Tag: suing
MSG Entertainment partly lifts its venue ban on attorneys involved in suing the company
Twitter: Number of staff suing goes up daily – lawyer
The Justice Department is suing Google to break up its ad business
Alongside eight states, the US Department of Justice is suing Google to break up the company’s advertising business. In a complaint filed Tuesday with a federal court in Virginia, the agency accused Google of illegally monopolizing the digital advertising market. “Google’s anticompetitive behavior has raised barriers to entry to artificially high levels, forced key competitors to abandon the market for ad tech tools, dissuaded potential competitors from joining the market, and left Google’s few remaining competitors marginalized and unfairly disadvantaged,” the Justice Department alleges.
“Today’s lawsuit from the DOJ attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget. “It largely duplicates an unfounded lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General, much of which was recently dismissed by a federal court. [The] DOJ is doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.”
As Bloomberg notes, the lawsuit represents the Biden administration’s first significant attempt to challenge the power of one of the nation’s largest tech firms. The agency previously sued Google in 2020. At the time, the Justice Department, under Attorney General William Barr, said the company had a monopoly over search and search-related advertising. It also took issue with the terms around Android, which the Justice Department said unfairly advantage Google by forcing manufacturers to preload their devices with the company’s applications and search engine.
Google faces intense regulatory scrutiny over its hold on the digital advertising market. In 2020, Texas filed a multi-state lawsuit accusing the company of using its “monopolistic power to control” ad pricing. One year later, the European Commission opened a probe into the company’s advertising business, a move that seems to have forced Google to reconsider how it handles ads on YouTube. Last year, the Senate also introduced legislation designed to prevent companies like Google from participating in more than one part of the digital advertising ecosystem.
“Having inserted itself into all aspects of the digital advertising marketplace, Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” the Justice Department says in its most recent complaint. It accuses Google of using acquisitions to take out both “actual or potential” competitors, in addition to abusing its marketplace dominance to prevent publishers and advertisers from using competing products effectively. “Whenever Google’s customers and competitors responded with innovation that threatened Google’s stranglehold over any one of these ad tech tools, Google’s anticompetitive response has been swift and effective,” the Justice Department alleges.
In a blog post published after news of the Justice Department’s lawsuit broke, Google accused the agency of “attempting to rewrite history at the expense of publishers, advertisers and internet users.” Specifically, Google says it takes issue with the Justice Department’s demand that the company spin off AdMeld and DoubleCheck, two ad tech firms Google acquired more than a decade ago. “These deals were reviewed by regulators, including by [the] DOJ, and allowed to proceed,” Google says.
Additionally, Google contends competition in the ad tech sector has increased significantly in recent years. For example, the company points to Microsoft’s recent purchase of AT&T’s former ad tech wing Xandr and notes the acquisition enabled Microsoft’s “landmark” advertising deal with Netflix. “The government did not challenge this acquisition,” Google points out.
Google also accuses the Justice Department of mischaracterizing how its advertising products work. The company says its product stack works with competing technologies, making it “easy” for publishers and advertisers to choose the services they want to use. “No one is forced to use our advertising technologies – they choose to use them because they’re effective,” Google contends.
One estimate suggests Google controls as much as 26.5 percent of the US digital ads market. The company’s ad unit is expected to generate about $73.8 billion in US ad revenue over the next year, with much of that money coming from search advertisements.
Update 4:04PM ET: Added more context from Google.
Getty is suing a popular AI image generator for copyright infringement
Getty Images is suing the makers of an AI image generator tool for alleged copyright infringement.
On Tuesday, the stock image supplier announced it was starting legal proceedings in the UK against the Stability AI alleging the company “unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images.” Essentially, Stability AI is accused of scraping images from the Getty digital library without paying for a license or compensating the image creators.
Apparently, Stability AI wasn’t informed directly of Getty’s legal action. “Please know that we take these matters seriously. It is unusual that we have been informed about this intended legal action via the press,” a spokesperson told Mashable in an email. “We are still awaiting the service of any documents. Should we receive them, we will comment appropriately.”
Stability AI makes Stable Diffusion, a popular tool for generating AI images. By entering a text prompt like “dog lying in the sun,” Stability Diffusion generates unique images based the text. The tool’s artificial intelligence learns what kind of imagery to create by consuming massive amounts of images found on the internet, which makes it smarter and more accurate over time.
Since image generating AI companies like Stability AI, DALL-E, and NightCafe rely on images and artistic styles created by humans, the issue of intellectual property is murky and uncharted territory. And the increasing popularity of these tools has brought copyright laws to the forefront of the conversation.
Regarding the copyright for using the tool’s generated images, Stable Diffusion’s site says, “The area of AI-generated images and copyright is complex and will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.”
Stable Diffusion also says the images created are open source and protected by the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. All in all, it’s an entirely new area in the realm of IP and copyright law that doesn’t have a straightforward answer.
Getty Images declined to provide further detail upon Mashable’s request.
UPDATE: Jan. 17, 2023, 5:45 p.m. EST This story was updated to include comment from a Stability AI spokesperson.
Now Gamers Are Suing To Stop Microsoft From Buying Activision Blizzard
Ten self-described gamers have sued in US federal court to stop Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. The suit, which cites the Clayton Antitrust Act, claims that the 10 plaintiffs will suffer “threatened loss or damage” through the deal. The complaint goes on to say that the new company will “substantially lessen competition” and “may tend to create a monopoly in various markets.”
While it’s unclear how this suit might proceed, it represents yet another roadblock in the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard saga. The deal, which would be one of the largest in video game history, has been awash in controversy from the start, with Microsoft offering Sony a 10-year licensing deal to keep the highly lucrative Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation platforms.
More recently, the Federal Trade Commission has sued to block the deal, citing concerns that it would harm competition in the video game industry. Previous reporting from the New York Post indicated that the FTC is largely split on whether to pursue such cases against large tech firms in gaming and otherwise, but it appears that the trustbusting side is winning as of late.
Riot Games is suing NetEase over Valorant clone, Hyper Front
A report from Polygon has stated that Riot Games is currently suing publisher NetEase over its recent mobile game, Hyper Front. This is because Riot Games believe that NetEase’s Hyper Front is a mobile clone of its hit 5v5 shooter, Valorant.
The allegations will be taken to court in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, and Singapore, according to Riot Games lawyer, Dan Nabel. Hyper Front is said to be a “copy of substantial parts of Valorant”, and each lawsuit is intended to address this, despite some anticipated differences due to varying copyright laws in each country.
At first glance, both Valorant and Hyper Front feature a similar gameplay experience. Players choose from a roster of heroes, and then jump into a tactical 5v5 match, using teamwork and their abilities to try and win. Valorant released back in 2020, with ports for console and mobile supposedly in the works.
Riot is suing NetEase over an alleged Valorant clone
Riot is Suing NetEase Over What It’s Claiming is a Valorant Clone
Why is the FTC suing Microsoft over its Activision Blizzard merger?
Like regulators in the EU and UK, the FTC is concerned that the deal could stifle competition in the gaming sector.
Read more: Why is the FTC suing Microsoft over its Activision Blizzard merger?