Enlarge / Taylor's C709 Soft Serve Freezer isn't so much mechanically complicated as it is a software and diagnostic trap for anyone without authorized access. (credit: iFixit/YouTube )

Many devices have been made difficult or financially nonviable to repair, whether by design or because of a lack of parts, manuals, or specialty tools. Machines that make ice cream, however, seem to have a special place in the hearts of lawmakers. Those machines are often broken and locked down for only the most profitable repairs.

The Federal Trade Commission and the antitrust division of the Department of Justice have asked the US Copyright Office (PDF) to exempt "commercial soft serve machines" from the anti-circumvention rules of Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The governing bodies also submitted proprietary diagnostic kits, programmable logic controllers, and enterprise IT devices for DMCA exemptions.

"In each case, an exemption would give users more choices for third-party and self-repair and would likely lead to cost savings and a better return on investment in commercial and industrial equipment," the joint comment states. Those markets would also see greater competition in the repair market, and companies would be prevented from using DMCA laws to enforce monopolies on repair, according to the comment.

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More than 1,000 Ubiquiti routers in homes and small businesses were infected with malware used by Russian-backed agents to coordinate them into a botnet for crime and spy operations, according to the Justice Department .

That malware, which worked as a botnet for the Russian hacking group Fancy Bear , was removed in January 2024 under a secret court order as part of "Operation Dying Ember," according to the FBI's director. It affected routers running Ubiquiti's EdgeOS, but only those that had not changed their default administrative password. Access to the routers allowed the hacking group to "conceal and otherwise enable a variety of crimes," the DOJ claims, including spearphishing and credential harvesting in the US and abroad.

Unlike previous attacks by Fancy Bear—that the DOJ ties to GRU Military Unit 26165, which is also known as APT 28, Sofacy Group, and Sednit, among other monikers—the Ubiquiti intrusion relied on a known malware, Moobot . Once infected by "Non-GRU cybercriminals," GRU agents installed "bespoke scripts and files" to connect and repurpose the devices, according to the DOJ.

Enlarge / It just reads different in that typeface. (credit: Department of Justice)

"Here is [sic] the latest slides we have on privacy," Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue wrote to CEO Tim Cook and then-SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller in January 2013. "Still a lot more work to do but good start."

Those slides, newly made public as an exhibit in the Department of Justice's ongoing antitrust trial against Google , on "The State of Privacy," cast a dim light on Apple's competitors, particularly Google. They quote former CEO Eric Schmidt's notorious remarks on Google's policy to " get right up to the creepy line but not cross it ." They unfavorably compare Apple and Google's approaches to account data combination, voice search privacy, maps, and search. And most notably, they give over an entire slide to a summary: "Android is a massive tracking device."

The exhibit is, as noted, redacted for public filing and abridged, so slides not pertaining to Google's search dominance and other issues at trial are missing. Still, Apple's presentation offers a rare glimpse into the company's perception of Google, particularly Android, and how its own devices and services might stand apart.

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A few years before Microsoft went all-in on a ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine , the company had another idea for its perennial, also-ran search engine: sell it to Apple.

A report in Bloomberg , sourced from people familiar with the early theoretical sales talks, states that Microsoft pitched Bing as a way for Apple to replace Google as the default search provider on iPhones, MacBooks, and other devices.

The deal didn't make it past the conversation stage, according to Bloomberg. Microsoft executives approached Eddie Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, who brokered Apple's deal with Google—purportedly worth between $4 and $7 billion in 2020—for Google's long-standing default placement. Google's paid presence on Apple devices has been reviewed in court recently as part of the Department of Justice's antitrust trial over Google's search business.

Enlarge / Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission. (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg )

Antitrust enforcers released a draft update outlining new rules today that officials say will make it easier to crack down on mergers and acquisitions that could substantially lessen competition in the US.

Now the public has 60 days to review the draft guidelines and submit comments to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) before the agencies' September 18 deadline. A fierce debate has already started between those in support and those who oppose the draft guidelines.

Over the next two months, the FTC hopes to gain widespread public support for what the FTC has positioned as commonsense updates as tech mergers have recently raised complex legal questions. In a press release , FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said that the merger guidelines "contain critical updates" and were "informed by thousands of public comments—spanning healthcare workers, farmers, patient advocates, musicians, and entrepreneurs."

Enlarge / Abortion rights advocates rally outside the US Supreme Court on April 14, 2023, in Washington, DC, speaking out against abortion pill restrictions. (credit: Getty | OLIVIER DOULIERY )

The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court's ruling that would have curtailed access to the abortion medication mifepristone beginning on Saturday. The temporary block will preserve the status quo access to mifepristone for five days, or until midnight on Wednesday, giving the high court time to review emergency appeals and consider issuing a longer stay on the ruling.

The freeze is the latest turn in a fast-moving, high-stakes case over not only access to the safe and effective abortion medication but also the fate of the Food and Drug Administration's overall authority to regulate drugs in the country.

Last week, a federal judge in Texas, District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, issued a ruling revoking the FDA's nearly 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. Kacsmaryk, a conservative Donald Trump appointee, ruled that the FDA erred in approving the drug and that there was insufficient data on its safety, despite dozens of studies, decades of real-world data on millions of pregnancies, and extensive reviews from the regulatory agency.

Enlarge / Let's see, you landed on my "Google Ads" space, and with three houses... that will be $1,400. (credit: Ron Amadeo / Hasbro)

It's been expected for some time, but today the Justice Department and eight states are suing Google over its purported domination of the online advertising market. The government has a problem with Google's position in "ad tech," or the tools used to automatically match advertisers with website publishers. To solve it, apparently, the DOJ has told Google it's considering breaking the company up.

“Today’s complaint alleges that Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “No matter the industry and no matter the company, the Justice Department will vigorously enforce our antitrust laws to protect consumers, safeguard competition, and ensure economic fairness and opportunity for all.”

The press release gives a quick rundown of what the DOJ has a problem with:

Enlarge / The Abbott manufacturing facility in Sturgis, Michigan, on May 13, 2022. (credit: Getty | Jeff Kowalsky )

The Department of Justice's consumer-protection branch has opened a criminal investigation into the conduct of Abbott Laboratories, one of the country's largest formula makers, at the center of a contamination scandal and ongoing nationwide shortage .

The existence of the investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Though the DOJ is not commenting on it, a spokesperson for Abbott said the department has informed them of the investigation and that the company is "cooperating fully."

Federal regulators last year found numerous violations and "egregiously unsanitary" conditions at Abbott's Sturgis, Michigan, plant, the largest formula factory in the country. The regulators previously received reports that at least four babies who drank formula made at that facility fell ill with dangerous infections of the bacterium Cronobacter sakazakii, which had also been detected in the plant. Two of the infants died.