public interest

Close Encounters of the Regulatory Kind: Google-AdMob Brace for the Worst

Kara Swisher in News on May 3, 2010 at 6:12 am PT

While executives at both AdMob and Google are pulling out all the stops to convince federal government regulators otherwise, multiple sources close to the situation said that the pair now expect the Federal Trade Commission to try to block the acquisition of the small mobile advertising start-up by the search giant. While the situation could change, of course, sources said that the lack of any kind of indication of clear direction of the inquiry this late in the game by FTC staff–which recommends action to its five commissioners–is a bad sign.

The Judge Was Wrong: RealNetworks's RealDVD Appeal Document

Kara Swisher in News on November 10, 2009 at 3:48 pm PT

RealNetworks just lobbed its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the case revolving around its DVD-copying software, RealDVD. A U.S. District judge issued a preliminary injunction against RealNetworks in August to stop sales, and renewed it in October. In the appeal, which is embedded after the jump, RealNetworks said the judge was using the wrong legal standard and more.

MicroHoo Answers Some Deal Questions for Critic: A Q&A!

Kara Swisher in News on October 8, 2009 at 1:20 pm PT

Yesterday, BoomTown wrote about the status of the regulatory investigation for the Microsoft-Yahoo search and online advertising pact, which most expect to get approved. One of the few vocal critics of the deal, though, is Jeffrey Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a public interest group, who lobbed MicroHoo some important questions. Here are the answers.

Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Regulatory Update: "Eh"

Kara Swisher in News on October 7, 2009 at 7:31 am PT

Unlike the gripping back and forth of the fight over Yahoogle last year, the approval process for the search and online advertising partnership of Microsoft and Yahoo is chugging along slowly but surely as the Justice Department has deepened its investigation by reaching out to a broad range of publishers, advertisers, public interest groups and rivals for comment recently. But, so far, there is still no significant external challenge to the MicroHoo deal, even from Google, the likeliest company to try to scuttle or, at the very least, slow down the deal. In other words: Zzzzzzzzzzz…

Google Books Settlement Evidently in Need of Further Editing

John Paczkowski in News on September 23, 2009 at 10:38 am PT

Looks like the Google Books Settlement won’t be hitting the shelves until later this year–at the earliest. Days after the U.S. Justice Department criticized the deal and the forward-looking business arrangements it seeks to create as cause for “significant legal concern,” Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers requested a delay in a judge’s final “fairness hearing” scheduled for Oct. 7 so that they can amend it.