Microsoft buys SCO Unix licence

IP-wielding SCO has found a friendly ear with Microsoft, as it upsets the Linux community. Microsoft has obligingly agreed to license SCO's Unix patents and source code that lies at the heart of SCO's $1bn suit against IBM. Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft said that 'the announcement of this license is representative of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to respecting intellectual property (IP) and the IT community's healthy exchange of IP through licensing. ...more

BBC digs deeper into its archives

The BBC has opened up yet more of its archive material this week. For teachers, the BBC has launched the Open Schools Archive. Content here is divided into six categories, covering geography, history, nature, politics, places and audio resources. ...more

Windows Media 9 garners European support

Reality checks in for entertainment over IP. At this year's International Broadcasting Convention held in Amsterdam, Microsoft's Windows Media 9 Series technologies made a big splash. A number of broadcast companies showed their support for WM9, which claims to offer broadcast quality video streaming over IP using half the bit-rate of MPEG-4, and one third that of MPEG-2 codecs. ...more

Intel speeds up chips to 20GHz with tiny transistors

Intel has developed a tiny transistor that will allow processors to reach speeds of 20GHz, the company said this weekend. The new transistors measure only 0.02 microns in size whereas the smallest transistors used in chips today measure 0. ...more

Digital signatures to be given legal status

In a bid to push forward British e-commerce, the Cabinet Office has asked industry body E-Centre UK to look into legislation making documents signed digitally legally binding. Currently, the law requires documents to be physically signed or exchanged, but in July a European directive to give digital signatures the same legal status as written ones, gained Royal assent. E-Centre UK has been called in to sort out this conflict and change legislation concerning issues such as house buying, employment contracts and consumer credit. ...more