Symantec to buy antispam company Brightmail

Antivirus firm Symantec is to acquire the leading antispam company Brightmail in a cash deal worth $370mn (?209m). The deal, which has yet to be approved by shareholders, is expected to complete in July. Symantec is already a strategic investor in the company, with roughly an 11 per cent stake in the company. ...more

US file sharers face five years in prison

The US is set pass a bill that puts a five year sentence on those making 1,000 or more copyrighted media files available for upload across peer-to-peer networks. The Piracy Deterrence and Education Act (PDEA) has been approved by the House Judiciary Committee, reports the Washington Post, putting the legislation up for debate to the full House in Congress. If passed into law, the terms would make those with 1,000 or more infringing files available on file-sharing networks liable to face prison terms of up to five years if done for financial gain - three years in other cases. ...more

Learning the MIT way

The internationally respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology is going to put nearly all its course materials online within the next ten years. The Web site for the project will be called MIT OpenCourseWare and it will carry lecture notes, course outlines, reading lists, and assignments. While many academic institutions, including MIT itself, are looking to the Internet as means of building revenue for distance learning, MIT is emphasising the altruistic motives behind this announcement. ...more

Acer aims to ship 10 million notebooks in 2006

Acer expects its notebook shipments to reach 10 million units in 2006, and the company claims it has a good chance to become the world's third largest vendor for the segment. Acer chairman JT Wang stated the company has raised its notebook shipment forecast for next year by 25 per cent from the original goal of 8 million units. Acer has already adjusted its notebook shipment goal for this year to seven million units, up from the original forecast of six million. ...more

Hercules brings ATI Radeon 9600 to the UK

Hercules has announced its 3D Prophet 9600 for the UK at ?120 ex VAT. The card features 256MB of 200MHz DDR memory and a 128bit memory interface. The GPU is clocked at 325MHz. ...more