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If you're already overwhelmed by the sheer amount of activity surrounding the ongoing NSA fallout, we're guessing that now would be an excellent time to go on vacation. Predictably, lawsuits are already being filed against the National Security Agency, the second of which is coming from the American Civil Liberties Union. Essentially, it's challenging the constitutionality of the surveillance program in a New York federal court, deeming the initiative "one of the largest surveillance efforts ever launched by a democratic government."
The suit claims that the program infringes upon (at least) the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment of the United States constitution. As The Verge points out, the ACLU's prior NSA lawsuit (in 2008) was dismissed in a 5-4 outcome "on the grounds that it did not have legal standing to sue, since there was no way to prove it had been targeted." Given the leaked documents involved now, however, the outcome could be much different this go 'round. Of course, one has to wonder: if all of this leads to the public shutdown of the program, are we capable of trusting the same government that started it to not actually operate it in secret?
Filed under: Cellphones, Internet
Via: Wired
Source: ACLU [PDF]
One of the original "non-manufacturing IP firms," NTP, has just signed an agreement with 13 of the companies it sued for infringing its email patents. The tech industry whales paying for licenses include Google, Microsoft and Yahoo on the software side; wireless operators Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile; and handset companies Apple, HTC, Motorola, Palm, LG and Samsung. If all the litigation is blurring together in your head, we remind you that NTP is one of the founding patent under-bridge dwellers who made lawyers' eyes everywhere light up with a $612 million payout from RIM back in 2006. That seemingly gave them the courage -- and bankroll, presumably -- to attack the above companies in 2010 for infringement of its eight wireless email patents, including push technology. The terms of the settlement weren't disclosed, but considering the dollars paid out by RIM, "we can imagine quite a bit," to quote Han Solo.
[Image credit: Shutterstock]
Filed under: Wireless, Software
NTP reaches agreement with 13 patent defendants including Apple, Microsoft and Google originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 02:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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