon Musk of trying to ‘distort’ its investigation into his takeover of Twitter

The SEC officials investigating Elon Musk over his handling of the Twitter takeover seem to be growing more and more impatient with his legal antics. The two sides have been locked in a dispute over Musk’s refusal to testify in the investigation.Now, in a new filing, the SEC accuses Musk of trying to “misrepresent” the regulator’s investigation. “Musk continues to distort the true scope of this investigation – his only hope for establishing that the SEC is not seeking relevant evidence,” the SEC writes in a court document.

The SEC has been investigating Musk since 2022 over his delayed disclosure of his stake in Twitter, which was then a publicly-traded company. The regulator sued Musk last year in an effort to force him to testify in the investigation. The SEC said at the time it was investigating “among other things, potential violations of various provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with” his purchase of Twitter stock and “SEC filings relating to Twitter.” A federal judge ordered Musk to comply with the subpoena and schedule an interview last month.

That testimony has apparently still not taken place, with the SEC accusing Musk of using “gamesmanship” to stall the investigation. The regulator goes on to note that while Musk’s legal team has claimed the probe is an “unbounded investigation into an allegedly days-late SEC filing,” that “the SEC staff has repeatedly informed Musk that it is false.” 

Musk, according to the SEC, is also being investigated for securities fraud. “This investigation also examines potential securities fraud in violation of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act … related to, among other things, Musk’s public statements about his acquisition of Twitter,” the SEC says.

Notably, the filing also references the recently-released biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson, which contains “newly released evidence,” according to the SEC. “Three days before he was to appear for the testimony he failed to attend, his September 2023 biography was published,” the SEC writes. “This book provides important new information relevant to the SEC’s investigation.”

It’s also not the first time Isaacson’s account of the Twitter takeover has landed Musk in hot water. A group of former execs suing Musk over unpaid severance also referenced a passage from the book in their lawsuit.

X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-sec-accuses-elon-musk-of-trying-to-distort-its-investigation-into-his-takeover-of-twitter-001429205.html?src=rss

The SEC accuses Elon Musk of trying to ‘distort’ its investigation into his takeover of Twitter

The SEC officials investigating Elon Musk over his handling of the Twitter takeover seem to be growing more and more impatient with his legal antics. The two sides have been locked in a dispute over Musk’s refusal to testify in the investigation.Now, in a new filing, the SEC accuses Musk of trying to “misrepresent” the regulator’s investigation. “Musk continues to distort the true scope of this investigation – his only hope for establishing that the SEC is not seeking relevant evidence,” the SEC writes in a court document.

The SEC has been investigating Musk since 2022 over his delayed disclosure of his stake in Twitter, which was then a publicly-traded company. The regulator sued Musk last year in an effort to force him to testify in the investigation. The SEC said at the time it was investigating “among other things, potential violations of various provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with” his purchase of Twitter stock and “SEC filings relating to Twitter.” A federal judge ordered Musk to comply with the subpoena and schedule an interview last month.

That testimony has apparently still not taken place, with the SEC accusing Musk of using “gamesmanship” to stall the investigation. The regulator goes on to note that while Musk’s legal team has claimed the probe is an “unbounded investigation into an allegedly days-late SEC filing,” that “the SEC staff has repeatedly informed Musk that it is false.” 

Musk, according to the SEC, is also being investigated for securities fraud. “This investigation also examines potential securities fraud in violation of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act … related to, among other things, Musk’s public statements about his acquisition of Twitter,” the SEC says.

Notably, the filing also references the recently-released biography of Musk written by Walter Isaacson, which contains “newly released evidence,” according to the SEC. “Three days before he was to appear for the testimony he failed to attend, his September 2023 biography was published,” the SEC writes. “This book provides important new information relevant to the SEC’s investigation.”

It’s also not the first time Isaacson’s account of the Twitter takeover has landed Musk in hot water. A group of former execs suing Musk over unpaid severance also referenced a passage from the book in their lawsuit.

X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-sec-accuses-elon-musk-of-trying-to-distort-its-investigation-into-his-takeover-of-twitter-001429205.html?src=rss

The US Government says IP infringement is all over NFT marketplaces

The non-fungible token (NFT) bubble burst quite some time ago, but the US Government has only just published a report looking into the surrounding legal framework. The study, carried out jointly by the US Copyright Office (USCO) and the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) following a 2022 request by the Senate, determined that current intellectual property laws are robust enough to deal with copyright or trademark infringement in NFTs. The agencies also determined that although there are some benefits to the tokens, "trademark infringement and misuse is prevalent on NFT marketplaces."

As a reminder, an NFT is a digital certificate of authenticity conferring ownership of a collectible, such as an artwork or piece of music. It's effectively a verified link to a piece of media which may or may not live on the blockchain, but whoever owns the destination of an NFT's URL can change the media it points to at any time. In one notable case in 2021, Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike created an NFT that he promised would appear to be a poop emoji when someone bought it.

The offices noted that NFTs and associated smart contracts can aid trademark owners in managing, licensing and transferring IP rights. Those who weighed in on the issue in public comments pointed out that NFTs can help artists make money from future sales of their work too. That's not inherently a bad thing, even if a large swath of NFT art is butt-ugly.

However, the study noted "widespread concern that NFT buyers and sellers do not know what IP rights are implicated in the creation, marketing and transfer of NFTs and that NFTs may be used to facilitate copyright or trademark infringement."

The report notes that the decentralized nature of NFTs and blockchain networks complicates any attempts to enforce trademarks. "While some individual NFT platforms have developed protocols to help trademark owners enforce their rights, there is no centralized authority that requires all platforms to do so," the report reads. "There are also no cross-platform mechanisms to allow trademark owners to identify and take down infringing content, settle trademark-related disputes involving blockchain-based domain names, or confirm that sellers own the trademark rights associated with the assets they offer."

With all of that in mind, the offices said that educating the public about NFTs could help ensure a better understanding and awareness of the tokens and how they work. Still, they recommended in their report to Congress that the current use of NFTs doesn't require changes to current IP laws. They also noted that "incorporating NFTs into their registration and recordation practices is not necessary or advisable at this time." In other words, they don't think they should have to deal with NFTs either.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-us-government-says-ip-infringement-is-all-over-nft-marketplaces-155757506.html?src=rss

Now it’s NVIDIA being sued over AI copyright infringement

It's getting hard to keep up with copyright lawsuits against generative AI, with a new proposed class action hitting the courts last week. This time, authors are suing NVIDIA over its AI platform NeMo, a language model that allows businesses to create and train their own chatbots, Ars Technica reported. They claim the company trained it on a controversial dataset that illegally used their books without consent.

Authors Abdi Nazemian, Brian Keene and Stewart O’Nan demanded a jury trial and asked NVIDIA to pay damages and destroy all copies of the Books3 dataset used to power NeMo large language models (LLMs). They claim that dataset copied a shadow library called Bibliotek consisting of 196,640 pirated books. 

"In sum, NVIDIA has admitted training its NeMo Megatron models on a copy of The Pile dataset," the claim states. "Therefore, NVIDIA necessarily also trained its NeMo Megatron models on a copy of Books3, because Books3 is part of The Pile. Certain books written by Plaintiffs are part of Books3— including the Infringed Works—and thus NVIDIA necessarily trained its NeMo Megatron models on one or more copies of the Infringed Works, thereby directly infringing the copyrights of the Plaintiffs. 

In response, NVIDIA told The Wall Street Journal that "we respect the rights of all content creators and believe we created NeMo in full compliance with copyright law."

Last year, OpenAI and Microsoft were hit with a copyright lawsuit from nonfiction authors, claiming the companies made money off their works but refused to pay them. A similar lawsuit was launched earlier this year. That's on top of a lawsuit from news organizations like The Intercept and Raw Story, and of course, the legal action that kicked all of this off from The New York Times

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/now-its-nvidia-being-sued-over-ai-copyright-infringement-083407300.html?src=rss

SpaceX lawsuit claims repeated instances of gender discrimination and basic safeguarding failures

Warning: The following article covers matters of a sensitive nature.

A SpaceX employee has filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of siding with a supervisor who pressured her into having sexual relations with him. The plaintiff said that she and other female employees also had to endure "humiliating comments" questioning their credentials, that she was passed up for promotions in favor of male candidates and that she experienced retaliation when she complained about being paid less than her male counterparts. 

The plaintiff, Michelle Dopak, has been working at the aerospace corporation's headquarters in California since 2017. According to her complaint, she experienced discrimination early on in her employment when she was passed up for job opportunities in favor of external male candidates. Her male colleagues allegedly spread rumors about their female coworkers, as well, claiming that they only got their jobs because of their looks. Dopak and two of her female colleagues met with Gwynne Shotwell to complain about both issues — "an action that no male colleague or employee at SpaceX would ever feel the need to do to justify their hiring and stop such discriminatory actions," the lawsuit reads. The SpaceX president, however, apparently didn't take any action. 

After a reorganization in 2019, the plaintiff was placed under the supervision of a male boss who allegedly pressured her into having a sexual relationship that lasted years. When she got pregnant as a result, she said her married supervisor offered her $100,000 to have an abortion, which she had refused. She also accused SpaceX of colluding with her boss to transfer 48,289 shares worth $3,718,253 out of his name so that he could get out of paying child support. 

Her complaints didn't end there. After getting promoted to a position she had been chasing for years, she found out that a male colleague who was hired at the same time was being paid $5,000 more. The company officials she talked to about the pay disparity couldn't justify it and allegedly offered her only $2,500 more if she also took a reduction in stock benefits. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff said the offer was "a message that if you complain at SpaceX, we will just retaliate against you and find other ways to punish you."

The lawsuit accuses SpaceX of forcing female employees who have claims of sexual harassment and discrimination into bringing their claims to arbitration so that they could be kept secret from the public. "SpaceX has also attempted to coerce and force [the plaintiff] into only bringing her claims in arbitration even though such claims are barred from being forced to arbitration," the complaint continues.

The plaintiff is asking for general, compensatory and consequential damages, including lost wages, earnings and other employee benefits. She's also asking the court to prohibit SpaceX from continuing any "unfair and unlawful business practices." SpaceX is currently facing another proposed class action lawsuit that claims it pays women and minorities tens of thousands less than what it pays white male employees. In January, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against SpaceX, as well, accusing it for illegally firing a group of engineers who criticized Elon Musk for making crude jokes on X about the sexual misconduct accusations against him.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-lawsuit-claims-repeated-instances-of-gender-discrimination-and-basic-safeguarding-failures-133014753.html?src=rss

SpaceX lawsuit claims repeated instances of gender discrimination and basic safeguarding failures

Warning: The following article covers matters of a sensitive nature.

A SpaceX employee has filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of siding with a supervisor who pressured her into having sexual relations with him. The plaintiff said that she and other female employees also had to endure "humiliating comments" questioning their credentials, that she was passed up for promotions in favor of male candidates and that she experienced retaliation when she complained about being paid less than her male counterparts. 

The plaintiff, Michelle Dopak, has been working at the aerospace corporation's headquarters in California since 2017. According to her complaint, she experienced discrimination early on in her employment when she was passed up for job opportunities in favor of external male candidates. Her male colleagues allegedly spread rumors about their female coworkers, as well, claiming that they only got their jobs because of their looks. Dopak and two of her female colleagues met with Gwynne Shotwell to complain about both issues — "an action that no male colleague or employee at SpaceX would ever feel the need to do to justify their hiring and stop such discriminatory actions," the lawsuit reads. The SpaceX president, however, apparently didn't take any action. 

After a reorganization in 2019, the plaintiff was placed under the supervision of a male boss who allegedly pressured her into having a sexual relationship that lasted years. When she got pregnant as a result, she said her married supervisor offered her $100,000 to have an abortion, which she had refused. She also accused SpaceX of colluding with her boss to transfer 48,289 shares worth $3,718,253 out of his name so that he could get out of paying child support. 

Her complaints didn't end there. After getting promoted to a position she had been chasing for years, she found out that a male colleague who was hired at the same time was being paid $5,000 more. The company officials she talked to about the pay disparity couldn't justify it and allegedly offered her only $2,500 more if she also took a reduction in stock benefits. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff said the offer was "a message that if you complain at SpaceX, we will just retaliate against you and find other ways to punish you."

The lawsuit accuses SpaceX of forcing female employees who have claims of sexual harassment and discrimination into bringing their claims to arbitration so that they could be kept secret from the public. "SpaceX has also attempted to coerce and force [the plaintiff] into only bringing her claims in arbitration even though such claims are barred from being forced to arbitration," the complaint continues.

The plaintiff is asking for general, compensatory and consequential damages, including lost wages, earnings and other employee benefits. She's also asking the court to prohibit SpaceX from continuing any "unfair and unlawful business practices." SpaceX is currently facing another proposed class action lawsuit that claims it pays women and minorities tens of thousands less than what it pays white male employees. In January, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against SpaceX, as well, accusing it for illegally firing a group of engineers who criticized Elon Musk for making crude jokes on X about the sexual misconduct accusations against him.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-lawsuit-claims-repeated-instances-of-gender-discrimination-and-basic-safeguarding-failures-133014753.html?src=rss