Lawyers: Student charged in Rutgers case innocent - The Associated Press

Lawyers: Student charged in Rutgers case innocentBy SAMANTHA HENRY (AP) – 51 minutes ago

NEWARK, N.J. — Lawyers for one of the two Rutgers University students accused of secretly webcasting the sex life of a fellow freshman who later committed suicide said Tuesday that their client is innocent.

Prosecutors have charged Molly Wei, of Princeton, and fellow Rutgers freshman Dharun Ravi of Plainsboro, both 18, with invasion of privacy for allegedly using a webcam to broadcast the encounter between Ravi's roommate, 18-year-old freshman Tyler Clementi, and a man who hasn't been identified.

Clementi jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River three days later. His death has led to nationwide soul-searching over the plight of gay teenagers and to mourning on the Rutgers campus. Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge Wei and Ravi with a hate crime.

Attorneys for Wei released a statement Tuesday extending sympathy to the Clementi family and saying Wei was innocent.

"This is a tragic situation. But this tragedy has also unfairly led to rampant speculation and misinformation, which threaten to overwhelm the actual facts of the matter," the statement said. "Those true facts will reveal that Molly Wei is innocent. Molly committed no crime. Her remarkable reputation is being unjustly tarnished by uninformed and incorrect assumptions."

Describing Wei as "a wonderful, caring and talented young woman with a bright future," the statement said the firestorm surrounding the charges were "a classic rush to judgment," adding Wei had been "maligned by unfounded attacks on her character."

"Neither Molly nor anyone else should be used to further the agenda of others," the statement said.

Lawyers for Ravi haven't returned calls seeking comment, including a message left Tuesday evening.

Ravi and Wei could face up to five years in prison if convicted of the invasion-privacy charges. A spokesman for the Middlesex County prosecutor's office told The Associated Press on Tuesday that no decision had been made on possible additional charges.

Middlesex County prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said at a news conference Monday that he wouldn't rush the investigation.

"We need to determine the facts and then determine what the applicable law is," he said.

Clementi's family has said little about his death.

"We understand that our family's personal tragedy presents important legal issues for the country as well as for us," the family said in a statement last week. "Our hope is that our family's personal tragedy will serve as a call for compassion, empathy and human dignity."

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Microsoft Marshals Dealmakers, Lawyers to Take On Android - Wired News

As it gets ready to unveil its own operating system next, Microsoft is taking careful aim at its closest competitor: Android.

Through patent licensing deals and lawsuits, the Redmond-based computer giant is trying to cover all its bases, aiming for a situation where it wins whether a customer chooses a Windows phone or an Android one.

But it’s too soon to tell whether the strategy will pay off.

On Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he looks forward to collecting revenue from Android handset makers, including HTC, which has a licensing agreement with Microsoft.

For handset makers that don’t show HTC’s willingness to do it the easy way, Microsoft can do it the hard way, too: Microsoft sued Motorola this week, alleging patent infringement around Motorola’s Android-based smartphones. The suit charges Motorola with allegedly violating patents related to synchronizing email, calendars, contacts, scheduling meetings and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.

“One reason that Microsoft is going after Motorola is that if patent infringement is found it is easier to establish damages against a company that is selling a product than Google, which is giving the OS away for free,” says Robert Sloss, intellectual property partner at Farella Braun + Martel.

In April, Microsoft announced that it has inked a patent licensing deal with HTC that would allow HTC to continue using the Google-designed Android operating system in its phones while mitigating its risk should Microsoft aim any patent lawsuits at the OS.

Microsoft and HTC did not disclose specific details of the agreement, though the two companies have said HTC will pay Microsoft an undisclosed sum for the patent rights.

Patent battles among technology companies are routine. Oracle has filed a lawsuit against Google over the use of Java in Android, a claim that Google has vigorously disputed. Last year, Nokia sued Apple alleging patent infringement by Apple in connection with the iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple initiated a lawsuit against HTC over alleged infringement on iPhone related patents. In other words, its business as usual.

With the smartphone business becoming extremely competitive, the stakes are higher than ever.

In just two years, the Google-designed Android OS has become a major force in the mobile world. Android, which made its debut in 2008 on a HTC manufactured phone, has now been adopted by almost every device maker including Motorola, Samsung and LG. Android is now the most popular operating system among people who bought a smartphone in the past six months, according to August data from The Nielsen Company. BlackBerry and Apple iOS are in a statistical dead heat for the second place.

With the upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS, Microsoft hopes to attract consumers. But until then, it is trying another strategy.

“The Microsoft innovations at issue in this case help make smartphones ’smart,’ Horacio Gutierrez, deputy general counsel at Microsoft, wrote on the company blog.

Microsoft’s patents relate to features such as the ability to send and receive email, manage calendars and contacts. Microsoft claims it has also patented technologies that manage signal strength, battery power and memory in the device.

“The crux of the argument is that Microsoft is saying Android OS uses technology that has already been part of Microsoft software,” says Sloss.

Although the lawsuit has been filed, it is difficult to know right away how valid Microsoft’s claims are, says Sloss. Both Microsoft and Motorola are likely to go through an extensive process of discovery, which involves presenting documents to support their claims and they are likely to keep it under wraps.

“A lot of it probably won’t be public,” says Sloss. “It is standard to enter into protective order because the core of the patents and the products will be highly confidential.”

There is always the possibility that the two companies settle out of court, with Motorola going down the same road as HTC. In that case, Microsoft could gain “hundreds of millions of dollars” in royalties and further strengthen its patent claims.

“Damages calculations are very complex,” says Sloss. “There’s nothing in Microsoft’s complaint that says exactly how much it is looking for.

But if Microsoft and Motorola choose to settle, it is likely that Motorola may wind up paying a license fee for each Android handset it sells, similar to what HTC is doing.

For Microsoft that may not translate into rich profits but it will certainly add up to sweet revenge.

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Photo: Motorola Backflip (Jon Snyder/Wired.com)

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