Roy Mark

WASHINGTON — Microsoft announced Wednesday it is offering separate $250,000 rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the instigators of the destructive MSBlast and Sobig viruses. The bounties are part of a $5 million fund established by the software giant to fight off individuals releasing damaging worms, viruses and other types of […]

WASHINGTON — The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and two industry trade groups told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday the landmark anti-trust settlement between the Department of Justice and Microsoft has done nothing to remedy the monopolistic practices of the Redmond software giant. In what is considered the last stand of critics […]

Massachusetts gets another shot at Microsoft Tuesday morning when the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington hears oral arguments in the Bay State’s opposition to the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) landmark anti-trust settlement with Redmond. The original settlement, announced last year, prompted Massachusetts and 18 other states to sue for better terms. Microsoft subsequently settled […]

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-TN) said Friday a vote on extending or making permanent the Internet Access Tax Moratorium will not happen until at least late next week. The current temporary moratorium expires Saturday, but the ban has lapsed before for short periods without states taking any action. Further precluding any state action […]

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed 80 more copyright infringement suits lawsuits Thursday against alleged music file-swappers using peer-to-peer networks (P2P). Earlier this month, the RIAA sent notification letters to 204 people that they were about to be sued by the RIAA for “egregious” infringement, which the music trade group defines as distributing […]

Texas telecom Northpoint Technology, responding to accusations of influence peddling, says all of its affiliate agreements have expired and no undue influence has been exerted by the company. Northpoint, which has developed a technology known as Video Distribution and Data Service (MVDDS), is seeking legislative help in overturning a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling requiring […]

WASHINGTON — This is a story about Washington power politics, a debate where facts are obscured by overheated, overblown rhetoric, finely spun by deep-pocketed, well-connected interests — in other words, just another day in your nation’s capital. Depending on whom you believe, it’s about influence-peddling, richer-than-Bill Gates Texans shamelessly manipulating the system at the expense, […]

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher (D.-Va.), a longtime champion of fair use rights, said Thursday the Copyright Office’s ruling earlier this week denying consumers the right to make “fair use” copies of digitally recorded material except in very narrowly defined cases, was a “misguided decision.” On Tuesday, the Copyright Office announced four classes of work that […]

WASHINGTON — The head of the major trade association representing alcohol wholesalers told a Congressional subcommittee Thursday that a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff report supporting online wine sales was flawed and a “triumph of rhetoric over reason.” The July report concluded that wine is a “good example of how the Internet can permit fundamentally […]

In the last eight years, Internet access in U.S. public schools has grown from 3 percent to 99 percent, but the digital divide still exists in homes with 41 percent of blacks and Hispanics using a computer at home compared to 77 percent of whites, according to two reports released Wednesday by the Department of […]

Controversial DVD back-up, recovery and creation software developer 321 Studios said Wednesday it would go to federal court to appeal a Library of Congress (LOC) ruling that keeps the St. Louis-based company’s products illegal under the infringement provisions of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The company also vowed to continue to sell its […]

VeriSign said Tuesday it was enhancing the PKI services it provides for defense contractors under the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Interim External Certificate Authority (IECA) program. The IECA certificates allow external contractors and organizations to securely access DoD Web sites, exchange secure mail with the DoD, and digitally sign documents and electronic forms. The […]