Fifty Norwegian artists (including the national symphony orchestra KORK), who recorded Prince covers in honor of his 50th birthday June 7, have been slapped with a lawsuit by the short-tempered star. For now, all 81 songs can be previewed free on C+C Records' website, and some are also available on MySpace in streamable medley form. Source.
posted on Jun 28, 2008 - View this thread

Claiming "complete rip-off" of their iconic image and sound, Devo are suing McDonald's over the "New Wave Nigel" included with the American Idol Happy Meal. See the video of Nigel in action. "They didn't ask us anything," Gerard Casale told Australian Associated Press. "Plus, we don't like McDonald's, and we don't like American Idol, so we're doubly offended."
posted on Jun 26, 2008 - View this thread

All One God Faith, maker's of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, are suing thirteen cosmetic brands for using the term "organic" on products that include petroleum-based ingredients. And now, Olympic gold medalist Mark Spitz is suing them for using his name on their unique bottle labels (where he appears alongside folks like Jesus, Mohammed and Einstein).
posted on May 28, 2008 - View this thread

Kathleen is the owner of neurodiversity.com, one of the most comprehensive resources online in the topic of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Neurodiversity is just one person with a domain name and a computer, not a corporation, or a money-making enterprise, but apparently having good research skills and a willingness to share what you know is becoming legally problematic. Last week, Kathleen has received a subpoena commanding her to appear for deposition and document production in Rev. Lisa Sykes and Seth Sykes’ $20,000,000 personal injury lawsuit, Sykes v. Bayer.
posted on Apr 4, 2008 - View this thread

An associate professor and former librarian is collecting education copyright infringement cases in a database.
posted on Mar 27, 2008 - View this thread

Everyone's favorite pro se plaintiff, Jonathan Lee Riches, whose complaints have previously graced Metafilter's front page, has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit [pdf] against Eliot Spitzer.
posted on Mar 25, 2008 - View this thread

Woman sues American Airlines for not preventing in-flight masturbation. Oh sure, they can tell breastfeeding mothers to cover up, but when it comes to American Airlines and a fellow passenger ejaculating into a sleeping female passenger's hair? No problem!
posted on Mar 17, 2008 - View this thread

Sandra Bergen sued her dealer after she suffered a heart attack and spent 11 days in a coma because of crystal meth. Her full website. What people think.
posted on Jan 14, 2008 - View this thread

The Recording Industry Association of America are seeking damages in a federal case against Jeffrey Howell, who kept a collection of about 2,000 recordings on his PC. The RIAA's lawyer states that the files Howell made on his computer from legally purchased CDs are "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.
posted on Dec 30, 2007 - View this thread

Yesterday, Ralph Nader sued the Democratic Party for conspiring to prevent him from running for president in 2004. The lawsuit alleges that defendants used “groundless and abusive litigation” to bankrupt Ralph Nader’s campaign and force him off the ballot in 18 states, and names as co-defendants the Kerry-Edwards campaign, the Service Employees International Union, private law firms, and organizations like the Ballot Project and America Coming Together that were created to promote voter turnout on behalf of the Democratic ticket. According to attorney Carl Mayer from the team that filed the suit, interviewed this morning by Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, "what this lawsuit will do, and the importance of it is, is to set a precedent so that the two-party monopoly system that shuts out minor parties in a way that other Western democracies never do, that this will set a precedent to prevent this type of intimidation and harassment."
posted on Oct 31, 2007 - View this thread

[Patent Lawsuit Filter] On Wednesday Sun Microsystems announced a counter suit against Network Appliance, wherein they will draw on their "defensive portfolio" which is "one of the largest patent arsenals on the internet". They are going to be requesting a permanent injunction to remove all of NetApp's filer products from the marketplace, and also seeking monetary damages (half of which they've pledged to donate to the Software Freedom Law Center and Peer to Patent Project). Last month, NetApp sued Sun for patent infringements in ZFS. Earlier this month in Texas, the first ever patent infringement lawsuit against Linux distributors was filed.
posted on Oct 26, 2007 - View this thread

NYC woman files lawsuit after bouncer confuses her for a man and ejects her from women's bathroom. A woman is held in the men's jail after being mistaken for a man. Activists look for solutions.
posted on Oct 10, 2007 - View this thread

[Newsfilter]: Fighting a recording industry lawsuit for file sharing saying "it wasn't me!" is probably a really, really bad idea. Jury awards recording companies $222,000 for willfully infringing the copyright on 24 songs in first-to-trial file sharing lawsuit.
posted on Oct 4, 2007 - View this thread

Virgin v. Thomas, the first RIAA backed lawsuit to make it to a jury trial looks likely to proceed early in October in Duluth Mn. This comes after a motion for summary adjudication (.pdf), was turned down. The witness list(.pdf) includes the president of the RIAA himself. Plaintiff statement of case : Defendant statement of case. (.pdf both).
posted on Sep 28, 2007 - View this thread

Dan Rather sues Viacom and CBS for $70 million. Complaint (PDF).
posted on Sep 19, 2007 - View this thread

Johnson & Johnson is suing the American Red Cross for trademark infringement. It contends that the Red Cross is supposed to use the symbol only in connection with non-profit relief services. "For a multibillion-dollar drug company to claim that the Red Cross violated a criminal statute … simply so that J&J can make more money, is obscene," said Mark Everson, the Red Cross president. Everson is paid $500,000 per year, more than triple his previous salary as IRS Commissioner. The suit asks the Red Cross to turn over the products in question to New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson for destruction and also seeks unspecified punitive damages.
posted on Aug 9, 2007 - View this thread

Earth's Greatest Lawsuit (via)
posted on Aug 6, 2007 - View this thread

Tina Alberts, a dental assistant, raises pot bellied pigs. Knowing this, her wacky boss Dr. Woo decided to play a practical joke on her. When she was under anesthesia he temporarily gave her two boar teeth, leaving them in just long enough to stage a wacky unconscious photo. Later, he gave her the photo as a fun present. She freaked out. Everybody hired lawyers. Alberts got $250,000. Woo got $1,000,000. Yes, you read that right.
posted on Jul 29, 2007 - View this thread

The Rubinoos recently filed a lawsuit against Avril Lavigne, claiming that her song Girlfriend (Youtube) plagiarized from their song, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (mp3). An authorized cover version of the Rubinoos song performed by Lush and retitled "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" has even more similarities to the Lavigne song. Now that the teeming millions on the Internets have gotten into the act, YouTubers are now arguing whether Lavigne is a plagiarist, whether the Rubinoos plagiarized from the Rolling Stones, and whether Ms. Lavigne plagiarized a second time. Now that Web 2.0 has made it easier to uncover musical copycats, I'm hot on the case of Bob Marley vs. The Banana Splits.
posted on Jul 10, 2007 - View this thread

Meet Roy L. Pearson, Jr.. He's suing a small mom-and-pop dry cleaning business for damages regarding the loss of his prized pantaloons. Nice trousers, to be sure, but are they worth $67 million? Apparently, Mr. Pearson has a history of litigious lunacy (txt file). For more on frivolous lawsuits, check out these articles written by America's sweetheart Seanbaby!
posted on May 2, 2007 - View this thread

Outragefilter: After a photo labeled "drunken pirate" was found on her MySpace page, 27-year-old student teacher and college senior Stacy Snyder was denied teaching credentials by Millersville University officials. This week, she filed a federal lawsuit against the school.
posted on Apr 28, 2007 - View this thread

A Nashville-area blogger wrote about her experience at an employment agency called JL Kirk & Associates, formerly Bernard Haldane. An associate at the employment agency responded to the blog post. The blogger reposted the employment agent's comment as its own post, also including a rebuttal. Yesterday the blogger received a certified letter from an attorney representing the agency (text of letter) stating that the blogger must remove the posts by 4/13 or risk a lawsuit for "tortuous interference" (sic). They also threatened to "contact (her) Internet Service Provider, Comcast, to have (her) internet access shut down." The story of JL Kirk & Associates and their threats of a lawsuit against a blogger has now been picked up by Fark and Instapundit. This is undoubtedly not the outcome JL Kirk & Associates was hoping for.
posted on Apr 12, 2007 - View this thread

Subvertr. Progess.
posted on Mar 13, 2007 - View this thread

Juan Catalan, 28, was arrested in the May 2003 murder of Martha Puebla, 16, outside her Sun Valley home, even though he told detectives that he was innocent and had been at a Dodgers game with his 6-year-old daughter at the time of the crime. Catalan's defense attorney, Todd Melnik, went through footage of crowd shots from the televised game between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, but he did not find his client. Then he learned that Curb Your Enthusiasm had been shooting at the ballpark that day. Sure enough, there he was on the cutting room floor, eating a hotdog. Juan spent nearly five months in jail for a crime he did not commit — he filed a suit for police misconduct and today he was awarded $320,000. Catalan was not a fan of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" before his time in jail. "He is now," Casselman said. Well, duh.
posted on Mar 8, 2007 - View this thread

The one dollar bill: 2.61 inches wide, 6.14 inches long, 0.0043 inches thick. Wait - that's all of them. What happens if you just can't see the bill? Some 180 other countries have non-visual ways to determine what denomination a bill is, but the USA does not. The ACB has twice tried to introduce resolutions to fix this, with no results. A recent lawsuit, however, may finally make the change happen. After all, It's Our Money, Too.
posted on Feb 13, 2007 - View this thread

Steve Carell may be hilarious in the office, but how much would his jackass behavior cost in real-life? clips (youtube)
posted on Feb 13, 2007 - View this thread

"If you purchased a Carfax Vehicle History Report directly from Carfax at any time before October 27, 2006, you're a Class Member for purposes of this settlement." Seems Carfax reports only include damage reports from 30 U.S state. Something Carfax nover bothered to mention.
posted on Jan 4, 2007 - View this thread

Procol Harum organist wins battle over joint authorship of A Whiter Shade of Pale. Gary Brooker is not amused, but then again it was a Bach ripoff anyway.
posted on Dec 20, 2006 - View this thread

Avoid office party lawsuits: buy insurance and distribute the rules in advance; don't let them drink; no flirting; bring a recording device; no religious stuff; don't dance with staff members.

Have a safe holiday.
posted on Dec 4, 2006 - View this thread

Just who wrote "A Whiter Shade of Pale" will be determined in court it seems. Procol Harum's Gary Booker and Keith Reid, credited composers, are sued by organist Matthew Fischer. Lennon loved it. Perhaps you want to sing or play it?
posted on Nov 13, 2006 - View this thread

A sad day for import video gamers- online retailer Lik-Sang has closed its doors due to multiple lawsuits from Sony.
posted on Oct 24, 2006 - View this thread

NewsFilter: California launches lawsuit against automakers for causing global warming. via
posted on Sep 20, 2006 - View this thread

This lawsuit was brought to you by the letter W.
posted on Sep 9, 2006 - View this thread

FBI Agent Chris Saviano Stop raping my wife.
posted on Sep 8, 2006 - View this thread

Medical maggots are available only by prescription in the US and the UK. Eclipsed by the discovery of penicillin, maggots now may turn out to be effective when anitbiotics stop working. Although the FDA hasn't yet decided exactly how to classify maggots, they are generally considered to be medical devices. The BTER Foundation (BioTherapeutics Education and Research) offers maggot therapy workshops, but no special certification is currently required to use them. As beneficial as they are, their use is not always indicated. And when they showed up on their own in a subacute care facility in Chicago, the patient sued for "at least $50,000".
posted on Aug 27, 2006 - View this thread

Would-be citizens sue for U.S. citizenship. Ten Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants sued the government Tuesday for allegedly letting their U.S. citizenship applications linger indefinitely by delaying background checks. What is the world coming to when foreign nationals try to sue the government and force it to give them U.S. citizenship?
posted on Aug 2, 2006 - View this thread

Remember cleanflicks the outfit that digitally sanitized films? The Directors Guild of America recently won their lawsuit against them and companies like them for copyright violation. Prev
posted on Jul 11, 2006 - View this thread

A Tail By Any Other Name : Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert thinks it would be awfully handy to have an extra appendage. A Providence handyman sees things a little differently.
posted on Jun 27, 2006 - View this thread

Wen Ho Lee has just won his lawsuit against the federal government and news agencies for violating his privacy rights while under investigation for being a spy. Mr. Lee lost his job, his reputation and racked up huge legal bills as a result of the accusations -- which were later found to be greatly exaggerated. In a case of deja vu, a Chinese scientist at a state lab in Albany, NY recently lost his job (and his wife was placed on leave from her job) after being accused of illegally purchasing weapons -- a charge which was later dismissed. Note that his firing was justified on the pretext of misusing his work computer to visit the ESPN website too often -- a criteria by which a large chunk of the state workforce would be fired. And then there is the ongoing terrorism case against the Albany imam and the pizza shop owner which has had its own evidentiary shortcomings. And to top it all off, the Albany FBI head has just been promoted. Are we feeling any safer yet?
posted on Jun 2, 2006 - View this thread

Wired News has obtained a copy of a file detailing AT&T's involvement with the NSA that was sealed in the EFF's class-action lawsuit against AT&T. At 2AM EST this morning they have published that file on their site for anyone to download (this is the fixed link, the one on Wired is currently broken).[via]
posted on May 22, 2006 - View this thread

Just when you thought we'd run out of things to sue over. A man who was denied a red nylon tote bag during a Mother's Day promotion at an Angels baseball game has filed a sex and age discrimination lawsuit against the team.
posted on May 11, 2006 - View this thread

RIAA sues family for illegal music file sharing. Wouldn't be new or noteworthy — if the family actually had a computer. Via.
posted on Apr 30, 2006 - View this thread

Kinderstart sues Google to get a higher page ranking. Why on earth should Google be obligated to give another search engine access to their proprietary page ranking methods, unless the goal is for Kinderstart to either steal or play games with Google's ranking methods... again?
posted on Mar 19, 2006 - View this thread

Tim Hortons is once more running it's Roll Up The Rim To Win contest where each cup of coffee is a potential prize winner. This week controversy hit when a 10 year old found a cup in the trash. Unable to roll the rim she asked a 12 year old friend for help and they discovered the cup was a winner. Now comes the dispute over who actually won [quicktime] the SUV. An added twist is the man demanding a DNA test to prove the cup is his. I love the smell of lawsuits in the morning.
posted on Mar 11, 2006 - View this thread

"I'm worried, Larry. A financial planner counsels his client: "...I think it's imperative that we start to budget and plan. New purchases should be kept to a minimum. We need to establish and execute on a diversification game plan, to eliminate (yes, eliminate) all debt and build up a significant, conservatively structured, liquid investment portfolio...." Sound advice, but you wouldn't have thought this dickhead gentleman would need it.
posted on Feb 12, 2006 - View this thread

Wikipedia wrangling once more: the entire German edition was shut down this week over the contents of a single entry. The parents of the article's subject, a German hacker who died in 1998 under mysterious circumstances, are displeased with his real name being disclosed in the encyclopedia. It is now back online; however, the future of the family's efforts is currently unclear, not only due to the German order's debatable validity in the US - but also because the order was, initially at least, mistakenly addressed to St. Petersburg, Russia, instead of St. Petersburg, Florida.
posted on Jan 20, 2006 - View this thread

We gave him crap. I'm not going to deny it. "An AOL chatroom named 'Romance — Older Men' was the scene of unbearable humiliation for one chatter, according to a new lawsuit."
posted on Jan 12, 2006 - View this thread

Medical Malpractice Myth explores the idea that it's not litigious patients, ambulance chasing lawyers and runaway juries behind the rising costs of medical malpractice insurance. It's the increasing occurrence of medical malpractice that's driving those insurance rates up.
posted on Dec 18, 2005 - View this thread

California holds a "No Hearing Hearing" on Diebold certification. "In June, over 200 people traveled to Sacramento to voice their concerns at a public hearing before a panel of advisors to the Secretary of State on voting systems. Since then, every scheduled meeting of the Voting Systems Panel has been cancelled, and now the Secretary has simply disbanded the VSP without notice, without hearings, without any type of due process." This isn't the only jurisdiction in which Diebold is attempting to circumvent legal requirements - in North Carolina they filed for and received a broad exemption from new disclosure rules recently passed into law. The EFF are now suing to force Diebold to comply with the law. As if that wasn't enough, an official Certification Test (PDF) for Diebold's Optical Scan voting machines confirms an earlier threat analysis test (PDF) that the memory cards on these machines run uncertified and arbitrary executable code, a charge that Diebold has vigorously denied.
posted on Nov 22, 2005 - View this thread

Another class action suit, another lousy settlement. Are or were you a member of Netflix? Sign up for your benefits under the class action settlement, and receive a free upgrade (or for former members, a free month) of service. That is one whole extra DVD at a time per month. Doesn't sound so hot? It gets better. The next month, they'll keep you on the upgraded plan and raise your bill to match it! Class action settlement, or class action fleecing?
posted on Nov 2, 2005 - View this thread