Category: Uncategorised

(credit: Fitbit)

A proposed class-action lawsuit accusing Fitbit of misrepresenting the ability of its wearable fitness products to track sleep can move forward, a federal judge has ruled.

The San Francisco federal lawsuit claims that Fitbit materially misrepresented on its packaging the ability of the Flex product to track users' hours slept, times woken up, and sleep quality. The suit alleges false advertising, unfair trade practices, fraud, and a host of other claims.

US District Judge James Donato did not rule on the merits of the case but instead refused to toss the lawsuit as Fitbit had wanted. Now Fitbit, which claimed the allegations were based on "bad science," according to the judge, must mount another defense to the allegations. The case could still be dismissed at a later stage, and it might also go to a trial or settle.

(credit: Lex Machina)

The number of copyright lawsuits in the US over online file-sharing have dropped significantly this year, according to data compiled by Lex Machina. Data released by the legal research company shows there were 249 file-sharing lawsuits filed in the second quarter of 2016, compared to 517 cases the previous year.

Anti-piracy copyright lawsuits began increasing in number dramatically around 2012 and last year constituted the majority of all copyright cases nationally. The number of copyright disputes unrelated to file-sharing have held steady for the last five years, as shown in the graph above.

Lex Machina defines file-sharing lawsuits as cases having "John Doe or anonymous defendants" and allegations related to file-sharing technology, typically BitTorrent.

(credit: Steve Jurvetson)

There’s yet another unhappy Theranos customer.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in the US District Court in Arizona, an ex-customer alleges that bum blood tests performed by the beleaguered biotech company directly led to him having a heart attack. (A PDF of the lawsuit is available here.) The test results were later voided by the company, independent of any involvement from the plaintiff, identified only as R.C. in the lawsuit.

R.C. joins at least nine other ex-customers suing the company over faulty tests and the company’s lofty but unfulfilled claims. Each lawsuit is seeking class-action status.

(credit: Getty Images | BSIP)

Two family doctors who are stuck with Verizon DSL say their Internet service is so slow and unreliable that they often can't view online medical records and are having trouble complying with federal guidelines.

Doctors Lori Talbot and Christopher Ballas run a practice in Fairfield, New Jersey, and are among numerous people complaining that Verizon hasn't properly maintained its old copper lines or upgraded its network to fiber in South Jersey. Officials in 16 cities and towns petitioned the state to investigate Verizon last December, and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has scheduled a public hearing for August 4 to let residents and businesses detail the network's failings.

Talbot and Ballas described their office's problems in a letter to local officials and were profiled last week by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Comcast lines stop about a mile from the doctors' office, leaving them without high-speed cable Internet. Since Verizon hasn't wired up the area with fiber, they must make do with Verizon DSL.