Ed Oswald

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a settlement with one of its disc replication partners, after the company admitted it had breached agreements with Microsoft by unlawfully producing the Redmond company's server software.

A multi-year investigation found that the Thai office of MPO Group relied on a forged licensing agreement provided to it by a counterfeiter who had 20,000 copies of Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server produced in 2003. Microsoft said it does not license software to be reproduced in this way.

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eBay is reportedly pulling out of the Chinese market, instead opting to replace it with a new site that would be run by Bejing-based Tom Online, sources told the Wall Street Journal Monday. So far, the auction site has refused to confirm the speculation.

The San Jose, California-based auction site will have a 49 percent stake in the new operation. A deal could be announced as soon as Tuesday. Both companies plan to invest $60 million in the venture, with eBay contributing $40 million of that total.

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Aimed at expanding its presence in the mobile sector, MTV Networks has created a new division specifically charged with expanding its presence on mobile devices.

The group will manage MTV's mobile partnerships and content distribution, while working with the company's various divisions to develop new content and application. Already, MTV produces 600 clips, or about 30 hours of mobile video per month, it said.

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A little less than two months after IBM sued Amazon over patent infringement, the web retailer has turned around and countersued Big Blue. Amazon says IBM misappropriated technology in order to enhance its own offerings.

The move could be seen as a defensive action in an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations between the two companies. According to IBM, the two sides have tried to work out an agreement since 2002, but have been unsuccessful thus far.

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The explosive growth of Web 2.0 and user-generated content is changing the way we use the Internet and interact with one another. So congratulations, Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2006 is you.

This year's pick marks the 79th time the magazine has picked a "Person of the Year" since it started in 1927. Past winners include Charles Lindbergh, FDR, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Bill Clinton.

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Although it may be five or more years behind similar capabilities in Europe, the US is finally getting technology that would allow consumers to use their cell phones as a way to pay for consumer goods. The first trial would be through Cingular Wireless in New York City.

The test is a result of a partnership between the carrier, MasterCard, Citigroup, and cell phone maker Nokia. Certain phones would be outfitted with MasterCard's PayPass technology, which is accepted at thousands of retailers across the country. The trial would last up to six months.

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Security firm eEye Digital Security said Friday it had discovered a new non-Microsoft based malware that has both the characteristics of a worm and a botnet spreading the wild. However, it uses a flaw in a program meant to protect users from such issues to propagate itself.

The flaw is within Symantec's popular anti-virus software. Calling it "Big Yellow," the exploit takes advantage of an issue within the remote management interfaces of both Symantec AntiVirus and Symantec Client Security.

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Half-heartedly acknowledging that there may be some type of issue with the straps that hold the controller to gamers hands, Nintendo will voluntarily recall 3.2 million of them to be replaced with stronger versions. In addition, an AC adapter for its DS handheld system has been recalled as well.

Costs for the strap replacement would run in the hundreds of millions of yen, while the adapter recall, affecting 200,000 units in Japan, would cost between 100-200 million yen ($848,000 -$1.7 milion USD). The cost would be divided between Nintendo and its supplier, Nagano Japan.

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Epic Games' Gears of War is the fastest selling next-generation game of the year, and the fastest selling exclusive for the Xbox platform ever, Microsoft said Friday. In addition, the game was the best selling title during the month of November, according to NPG Group.

The first-person shooting game beat out Sony's highly-anticipated PlayStation 2 title Final Fantasy XII, released October 31, and the Wii's Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for the top spot in November. No game for the PlayStation 3 was in the top ten.

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Microsoft plans to issue a service pack for Visual Studio on Friday, as well as a version of the update specifically aimed at fixing issues with the software for those running Windows Vista. The company said the updates will be available by midday ET.

The fixes come from customer and partner feedback, as well as the company's own internal testing. The companies responsiveness to customer comments could be measured in the percentage of bugs addressed, the Redmond company pointed out.

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Web holiday sales are up 24 percent over a year ago, in line with estimates. However it is believed the shopping season may extend longer online this season as consumers appear to be confident that expedient shipping would get their gifts in time, comScore said Thursday.

Spending online from November 1 through December 12 has reached $17.56 billion, up from $14.13 billion last year. In fact, comScore said December 11 set a new record for online spending, with consumers spending $661 million online.

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Microsoft is fighting back against those attempting to distribute a cracked version of Windows Vista. It has issued an update that detects whether a copy is attempting to bypass the activation system by mixing files from the test and final versions, it said Thursday.

Such a version is currently available on DVD, Microsoft says. When the copy is detected, Microsoft will alert the user, and then give them 30 days to activate the software, or it will be placed in reduced functionality mode.

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Google said it had been awarded a patent regarding the design of it's search pages, although don't expect a rush of infringement lawsuits. This patent and over seven million others will be searchable through Google Patent Search, also announced Thursday.

The design patent (No. 533,561) surrounds the formatting of the Mountain View, Calif. search company's result pages. Google first filed for the patent in March 2004.

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In order to attract the world's best talent, Google is offering its employees the option to sell their stock option grants in an online auction to financial institutions that might be willing to pay a premium above the exercise price.

Traditionally, employees of the company could use their stock options in two ways: the first allows them to take ownership of the stock once they have "vested" and sell the stocks for a profit, paying the company back for the "strike price," which is the price of stock when the option was granted, or continue to hold the option.

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A video site hopes to make sense of the ever-increasing number of Web videos by allowing its users to tag sections of videos and find specific scenes within those videos without having to watch the entire clip.

Digital media company Gotuit has launched the feature on its online video portal, initially offering the service with videos available from both YouTube at Metacafe. The technology makes use of the embedded video functionality to offer users the capability to mark scenes within the clip.

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