Microsoft moves to open government Windows

Microsoft has announced a new Government Security Program (GSP) - an initiative to provide government bodies with controlled access to Windows source code. And it is not just the US government involved. Russia and NATO have already signed GSP agreements with Microsoft, and the company is in discussions with 20 other countries. ...more

DeCCS pirate in the dock

Teenage hacker Jon Lech Johansen is facing a jail term for writing a piece of code that unlocks the protection system on DVD discs. The 18-year-old Norwegian wrote the DeCSS code three years ago in order to watch DVDs on his Linux computer, but Hollywood studios took a dim view of it when online hacker magazine 2600.com published links to copies of the utility on a number of servers. ...more

FSF to tweak GPLv3 to bust up MS Novell deal

The Free Software Foundation, non-profit group that owns rights to much of the Linux operating system, says it will seek to undermine a controversial deal between Microsoft and Novell through a new software licensing agreement to be unveiled on Wednesday. The two companies announced a business partnership in November that included a cross-patent protection agreement that some critics say implies Microsoft has legal rights to Linux, the cooperatively developed software that is gaining ground with corporate users. 'We need to make sure such deals don't make a mockery of the goals of free software,' Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, said in an interview with Reuters late on Monday. ...more

Google fine tunes AdWord campaigns

Google is letting advertisers tweak their AdWord campaigns so they can run only at key times when they expect the greatest interest. The search giant has introduced what it calls ad scheduling, and advertisers can time their campaigns to run based on the time of day or day of the week. AdWords then ensures the campaigns are paused and resumed automatically. ...more

Windows Vista pricing petition gains more support

There is one month more until the end of the e-petition lobbying the government to investigate the international pricing discrepancies for Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows Vista. The e-petition, which was set up by disgruntled user Paul Milne has gained a great deal of support since it was launched last month, with 9,149 signatories to date. 'There is a huge difference in the price that people in the US and the UK are paying for Windows Vista the new Microsoft operating system,' says Milne's petition. ...more