Business

Moving to shut down alleged purveyors of spyware before a slew of legislation aimed at curbing the practice can become law, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has targeted a New Hampshire man it says ran a spyware and pop-up advertising ring. The FTC filed a complaint in federal court in New Hampshi...

Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates tomorrow will officially launch the latest version of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system, complete with extensions that play or record video, music and other media. The update to Windows XP Professional will offer users ...

Bidding to advance an emerging technology by putting widely supported standards into place, a coalition led by Microsoft, Intel and Sun Microsystems released specifications for using Web services to remotely manage far-flung data networks, handheld devices, PCs and servers. Known as WS-Management, t...

In lieu of facing a court judgment, Sun Microsystems has agreed to pay US$92 million to settle a long-running patent infringement case with Eastman Kodak. Now, observers are perusing the details to get a handle on what it means for the companies and the Internet. Kodak won the jury trial October 1 a...

For the second time this week, U.S. lawmakers have approved a bill aimed at stamping out the spread of spyware, malicious software that is installed onto the computers of unsuspecting users and can track their online activities. However, the flurry of activity might actually have a downside for thos...

One of the greatest challenges facing small businesses today is the acquisition of capital. In a previous article, "Finding Dollars for Small-Cap Companies," I explored the non-underwritten IPO as a source of capital for the small business. This article addresses two other sources of capital for the...

Following the lead of their American counterparts, the leading music industry groups in the UK and Europe have launched scores of private lawsuits against dozens of individuals they say illegally swapped copyrighted music. The British Phonographic Industry filed 28 lawsuits in Great Britain and the ...

Nowadays, e-mail and intranet are the most common methods of internal group communication for most companies. Specifically, many companies use mass e-mails and/or posting to their intranet to inform employees of a host of things, including changes to their employee benefit plans. An example would be...

In its first major search-related move since its blockbuster IPO, Google has launched a book-search tool designed to help publishers sell books online, a move some see as a challenge to dominant bookseller Amazon.com, which itself has made inroads into the Web-search industry with its A9.com subsidi...

E-commerce is causing a global turmoil in trade and competition. Those on the frontlines know exactly who is winning and who is losing. According to Reuters, Bill Gates said: "We have to go into the risky areas. That's what's going to allow the United States at the forefront." He further added, "We'...

A new tax rule for U.S. businesses that have moved software development, customer service, and research and development work to India was issued by the Finance Ministry of India (GOI) on September 28. The circular, titled "Circular 5/2004," replaces a circular issued by the Finance Ministry's Centra...

Microsoft is positioning itself to extend its reach from the personal computer to the living room by becoming the go-to company for digital movies and music within the next three years, the company's chief executive said. CEO Steve Ballmer said one of his goals for the company is to expand Microsoft...

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has ruled against Microsoft in its attempts to patent and license a technology that forms the basis of several of its software programs. Though Microsoft was granted a patent for file allocation tables, or FAT, in 1996, that patent was challenged earlier this yea...

If someone were to ask you, "What are the most important financial controls for a small business?" what would your answer be? This article looks at the minimum monitors that must be in place in order to protect and preserve the assets of a business. What you should aim to achieve is to have a system...

Microsoft formally asked a European court to toss out a requirement that it share expanded portions of the Windows source code, the opening salvo in what analysts say is shaping up to be another epic battle with antitrust regulators. In the first of what is slated to be a two-day hearing before the ...