Tech news review: New AT&T phones, movie suit

AT&T announces first phones for new network

NEW YORK — The first two phones to run on AT&T’s new high-speed data network will go on sale Sunday.

The phones are the HTC Vivid and the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. Both are big touch-screen smartphones that run Google Inc.’s Android software. They’ll cost $200 and $250 respectively, with a two-year service contract requirement.

Dallas-based AT&T Inc. is building a network based on Long-Term Evolution, or LTE, technology. It offers higher data speeds and offloads traffic from the current data network.

The network covers Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Texas, so far. On Sunday, it will be expanded to Boston, Washington, Baltimore and Athens, Ga. By the end of the year, the goal is to have the network live in 15 cities.

The two LTE phones can also use AT&T’s regular, nationwide data network. They will be sold with data plans that are identical to those required for other smartphones. For $15 per month, subscribers get 200 megabytes of data usage per month. For $25, the limit is ten times higher, or 2 gigabytes per month.

So far, the only devices that have been able to use AT&T’s LTE network are plug-in data sticks for laptops.

Verizon Wireless has been selling Android phones for its LTE network since this spring.

Movie studios win lawsuit against Zediva

NEW YORK — The nation’s biggest movie studios have won a copyright infringement lawsuit against video-streaming startup Zediva Inc.

Zediva’s founders thought they had discovered a legal loophole for online viewing of movies by having customers rent DVDs physically located in the Silicon Valley. That way, Zediva wouldn’t have to wait for licensing deals with studios, which often withhold newer movies.

U.S. District Judge John Walter in Los Angeles disagreed. He issued a permanent injunction Friday prohibiting the company from continuing its service. The Motion Picture Association of America said that Zediva’s operators agreed to pay the studios $1.8 million.

Zediva did not have an immediate comment on the ruling when contacted on Monday.

Companies are allowed to rent physical copies of DVDs without permission from the movie studios, the way libraries are allowed to freely lend out books. But Internet streaming rights generally require separate payments, and studios have typically been reluctant to license newer movies for fear that would cut into DVD sales. That’s one reason Netflix Inc.’s streaming library isn’t as extensive as its DVD offerings.

Zediva’s creators thought they could circumvent that by tying Internet streaming to a physical DVD kept at the company’s data centers.

The MPAA, representing Hollywood studios, sued Zediva’s parent company WTV Systems and founder and CEO Venkatesh Srinivasan in April.

The studios, including Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Sony Corp.’s Columbia Pictures and The Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Enterprises Inc., had argued that Zediva’s technology meant it was publicly performing movies, violating copyright law.

Zediva, which charged $1.99 to rent movies, spent two years developing its technology.

Ore. senator, others cited by digital-rights group

An Oregon senator who was behind a 1996 federal law that has made content-sharing services such as YouTube and Facebook possible is among three recipients of Pioneer Awards from a leading digital-rights group.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was co-author of a law that protects online service providers from legal liability for content produced by their users. That means Google can let users freely post video on YouTube, and Facebook can let users write status updates and share links without worry they would be sued for defamation and other issues. In such cases, any liability would rest with the user who posted the item.

In announcing the award, the Electronic Frontier Foundation also credits Wyden with recent efforts to block legislation deemed harmful to free speech and with proposing legislation to define when and how government and private parties can access location information in cellphones and other electronic devices.

Other recipients of the award were:

Ÿ Ian Goldberg, a University of Waterloo professor credited with exposing design weaknesses in encryption systems used to protect cellphone conversations and Wi-Fi traffic, resulting in improvements to the systems.

Ÿ Nawaat.org, a blog operated by four Tunisians and credited with spreading information on social and political unrest there.

“These Pioneer Award winners are all working to make sure that technology protects freedom instead of curtailing it,” EFF Executive Director Shari Steele said.

The EFF will give the awards at a Nov. 15 ceremony in San Francisco. The award does not carry a cash prize.

Driving-while-texting ban nears law in Pa.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania is getting set to join more than 30 other states that ban all motorists from texting while driving.

The state Senate’s vote on Tuesday, 45-5, approved an amended version of a bill it easily passed in June and sent it to the desk of Gov. Tom Corbett, who is expected to sign it. The ban would take effect 120 days after Corbett signs it.

Although the House stripped out a provision that would also punish drivers for talking on a cellphone without a hands-free device, proponents still looked at the bill’s passage as a victory.

“All the rest of your life for the simple thing of texting a friend you have to live with the fact that you did not have control of your vehicle and you killed somebody,” Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria, told colleagues in a floor speech before the vote.

Senators voting “no” were Jake Corman of Centre County, John Eichelberger of Blair County, Mike Folmer of Lebanon County, Charles McIlhinney of Bucks County and Don White of Indiana County.

Folmer said the state already has laws against distracted or reckless driving, and that adding this law to the books won’t make people any more responsible.

“We don’t need another nanny bill to be passed to make us feel better and secondly, how’s that going to help teach responsibility?” he said.

The bill would make texting behind the wheel a primary offense so that police can pull over motorists for that violation alone. The penalty is $50. Police will not be allowed to seize the cellphone or other device.

Talking on a cellphone without a hands-free device remains legal for Pennsylvania motorists, despite years of attempts by the Senate and some House lawmakers to outlaw it. Nine states have such bans.

The bill that passed the Senate in June banned both texting while driving and talking on a cellphone while driving without a hands-free device. However, after the House approved the texting ban on Monday, House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, said that his chamber would continue to consider a ban on talking on cellphones.

Corbett last week signed into law tougher new regulations for teen drivers, including limits on how many passengers they can carry and more stringent training requirements.