Justice Department Studying Microsoft-Yahoo Venture

As the U.S. Justice Department reviews the proposed partnership, approval figures to hinge on this question: Will the online ad market be healthier if Google's dominance is challenged by a single, more muscular rival instead of two scrawnier foes? The first step toward getting an answer came this month when Microsoft and Yahoo filed paperwork with federal regulators to comply with the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, an antitrust law governing mergers and alliances between competitors.

  • Read the article: USA Today

  • Swedish Court Orders ISP to Block Access to Pirate Bay

    A Swedish district court has ordered an Internet service provider there to stop servicing The Pirate Bay. The most popular BitTorrent tracker in the world appeared to be inaccessible to many in the U.S. but the blog TorrentFreak reported that the site had found a new connection to the Web and there were reports from readers that they were able to log on to the site.

  • Read the article: CNET News

  • AT&T Tells FCC It Didn't Object to Google Voice App

    AT&T told federal regulators that it played no part in Apple's decision to keep the Google Voice application from the App Store, while Apple said it never actually rejected the application. In response to inquiries from the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T's Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, told the agency, "Let me state unequivocally: AT&T had no role in any decision by Apple to not accept the Google Voice application for inclusion in the Apple App Store."

  • Read the article: CNET News

  • China Jails Four for Illegal Copies of Windows XP

    A Chinese court has jailed four people for spreading their bootleg "Tomato Garden" version of Microsoft's Windows XP program, in what the Xinhua news agency called the nation's biggest software piracy case. Hong Lei, the creator of the downloadable "Tomato Garden Windows XP" software, was jailed for three and a half years on Thursday by a court in Suzhou in eastern China, Xinhua reported, citing local media.

  • Read the article: Reuters

  • Appeals Court Rules for Yahoo's Radio Service

    A federal appeals court in New York ruled that a Yahoo Internet radio service is not required to pay fees to copyright holders of songs it plays, a defeat for Sony's BMG Music. In a case closely watched by the recording industry, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2007 jury verdict that Launchcast, a webcasting service run by Yahoo's Launch Media Inc unit, did not give listeners enough control to be an "interactive service" that would require the fees.

  • Read the article: Reuters

  • Flickr Deletes Student's Image of Obama as the Joker

    After a Chicago student gained national fame for editing a picture of President Obama in the image of the Joker villain from "The Dark Knight" and posting it to Flickr, some of the focus, especially among the tech community, quickly shifted to Flickr for removing the image. On a site forum, Flickr, a Yahoo property, says it isn't banning accounts for posting the altered version of a Time magazine cover.

  • Read the article: Los Angeles Times

  • Apple, Palm Discussed Not Poaching Employees

    Former Palm Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan rejected a proposal from Apple Inc.'s Steve Jobs to refrain from hiring each other's employees two years ago, calling it wrong and "likely illegal," according to their communications. Colligan, who stepped down as CEO in June, discussed the matter with Jobs in August 2007, as the mobile-phone war heated up, according to the communications.

  • Read the article: Bloomberg

  • Europe Investigating Reports of Exploding iPod

    The European Commission said that it was examining the safety of Apple iPhones and iPods, after news reports said that several of the devices had exploded. Helen Kearns, a spokeswoman for Meglena Kuneva, the consumer protection commissioner, said Apple was cooperating with the commission in examining reports of problems with two iPhones in France and an iPod in Britain.

  • Read the article: The New York Times

  • Woman Charged with Cyberbullying Teen Girl

    A Missouri woman is accused of cyberbullying for allegedly posting photos and personal information of a teenage girl on the "Casual Encounters" section of Craigslist after an Internet argument. Prosecutors said 40-year-old Elizabeth A. Thrasher posted the 17-year-old's picture, e-mail address and cell phone number on the Web site in a posting that suggested the girl was seeking a sexual encounter.

  • Read the article: The Washington Post