Microsoft Corp. said Monday it has filed more than 50 lawsuits and other legal actions worldwide against people it says sold pirated copies of its software using online auction sites such as eBay.

The legal actions are the latest in a broad effort Microsoft has taken to curb widespread piracy of programs including the Windows operating system and Office suite. The moves come as Microsoft is seeing the market for its software become more saturated, leaving the company eager to add revenue by curbing illegal distribution.

Source: AP

MySpace.com on Monday said it had licensed a new technology to stop users from posting unauthorized copyrighted music on the social networking website and oust frequent violators of its policy.

The move comes amid pressure from major studios and record labels against popular online sites like MySpace and YouTube, which they accuse of infringing the copyrights of their artists’ music and videos.

MySpace, one of the most popular sites on the internet, licensed technology from privately-held Gracenote allowing it to review music recordings uploaded by community members to their profiles.

The technology compares those filed with Gracenote’s database of copyrighted material and can block uploads without proper rights. Terms of the licensing agreement were not disclosed.

Source: Wired News

Security researchers on Monday warned of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 that could allow malicious attackers to alter content in a legitimate Web site’s pop-up window.

The browser flaw could affect users who visit a trusted site by opening a pop-up window in that site but containing malicious code. This is the second IE 7 flaw that has been discovered since Microsoft released the browser two weeks ago. Last week, a security flaw was discovered in IE 7 that could spoof the address of a pop-up window.

The two IE 7 flaws, if used in conjunction with each other, can easily dupe all but the most security-minded users, said Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer of security company Secunia, which discovered the flaws.

Source: News.com

Alienware seem to have admitted threatening review sites with no future hardware unless positive reviews are written about their products. Hexus.net attempted to obtain a recent Alienware system and were rebuffed in an email claiming that their last review had scuppered the chances of them getting any hardware to review in the future. Follow-up emails confirmed this was part of Alienware’s global marketing strategy.

Source: Slashdot

Microsoft officially released Windows Media Player 11 and it is available for download from Microsoft’s web site.

Windows Media Player 11 is designed to work with all versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2, including Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N.

Former intelligence officer Robert David Steele recently appeared on the Alex Jones show to make the provocative claim that Google is currently cooperating with secret elements in the US government, including the CIA.

Steele, who now runs OSS.net and is a proponent of open source intelligence, said that “Google has made a very important strategic mistake in dealing with the secret elements of the U.S. government—that is a huge mistake and I’m hoping they’ll work their way out of it and basically cut that relationship off.” In his view, Google’s attempt earlier this year to avoid turning over information to the Department of Justice was little more than a hypocritical charade.

Source: arstechnica

A blogger discovered an apparent working prototype of a new product search tool that will replace Froogle and provide a radically new interface for Google Base.

The new tool, discovered by Garett Rogers, offers a series of refinement boxes for search queries including brand, condition, gender, and price. The results page also offers three formats to choose from: List View, Grid View, and Map View.

When you hover over a result in Grid View, the result is magnified.

Source: eWeek

Universal Music is slashing European download prices for some of its older albums, the first broad online cost-cutting move by any of the four major music companies.

The world’s largest seller of recorded music said on Monday that starting November 1 it would reduce the prices it charges online retailers for 1,500 albums ranging from The Who’s “Quadrophenia” to R.E.M.’s “Reckoning.”

The prices ultimately charged consumers will be determined by individual online services, Universal Music said, though a spokesman added that the response has been encouraging.

Broadly speaking, the albums in the programme, including ones from The Cure, Dusty Springfield and Buddy Holly, are expected to sell for about 6.99 euros ($8.89) and 5.49 pounds ($10.43), reduced from 9.99 euros ($12.70) and 7.99 pounds ($15.20), respectively.

Download pricing of singles, which has been a sticky subject between music companies and Apple Computer Inc. and its market leading iTunes music store, will not be affected.

Source: Yahoo

Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2007, financial management software designed for early startups and home-based businesses that currently use pen and calculator or spreadsheets to run their operations. Office Accounting Express 2007 consists of desktop software available as a free download and seven integrated online services.

“If you run a newly formed business, are an eBay seller, or still do your books in spreadsheets like Excel or on paper, you should download and use Office Accounting Express 2007,�? said Rajat Taneja, general manager of Microsoft Small Business Applications and Services. “The familiar look and feel of the Microsoft Office interface will help small-business owners more easily navigate their everyday financial tasks.�?

The Office Accounting Express 2007 software will be available for free while third-party integrated premium online services are available for additional fees. Together, the software and services will enable businesses to harness the power of the Internet to sell products online, send invoices and receive payments electronically, process payroll, run credit reports, work with their accountant, and more — all from within their accounting application.

The horror genre is hot, as indicated by current box office champ “Saw III,” and Comcast Corp. plans to capitalize on that popularity with Tuesday’s appropriately timed launch of its broadband and video-on-demand channel FEARnet.com.

Operating as a multiplatform network, FEARnet will offer movie and video content acquired from Sony and Lionsgate through VOD, Internet and mobile platforms. As its moniker suggests, FEARnet will be all spine-tingling suspense and gore, all the time, in an effort to reach the youthful horror-fan audience that has flocked to such movie franchises as Lionsgate’s “Saw” trilogy and Sony Pictures’ “Grudge” pair.

Source: Yahoo

After Samsung, Dell is the second major company that tells its customers that Vista may need more system memory than what Microsoft is listing in its system requirements. According to a report in the Seattle Post Intelligencer (SPI), chief executive officer Kevin Rollins promoted an upgrade to 2 GB.

Source: TG Daily

Sun Microsystems plans to release Java Standard Edition (SE) 6 at the end of this year and its sequel, Java SE 7 in early 2008.

That’s according to a road map Sun published in an interview with Jean Elliott, Sun’s director of Java SE marketing.

Source: News.com