MS to settle antitrust cases; kids benefit
Microsoft once again may have snatched a victory at the settlement table that it might not have been able to achieve in the courtroom. The Redmond, Wash.-based software titan has cut a deal that would dismiss more than 100 pending private antitrust cases against the company. Lawyers brought the majority of the cases last year after a federal judge ruled that Microsoft had violated two sections of the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act.
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Does your cell phone have Monsters?
Walt Disney's online division continued its push into the wireless Web on Tuesday by offering games that are playable on cell phones. Sprint PCS will be the first U.S. carrier to offer the games, which are based on Disney movies "Monsters, Inc." and "Atlantis: The Lost Empire," but others are expected to enter into similar revenue-sharing deals, said Larry Shapiro, Walt Disney Internet Group executive vice president of business development and operations.
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Germany speaks out for open source
The German Ministry of Economics and Technology has spoken out against the broadening of software patent laws within Europe, on the basis that it would stifle innovation and the open-source movement. A recent government-commissioned study conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research and the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and Informational Patent, Copyright and Competition Law advised that Europe should avoid the U.S. model, which allows patents on software that does not have a technical effect. The German ministry voiced its support for the study last week, concluding a long and controversial consultation period on software patent law within the European Commission.
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Sharp launches Linux PDA
Sharp last week started shipping its SL-5000D Linux-based PDA. The device is a developer platform, released ahead of a full-blown product launch, set for the spring. Because it runs Java and C++ applications, Sharp's PDA may attract firms wanting to roll out applications to mobile staff. The SL-5000D is a similar format to Pocket PC- and Palm-based handhelds, but features a small keypad and stylus input. It runs Lineo Embedix, based on the Linux 2.4 kernel, and uses the Jeode PersonalJava environment for Java applications. Qt Embedded provides the graphical user interface as well as an environment for C++ applications. The Opera Web browser is also included.
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Is open source fading away?
The ideological purity of the open-source software business is being diluted by a new era of pragmatism as start-ups adjust to the economic slump. Open-source describes a collaborative method of developing software by freely sharing programming code, with no single company owning the rights. Volunteers work on myriad open-source projects, and in many cases companies hoped to harness that talent to compete better with software titans such as Microsoft, with the Linux operating system being the most visible example.
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U.N.: Developing world needs the Web
Electronic commerce has emerged unscathed from the dot-com crash and the Sept. 11 suicide airliner attacks and can be harnessed by developing nations to help them grow, the United Nations said on Tuesday. As far as e-commerce is concerned, we can be fairly optimistic. The growth is continuing as though nothing had happened," said Jean Gurunlian, a senior official of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD. Gurunlian is the principal author of an UNCTAD report made public Tuesday.
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Consumers splurge on Xbox, GameCube
Consumers may be curbing their spending in some areas, but they apparently don't mind splurging on the two newly released video game consoles from Nintendo and Microsoft, according to new research. A Goldman Sachs survey of U.S. retailers found that 73 percent had already sold out of Microsoft's Xbox and that 47 percent were sold out of Nintendo's GameCube, less than a week after the two systems were released. The survey was conducted among 49 retail chain stores in large cities.
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Music publishers file latest lawsuit 
A group representing music publishers and songwriters on Tuesday filed a federal suit against some makers of file-swapping software, marking the latest in a string of legal tangles over copyright infringement on the Internet. The National Music Publisher's Association (NMPA), which represents the owners of most songs published in the United States, said its suit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, charges file-swapping services MusicCity, Grokster and Empowerment with copyright infringement.
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Playboy says hacker stole customer info
Playboy.com has alerted customers that an intruder broke into its Web site and obtained some customer information, including credit card numbers. The online unit of the nearly 50-year-old men's magazine said in an e-mail to customers that it believed a hacker accessed "a portion" of Playboy.com's computer systems. In the e-mail, a copy of which was reviewed by CNET News.com, Playboy.com President Larry Lux did not disclose how many customers might have been affected.
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Soldiers balance virtual life, death
With the click of a mouse, a huge, blank movie screen becomes a seat in a Humvee rumbling through the cobbled streets of a Balkan village where there has been an accident. A turbaned child lies in the street in critical condition. Townspeople glare angrily from a curb. A helicopter circles overhead. An Army lieutenant on the scene looks guilty and meek. And then the two of you begin a discussion on how to proceed. "Sir, we should secure the assembly area," the virtual man says.
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"Hitchhiker's Guide" catches final ride
An unfinished novel by science-fiction writer Douglas Adams will be published next year and released on the anniversary of his death, according to published reports. "A Salmon of a Doubt," the sixth installment in Adams' cult classic, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," is being edited from files found on the author's computer, the U.K.-based Sunday Telegraph reported. A version of the novel will appear in a collection of Adams' work, the Telegraph said. The new story builds on Adams' satirical 1979 "Hitchhiker's Guide," which followed the search by alien Ford Prefect and his human companion Arthur Dent for an answer to "life, the universe and everything."
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Tracking money trails with technology
Technology has become an increasingly vital tool in the United States' fight to uproot terrorist financial networks as part of an assault involving the Treasury Department, the FBI and the Federal Reserve. American and foreign banks are under intense pressure to divulge huge amounts of data from which investigators hope to pick up the scent of terrorist activity. But many are balking at the prospect of increased costs and lowered productivity as resources get diverted to tracking cash withdrawals, deposits and wired money transfers.
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The Web -- curse or blessing?
As security problems escalate, businesses must realize that the Internet isn't as reliable or stable as private networks and other utility services. Consequently, businesses should make plans to survive periodic Internet outages until 2006. At the recent annual meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a presenter said that it would not take much for a malicious hacker to shut down the Internet by flooding the Web's master directory servers with traffic.
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SafeWeb sidelines anonymity for security
Online start-up SafeWeb has dismantled its free privacy service, which sheltered individuals' identities and movements as they scanned the Web. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company, which launched its free service last year, said the high cost of bandwidth and a lack of ad-related profits contributed to the closure. The company posted a notice on its Web site last week saying that it has suspended the free service. "For the time being, we are turning off our free consumer service," the notice said. "In the future, we may relaunch the service on a subscription basis."
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Microsoft's interactive TV hits snag
The Portuguese cable company that launched the first interactive TV service using Microsoft's advanced software has put plans for mass expansion on hold because of technological snags, its chairman said Tuesday. Abilio Anca Henriques, chairman of PT Multimedia, said the number of clients for the interactive TV service, which was launched with fanfare in June, remains at only a sliver of the 100,000 initially forecast for the end of 2001. "Right now, the number of clients is in the range of 2,500," he told reporters.
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