If you still haven't had enough WSIS for one day, here's more: WSIS received a huge amount of coverage, albeit only on one or two aspects, as reported elsewhere in this issue. Here are a random sampling of other news and views. The first is an example of the dour predictions that the brinksmanship of both sides in the Internet Governance debate inspired, while the second reports on the (ultimately successful) last-minute efforts to break the impasse. The third is included as a cautionary example of where things could head if people some day don't agree on the root zone. The next pairing of viewpoints matches the sunny press release issued by WSIS-host ITU on the opening festivities, which does not address all of the grumbling (and worse) that surrounded the deal worked on the eve of the Summit regarding ICANN – a topic that is the subject of the second article. The penultimate item selected from the hundreds available has the merit of beginning with what may be the most memorable line of journalism to be inspired by the Tunis Summit. But better to close on a high note than a low one: the last article reports on everyone reporters favorite WSIS Moment: Nicholas Negroponte's unveiling of the $100 windup laptop. |
France: Internet summit likely to get nowhere
Reuters, November 11, 2005 -- The United States will not heed requests by the European Union and other countries to accept a multinational approach to running the Internet, a French government official said Thursday.... An international summit next week on how the Internet should be run was likely to end in stalemate, the official said. ...Full Story
Last-minute negotiations aim to save summit
SwissInfo, November 13, 2005 -- Unresolved squabbling at the final preparatory meeting in Geneva before the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has forced two sets of extra talks. It is hoped that an intersessional gathering in Geneva and a so-called Resumed PrepCom-3 immediately before this month's summit in Tunis will resolve key stumbling blocks.Like the first phase of WSIS in Geneva in 2003, PrepCom-3 came to an unsatisfactory end on September 30 with serious divisions between main players and no clear solution in sight. ...Full Story
Dutch tech firm wants to rid the Web of the .com
CNETNews.com, November 27, 2005 -- Dutch technology company has breathed life into a project to rid the Internet of suffixes such as .com, and instead offer single names which can be countries, company names or fantasy words. Such a system, which enables countries, individuals and firms to have a Web address consisting of a single name, offers flexibility and is language and character independent. "The plan is to offer names in any character set," said Erik Seeboldt, managing director of Amsterdam-based UnifiedRoot. ...Full Story
The "Summit of Solutions" opens on a high note
ITU WSIS site, November 17, 2005 -- The World Summit on the Information Society opened this morning with Tunisia’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali welcoming participants to Tunis-Carthage, ancient city of dialogue, for the purpose of building a society that offers equal opportunities to all to benefit from the advantages of information and communication technologies....The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, reminded participants that their task in Tunis was "to move from diagnosis to deeds," and that above all, that the summit "must generate new momentum towards developing economies and societies of poor countries, and transforming the lives of poor people." Mr Annan offered a definition of what the Information Society should represent. It should be a society "in which human capacity is expanded, built up, nourished and liberated, giving people access to the tools and technologies they need, with the education and training to use them effectively." The hurdle here, he said, is more political than financial. "The costs of connectivity, computers and mobile telephones can be brought down. These assets — these bridges to a better life — can be made universally affordable and accessible. We must summon the will to do it." ...Full Story
NGOs disappointed with internet accord
swissinfo, November 17, 2005 -- Civil society groups in Tunis are disappointed with the decision to leave control of the internet in the hands of the United States. Under a compromise reached on the eve of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), a California-based organisation will remain in charge of the web. Icann, the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, was set up by the US Department of Commerce in 1998 to take over a number of internet-related tasks including managing the assignment of domain names. ...Full Story
The world doesn't get it - no one 'owns' the internet
By: John Naughton
The Observer, November 20, 2005 -- There is something about United Nations summits that makes one lose the will to live. All that fly-blown cant about Declarations of Principles and Plans of Action. All those delegates from countries of which one has never previously heard, unable to believe their luck at getting abroad on expenses and determined to make a speech to justify them. All those corporate sleazeballs, circling the delegations like flies round dung-heaps, hoping for Heads of Agreement and laying the groundwork for contracts, not to mention the associated kickbacks generally required to do business in parts of the world where dysentery is an occupational hazard. ...Full Story
No Mac OS X on $100 laptops
Macsimum News, November 15, 2005 -- The open standards of Mac OS X “have been trounced by open source software in a project to develop a $100 computer to help bridge the digital divide,” reports Macworld UK. An organization called One Laptop Per Child is developing the machines to bridge the gap between the developed and the developing world. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Steve Jobs offered to furnish the project with free copies of Mac OS X for each machine, but the project team elected to choose open source rather than proprietary solutions. ...Full Story
Intellectual Property Issues
What was once a fear has now gone [November 24, 2005] |
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OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen, on the potential for an infringement suit against Linux...Full Story |
Patent, patent, who's got the patent? The focus on innovative solutions for patent problems in the context of open standards in general, and open source software in particular, has been multiplying lately, and has doubtless not yet reached an end state of creativity. A number of tools and interim solutions have been launched recently, from unilateral assertions, to group commitments, to databases that can be readily searched on line. The following articles provide an overview. |
Saving Linux from the lawyers
By: Graeme Waerden
ZDNet Australia November 24, 2005 -- Concern has grown over the past year that Linux could be under legal threat from claims it infringes certain software patents. No court cases have been filed, but the issue is serious enough that several companies have pledged not to use their patent portfolios against the open source operating system. Some activists have claimed that the whole concept of patent pledges is misguided. ZDNet Australia sister site ZDNet UK spoke with OSDL Chief Executive Stuart Cohen to understand the wider aims of the project. ...Full Story
OSDL opens online patent commons reference library
By: China Martens
InfoWorld, November 15, 2005 -- Open Source Development Labs Inc. (OSDL) is to launch its online patent commons reference library Tuesday. The group hopes it will give users more confidence about using open-source software by allaying some concerns about the possibility of patent litigation. The library which will consist of five interlinked databases forms the basis of the Patents Commons Project, the Linux development consortium first announced back in August. ...Full Story
Software & Patents – "Open Invention Network" Formed to Buy Linux-Related Patents
Open Source Magazine, November 13, 2005 -- Aiming to head off any perceived intellectual property risk associated with Linux and open source, IBM, Philips, Sony, Red Hat, and Novell have formed the Open Invention Network (OIN) to buy Linux-related patents from holders and create a pool of intellectual property that it then can license out – without charge – to others. Gerald Rosenthal former Vice President Intellectual Property & Licensing at IBM, will head up the new nonprofit company. Its initial assets, according to a Reuters report, will include patents purchased for $15.5 million by Novell from Commerce One Inc. "Open collaboration is critical for driving innovation, which fuels global economic growth," said Rosenthal. ...Full Story
Semantic Web
They're still at it: The W3C continues in its effort to build out the Semantic Web and populate it with useful projects. This month, it announced two new initiatives, one intended to address the infrastructure of the Semantic Web itself (the first item below), and one to help people use it (the second item). But the W3C isn't alone in this effort – the third article below describes a third new initiative, this one launched within OASIS. |
Next Leg For W3C, Semantic Web
By: Clint Boulton
InternetNews.com November 8, 2005 -- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has formed the Rule Interchange Format (RIF) working group with the job of standardizing the rules that propel data across the Web, regardless of format. Rules are a cornerstone of the Semantic Web, the idea that the Internet can be tapped for information as though it was one, giant database. RIF will provide a way to allow rules written for one application to be published, shared, merged and re-used in other applications and by other rule engines. ...Full Story
W3C Launches Group Linking Medical Industry with Semantic Web
Business Wire, November 23, 2005 -- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is launching a new interest Group to connect medical industry verticals with Semantic Web experts in an effort to improve collaboration, research and development, and innovation adoption in the health care and life science industries. The first of its kind for W3C, the Semantic Web for Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG) deploys standardized Semantic Web specifications into specific services defined by a user community. ...Full Story
ObjectWeb and Chinese consortium agree to collaborate
CBR Online, November 9, 2005 -- In an agreement announced late last week, two consortia representing European and Chinese open source constituencies have said they intend to converge middleware technologies. AdvertisementObjectWeb, best known for the JOnAS Java appserver, JORAM JMS, and more recently, the Celtix ESB (enterprise service bus) projects, has signed an agreement with OrientWare, a group representing several leading Chinese university research labs and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, to build common open source middleware components. Until now, both organizations were active in Java appserver, CORBA, and web services bus technology development. According to Jean Pierre Laisne, chairman of ObjectWeb, the goal is to eventually merge the technology bases. ...Full Story
New OASIS Committee Organizes to Provide Semantic Foundation for SOA
BusinessWire, Boston, MA, November 2, 2005 -- Members of the OASIS international standards consortium have formed a committee to define an architecture to incorporate the application of semantics into service-oriented systems, providing intelligent mechanisms for consuming Semantic Web services. The new OASIS Semantic Execution Environment (SEE) Technical Committee will develop guidelines, justifications, and implementation directions for an execution environment for Semantic Web services. "The technology of Semantic Web services envisions easy access to various systems and facilitates the consumption of the functionality exposed by these systems on the Web," explained senior Ovum analyst, Bola Rotibi. ...Full Story
New Consortia
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Consortium futures trend upwards: This years rate of new-consortium formation has been noticeably lower than over the last two years – a trend that was reversed in recent weeks as a healthy crop of new organizations was launched in the areas of mobile Linux, security and processors. |
Consortium tackles Linux mobile phone standards
LinuxDevices.com, November 14, 2005 -- Eleven companies today launched a cross-industry consortium chartered to turn embedded Linux into a plug-and-play mobile phone platform comparable to Microsoft's Windows Mobile Smartphone OS, but with greater flexibility and lower costs. The LiPS (Linux Phone Standard) Forum intends to help make Linux a more standardized, interoperable mobile phone OS. Compared to commercial mobile phone stacks from Microsoft and Symbian, embedded Linux is generally considered to be more flexible, but less complete. ...Full Story
Vendors Forge Web Services Security Group
By: Clint Boulton
InternetNews.com, October 27, 2005 -- UPDATED: Purveyors of Web services are so concerned with security that they have formed a technical committee to improve the work of the WS-Security standard created by OASIS. Microsoft, IBM, BEA Systems and other top software makers will lead Web Services Secure Exchange (WS-SX), a group to improve the way users safely exchange SOAP (define) messages for Web services transactions. WS-SX will also define security policies for those messages. WS-SX is meant to build upon specs for WS-SecurityPolicy (WS-SP), WS-Trust and WS-SecureConversation (WS-SC). ...Full Story
The Multicore Association Prepares ForOfficial Launch on Nov. 30
Press Release, November 24, 2005 -- A new industry group that aims to provide a neutral forum where vendors in the multiple-core processor space can work out standards for inter-processor communications, debug, and other common technology hurdles in multi-core implementations will be discussing its official formation during a meeting in Santa Clara, Calif., on Nov. 30. Being organized as The Multicore Association™, the new group is an outgrowth of meetings among chip vendors, semiconductor IP providers, as well as RTOS, compiler, and development-tool vendors that have been ongoing since May. Its focus will be on nonproprietary implementations where products from multiple vendors must work together.On the agenda for Nov. 30 will be discussions in three workgroups that have already formed around the issues of the multitasking and communication API, the debug API, and the Transparent Inter Process Communication (TIPC) protocol. ...Full Story
Open Source
Europe and open source on 8 screens a day: It would appear that the maximum attention span of someone reading news on the Web is measured more in seconds than minutes, given that the most typical length of an on-line news article is one screen, and three screens is a treatise. This article is therefore a pleasant surprise: while still hardly a true treatise, it does dedicate a full 8 screens to briefly profiling the national (and in one case regional) attitudes of a variety of countries on open source: US, UK, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, and Poland/Eastern Europe, giving a quick case study of a current OS major project for each. |
Europe and the US philosophically divided on open source?
By: Ingrid Marson
ZDNet.com.UK November 10, 2005 -- Open Source in Government: Some governments have embraced the potential of open source, while others seem culturally opposed to the whole concept.... A good look at how different states in Europe have approached open source, compared with the historically technically advanced US, reveals that "getting the facts" isn't as straightforward as some companies would have us believe. ...Full Story
Open Document
It's a tactical move by Microsoft to give its proprietary document formats a glimmer of openness [November 23, 2005] |
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Ovum Research Director Gary Barnett...Full Story |
Downloadable to a computer near you: Our September issue was dedicated to the adoption of the OASIS OpenDocument format by Massachusetts, but what we covered then was only the beginning of the sage. New twists and turns have continued to occur on an almost daily basis, with each raising the stakes from the last. The following are only a sampling of the articles you can find at the OpenDocument subcategory heading at the ConsortiumInfo.org News Portal. For much more information, visit the Standards Blog , where commentary, links and more on the OpenDocument saga are added on a daily basis. |
Senators question file-storage shift
By: Hiawatha Bray
The Boston Globe, October 30, 2005 -- Massachusetts lawmakers are questioning an effort by the Romney administration that could jettison Microsoft's popular Office software from thousands of state computers. At issue is how the state government stores the millions of digital documents and other public records it creates. The Romney administration wants documents stored in a particular format that would allow the records to be read by a variety of software packages -- except Microsoft Office. ...Full Story
IBM, Sun team up to support OpenDocument
By: Elizabeth Montalbano
IDG News Service, November 3, 2005 -- IBM and Sun Microsystems will host a private meeting Friday to rally industry support for OpenDocument, a specification for standardizing documents that proponents hope will spur adoption of software that competes with Microsoft's Office productivity suite. The meeting, which will be held at the IBM Learning Center in Armonk, New York, is aimed at discussing with other technology companies ways to advance the adoption of OpenDocument, said Todd Martin, an IBM spokesman, on Wednesday. ...Full Story
Massachusetts senate bill challenges OpenDocument plan
By: Matthew Aslett
Computer Business Review Online, November 6, 2005 -- The Massachusetts Information Technology Division's decision in early September to adopt OpenDocument 1.0 as the standard for all office documents by January 2007 was seen at the time as a significant victory for open standards, and potentially open source software. But it could end up costing the ITD some of its decision-making power following a last-minute amendment to the Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee's proposed Commonwealth Investment Act. The bill contains the amendment that would create a seven-member information technology expert task force made up of political appointees to approve all state IT policies, standards, and procurement. ...Full Story
Mass. reference model controversy over open formats
By: Joab Jackson
Government Computer News/GCN.com, November 13, 2005 -- Since its release last September, a technical reference model issued by Massachusetts has sparked considerable debate within the government technology community—and beyond. At stake is the issue of how active a role public offices should take in fostering open standards. Should an agency adopt a new open format—one that would better suit its goals but may prove more difficult to deploy and manage? Or should agencies follow the best practices of the commercial IT industry, taking full advantage of cost efficiencies and new features that may follow? ...Full Story
Mass. Governor Supports OpenDoc Policy
By: Paula Rooney
CRN/InformationWeek, November 17, 2005 -- Governor Mitt Romney sees OpenDoc as a good policy that is essential to ensuring citizens have free access to government documents in the future, but he distanced himself from the policy's genesis. He gave credit for the idea to Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn and the Secretary of Administration and Finance. ...Full Story
First beta of Office 12 released
By: Clive Akass
ComputerActive, November 20, 2005 -- Microsoft has released the first beta version of Office 12, which will introduce the biggest changes to the world's most-used applications for a decade. The 'technical' beta will be available only to certain big customers, but a general release is expected early in 2006....However Microsoft has so far said filters to allow legacy software to use the new formats will be available only for more recent versions. It seems that this does not include Word 97, for instance. This could cause confusion in organisations with thousands of computers, some of them IT antiques. A more long-term, and fundamental, question about the new formats is whether they can or should qualify as a standard for cross-platform information exchange. There are calls, including one from the EC, for international agreement on standard formats that are not controlled by one company. ...Full Story
Microsoft 'open' format move met with scepticism
By: Ingrid Marson
UK.Builder.com, November 23, 2005 -- While some have applauded Microsoft's move to Office Open XML, others have questioned the software giant's motives Industry observers have expressed concern about Microsoft's decision to submit the file formats for its new Office 12 applications to ECMA International, a European standards body....But Gary Barnett, a research director at analyst firm Ovum, said on Tuesday he doubted that the move would result in the format becoming "truly open". ...Full Story
Open debate flares: Sun says Microsoft vows can’t stand the light
By: Jesse Noyes
[Boston]Herald.com, November 24, 2005 -- A key Microsoft competitor urged caution yesterday as Gov. Mitt Romney’s administration warmed up to the software giant after its recent announcement that it would take steps toward opening up its latest Office program to a standardized format.... “We’re pleased that Microsoft has moved in this direction,” said Secretary of Administration and Finance Thomas Trimarco.... “We’re very pleased with the finance secretary’s positive comments,” Alan Yates, general manager of Microsoft’s office division, said in a statement....“I’m not seeing anyone asking the questions. I see people taking . . . Microsoft’s announcement at face value" said Sun Chief Open Source Officer Simon Phipps. ...Full Story
From the Outside Looking In: Analysts, Developers on Microsoft, Open Standards
By: Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols and Mary Jo Foley
eWeek.com, November 24, 2005 -- Is Microsoft embracing open standards or strangling it with its proposed open XML Office standards? It all depends on who you ask. If you believe Jean Paoli, co-inventor of XML and a Microsoft senior developer, Microsoft hopes "to create an open standard that will enable customers, technology providers and developers around the globe to work with the Office Open XML formats without barriers, with or without Microsoft products." Many, though, like Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst for Jupiter Media, are taking "a wait-and-see approach on Microsoft's announcement, because of past XML-based format shenanigans, where Microsoft: got behind XML, but restricted usefulness to most users; claimed to open up XML schemas, when less was the case; and touted its new Office 12 formats as XML—they're XML-based—and open—which they are not." ...Full Story
Standards and Society
Providing health care providers and patients with clear, concise information about their prescriptions will help ensure safe use of drugs and better health outcomes [November 8, 2005] |
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Health & Human Servs. Sec. Mike Leavitt, announcing that the FDA will now require electronic prescription submission using SPL...Full Story |
Creating a MedWeb: The following article describes a joint effort by health standards developer HL7, industry and government to create semantic tools that will make prescription information both human as well as machine readable, thereby fulfilling multiple functions: first, the schema meets U.S. regulatory requirements, as well as being compatible with those of other governments. Second, because the data is machine readable, data entered can be more easily used for other current and future purposes. And finally, the standard is not specific to drugs, but can be expanded in the future to be useful in connection with other health-related needs. To learn more about SPL, see the CoverPages entry on that topic. The second article also addresses health standards, which the government has decided must be created under the more regulated process controls of the accredited standards developer process. |
FDA to drug makers: Submit labels electronically
By: Linda Rosencrance
IDG News, November 8, 2005 -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now requiring drug manufacturers to submit prescription drug labels electronically....Drug manufacturers, technologists and the FDA worked together to develop the SPL standard [upon which the system relies], according to FDA spokeswoman Karen Mahoney....As the FDA receives the SPL-formatted labeling information, it will become available, free of charge, via the Web ...Full Story
Medicare E-prescribing Rule to Require Standards from ANSI-accredited SDOs
ANSI.org, November 18, 2005 -- The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a final rule governing the adoption of standards for an electronic prescription drug program under the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). The final rule issued in a November 7 Federal Register notice requires that standards for certain electronic prescriptions be developed by standards development organizations accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). CMS supported its reasoning in the February 4 proposed rule stating that “the ANSI accreditation process is open and based upon consensus, so accredited standards are more likely to adequately address, and effectively respond to, industry needs.” ...Full Story
Wireless
We are proud that our licensing program has enabled many new entrants to design innovative wireless devices and compete in the 3G marketplace [November 6, 2005] |
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Qualcomm CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, denying allegations made to the EC...Full Story |
The wireless news just keeps on coming: Standards news relating to new technologies, like the product news that it enables, tends to describe a bell curve. As the technology begins to take hold, the number of news items takes off, eventually dropping down to an ongoing plateau as the technology moves into a more mature state. Web services standards news is now heading towards that plateau, but wireless news is still ramping up, as demonstrated by the following selection of stories from the past month. |
Wi-fi standard: rivals in looming showdown
By: Ephraim Schwartz
ComputerWorld, November 20, 2005 -- Battle lines are being drawn over the forthcoming WLAN standard IEEE 802.11n, which promises speeds of 100Mbit/s-plus and increased range.... Despite the apparent schism, there seems to be some movement towards reconciliation among the warring parties. The EWC has met with some of the IEEE working group companies and, as a result, will resubmit a spec that addresses some of their concerns. The splintering among the usually single-minded wi-fi industry players has prompted Gartner to warn customers to wait before buying 802.11m gear. ...Full Story
Forget the 802.11n standards war: buy MIMO
By: Craig Mathias
TechWorld, November 6, 2005 -- There is one great truth in anything high tech - faster is always better. Which is why customers are eagerly anticipating 802.11n wireless LAN products that promise greater throughput, not to mention greater range and reliability, than today's 801.11a/b/g/ products. But if you're looking to buy standards-based, Wi-Fi Alliance approved, enterprise-ready 802.11n Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) gear, you'll will have to wait while competing vendor groups hash out their differences. ...Full Story
OPNET Launches WiMAX Model Development Consortium; Motorola Joins as Founding Member
Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine, October 30, 2005 -- OPNET Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPNT), a provider of management software for networks and applications, announced the formation of a model development consortium focused on the new WiMAX (802.16) communications standard. WiMAX is a wireless network technology that is expected to compete with DSL, cable, and T1 for delivering broadband Internet access to businesses and homes. The consortium is led by OPNET and includes representatives from several leading technology companies, with Motorola participating as a Founding Member. ...Full Story
Story Updates
If somebody robs the same bank you do, are you still guilty? The tangled tale of Rambus is about to take another twist this week as Rambus seeks to gain access to documents that it claims will prove that it was the victim of a price fixing conspiracy. There's no question that there was misconduct among several SDRAM companies, since they've already been hit with enormous fines for their deeds. What Rambus wants to show, however, is that their misconduct should excuse its own actions, which remain the subject of an FTC proceeding. According to an opposition filed by the FTC in an attempt to prevent Rambus from gaining access to the documents it seeks, however, the chip technology company's efforts are simply an attempt to "deflect attention from its own conduct by blaming third parties." In other Rambus news, the second item below reports that Rambus has won a skirmish in its litigation with Samsung. And the final item relates to Infineon – for many years the company in the leading litigation with Rambus – has decided to exit the market where it all began –DRAM chips. |
Rambus and a Price-Fixing Tale
By: Arik Hesseldahl
BusinessWeek.com October 30, 2005 -- It's a matter of public record that at least three companies participated in a global conspiracy to manipulate the prices of computer memory chips. The U.S. Justice Dept. settled the issue by handing down more than $600 million in fines against the businesses. What isn't known, though, is why they did it. And Rambus, a designer of chip technology, is intent on finding out. Rambus on Oct. 31 will urge a California Superior Court in San Francisco to release documents it says will help in that pursuit. ...Full Story
Samsung's Suit Against Rambus Dismissed in Virginia (Update2)
Bloomberg.com, November 8, 2005 -- A judge in Virginia threw out Samsung Electronics Co.'s lawsuit over four patents against the computer chip designer Rambus Inc., allowing Rambus to focus its legal strategy on cases in California. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne in Richmond, Virginia, today granted Rambus's request to dismiss the suit after Rambus said it no longer planned to seek royalties from Samsung for the patents. Rambus's action removes the litigation from Payne's court, where the company in March lost a key ruling over the same patents against Infineon Technologies AG. ...Full Story
Infineon throws in the DRAM towel
By: Chris Mellor
Techworld, November 15, 2005 -- Infineon is getting out of the DRAM business. According to a EE Times report using Reuters information Infineon will sell its DRAM facilities to Micron and Nanya Technology. Micron would buy the US facility and Nanya the non-US ones. In August this year it was reported that Infineon was to supply DRAM components to Microsoft for its XBox games console. Assurances must have been given to Microsoft about continuity of supply and Micron is probably the inheritor of that contract. ...Full Story
Another old friend heard from: Rambus wasn't the only long-running serial with new developments this month. The hoary Eolas case that threatens Web browsers also continues to rattle around the court system. The skirmish this time around went to Eolas, when the Supreme Court declined to hear a plea from Microsoft on the damages element of the case. |
Supreme Court rejects Microsoft appeal in Eolas case
By: Robert McMillan
InfoWorld.com November 3, 2005 -- The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear a Microsoft Corp. appeal in the software company's ongoing Web browsing patent dispute with the University of California and Eolas Technologies Inc. Microsoft had already been dealt a $520.6 million judgement in the case two years ago, but appealed it on several fronts. With Monday's decision, the Supreme Court has decided not to hear Microsoft's argument relating to how damages in the case should be calculated. ...Full Story
Seppuku comes back into style: Now that the multi-year rivalry between next-generation DVD format factions HD-DVD and the Blu-Ray Group are approaching commercial introduction of their competing devices, their tactics are becoming more desperate and self-destructive. After having recruited all the vendors they could, and then all of the content owners they could -- and still without becoming the clear winner, Toshiba has gone to the limit, by offering to license its HD-DVD technology to low-cost manufacturers in China. How rational is that? Well, the whole idea of winning the format wars instead of reaching a compromise with the Blu-Ray Group years ago was to reap the big royalties on controlling the winning standard -- and therefore earning high royalties on every player sold. Now its sacrificing much of that advantage before sales even begin, sacrificing much of the high-margin early years of production to low margin competition right out to the gate. Can you say "hara-kiri?" |
Toshiba’s strategy: Grab China DVD market from Sony at any risk
The Financial Express, November 6, 2005 -- In the high-stakes battle with Sony over whose format will power the next generation of DVD players, Toshiba has adopted a potentially perilous strategy: encouraging low-cost Chinese competitors to crank out machines using its standard, known as HD-DVD. Courting Chinese makers has been largely taboo in Japan, where manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic have long tried to delay the transition of their technologies into cheap commodities. Toshiba’s decision could have major ramifications in the race for the billions of dollars likely to flow from the next generation of DVD technology, which promises enhanced pictures and audio and more disc space. ...Full Story
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