Future of Apple's French iTunes store hangs in the balance

Apple could yet be forced to pull the French iTunes Music Store if the parliament in Paris approves a draft copyright law today. The French bill seeks to open up software content for multiple platforms, effectively imposing 'interoperability' on online music stores, reports the Financial Times. It would, for example, break the link between iPods and the iTMS. ...more

Microsoft acquires managed email security company

Microsoft has announced an agreement to acquire managed email security company FrontBridge. California-based FrontBridge is privately held, and financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal complements Microsoft's earlier acquisition of security company Sybari, meaning Microsoft can now go to the enterprise offering them both in-house and managed security solutions. ...more

Red Hat joins forces with Unisys to put Linux on servers

Red Hat has signed up Intel box builder Unisys as a partner. The deal will see the companies teaming up on marketing, support, training and contributing to the Open Source community. Unisys did not beging installing Linux on its high-end servers until last month when it began shipping its ES7000 servers running 32-bit and 64-bit Intel chips with Novell's SUSE Linux. ...more

VeriSign caves in to ICANN pressure

US registrar VeriSign has bowed to pressure from ICANN and removed the controversial redirection of non-existent .net. and . ...more

BT to widen 8Mbit trials from next month

BT is extending the reach of its 8Mbit broadband service next month. If successful, the trials will lead to a full roll out of an 8Mbit service across the BT network beginning in the spring of 2006. The company says that a broad roll out of an 8Mbit downstream speed will encourage a new wave of applications for its broadband service such as interactive gaming and video and music streaming as well as the more traditional email and surfing. ...more