Companies fight Bush on patent-fee plan
Saying the U.S. Patent Office is already functioning poorly, trade groups and companies such as Intel and Hewlett-Packard are fighting a Bush administration plan to divert about 15 percent of patent fees from the office to other government programs. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is funded entirely by fees companies pay when they apply for patents or trademarks.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=cd_mh
Open-source development drives innovation
One of the biggest developments in software during the past decade has been the growth of the open-source software movement. On the face of it, even the existence of such a movement seems bizarre: Why should large numbers of programmers around the world volunteer to spend hour after hour writing code or catching bugs without the hope of monetary gain?
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-201...html?tag=ch_mh
Intel tries open source for storage standard
Intel will share the source code for new storage technology in hopes that freely available technology will speed the adoption of new, less expensive storage networks. The chipmaker announced Monday that technology related to the Internet SCSI specification (iSCSI) is now available as open-source software.
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Online-ad industry group reinvents itself
With the online-advertising industry in disarray, its main representative body is doing some spring cleaning. The Internet Advertising Bureau unveiled a laundry list of changes to its outfit Tuesday, starting with a new name. The I in the IAB now stands for Interactive in an effort to "embrace all of the major digital interactive advertising platforms, including the Internet, wireless and interactive television," IAB Chairman Rich LeFurgy said in a statement.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh
Germany quashes Nazi-song trades online
German police have swooped down on the homes of more than 100 computer buffs in a new crackdown on the illegal trade of Nazi songs over the Internet, officials said Tuesday. The federal crime agency said the prosecutor's office in Bonn had opened 120 cases against computer enthusiasts accused of trading illegal songs of far-right "skinhead bands."
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College students would pay for Napster
About one in three students would be willing to pay for an online music subscription service such as the one proposed by file-swapping company Napster, according to a new report. The study, released Monday by Mercer Management Consulting and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, polled 1,800 college students on music listening habits.
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P2P start-up finds market groove
Groove Networks, the peer-to-peer company headed by Lotus Notes creator Ray Ozzie, hit the market Monday with the first full release of its software and an early list of blue-chip customers. The company, which revealed itself at the height of last year's Napster-driven peer-to-peer furor, creates software that allows people to share files stored on their personal computers and work together on projects.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh
NSA Takes the Open Source Route 
On January 2, the super-secretive National Security Agency did something unusual: It issued a press release. Stranger still, the statement actually contained important news: The NSA had developed a prototype of a more secure kernel for Linux, dubbed SELinux. And, in the spirit of open-source development, the agency would release the code to the public.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,42972,00.html
MP3.com Verdict Doesn't Add Up 
A jury that awarded $300,000 in damages to TVT Records on Friday later informed the judge that they miscalculated their award. Jury members contacted the presiding judge over the weekend and informed him they intended to give an award closer to $3 million, and admitted a mathematical error. Just 24 hours later, that elation turned to confusion. Somewhere between the jury deliberations and its final verdict, a zero got lost. Jurors said they intended the award to be much higher.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,42968,00.html
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