Class Action against YouTube and Google

A proposed class-action lawsuit alleging copyright infringement has been filed against YouTube and Google (the owner of YouTube since November of last year).

The proposed lawsuit was filed on May 4th by Football Association Premier League of England and the music publisher Bourne Co.

The companies allege that YouTube is slow to remove copyrighted material from its site, despite the fact that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires prompt removal of such materials.

They also allege that YouTube and Google should be using a filter system to ensure that copyrighted material isn’t posted in the first place. They say that YouTube already filters videos for certain content owners, but that it won’t provide the same service for other content owners.

The lead attorney thinks that this case may eventually be consolidated with a similar case filed by Viacom back in March. In that case, Viacom is alleging infringement on the part of YouTube and is seeking damages of over $1 billion.

Premier League and Bourne, co-filers of the initial complaint, are now actively seeking other content owners to join the proposed class action. For more information on the case and how to join, they’ve set up the website YouTube Class Action.

[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]

Honda and Nissan Odometer Lawsuits

Have you been paying attention to your odometer lately?

If you drive a Honda or a Nissan, hopefully you have been. These two car makers have been accused of designing cars with faulty odometers that rack up miles faster than they’re supposed to. The extra miles can affect a whole slew of things, from your warranty coverage to your car’s resale value, according to CBS News.

The class action lawsuit brought against Honda was settled in November of 2006. You may be entitled to receive benefits from the settlement if you “bought or leased a model year 2002 through 2006 Honda or Acura automobile or a model year 2007 Honda Fit, in the United States or its territories, between April 13, 2002 and November 7, 2006,” according to HondaOdometerClassAction.com.

The Nissan odometer class action is still underway. For more information about it, you can visit EagerOdometers.com or the homepage of attorney James Holmes.

Visa and MC will pay $336 million

Visa and MasterCard have agreed to pay $336,000,000 to “settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the credit card firms shortchanged US consumers in foreign currency transactions.”

MasterCard International said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its portion of the settlement was 72.48 million dollars and will be used to pay claims by eligible cardholders and other expenses.

The agreement must be approved by a federal court in New York, the filing said.

Microsoft to pay out $1.1 billion

Californians will soon to receive their delayed payments from a Microsoft antitrust class-action settlement, according to a recent CNN article:

Beginning in August, Californians who have filed claims will receive vouchers that can be redeemed for cash during the next four years, said Richard Grossman, whose law firm represented plaintiffs in the class-action case.

A California court had approved the settlement in July 2004, but a single class member had held up distribution of the money over his objection that the agreement called for unclaimed benefits to go to the state’s public schools.

But lawyers said the California payouts got back on track after the man objecting to the settlement lost his appeals and missed a deadline last week to further argue his case.

Most similar agreements in other jurisdictions also call for unclaimed benefits to go to public schools, and some states have already begun distributing the settlement money.

Most California consumer claims total less than $100, but many could exceed that amount depending on how much software was purchased, Grossman said. The claims for businesses typically range from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars, he said.

Ohio workers’ comp bureau will pay $52 million

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation agreed “to drop its appeal and pay $52 million awarded to injured state employees in a class-action lawsuit“:

The bureau had argued that state laws prevented workers from being paid twice once by the state and once by insurance companies for the same injury. But the state Supreme Court said the laws were unconstitutional.

About 7,900 workers, who were forced to return their compensation from the state insurance fund, will get back 70 percent under the payment process approved by Judge Michael Donnelly of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday. The remaining 30 percent will be paid to attorneys and an administrator hired to distribute the money.

The bureau’s decision to pay is a victory for thousands of workers who “will see a return of their funds that had been unlawfully collected,” said lead attorney Craig Bashein.

William Mabe, the bureau’s new administrator, decided that appealing the ruling was not appropriate given the agency’s attempts to rebuild trust following an investment scandal that rocked the agency.

The scandal erupted last year over unorthodox investments in rare coins and other collectibles and included a $215 million hedge fund loss.

Enron class action vs. Barclays dismissed

Looks like Barclays is in the clear:

BERLIN Barclays P-L-C says a court in Houston has dismissed claims against it in a class-action lawsuit over its role in the Enron bankruptcy.

The British bank today reports it received a court order dismissing claims against Barclays in the so-called Newby litigation.

The suit alleges several banks helped Houston-based Enron misrepresent its earnings and revenue.

Barclays is one of several financial companies named in the class action brought by Enron shareholders.

Enron declared bankruptcy in 2001.

Barclays didn’t give the court’s reason for the dismissal of the case.

The order will end the Newby litigation for Barclays unless plaintiffs, including the University of California, successfully challenge it.

There are still other Enron-related lawsuits against Barclays, including the bankruptcy case.

$2 Billion AOL Settlement

A judge recently approved a $2.65 billion class-action settlement for AOL. Shareholders had “complained that AOL improperly accounted for dozens of advertising transactions, inflating revenue for 15 quarters between 1998 and 2002″ — prior to the AOL/Time Warner merger.

According to the deal approved by [Judge] Kram, Time Warner will pay the bulk of the settlement while its auditor, Ernst & Young LLP, will pay $100 million.

The judge noted that “”the settlement had received overwhelming support by nearly all of the estimated 600,000 claimants,” but that, despite the support, class members would “not recover their entire loss.”

Source: Chicago Tribune

Supreme Court Makes It Harder for Investors to Sue

The high court has unanimously decided to made it harder for investors to join forces and file lawsuits against companies.

In essence, the decision “blocks state class-action lawsuits by stockholders who contend they were tricked into holding onto declining shares.” Specifically, the court is saying that

the 1998 Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act permits suits on behalf of 50 or more investors only by purchasers and sellers of securities, not by people who simply hold investments.

The decision in Merrill Lynch v. Dabit was a big win for Merrill Lynch, which “faced a spate of lawsuits prompted in part by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s 2002 probe into the investment banking firm’s practices.”

I don’t usually side with Big Business, but I like that it’s now more difficult for disgruntled investors to file frivolous securities class action lawsuits.

Sources: This Bloomberg article and “Court Makes It Harder for Investors to Sue,” by AP writer Gina Holland (3/21/06)

Nortel may settle 2 class actions

AP is reporting that Nortel Networks has reached a tentative settlement deal:

Telecom-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. said Wednesday it has reached a tentative agreement to pay $2.47 billion in cash and stock to settle two shareholder class-action lawsuits over the company’s accounting scandal.

Nortel, which has been working to recover from the scandal that forced it to restate previous financial results and terminate several senior executives, said it wants avoid being tied up in prolonged litigation. Shareholders filed numerous lawsuits against Nortel for allegedly violating U.S. and Canadian securities laws after it issued revised financial expectations for the 2001 fiscal year.

Under the proposed settlement, Nortel said it would pay $575 million in cash, issue 628.7 million shares, or 14.5 percent of its current equity, and contribute half of any funds it recovers from suits against former senior officers whom the company fired in April 2004.

For the rest, click here.

First payouts distributed in WWII ‘Gold Train’ case

USA Today is reporting that “the first payouts have been distributed from a $25 million settlement with Holocaust survivors who lost jewelry, artwork and other treasures when a Nazi “Gold Train” was commandeered by the U.S. Army during World War II.”

The U.S. government settled the class-action lawsuit in September, and lawyers involved in the case said Monday that about $4 million had so far been paid.

Rather than trying to directly compensate people whose items were stolen, the deal calls for distributing money through social service agencies to needy Hungarian survivors around the world.

The train was loaded with gold, jewels, silver, china, 3,000 Oriental rugs and 1,200 paintings that had been stolen from Hungarian Jews by the Nazis.

It was captured by U.S. soldiers from pro-Nazi Hungarian forces in May 1945. A U.S. investigation found in 1999 that some Army soldiers failed to return items initially “requisitioned” from the train.

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