SCO says top corporate signs IP Linux licence

SCO has said that an unnamed company from the Fortune 500 list has signed up to its recently announced IP Licence for Linux. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but SCO says a licence has been purchased for each of the company's Linux servers. 'We've had more than 300 companies in the first four business days of this program contact SCO to inquire about SCO's Intellectual Property License for Linux,' said Chris Sontag, senior VP and general manager, SCOsource, SCO's software licensing division. ...more

Ofcom slams proposed EU broadcast video directive

The UK communications watchdog Ofcom has thrown its weight behind criticism of the move to regulate new video services over the Internet. A study carried out by RAND Europe and commissioned by Ofcom warns that Europe may miss out on new industries if it moves to regulate too soon. The European Commission is currently considering a new directive to member states that would extend regulation currently applied to TV to all 'video' services, defined as those whose principal purpose is the provision of moving images. ...more

Microsoft betas local search in the US

MSN in the US, has finally launched a Local Search service in a beta version. The lack of a local search has been seen as a gaping hole in the Microsoft search offering compared with those of its main rivals Google and Yahoo! Local Search provides city- and region-specific White Pages and Yellow Pages directory information. Following a search, the results page will detail businesses associated with the search - for example pizza parlours - alongside a map giving the locations of the business on a map provided by Microsoft MapPoint Web Service. ...more

UK leads the way in digital TV

The UK is leading Western Europe in digital TV according to researchers at Canalys. Figures show that Sky and Freeview are dragging the UK into the digital world. Sky's iron grip on sports has meant that consumers have little choice when it comes following their team on TV, while the BBC-sponsored Freeview has also shown massive growth. ...more

Sony boss Kutaragi blasts timid management for iPod dominance

The head of Sony's Computer Entertainment Division has hit out at the management of the company for becoming too timid to launch new products. Ken Kutaragi implied that the fear of piracy expressed by the Sony music and movie divisions held back the launch of Sony MP3 players which ended up handing the market to the likes of Apple. It was only last September that Sony abandoned its policy of building music players which only used its proprietory Atrac format and instead offering MP3-compatible devices. ...more