Free Republic

Full title: Apple CEO Cook calls for U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation in TIME op-ed “In 2019, it’s time to stand up for the right to privacy—yours, mine, all of ours,” Apple CEO Tim Cook writes in an op-ed for TIME Magazine. “Consumers shouldn’t have to tolerate another year of companies irresponsibly amassing huge user profiles, data breaches that seem out of control and the vanishing ability to control our own digital lives.” “This problem is solvable—it isn’t too big, too challenging or too late.... {snip} ….“We believe the Federal Trade Commission should establish a data-broker clearinghouse,...

Much thanks to the Freeper referred SA law firm which advised and offered services which I did not accept, but paid close and attentive attention to. Your counsel . . . pending the next elevation when I might need it . . . was invaluable to get this much of a result. Thanks. Maybe there might be a class action or federal complaint against CMRE . . . based upon thier reply to the California Attorney General, there might be one. I'm going to press to the federal level with a complaint. In reply to the California Attorney General, CMRE...

...To see how much these items cost, shoppers must add the merchandise to their shopping carts — in effect, taking it up to the virtual register for a price check... In many cases that freedom stems from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Leegin Creative Leather Products v. PSKS. The ruling gave manufacturers considerably more leeway to dictate retail prices, once considered a violation of antitrust law, and it set a high legal hurdle for retailers to prove that this is bad for consumers. ...retailers say manufacturers have become increasingly aggressive with one tool in particular: forbidding...

Gold's Gym in Oxnard, California won't stop billing Molly's brother for membership, even though both he and his mother have repeatedly sent the gym copies of his deployment orders to Afghanistan. Two months later, the gym claims that it has "misplaced" the deployment orders, and is still billing for services Molly's brother can't use.Molly writes: My brother signed up for a monthly membership to Gold's Gym a few months before he deployed to Afghanistan. At the time he was told that he would not have a problem terminating his membership when he deployed. Before he left for Afghanistan he brought...

The Swedish Consumers Association (Sveriges Konsumentråd) has reacted angrily to one of the ice pops in GB's new line. 'Girlie', a star-shaped, pink ice-cream with glitter make-up stored inside the stick, is entirely inappropriate, according to the association. "I question whether there is a demand," said secretary general Jan Bertoft. The raspberry-flavoured novelty ice cream was just one of a new range presented by GB at the beginning of March. According to GB, the 'Girlie' ice pop signals a "sense of summer", "star status" and "a disco feeling". The Swedish Consumers Association however uses an entirely different word: "gender-profiling". "Girlie,...

A proposed order in a file-sharing lawsuit would force the recording industry to divulge closely-held details of their wholesale pricing arrangements. UMG v. Lindor is one of the highest-profile file-sharing cases in the news today, due in no small part to the efforts of Marie Lindor's attorney Ray Beckerman, who maintains the Recording Industry vs The People Blog along with Ty Rogers.Lindor, like hundreds of others, was sued by the RIAA after a John Doe lawsuit resulted in her ISP turning over information to the record labels tying an IP address allegedly used for illegal downloading to her. Lindor has...

Do you like fast-forwarding through commercials on a television program you’ve recorded? How much do you like it? Enough to go to jail if you’re caught doing it? If a new copyright and intellectual property omnibus bill sitting on Congress’s desk passes, that may be the choice you'll face. How can this be possible? Because language that makes fast-forwarding through commercials illegal—no doubt inserted at the behest of lobbyists for the advertising industry—was inserted into a bill that would allow people to fast forward past objectionable sections of a recorded movie (and I bet you already thought that was OK)....