Business

In a boon for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today ruled as expected to bar states from imposing telecommunications regulations on Internet phone providers. "This landmark order recognizes a revolution has occurred," FCC Chairman Michael Po...

In just the latest example of a technology company aggressively protecting its intellectual property, Toshiba has filed lawsuits alleging that Hynix memory chips violate Toshiba patents. Japan's Toshiba filed suits in Tokyo and in U.S. District Court in Texas charging patent infringement. The Japane...

The information technology (IT) industry in Pakistan faces challenges that need to be understood by everyone preparing to send or receive IT services from that country. Restrictions on funds transfers from the U.S. to Pakistan, implemented after 9/11, are causing problems for firms in Pakistan that ...

In one of the largest instances to date of widespread big-rigging on auction site eBay, eight sellers have been ordered to pay US$90,000 in fines and restitution after admitting to engaging in practices that artificially drove up the prices of their auctions. The sellers began to pay restitution to ...

Microsoft has agreed to pay Novell US$536 million to settle a long-simmer private antitrust claim over its NetWare operating system, a deal that also calls for Novell to withdraw from the European antitrust proceedings against Microsoft. Microsoft said the deal, which came about after lengthy privat...

Amazon.com, the owner of the "1-Click Shopping" patent, is no stranger to either side of patent infringement battles. Now it finds itself in yet another dispute, this one against Cendant Publishing. Cendant filed suit in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., Oct. 29 against the e-commerce giant c...

In a move to cash in on a booming market for local business searches, SBC Communications and BellSouth plan to acquire YellowPages.com. Together, SBC and BellSouth plan to develop a comprehensive, nationwide online business index that leverages the Yellow Pages brand name. The acquisition will combi...

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) -- following in the footsteps of its recording industry counterpart, the RIAA -- announced today its intent to file a series of lawsuits aimed at stopping the sharing of films over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. The MPAA claims to lose more than US$3 mi...

Joining forces in the hope of advancing a strategy both companies have been plotting for some time, Microsoft and Intel have said they will work together to promote cutting edge digital home entertainment options. Dubbing the effort "Digital Joy," the companies said they would launch a television, p...

Just over a week after Apple launched its much anticipated photo iPod -- without video capability -- Nokia has announced a smart phone that streams and records video. "Smart phones are now at the heart of the industry," said Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president and general manager of Nokia's mult...

The Source Code Club is back in business, if you can call it that. The anonymous hacker group began peddling proprietary source code last July, disappeared, and now has reemerged with a bargain basement deal of US$24,000 for the source code for Cisco's Pix security firewall. "SCC is proud to announc...

An "information age undercover investigation" led by the U.S. Secret Service has arrested 28 individuals in eight states and six foreign countries who were accused of being involved in a global cyber organized-crime network. Charges against the suspects include identity theft, computer fraud, credit...

Verizon Wireless and Nextel Communications announced yesterday that they have agreed to dismiss their pending lawsuits against each other. As part of the settlement, Verizon will drop its opposition to a July ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that awarded a valuable radio-wave spectrum...

Hundreds of separate instances of electronic voting problems were reported in the U.S. during yesterday's elections, enough to give critics of e-voting ammunition for their continued battle against its use, but not nearly enough to affect the outcome of the election, as some had feared. In a press c...

Intel, responding to market demand for ever-faster computers -- and the recent introduction of new 64-bit processors from competitor AMD -- plans to introduce a new Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (P4 EE) processor in mid-November. The P4 EE will be enabled by Intel's new 925XE Express chipset, which the ...