settles

eHarmony is releasing a new same-sex matching service starting by the end of March. This service is the product of legal problems the company has been dealing with out of New Jersey and California. A gay man in Jersey sued the company for not catering to same-sex relationships as a violation of his rights in the state of New Jersey, and earlier in the year, a gay woman from San Francisco filed a suit against the company for being denied access to eHarmony's service because of her sexuality.

Signaling that maybe nobody is willing to let this linking-and-snippet business go to court, Moreover and parent company VeriSign have settled a lawsuit filed by the Associated Press for undisclosed terms. By the tone of the press release, though, those terms must be favorable to the plaintiff. "AP is pleased to have resolved the litigation in an amicable manner and appreciates VeriSign and Moreover's efforts to resolve AP's concerns," said AP Vice President and General Counsel Srinandan Kasi.

Online advertiser ValueClick, Inc. will pay a record $2.9 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that its advertising claims and emails were deceptive and violated federal law.The agency also charged that ValueClick and its subsidiaries, Hi-Speed Media and E-Babylon did not secure consumer's sensitive financial information, even though they claimed to do so.

The Federal Trade Commission has reached an agreement with Adteractive, an online advertising company, for its use of misleading spam emails and online advertising to attract people to its Web sites.

AOL has reached a settlement with 48 states and the District of Columbia over their confusing cancellation policy.

One of the most bizarre Internet stories this year gets more bizarre. Internet Archive and Suzanne Shell have resolved their lawsuits against each other "amicably," a word that follows words like "theft" and "racketeering" about as well as toothpaste follows orange juice. Next on her list: a 15-year-old Canadian jokester. 

The sweet sound of stacks of Euros being riffled with glee has brought an end to Agence France-Presse's suit against Google for indexing its stories and photos for Google News.

Consumerinfo.com who does business as Experian Consumer Direct and claims to offer a free credit report has been socked with a $300,000 fine from the Federal Trade Commission for failing to disclose to consumers signed up for their service that they would be enrolled in a credit-monitoring program and charged $79.95.