eu

The European Commission on Monday formally dug in its heels over Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, but Oracle accused the regulatory body of "profound misunderstanding" in a rebuttal that declared its intention to fight the opinion.

The regulatory body issued a statement of objections about the merger, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Sun Microsystems. The open-source MySQL database software is the sole issue of concern in the matter, Sun said in the filing.

"The Statement of Objections sets out the Commission's preliminary assessment regarding, and is limited to, the combination … Read more

Experts say Intel has been instrumental in driving down PC prices, one of the key indicators of competition and one charge New York's Attorney General cannot easily level against Intel in its antitrust lawsuit.

New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against Intel accusing it of paying computer makers rebates to illegally maintain its monopoly power and preventing AMD from gaining business with PC makers.

One of the operative charges in the complaint centers on prices. "Intel launched an illegal campaign to deprive AMD of distribution channels and consumers of product choice and lower prices," the complaint alleges.

Not so fast, say some experts. "Prices are falling, buyers are not complaining about Intel's loyalty discounts, and the lower prices produce obvious and immediate benefit for consumers," said Joshua D. Wright, professor at George Mason University School of Law, and a scholar in residence at the Federal Trade Commission until 2008.

"Given the intuitive and easy to grasp nature of the consumer benefits of discounting contracts in the Intel case, I suspect that judges will be less likely to condemn these practices without real proof of actual consumer harm. I'm skeptical that AMD, (New York), or the (Federal Trade Commission) will be able to produce that here," Wright said.

And prices continue to fall. One of the most recent examples of steep downward PC price pressure is… Read more

The European Commission has decided that every citizen has a right to the Internet, but still made it fairly easy for the media industry to cut the Internet off. We also see that Intel is in hot water again. And we ask that perennial question, "Why can't I own a Canadian?" And Google answers.

Intel in threats and bribery suit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8343179.stm

Google Dashboard lifts curtain on stored privacy data http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10390941-265.html … Read more

Europe is set to get a major overhaul of its telecommunications regulation, after the European Parliament and Council of Telecoms Ministers reached a compromise on the rights of Internet users.

The Telecoms Reform Package is a raft of new laws that tackle issues ranging from data-breach notification to faster number porting. Following an agreement reached on Wednesday night, the package will now become part of national legislation in every EU country, with a deadline of May 2011.

A sticking point in the package's progress had been a provision regarding "three strikes" laws targeting Internet users suspected of … Read more

Oracle is taking a hard line in dealing with European Union objections to its planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, according to a Financial Times report Tuesday.

EU antitrust regulators are concerned that Oracle, which has a large business in proprietary software, won't be a good home for Sun's open-source MySQL database business. According to the report, Oracle is unyielding, offering no concessions to deal with the EU's concerns.

That stance could lead the regulators to issue a formal complaint objecting to the deal, and that move could occur within days, according unnamed sources in the story. Neither … Read more

Mozilla is upset about the browser ballot screen because it's alphabetical, left to right, by manufacturer. That means Apple gets the prime spot. We think that's parsing the screen too closely. So we decide to parse it even more! And we also reinvent battery technology and solve America's Internet problems. And can you believe it? We even do more. It's true.

False Alarm: New iPhone 3GS Not Jailbreak-Proof http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/jailbreak-iphone

Wal-Mart Strafes … Read more

There's a little panic over the fact that Bing's market share dropped last month, but you have to remember, folks, Bing is young. Rafe puts it in perspective for us. Also, Kindle gets a price cut and goes worldwide, yo. That's big. What is also big is the keylogger network that's hijacking everyone's Web mail accounts. We can help you out with that, a bit.

Another Kindle price cut…and it goes wireless internationally http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/06/financial/f210208D88.DTL&tsp=1 … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Sean Maloney has some issues with the European Commission's antitrust case against his company, Intel, which he says must either "thrive or...die."

Last week, Maloney was promoted, along with David "Dadi" Perlmutter, to co-manage the reorganized--and massive--Intel Architecture Group. Maloney, an executive vice president, had been Intel's sales chief, and many observers see him as the odds-on favorite to be Intel's next chief executive. (Current CEO Paul Otellini, though, is likely to be in his post for some time to come.)

On Monday, the European Commission published a "nonconfidential version&… Read more

AT&T lets you pay for its network holes, Chrysler puts auto manuals on DVD (and how are you supposed to use that in the car?), MySpace says its video portal is here now, USB 3.0 is here, Europe gives Google a green light to sell ads to the black marketers, and when you're dead on the Web, you're dead.

AT&T breaks out its new 3G Microcell http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-10358045-85.html

3G MicroCells: Carriers … Read more