Maritime law violations

A hot potato: Evidence found by a US government body suggests that Apple's employee policies go against labor laws. The decision was made in response to complaints made by former workers who claimed Apple had infringed their rights. Prosecutors at the US National Labor Relations Board have determined that Apple violated labor laws based on statements made by corporate representatives and employee-imposed rules. The NLRB announced Monday that its regional offices "found merit" in four complaints alleging that Apple's workplace policies "reasonably tend to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees," who might try to confront their employer about issues at work or talk about them to the media or government organizations. The controversy centers on complaints made in 2021 by former Apple employees, Cher Scarlett and Ashley Gjovik, who claimed that the company's labor policies prohibit employees from discussing pay and employment conditions. Both employees cited an email from CEO … [Read more...] about Apple’s policies violate employee rights, US officials find

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a non-partisan ethics watchdog, sent a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asking for an investigation into Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for allegedly violating federal law and House ethics rules by using taxpayer-funded resources for campaign purposes. The ethics watchdog said in the complaint that the congressman was “clearly using official government video for campaign purposes,” violating federal law and the House ethics rules, since “House Members are prohibited from using House and Senate floor video for campaign purposes.” FACT explained the Federal laws and House ethics rules that require there to be a strict divide between campaign and official acts: Federal law states that “appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made except as otherwise provided by law.” To enforce this law, the ethics rules prohibit Members from using any official resource for … [Read more...] about Watchdog Accuses Schiff of Violating Federal Law, House Ethics Rules

Audio player loading… Norwegian shipping classification society DNV has been hit by a ransomware (opens in new tab) attack which forced the company to shut down some of its servers. The attack affected roughly 1,000 ships using DNV's ShipManager software - a tool that its customers use to monitor different features of their shipping fleets. DNV says some 300 companies use the tool to manage more than 7,000 ships. Of that number, 70 firms managing some 1,000 ships were affected by the incident - around 15% of the total fleet. TechRadar Pro needs you! (opens in new tab) We want to build a better website for our readers, and we need your help! You can do your bit by filling out our survey (opens in new tab) and telling us your opinions and views about the tech industry in 2023. It will only take a few minutes and all your answers will be anonymous and confidential. Thank you again for helping us make TechRadar Pro even better. D. Athow, Managing … [Read more...] about Ransomware attack hits maritime giant DNV

Apple violated US labor laws through various workplace rules and statements made by executives, National Labor Relations Board officials determined after reviewing allegations from two former employees. An NLRB official will file a formal complaint against Apple unless the company reaches a settlement with the former employees, who filed complaints about Apple's focus on secrecy. An NLRB spokesperson confirmed to Ars today that the labor board's regional office "found merit to four charges alleging that various work rules, handbook rules, and confidentiality rules at Apple violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act because they reasonably tend to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of their right to protected concerted activity." The regional office additionally "found merit to a charge alleging statements and conduct by Apple—including high-level executives—also violated the National Labor Relations Act," the NLRB statement said. … [Read more...] about Apple’s focus on secrecy violated employee rights, US regulators find

Meta said it’s suing “scraping-for-hire” service Voyager Labs for allegedly using fake accounts, proprietary software, and a sprawling network of IP addresses to surreptitiously collect massive amounts of personal data from users of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social networking sites. “Defendant created and used over 38,000 fake Facebook user accounts and its Surveillance Software to scrape more than 600,000 Facebook users’ viewable profile information, including posts, likes, friends lists, photos, and comments, and information from Facebook Groups and Pages,” lawyers wrote in Meta’s complaint . “Defendant designed the Surveillance Software to conceal its presence and activity from Meta and others, and sold and licensed for profit the data it scraped.” “Bringing individuality to light” Among the California-based Facebook users to have their data scraped, Meta said, were “employees of nonprofit organizations, universities, news media organizations, health care … [Read more...] about Meta sues “scraping-for-hire” service that sells user data to law enforcement

Infamous ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli is yet again in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission, which announced today that the convicted fraudster has failed to cooperate with the commission's investigation into whether he violated his lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry by starting a company last year called "Druglike, Inc." In a court filing today, the FTC asked a federal judge in New York to find Shkreli in contempt for failing to turn over requested documents to the FTC and failing to make himself available for an interview. Under the 2022 court order barring him from involvement in the pharmaceutical industry for life, Shkreli is required to provide such information to the FTC, the commission noted. "Martin Shkreli’s failure to comply with the court’s order demonstrates a clear disregard for the law," Holly Vedova, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in a press release. "The FTC will not hesitate to deploy the full scope of its … [Read more...] about FTC: Shkreli may have violated lifetime pharma ban, should be held in contempt

The US Supreme Court wants the Biden administration to weigh in on the Texas and Florida social media laws before justices decide whether to take up cases involving Big Tech industry lawsuits against the two states. In a list of orders released this morning, the Supreme Court did not decide whether to hear the cases. Instead, the court asked the Department of Justice's Solicitor General to provide the agency's view. "The Solicitor General is invited to file briefs in these cases expressing the views of the United States," the Supreme Court said. The Florida and Texas laws were challenged by Big Tech groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications & Industry Association (CCIA), which represent companies including Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yahoo. The Florida law, which attempts to make it illegal for large social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to ban politicians, was blocked by a federal judge in a preliminary injunction. That injunction … [Read more...] about Supreme Court seeks Biden admin input on Texas and Florida social media laws

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) and state Attorney General Marty Jackley sent a letter to pharmacists on Tuesday warning them that despite the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) rule change around mifepristone, dispensing abortion pills is illegal in the state. “In 2022, the United States Supreme Court held that there is no federal constitutional right to an abortion. In doing so, all abortions became illegal in the State of South Dakota, except those necessary to save the life of the mother. This prohibition includes chemical abortions,” the letter reads. “In South Dakota, any person who administers, prescribes, or procures for any pregnant female any medicine or drug with the intent to induce an abortion is guilty of a felony.” The letter was sent in reference to an early January FDA regulatory change allowing retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone — the first pill used in a two-drug medication abortion regimen — in-store and by mail order, though … [Read more...] about SD Gov. Kristi Noem to Pharmacists: Dispensing Abortion Pills Is Felony

Justice served: A judge has told the co-founder of the sham copyright-trolling law firm Prenda Law that he cannot continue filing piracy lawsuits from his jail cell. It seems like a no-brainer, but the lawyer's ultimate point is to make the case that the laws holding him in prison are "unconstitutional," so he should be released. Disgraced Prenda Law attorney Paul Hansmeier is serving a 14-year sentence for running a copyright entrapment scam, which he pled guilty to in 2018. Since then, he has filed multiple legal actions from his jail cell to get out of serving his time. Hansmeier's latest ploy was to file a motion with the US District Court in Minnesota, the same court that convicted him, asking for a preliminary injunction against the government from enforcing fraud and money laundering statutes against him. The stated purpose is to allow him to continue filing copyright infringement cases while incarcerated, employing a private investigator to do the legwork. Of … [Read more...] about Judge tells copyright troll, “no,” he cannot continue filing piracy lawsuits from jail

What just happened? In addition to concerns about AI-generated content taking human jobs, it seems there are also questions regarding the material these tools are trained on. In the case of the art-creating systems Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, their developers are being sued alongside portfolio site DeviantArt by three artists for allegedly violating copyright laws. AI-powered content-generating tools have seen their popularity explode in recent months, but it hasn't stopped the controversy that surrounds them. That's been especially true of systems that create art. The problem was highlighted last September when the Colorado State Fair's contest for emerging digital artists was by Jason M. Allen, who created his entry using Midjourney. Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are trained on billions of images. In the case of the latter, it uses selected datasets from the LAION-5B project, a collection of 5 billion images and associated descriptive captions created by a German-based … [Read more...] about Artists launch copyright lawsuit against AI art generators Stable Diffusion and Midjourney