Roy Mark

Seven months ago, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates vowed to “help users be in control” over the rampant spyware infesting Windows systems. Today, Redmond followed through on its pledge by acquiring anti-spyware firm Giant Company Software. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Microsoft said it plans to launch a beta version of Giant’s […]

WASHINGTON — Airline passenger use of cell phones and broadband Internet connections took a small step toward reality today when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rolled out several new proposals for ground-to-air communications. The agency laid out proposed rules for auctioning 4MHz of spectrum in the 800MHz band for airline broadband service while opening another […]

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-2 today to phase out its controversial, eight-year plan to promote local telephone competition by forcing incumbent Bells to lease parts of their networks to competitors at below-market rates. The 1996 Telecommunications Act directs the FCC to draft and implement rules to force incumbents to unbundle network […]

A federal appeals court ruled today that a district court properly determined that Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the popular BlackBerry devices, infringed on the patents on NTP, but still sent the case back to the district court for further review of damages. The case has enormous implications for the Canada-based RIM , […]

IBM is forming a new joint venture with China Great Wall Computer to create a server manufacturing facility targeting the Asian market. The announcement comes just days after IBM agreed to sell its PC division to China’s Lenovo Group for $1.75 billion. As part of that deal, China Great Wall sold to Lenovo for an […]

The U.S. Supreme Court said today it would hear oral arguments in MGM vs. Grokster beginning in March 2005. The case weighs the merits of the contentious legal battle between music publishers and peer-to-peer (P2P) interests in a case that challenges the court’s landmark 1984 Sony Betamax decision. The music industry claims P2P companies, such […]

As its final act of 2004, the U.S. Senate late Wednesday night approved a telecommunications package that includes reopening the E-Rate financial pipeline and creating a federal agency spectrum relocation fund. Lawmakers also authorized matching grants for state E-911 program enhancements. In the wake of charges of fraud and abuse in the federal E-Rate program, […]

The second U.S. corporation this year copped a plea today to bid rigging in the nation’s troubled E-Rate program. Inter-Tel Technologies agreed to pay a total $8.71 million in criminal fines, civil settlement and restitution, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Launched in 1997, the E-Rate program helps schools and libraries connect to the Internet. […]

WASHINGTON — Security industry executives said today the Bush administration is not giving enough attention to increasing cyber attacks that they say are threatening the nation’s critical network infrastructure. At a downtown press conference organized by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA), officials from RSA Security, Citadel Security Software and Juniper Networks called upon Bush […]

The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it would determine if cable modem providers will have to share their fiber optic lines with other Internet service providers (ISPs). The case, which will probably be heard sometime this spring, could have a major impact on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) broadband policy. “High-speed Internet connections are not […]

WASHINGTON — President Bush signed into law a new four-year ban on state and federal taxation of Internet connections, legislation the industry said was needed to promote universal broadband. The latest version of the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act expands the original dial-up definition of access to include DSL, cable modems and wireless Internet connections. The […]

It appears Hollywood’s aim of rewriting the nation’s copyright and intellectual property laws will fall far short of its once ambitious goals of crippling peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, lowering the legal standards for copyright infringement and banning commercial-skipping technology. When the lame duck 108th Congress meets for the second time next week, the U.S. House of […]