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| | | December 7, 2003
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Sunday, December 7, 2003 |
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Microsoft ready to further open up intellectual property
Microsoft officially unveiled its new policy on licensing its intellectual property to third-parties after years of keeping it under tight control. This latest effort is the software giant's broadest initiative to open up access to its thousands of patents and highly-valued technology.
The software maker also announced two specific programs for its ClearType technology for fonts on LCD displays and for its File Allocation Table (FAT) system. The former is currently being licensed by Agfa Monotype, while the FAT system is being licensed by Lexar Media. In addition, Microsoft will make available '100 percent' of its patents to the academic community for noncommercial use.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 | Computerworld | eWeek | InformationWeek | InternetNews.com | The Mercury News | VNUNET.com
As RIAA sues 41 more, file-sharing may still be growing
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Wednesday announced it has sued 41 more people in its ongoing legal battle with music-swappers from the United States. In September, the industry group began filing lawsuits against hundreds of individuals who allegedly shared copyrighted audio files on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks such as Kazaa. The association also said it has sent 90 notification letters to people who are going to be targeted unless they reach a settlement first.
All along, RIAA has claimed its actions against the file-swapping community are proving successful and raising awareness about the detriments and potentially legal ramifications of using P2P software to share copyrighted works without authorization, but some analysts are disputing the campaign's effects, or are at least noting there's inconclusive data to reach any conclusions.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 | InfoWorld | InternetNews.com | The Register | Reuters 1 2 | VNUNET.com | Wired News
In Other News...
 Google has asked a U.S. District Court to rule whether its policy of selling sponsored links triggered by specific keywords is in violation of trademark laws. The move by the Internet search giant is widely seen as an attempt to preempt mounting lawsuits against the company which offers advertisers ad space in the search results for copyrighted names.
Yahoo! issued a patch for its Instant Messenger after news broke about a buffer overflow vulnerability in an ActiveX control used by the program. The company said it had no reports that the hole had been exploited before the release of the update.
IBM won an important legal victory after a U.S. Federal Judge ordered The SCO Group to show the Linux software it claims it has rights to and to detail how IBM is infringing on the company's copyrights. At the same time, SCO indicated it will be expanding its charges against Big Blue adding copyright infringement claims. The SCO Group is suing IBM for breach of contract and disclosure of trade secrets in a multibillion dollar lawsuit centered around open-source intellectual property.
The world's second largest software maker, Oracle, warned of 'high-risk' vulnerabilities in a range of popular products, including Oracle HTTP Server, Oracle8i Database, Oracle9i Application Server and others. Oracle urged its customers to immediately apply the appropriate patches as there are no known workarounds.
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