A U.S. court of appeas has overturned a 2006 decision by the Federal Trade Commission that memory and interconnect developer Rambus had violated antitrust regulations by failing to tell a the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Committee) standards organizations that it had patented technologies it would advocating for inclusion in new chips designs. According to the appeals court, Rambus would not have engaged in monopolistic practices if its intention behind failing to disclose the patents was merely to avoid having a limit placed on royalties collected from the technology.
Tag Archive: decision
Manhunt 2 – The Story Continues
It’s becoming an epic on-again, off-again saga. Manhunt 2, the controversial title from Rockstar Games, looked as if it on was on the way to UKstores following a decision last month by the Video Appeals Committee (VAC) that said the game could be classified and released. In July last year the game had been refused a certificate, a move thateffectively meant in could not be legally sold in Britain. On Thursday, though, the British Board of Film Classification successfully argued in front of ahigh court judge that VAC had misinterpreted the law when it made its decision. The judge ruled that Manhunt 2 must be re-submitted for classification, the BBC reports. "We believe theVideo Appeals Committee decision was correct and do not understand the court’s decision to expend further public resources to censor a game that contains content well within the bounds established bythe British Board of Film Classification’s 18-plus ratings certification," Rockstar said in a statement. Although the game is sold in many parts of the world, it was refused a certificatein the UK because of its “sustained, casual sadism.” However, many critics have pointed out that it’s actually no more violent than many other games already on the market inBritain.
Microsoft Capitulates to EU Ruling
In a surprising move, software giant Microsoft has decided not to appeal last month’s decision by the European Court of First Instance, which upheld the terms of the European Commission’s antitrust ruling against Microsoft. By capitulating the to the decision, Micosoft obligates itself to provide information to third party developers—including open source developers—so they can create products which interoperate with Microsoft’s server operating systems.
Microsoft lost its appeal against the terms of the EU antitrust ruling in September. Under the ruling, Microsoft is also obligated to pay 80 percent off the EC’s legal costs. In 2006, Microsoft was ordered to pay fines totaling some $280 million a day over a six-month period for failing to live up to terms of the 2004 antitrust ruling.
EU Microsoft Sancitions Put On Hold
The European Union on Sunday temporarily suspended a landmark antitrust decision against Microsoft Corp., pending a judge’s decision on whether sanctions should be delayed until the company’s appeals are exhausted.
The decision came a day before an EU order was to take effect requiring Microsoft to make Windows software available to European PC makers without its digital media player.
In a statement, the EU head office said it agreed to lifting the order temporarily only “in the interest of a proper administration of justice.”
Read more at the Star Tribune.
U.S. Declines To Create Do-Not-Spam List
The Federal Trade Commission, expected to announce its decision later in the day, said it feared that unscrupulous senders of unwanted e-mails would mine such a registry of e-mail addresses looking for new victims, according to a summary of the FTC’s decision obtained by The Associated Press.
The commission, which was obligated to consider the proposal under the “can spam” legislation that Bush signed in December, concluded that it would be “largely powerless to identify those responsible for misusing the registry.”
Read more at CNN.com.
Nokia losing 3G Ground To Competition
The company has suffered a string of loses in the networking space recently, the most recent being a decision by Italian operator Wind, a unit of Enel, to source and install its base stations through German provider Siemens AG.
In 2001 Nokia had made much of Wind’s decision to use Nokia “as its strategic partner to ensure the network’s fast deployment and effective launch of UMTS service in Italy.”
It now says that it had been only a minor supplier to the Wind network and that the decision to go with Siemens for base stations was “a commercial decision by Wind, rather than a technical one.”
New York Classifies Vonage As Phone Company
In a statement announcing its decision, the agency sought to soften the blow, saying that it nevertheless hoped to apply “only minimal regulations to ensure that it does not interfere with the rapid, widespread deployment of new technologies.”
New York is the latest state to weigh in on regulation of so-called voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, a hot-button policy issue that has some local officials worried about potential tax losses as the technology grows in popularity.
Read the whole story at CNET News.com.
Antitrust Case Fuels RAM Price Fixing Probe
A settlement decision filed by a federal judge in a separate case the Federal Trust Commission brought against Rambus contains e-mails and other evidence that could help bolster the Department of Justice’s price-fixing probe of companies that make dynamic random-access memory.
Read the full story at InternetNews.com.
MandrakeSoft Ordered To Drop Trademark
The decision could force the Paris-based software company to surrender its trademark and domain names and to pay nearly $90,000 (U.S.) in damages to the U.S. companies, holders of the rights to the comic strip character Mandrake the Magician. The comic strip marks its 70th anniversary this year.
Read more on this story at Globe Technology.
The reliability of sythetic benchmarking
Our friends at HardOCP are pushing the envelope again. This time they are studying and questioning the validity of synthetic benchmarks. Video card companies will try just about anything to get their products into your hands, but just how far will they go?
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Bottom line is that no company is beyond reproach when it comes to your money being on the table. You need to be able to make an informed decision about the hardware you are buying and that decision is becoming more difficult and not as clear as it used to be. We are going to try our best to help you make that informed decision. My thought is that no current synthetic benchmark is going to tell you really what you need to know when it comes to the gaming experience that a video card and driver will deliver.
