The Inquisitr » lawsuits

Lawsuit: iPhone app developer Storm8 stole phone numbers, user data

Kim LaCapria — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:10:07 +0000

A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday claims that popular App Store app developer Storm8 may have bypassed safeguards in order to obtain data such as phone numbers via games downloaded over 20 million times.

World War, iMobsters, Racing Live, Vampires, Kingdoms, Zombies Live, Rockstars Live and Ninjas Live are some of the iPod Touch and iPhone titles listed on Storm8’s website. Court documents point to “secret code” written into games to circumvent protections preventing apps from collecting data on unsuspecting users:

“…Storm8 makes use of the ‘backdoor’ method to access, collect, and transmit the wireless phone numbers of the iPhones on which its games are installed,” states the complaint, which was filed in US District Court in Northern California. “Storm8 does so or has done so in all of its games.”

The Register points to a column written back in August about privacy concerns and the iPhone. The columnist highlights data-gathering in Storm8’s Vampires Live mini MMORPG:

One of the best selling iPhone app is Vampires Live, a very cool game which is a take off from the current pop culture fascination with vampires. The app is built by Storm8 and is the 8th best selling iPhone app.

The game is essentially an massive multi-player online game which will use your 3G or WiFi connection. 3G is your data plan. So far so good. While playing vampires is fun, it does not involve exchanging phone numbers with other players. In fact, no one needs your phone number to play with you.

But guess what?

Without your permission, Storm8 harvests both your UDID, phone number, email and name (on registration).

(Examples of code.)

As you can see, the personally identifiable information which is the PNUM is being transmitted and I guess stored with Storm8’s servers. For non-technical types, PNUM is phone number and I changed the telephone number on the log to hide my personal number. I would not want just anyone to have my personal phone number. Worst of all, the information is transmitted unencrypted in plain text.

Storm8 is claiming that the data collection was unintentional and part of a “”a bug that has been fixed.” But the prosecution is skeptical, saying the developers used “very specific and specialized software code to do so.” The claimant in the case is hoping to obtain class action status.

[Source: The Register]

$16 million award in CA “Wee for Wii” water intoxication death

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:54:32 +0000

The family of Jennifer Strange, the Rancho Cardova, CA woman who died after consuming massive quantities of water in an ill-conceived radio station contest, has been awarded $$16,577,118 in damages.

Strange, 27, attempted to win a Wii gaming console for her three young children in KDND 107.9 “The End” radio station’s “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest. Strange, who came in second place and complained of stomach and headaches toward the end of the stunt, was found dead in her home by her mother hours after she returned home. At one point during the contest, a nurse called in to warn show hosts of the risk of death by water intoxication, but staff laughed off the concerns and referred to waivers signed by contestants- despite the well-known risk of death from “water poisoning.”

A jury found Entercom Communications to be negligent in death of Strange, and that the radio station ignored several indicators that the contest was ill-advised and potentially lethal.

[Baltimore Sun]

Dr. Phil McGraw Responds To Brainwashing Lawsuit

AHN — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:30:13 +0000

Dr. Phil McGraw has responded to the lawsuit filed against him by a former patient who claims she was physically and emotionally abused. The TV shrink denies ever subjecting Shirley Dieu to brainwashing.

Dieu sued Dr. Phil, his show’s producers, and Paramount Pictures, for apparently brainwashing her and forcing her to be in a room with a naked man among other claims. She also said Dr. Phil, who allegedly doesn’t have a license to practice in California, touched her breast during one of her therapy sessions in 2007.

But Dr. Phil’s camp has denied Dieu’s claims. They claim that all of the participants on the show were treated with dignity, and Dieu was sent home with a car service when she expressed discomfort. All of Dr. Phil’s interactions with the patients were captured on video and/or audio tape, and that the celebrity doctor was never alone in the House with any of his guests.

The statement reads: “All of Shirley Rae Dieu’s claims are without merit. As with all of the occupants of the DR. PHIL House, Ms. Dieu participated voluntarily, having submitted her personal story with the hope that she could confront, and overcome her individual issues.”

“Ms. Dieu filed a claim with the Los Angeles Police Department some 9 months after the incident, which was investigated and ultimately not pursued by the Los Angeles City Attorney.”

Chris Rock Hit With $5 Million Lawsuit Over “Hair” Documentary

AHN — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:45:36 +0000

Chris Rock has been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over his upcoming comedy documentary film “Good Hair.” Independent filmmaker Regina Kimbell claims the funnyman stole ideas from her own “My Nappy Roots” film.

In the lawsuit she filed at Los Angeles’ District Court this week, she claims Rock’s inspiration behind his film came from the documentary she made in 2005, which she showed to him on the set of his sitcom “Everybody Hates Chris” in 2007.

She also cites several similarities of the two films, including both having celebrities tell their own hair stories, the business of Black hair care, interview of hair care pioneers, and socially and politically conscious themes.

Kimbell is seeking $5 million in damages, according to RadarOnline.com.

Meanwhile, Rock is set to star in a new film about a white man’s hilarious attempts to befriend an African American.

“Will You Be My Black Friend?” will be produced by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films and will be distributed by Lionsgate.

Writers Sue Jennifer Aniston’s “Love Happens”

AHN — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:30:28 +0000

Jennifer Aniston’s next film might not see the light of day. Two screenwriters claim NBC Universal stole their script for “Love Happens,” Aniston’s upcoming film with Aaron Eckhart.

Greg Crowder and Tony Freitas filed a suit against the film production company on Tuesday, alleging that they gave their script, titled “The Truth,” to former Universal VP of Productions Scott Bernstein in 2006.

Crowder claims he had meetings with Bernstein about the script, but the VP told him that it needed a rewrite before Universal would buy it. The scribe insisted that he would only rewrite their work if the company paid them, but since Universal wasn’t willing to pay, the deal fell apart, TMZ reports.

The writer then submitted the script to another company, who told him they were concerned that he might have stolen the story from another existing project, Aniston and Eckhart’s “Love Happens.”

Crowder and Freitas are asking a judge to block Universal from releasing the film, which is scheduled to hit theaters on September 18. And if it gets released, they want share of the profit, which they estimate at over $100 million.

“Love Happens” tells the story of a widower (Eckhart), whose book about coping with loss turns him into a best-selling self-help guru. On a business trip to Seattle, he falls for a woman (Aniston) who attends one of his seminars, only to learn that he isn’t truly over his wife’s death.

Jennifer Aniston’s next film might not see the light of day. Two screenwriters claim NBC Universal stole their script for “Love Happens,” Aniston’s upcoming film with Aaron Eckhart.

Microsoft and Bungie getting sued for Halo 3 glitches

Chris Greenhough — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:05:47 +0000

In a move that pretty much sums up everything that is wrong with the American legal system, gamer and greedy, opportunistic git Randy Nunez is suing Microsoft and Bungie because his copy of Halo 3 doesn’t always work. In other news, my heart bleeds.

Nunez’s case rests on his assertion that “Halo 3 does not function with the Xbox 360, and to the contrary, attempted use of Halo 3 consistently causes the Xbox 360 to ‘crash,’ ‘freeze’ or ‘lock up’ while the game is being played.”

That’s … kind of news to me. While I’m reluctant to suggest Randy is telling big, fat porkies, I played Halo 3 solidly for a good three or four months back in ‘07, and must have seen the game crash, oooh, once? Maybe twice.

The filing goes on to suggest that Microsoft has had numerous customer complaints about the game’s lack of reliability, yet has done sod all to repair the alleged bugs. Again, I’ve not really touched the game for a year and a half, so might be out of the loop, but I also can’t recall reading a single report about this “issue.”

[Via TG Daily]

Man suing Microsoft for $50,000 over scratched discs

Chris Greenhough — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:55:14 +0000

Microsoft released one helluva janky product when it launched the Xbox 360. I know this, because BOTH of my 360s are currently being repaired in Frankfurt. Ugh.

As well as the Red Ring of Death (which afflicted both of my machines), the 360 also does a nice line in scratching discs. It’s for this reason that one infuriated gamer is attempting to sue Microsoft for a cool $50,000, arguing that the company sold him the console knowing it scratched game discs, rendering them unplayable.

Jason Johnson is the David facing Microsoft’s Goliath in this story, and already Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack has denied Microsoft’s motion to dismiss the case. Reports the Madison Record:

“Johnson is suing the company for alleged defects in its X-Box 360 video game console. Johnson alleges the company sold the product knowing it scratched video games and made them unplayable…

“Johnson is seeking damages from the Washington-based company’s alleged violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, negligence, breach of implied warranty and strict product liability.”

Microsoft’s attorney feebly argued that because Johnson didn’t personally buy the Xbox 360 (the system was a gift from his wife), the case should be dropped. To which everybody howled with laughter, I would hope.

[Madison Record, via GamePolitics]

Man sues after finding condom in his soup

Kim LaCapria — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:58:15 +0000

Remember the tampon infused steak from last week?

This week, a dude in California is claiming he found a used condom melted into the cheese of his French Onion soup at an Easter brunch in April. Why can’t it ever be like a bobby pin or a watch gear or something that hasn’t been in or on someone’s cash and prizes? This time, the man was dining with his wife and daughter and thought he’d ingested a hardened piece of cheese (Ew. Ew, ew ew.) and tried to fish it out of his mouth and oh my God it’s a condom on Jesus’ other birthday what the hell is wrong with people?

Suspiciously, though, the dude refused to allow the restaurant to inspect the used condom, saving it for legal-licious purposes later. Preliminary tests revealed female DNA on the condom and female employees voluntarily submitted to testing to exclude themselves from suspicion of adulterating the soup. In a statement, the restaurant dismissed the claims as baseless and basically called bullshit on the whole incident:

We have found no evidence to support any of the allegations in a complaint filed by Mr. Zednek Philip Hodousek against Claim Jumper on July 21, 2009.

When Mr. Hodousek said he found a foreign object in his food on April 12, 2009, he took it with him when he left the restaurant. We take customer complaints very seriously and immediately began an investigation.

We interviewed our employees at the restaurant and found no evidence of wrongdoing. Due to the seriousness of Mr. Hodousek’s allegation, we then retained an independent investigator. The investigator completed his investigation on April 23, 2009. The investigator also concluded that there was no wrongdoing by any employee.

In an effort to complete our investigation, we contacted Mr. Hodousek and his attorney numerous times over the next six weeks to request that the object be sent to an independent laboratory for testing.

Seven weeks later, on June 1, 2009, the object was finally forwarded to an independent lab. Because Mr. Hodousek took the object with him on April 12, we could not establish that this was the same object the lab received.

In addition, Mr. Hodousek asked us to conduct DNA testing of female employees at the restaurant to determine if there could be a match to any DNA that might be found on the object.

While we are mindful of our employees’ privacy rights, we asked our female employees to voluntarily comply with Mr. Hodousek’s request and they have done so.

To ensure a thorough assessment, we asked Mr. Hodousek to take a DNA test. Mr. Hodousek failed to appear for his appointment on July 20, 2009. Mr. Hodousek’s attorney filed the lawsuit against us on July 21.

We thoroughly investigated Mr. Hodousek’s claim. We do not believe Mr. Hodousek’s lawsuit has any merit and will fight this allegation.

[Source: Local News]

RIAA smacks down Usenet.com in court

Kim LaCapria — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:26:10 +0000

Usenet.com is preparing for what may amount to “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damages after losing a case brought by the RIAA in New York against the internet dinosaur.

Ars Technica detailed the laundry list of grievances of which Usenet.com was found guilty:

“A federal judge yesterday found Usenet.com liable for just about every copyright infringement claim on the books: direct infringement, inducement of infringement, contributory infringement, and (just for good measure) vicarious infringement. Not content to be loud and proud about its pro-pirate agenda, Usenet.com also resorted to stonewalling legal questionnaires, sending employees to Europe to avoid depositions, wiping hard drives, and failing to turn over e-mail after being sued in 2007 by the music labels.”

Aside from the potential for ridiculous and imaginative fiscal penalties, the case is significant for many reasons. Usenet.com was denied use of the “Betamax” defense by U.S. District Judge Harold Baer, with which they could assert that their service had reasonable applications for use other than facilitating infringement. Baer also sanctioned Usenet from invoking protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s ”safe harbor” provision- a clause which protects internet service providers from prosecution due to unlawful acts committed by users.

CNet quoted Usenet.com attorney Charles Baker on another significant issue possibly defined by this case:

Another precedent set by Baer, according to Baker, is that distributing material within a closed network was a violation.

“This is something new the judge bought off on their argument,” Baker said. “The way Usenet.com works is there is copying going on in the servers, there’s multiple copies being made. When a user uploads a file it goes into a server and subsequently those binary files move from server to server as they go through the Usenet network. The court has held that was a violation of the right of distribution and no court has gone there before.”

RIAA lawyers successfully contended that Usenet.com engaged in several below board practices to circumvent their judicial efforts, including hiding witnesses in Europe and destroying data. Baer was not pleased with Usenet’s actions, clearly reflected in his findings. Without the “safe harbor” defense available to Usenet, their case was tanked and Baer issued a summary judgment to the RIAA. Damages will be determined in the coming weeks, and penalties could range as high as $30,000 per infringement.

RIAA General Counsel Stephen M. Marks gloated about the verdict in a statement:

“This decision is another example of courts recognizing the value of copyrighted music and taking action against companies and individuals who are engaging in wide scale infringement. We hope that other bad actors who are engaging in similar activity will take note of this decisive opinion.”

Man sues Guinness Records for calling him the worlds most litigious man

Duncan Riley — Tue, 26 May 2009 03:28:03 +0000

A man named by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the world’s most litigious man has sued the publisher for giving him the title.

Jonathan “Johnny Sue-nami” Lee Riches of Lexington, Kentucky claims in his lawsuit that Guinness is planning to print false information about the number of lawsuits he has filed. Riches also objects to the names he is called by the publication, which include Lawsuit Zeus, The litigator crusader, the duke of lawsuits, Sue-per-man and the Patrick Ewing of suing.

According to The Spokesman-Review, Riches has previously tried to sue President George W. Bush, Somali pirates, Britney Spears, Martha Stewart, Plato, Nostradamus, James Hoffa, “Various Buddhist Monks,” the Lincoln Memorial, the Eiffel Tower and Three Mile Island.

It’s probably pertinent to note Riches current Lexington address: the Federal Medical Center, a medical facility for inmates, where he is receiving “treatment for mental-health problems.”

At last count, Riches is believed to have filed over 4,000 lawsuits.

Someone tell this woman she’s an idiot

Steven Hodson — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:02:27 +0000

Last year the 21 year old daughter of a state district judge gets convicted of intoxicated manslaughter of her boyfriend. It seems that at the time of the accident that killed her boyfriend she had blood alcohol concentration of more than three times the legal limit. The end result of the court case against her was four months in jail and eight years of probation.

Not satisfied with making a mockery of the justice system Elizabeth Shelton has decided to sue the driver of the truck that she hit while driving drunk and killing her boyfriend.Along with the family of her dead boyfriend they are going after Lance Bennett for negligence, destruction of the SUV Shelton was driving and unspecified damages for pain and suffering.

WTF? Is our society really that screwed up that someone would even think of proceeding with such a lawsuit?

News video available here

Scarlett Johansson To Sue U.K. Cosmo

Meieli Sawyer — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:56:34 +0000

Scarlett Johansson will be suing the U.K. version of Cosmopolitan magazine after they reportedly published a misleading interview chock-full of false information. According to Johansson’s rep, the January cover story is an “obvious attempt…to gain monetarily by misinforming their readers” and contains quotes that were “completely made-up“!

Interestingly, it wasn’t just the quotes that were off– ScarJo’s rep also claims that Scarlett did not even grant permission for an interview with Cosmo, going on to tell E! News that “she has never discussed her personal relationships with the publication.”

Scarlett told U.S. Cosmo last year in August that she was planning on going the “normal celebrity route” and not talk about personal topics, so now we’re all wondering who said the stuff about living “a very private and modest lifestyle”?

It could be her clone’s fault! Scarlett should really look into that.

Rachael Ray Show Sued

Meieli Sawyer — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:10:37 +0000

Rachael Ray’s talk show is facing a lawsuit filed by a former employee claims that he was forced to leave his job because he suffered from an eating disorder.

Aaron Ferguson, an accountant, filed at Manhattan’s Supreme Court against the Rachael Ray Show for discrimination and claimed that his supervisor (not Rachael Ray) made “Vile, discriminatory and hurtful comments” that led to him walking out. Other statements that the supervisor allegedly said to Ferguson included “Anorexics are sick in the head,” and “Anorexics should not be able to work.” Two other employees are mentioned in the suit.

This so doesn’t fly with Rachael’s hyper-happy routine.