A former contestant in Israel’s version of “American Idol” was jailed for 14 months on Thursday for selling demo tracks he stole from Madonna’s latest album by hacking into the email and cloud accounts of people close to the singer. Under a plea bargain at Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, Adi Lederman confessed to computer trespassing and infringement of privacy and property rights in connection with the offences, committed last year
Read moreBy Andrew Chung NEW YORK (Reuters) – Online music streaming service Grooveshark could potentially have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to major record labels after a U.S. judge ruled ahead of its trial starting on Monday that Grooveshark’s copyright violations on nearly 5,000 songs were “willful” and made “in bad faith.” U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa, who will preside over the trial in federal court in Manhattan, said in a court order on Thursday that because of Grooveshark’s actions he will tell jurors they can choose to award the statutory maximum of $150,000 in damages per song
Read moreBy Foo Yun Chee and Eric Auchard BRUSSELS/BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union's decision to take on Google last week stems from official complaints by 19 companies in Europe and the United States, including Microsoft and a number of small firms, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The list of complainants in the European Commission's charge sheet, which includes companies not directly involved in the charges around Google's shopping service, would make it easier for the regulator to expand the case beyond its preliminary focus on price-comparison shopping sites. Being an official party to the case gives the companies an insider track on the regulatory proceedings as they will be able to get a copy of the detailed EU charge sheet and argue their case at a hearing of competition experts should Google ask for one.
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