uJudge: Ranting Yelp Reviewer Must Pay Contractor $1,000r

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  It’s one thing to go online and rant about a business that you’ve dealt with, exercising your right to free speech and warning other consumers away from dealing with that company. The problem, one woman in New York City learned, comes when you accuse the enterprise of actual crimes, using words like “scam” and “fraud,” and the company notices.

  The reviewer hired a company to refinish wood floors in two rooms of her house. The company advertises affordable work and eco-friendly methods, but she found the end product unacceptable. The New York Daily News shared the text of the first review that she posted on Yelp and on a local news site:

  this guy mat the owner is a scam do not use him you will regret doing business with this company I’m going to court he is a scam customers please beware he will destroy your floors he is nothing by a liar he robs customers, and promises you everything if you want s— then go with him if you like nice work find another he is A SCAM LIAR BULL—-ER

  She explained to the newspaper that the contractor “destroyed [her] home” for a flat fee of $695. Yet the allegedly crappy contractor didn’t just send the Grammar Police after her: he sued her.

  That can sometimes backfire on companies, as we’ve shared in the past. In this case the judge sided with the contractor. While it’s true that another company had to redo the floors, and that the contractor didn’t have the right permits to work in the reviewer’s house, she did accuse him of criminal activity in the reviews.

  “Terms such as ‘scam,’ ‘con artist’ and ‘robs’ imply actions approaching criminal wrongdoing rather than someone who failed to live up to the terms of a contract,” the judge wrote.

  The reviewer, for her part, plans to appeal the judge’s decision.

  EXCLUSIVE: Staten Island woman ordered to pay $1,000 fine for bashing floor refinishing business on Yelp [Daily News]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uMichigan Woman Goes Through Pile Of Old Mail, Finds Lottery Ticket Worth $1Mr

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  We know how it gets — the mail piles up, it’s filled with credit card offers, promotional post cards and other junk you’d rather avoid. But it’s worth taking a look through that stack of unwanted flotsam and jetsam once in awhile, as one Michigan woman who is now $1 million richer found out recently, after spotting a winning lottery ticket in her mail pile.

  The woman told Michigan Lottery officials that she’d bought a ticket for the May 26 Mega Millions drawing at a local party store, and then immediately forgot about it.

  It wasn’t until she went back to the store and started chatting with a clerk who told her that a $1 million winning ticket had been bought there but no one had claimed the reward that she remembered her purchase.

  She searched through a pile of mail and found the ticket nearly four months after she bought it. The five winning numbers from the drawing matcher her ticket, which she hid in a chocolate candy tin until she traveled to Lansing to claim her prize Tuesday.

  Remember: You have to play to win — and then you have to actually check your ticket to get your money.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uNFL Receives Permission To Use Drones For Filming, Just Not Actual Gamesr

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  Films, documentaries and television segments featuring footage of professional football practice facilities and stadiums could soon be coming courtesy of an unmanned aircraft, as the NFL received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to use drones for some – very restricted – filming purposes.

  The NFL became the first major sports league to receive an exemption from the FAA to use drones for the purpose of shooting aerial footage for NFL Films, The Washington Post reports.

  The FAA exemption – announced in a letter [PDF] dated Sept. 17 –  does not give the NFL permission to film actual games with drones, however. Instead, the permission only covers closed-set locations around empty stadiums and practice facilities.

  A spokesperson for NFL Films says the drones will be used when there are no people present for scenic shots for productions such as NFL Films Presents and Together We Make Football pieces on the Today Show.

  Additionally, the FAA go-ahead includes several other restrictions, including that drones must weigh less than 55 pounds, fly no more than 400 feet above the ground and travel no faster than 100 miles per hour.

  “NFL Films has a long history of embracing and employing the latest technology to tell its inimitable stories,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy tells the Post. “NFL Films will use the unique visual images captured by drones to enhance their filmmaking and story-telling.”

  NFL wins federal approval to film with drones [The Washington Post]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uFederal Data Breach Included 5.6M Compromised Fingerprints, Five Times The Original Estimater

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  Federal investigators underestimated the number of fingerprints stolen in a massive breach of the Office of Personnel Management earlier this year: the agency announced Wednesday that 5.6 million individuals’ finger prints were stolen, nearly five times the original estimate of 1.1 million compromised prints.

  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) – essentially the federal government’s giant human resources office – discovered a breach earlier this year that affected nearly 21 million current and former employees, as well as prospective employees, their families and others who applied for federal background investigations in the last 15 years.

  At the time, the agency said only 1.1. million peoples’ fingerprints were compromised. On Wednesday, OPM revised that number as part of a continuing investigation.

  Despite the significant increase in the number of compromised fingerprints, the agency doesn’t believe that prints can be used to access government buildings or devices.

  “Federal experts believe that, as of now, the ability to misuse fingerprint data is limited.” OPM said in a statement. “However, this probability could change over time as technology evolves.”

  The agency says it is working with a group of experts from other government entities, including the FBI, DHS, DOD, and other members of the Intelligence Community, to review the potential ways in which the data could be misused in the future.

  “If, in the future, new means are developed to misuse the fingerprint data, the government will provide additional information to individuals whose fingerprints may have been stolen in this breach,” the agency says.

  OPM first announced the massive breach back in July, saying that if an individual underwent a background investigation in 2000 or after, it is “highly likely that the individual is impacted by this cyber breach. If an individual underwent a background investigation prior to 2000, that individual still may be impacted, but it is less likely.”

  Of the 21.5 million individuals affected in the breach, 19.7 million simply applied for a background investigation, while about 1.8 million non-applicants – predominantly spouses and co-habitants of applicants –were victims of the breach, OPM says.

  OPM said that information regarding mental health or financial histories provided by those that have applied for a security clearance and by individuals contacted during the background investigation were not affected by the breach.

  The agency reiterated on Wednesday that all individuals impacted by this intrusion and their minor dependent children (as of July 1, 2015) are eligible for identify theft and fraud protection services.

  Along with the Department of Defense, OPM is working to begin mailing notifications to impacted individuals, and these notifications will proceed on a rolling basis.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uNetflix Knows The Exact Moment You Get Hooked On A TV Showr

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• “I know, it starts out slow, but if you can just get through a few episodes, I swear, it’s totally worth it and you will be addicted. Just trust me.” We’ve all heard something like that before, and now Netflix is repeating it, with a list that pinpoints the exact episode its users get hooked on a TV show.

  Looking at 25 shows it offers (some original, others not) Netflix identified the episode in each where, after viewing, 70% of people kept watching for the rest of the season, if not more. Interestingly enough, Netflix found that a TV pilot might be the reason you get interested in a show, but it’s usually not the one that gets you hooked.

  This all works out nicely for Netflix and its model of dumping an entire season of an original TV show on the platform at once, to enable viewers to binge watch their hearts out, of course, and not so much for shows that air on regular TV once a week.

  “Given the precious nature of primetime slots on traditional TV, a series pilot is arguably the most important point in the life of the show,” said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix in a press release. “However, in our research of more than 20 shows across 16 markets, we found that no one was ever hooked on the pilot. This gives us confidence that giving our members all episodes at once is more aligned with how fans are made.”

  That being said, this study doesn’t look at how folks consume traditional TV — one episode at a time — just those who stream it through Netflix and therefore have the ability to keep going and going and going.

  The “hooked” episodes are global averages, identified using data from viewing habits on Netflix across 16 markets, including the U.S., U.K. and Australia, even if all shows weren’t available in all areas.

  As one might imagine, there are some cultural differences in viewing habits.

  “The Dutch, for instance, tend to fall in love with series the fastest, getting hooked one episode ahead of most countries irrespective of the show,” Netflix says, while folks in Australia and New Zealand were a bit slower, getting hooked “one to two episodes later than the rest of the world on almost every show.”

  Here’s the full list:

  Arrow — Episode 8
  Bates Motel — Episode 2
  Better Call Saul — Episode 4
  Bloodline — Episode 4
  BoJack Horseman — Episode 5
  Breaking Bad — Episode 2
  Dexter — Episode 3
  Gossip Girl — Episode 3
  Grace & Frankie — Episode 4
  House of Cards — Episode 3
  How I Met Your Mother — Episode 8
  Mad Men — Episode 6
  Marco Polo — Episode 3
  Marvel’s Daredevil — Episode 5
  Once Upon a Time — Episode 6
  Orange is the New Black — Episode 3
  Pretty Little Liars — Episode 4
  Scandal — Episode 2
  Sense8 — Episode 3
  Sons of Anarchy — Episode 2
  Suits — Episode 2
  The Blacklist — Episode 6
  The Killing — Episode 2
  The Walking Dead — Episode 2
  Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt — Episode 4

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uVolkswagen CEO Resigns Amid Emissions Violation Scandalr

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• Less than a week after the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Volkswagen to recall nearly 500,000 vehicles equipped with software that tricked emissions tests, the company’s CEO announced he would resign.

  The Telegraph reports that CEO Martin Winterkorn told the company’s board he would leave his post amid the growing scandal that now covers 11 million VW and Audi vehicles world wide.

  In his resignation speech, Winterkorn said he was “shocked” by the events of the past few days, adding “above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group.”

  “As CEO I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the Supervisory Board to agree on terminating my function as CEO of the Volkswagen Group,” he said. “I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrong doing on my part.”

  While a successor has yet to be named, Winterkorn suggested that VW needs a fresh start.

  “I am clearing the way for this fresh start with my resignation,” he says. “I have always been driven by my desire to serve this company, especially our customers and employees. Volkswagen has been, is and will always be my life.”

  The EPA’s announcement of the ordered recall on Friday has set off a string of reactions from the car company and others.

  Shortly after the recall was announced, our colleagues at Consumer Reports decided to suspend the “Recommended” ratings it had previously given the Passat diesel and Jetta diesel.

  “These recommendations will be suspended until Consumer Reports can re-test these vehicles with a recall repair performed,” reads a statement from the publication. “Once the emissions systems are functioning properly, we will assess whether the repair has adversely affected performance or fuel economy.”

  On Sunday, the carmaker announced it would stop the sale of all affected vehicle models until the issue was fixed.

  And on Monday, it was rumored that the Department of Justice is considering bringing criminal charges against VW.

  While last week’s recall of three VW clean diesel models and one Audi vehicle only affected around 500,000 cars in the U.S., Volkswagen revealed this Tuesday that the defeat device software was installed in around 11 million cars worldwide.

  The company, whose stock price plummeted in the wake of Friday’s announcement, says it is setting aside $7.3 billion to cover the cost of “necessary service measures and other efforts to win back the trust of our customers.”

  Following General Motors’ ignition switch debacle — a long-delayed recall that resulted in more than 100 deaths and hundreds of injuries because neither the company nor federal regulators thought it merited a safety risk — and the ongoing recall of millions of cars fitted with Takata airbags that could explode and spew deadly shrapnel, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s time for everyone to stop taking things for granted.

  “We’re questioning everything now,” said NHTSA chief Mark Rosekind at the Automotive Industry Action Group conference earlier today.

  Volkswagen scandal: CEO Martin Winterkorn resigns in wake of emissions deception: live [The Telegraph]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uLindt Beats Haribo In Legal Battle Over Candy Bearsr

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• It might seem pretty obvious that chocolate candy shaped like a bear is quite different from a gummy candy bear, but now it’s official: a judge in German ruled that Lindt’s foil-wrapped, bear-shaped chocolate treats aren’t copying rival candy purveyor Haribo’s gummy bear mascot.

  Haribo had claimed that Lindt’s gold-wrapped chocolate teddy bears, which feature a red ribbon around their necks, were a ripoff of its “Gold Bear” trademark. He’s the yellow bear adorning packages of Haribo gummy bears, and he also happens to wear a red ribbon around his neck.

  That coincidence isn’t enough, a judge in a German federal court ruled today, reports the AFP.

  “Lindt’s sale of bear-shaped chocolates wrapped in a golden foil with a red ribbon is neither a violation of Haribo’s ‘Gold Bear’ trademark nor an illegal imitation of the fruit gum products,” the court ruled.

  The two sides went to court in 2012 when Lindt started selling its “Lindt Teddy” figurines in 2011 for the Christmas season. Lindt said it wasn’t copying Haribo, and that the idea was inspired by its “Gold Bunny” chocolates, which were hot sellers during the Easter season.

  A German court first ruled in favor of Haribo, but after an appeal court threw out that verdict — finding that chocolate teddies couldn’t be mistaken for gummy bears — the case went to the Federal Court of Justice.

  Lindt welcomed the ruling, saying it “will continue to delight all Lindt chocolate lovers with the Lindt Teddy,” and that both parties “have agreed to refrain from making any substantive comments on the matter itself.”

  Sweet justice: Lindt beats Haribo in gummy bear court battle [AFP]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist