Legal

With a surname like "Bowser", many would probably presume you'd grow up to be a fan of Nintendo's products and franchises. For hacker Gary Bowser, however, that love may have manifested in an ironic way. Accused of being the mastermind behind the Team Xecuter hacking group, Bowser and a colleague were arrested and charged last year with 11 felony counts over the sale of Nintendo hacking tools. Nintendo has now added trafficking and copyright violation charges in an attempt to finally put a stop to what it has labeled as an international pirate ring.

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The video game streaming platform Twitch just fired a warning shot at all would-be harassers of Twitch users both on and offline. They've updated the way their "off-service enforcement" policy is written, splitting into two categories. Category one covers someone harassed on Twitch as well as off Twitch. Category two covers serious misconduct that poses a substantial safety risk to the Twitch community "even if these actions occur entirely off Twitch."

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Oracle has lost its challenge to hold Google liable for copyright infringement, with the Supreme Court ending more than a decade of legal sparring over some of the key components of Android. The case dates back to 2010, with Oracle arguing that Google had copied Java APIs that belonged to Sun Microsystems - which Oracle purchased - as it developed Android, and as such was liable for $8.8 billion in damages.

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Apple's decision to remove the charger inside the box starting with the iPhone 12 was initially met with criticism and ridicule. As with anything Apple, however, others eventually followed suit anyway. Those, however, might also follow Apple's fate as the Cupertino-based company now faces a nearly $1.9 million fine in Brazil. That amount, which might be just a slap on the wrist for the tech giant, covers not only its removal of the charger from the iPhone's packaging but also for other unfair practices that the consumer protection agency Procon-SP is accusing the company of putting in place.

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Although companies like Huawei and ZTE have long been the target of the US government's intense scrutiny, Xiaomi wasn't about to get away without some scuff marks. Just before former US President Donald Trump's term ended, his government made one final move that almost put the Chinese smartphone and IoT giant in the same hot waters, although to a lesser extent. Now the order that would have prevented US entities from investing in Xiaomi was just blocked by a US federal judge that called into doubt the company's alleged ties to the Chinese military.

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Google has been waging war against the abusive practice of tracking users across the Web even as it tries to protect and grow its advertising business that has become synonymous with that. It has introduced new features in Chrome that disable harmful cookies, for example, but not everyone is convinced of its seemingly good intentions. One group has, in fact, filed a lawsuit alleging that Google's Incognito mode isn't what it seems to be, a lawsuit that Google just failed to get thrown out of court.

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Apple is suing a former MacBook designer, alleging that he sold unreleased product details to a journalist in return for favorable coverage as he left the Cupertino firm for a startup. Simon Lancaster had been Advanced Materials and Prototyping lead at Apple until he resigned in November 2019, but a new lawsuit accuses him of copying trade secrets from other projects so that he could supply them to an "outside media correspondent" currently unnamed.

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Epic Games reached a settlement in a class action suit dealing with loot boxes in both Fortnite and Rocket League. More specifically, we're talking about Fortnite: Save the World and Rocket League as played by players in the United States, and the settlement has to do with "random item loot box" purchases. The settlement includes millions of dollars in USD cash, but the basic payment to most users "who bought a random item loot box" will be V-Bucks - virtual currency.

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Despite laws against these substances, psychedelics have resurged in popularity, with anecdotal reports claiming everything from increased productivity and creativity to migraine remission, depression relief, and an increased sense of wellbeing. Amid this popularity, California has introduced one of the most ambitious bills related to these drugs.

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In an ongoing legal battle VS Epic, Apple's requested that non-party Valve deliver a series of data points. Apple's suggestion is that the biggest competitor to Epic's "Epic Games Store" is Valve's game store Steam. Apple's lawyers suggest that their "request is very narrow", while Valve's lawyers suggest "Apple wrongly claims those requests are narrow. They are not."

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Apple's App Store has been in the center of some high-profile controversy and rhetoric last year when Epic Games made a bold move that, according to some sources, has been planned months ahead. An action as simple as offering a different in-app purchasing method set off a chain that now involves lawsuits filed across several countries, all of them accusing Apple and Google of monopolistic practices. Although this proposed bill in a single US state doesn't directly reference the Apple vs. Epic Games tussle, its effects, if passed, will turn things in the game developer's favor.

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The transition to the Biden administration may have sparked some hope in Huawei but, if recent news is any indication, it might still be fighting a losing battle. Biden's pick to lead the Commerce Department already indicated her stance on keeping the status quo. Huawei is now picking up another fight in a different arena, this time challenging once more the constitutionality of the FCC's recent decision to label Huawei as a threat to the national security of the US.

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