TopNews

Internet search giant Google and five members of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have worked out a settlement in their 7-year-old lawsuit pertaining to the scanning of copyrighted books in the US.

Despite the fact that the financial terms of the settlement - announced on Thursday - remained undisclosed, the move marks the culmination of October 2005-filed copyright-infringement lawsuit involving Google and 5 AAP publishers --- Penguin Group USA, Pearson Education, Simon & Schuster, McGraw-Hill, and John Wiley & Sons.

Continuing its crackdown on Internet scareware, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently imposed a fine of over $163 million on scareware scammer Kristy Ross; and her 2002-founded `Innovative Marketing' company and its two employees, Sam Jain and Daniel Sundin.

As per a recent, final ruling by a Maryland court in a long-standing scareware scam case, Ross, Jain and Sundin are liable for $163,167,539.95.

In a Thursday announcement, software giant Microsoft and bigwig book retailer Barnes & Noble (B&N) said that they have finalized their earlier-announced partnership for reaching out to higher-education markets with digital reading and digital content.

Going by the terms of the partnership, Microsoft and B&N will create a new spin-off - a company called Nook Media LLC - which will chiefly focus on B&N's popular Nook e-reader and college textbook business.

With the T-Mobile USA/MetroPCS Communications' merger likely to offer substantial competition to the three other bigwig US wireless carriers - AT&T, Verizon and Sprint -, unidentified sources revealed on Thursday that Sprint is apparently weighing a rival bid for MetroPCS.

The disclosure about Sprint's intentions comes close on the heels of the Wednesday announcement by T-Mobile's German parent company - Deutsche Telekom - that it has worked out a merger between T-Mobile and MetroPCS --- the fourth- and fifth-ranking US carriers respectively.

With Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney - in his first debate with President Barack Obama - affixing the "losers" tag to upstart automakers Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors, a strong response to Romney's remarks has been reported by problems-plagued plug-in hybrid car maker Fisker.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached YSR Congress president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy's properties worth Rs 51 crore in the disproportionate assets case.

The properties attached in connection with a money laundering case belong to Jagan's two companies, viz. Jagati Publications and Janani Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.