InternetNews Staff

U.S. digital media company RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK) swung back into the black in the third quarter as cost-cutting offset sliding revenue from music and games. RealNetworks, which delivers music and other entertainment content to computers and mobile devices, saw a meager net profit of $1.5 million — a gain of less than 1 cent per […]

Britain is to push ahead with a law to clamp down on illegal file sharing, that would start with a series of warning letters and could result in repeat offenders losing their Internet connection. The proposals, which were set out by Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, have followed a high-profile campaign from artists such as Lily […]

Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn raise “serious new challenges” for financial regulators, the head of the largest U.S. independent securities regulator said on Tuesday. Wall Street bankers and analysts increasingly want to use social networking to connect and interact with customers, Richard Ketchum, the chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) […]

Barry Diller may be about to hang a ‘for sale’ on Ask.com, saying on Tuesday that his search advertising business could be open to a takeover given the competition it faces from Google Inc and Yahoo Inc. Diller, known for his deal making in the media business, made the comments in a conference call to […]

Lenovo, the Chinese PC vendor that purchased IBM’s PC business in 2003, is making a big consumer push behind Windows 7 with six new PCs in its ‘Idea’ line of products. Idea is to consumer what Think – notably the ThinkPad – is to business products. While the official launch of Windows 7 was last […]

Sony (NYSE: SNE) said on Monday that its U.S. optical disc drive operations are under investigation for possible violations of antitrust regulations, and indicated that other regulators could follow suit. Sony Optiarc America, which supplies a lineup of optical disc drives, including those for DVDs, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs and Blu-ray discs, has received a subpoena from […]

Developing countries risk missing out on the benefits of information technology because of their lack of broadband infrastructure, a U.N. agency said. Lack of broadband Internet access deprives countries of the possibility of building up offshoring industries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report late on Thursday. It also […]

The skies just got a little friendlier. Thanks to a partnership between Google and Virgin America airlines, free Wi-Fi will be available in-flight on every Virgin America flight serving certain destinations on both coasts between November 10, 2009 and January 15, 2010. For a map of the cities served by free Wi-Fi Virgin flights, click here. […]

U.S. antitrust regulators are moving toward filing a complaint against Intel Corp after the European Union fined the world’s biggest chipmaker $1.45 billion for engaging in anticompetitive practices, sources said. Three of the four commissioners on the Federal Trade Commission, which opened a formal inquiry in June 2008, are in favor of filing a complaint […]

Apple faces the possibility of having to pay the world’s top mobile phone maker Nokia up to $1 billion for the technologies used in iPhones sold so far if it loses a lawsuit brought by Nokia, analysts said. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) filed the suit in the United States Thursday, saying Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) had infringed […]

A group representing authors in China has accused Google of violating copyrights with its digital library, a claim that Google denies by saying the service complies with international law. Many major publishers and authors have taken up lawsuits against Google for its digitization of their works, accusing Google of copyright infringement. Google has already digitized […]

The European Union told Oracle on Wednesday that it has failed to produce hard evidence to placate concerns that its purchase of Sun Microsystems Inc (NASDAQ: JAVA) would hurt competition. The comments by EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes suggested that Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) would not win approval for the $7 billion acquisition any time soon, […]