In a long-awaited decision that could have stark repercussions for P2P networks, the United States Supreme Court on Monday gave record labels and movie studios a green light to sue file-sharing services such as Grokster and Morpheus, which maintained they were not responsible for the actions of their users.

The Court rejected arguments saying such lawsuits could quell the spread and growth of new digital video and audio devices, instead siding with companies holding the rights to copyrighted work.

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Friday, at the Gnomedex conference in Seattle, Microsoft announced platform level support for Really Simple Syndication (RSS) in Longhorn designed to make it easier to discover RSS feeds and support for simple list extensions. Technorati's Niall Kennedy snapped some shots of Longhorn, IE7 and RSS in action.

As reported Friday, Longhorn will provide a common RSS feed list across all applications, common RSS data store for applications to access downloaded content, and an RSS platform sync engine. Subscribing to an RSS feed from within Internet Explorer 7.0 will be similar to adding a Web site to "Favorites." An icon placed in a toolbar will illuminate when feeds have been updated with new content.

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IBM is planning to expand its workforce in India by 14,000, despite announcing intentions to cut 13,000 jobs in the United States and Europe. The move, which was disclosed in an internal company memo, highlights a growing trend by tech firms to cut down on costs by hiring low-wage workers.

The memo, dated April 2005 and posted on the Web site of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech), indicates IBM's Indian workforce will rise from 24,150 in 2004 to 38,196 employees in 2005. IBM would not comment on the report, but WashTech president Marcus Courtney told the New York Times, "IBM is really pushing this offshore outsourcing to relentlessly cut costs and to export skilled jobs abroad."

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RealNetworks on Thursday issued an advisory detailing four security flaws in its RealPlayer software and earlier versions of its Rhapsody music store. The most critical of the holes could give an attacker full control over a user's computer, the company said. Linux versions of RealPlayer are also affected.

Three of the flaws can be exploited using a malicious media file, such as RealMedia or AVI, which causes a buffer overflow in RealPlayer and the potential execution of arbitrary code. A malicious MP3 file could be used to overwrite local files or launch an ActiveX control.

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The United States Supreme Court will issue its highly anticipated ruling on the Grokster peer-to-peer file sharing case, as well as the Brand X Internet cable suit on Monday. The decision could have far-reaching consequences on both sides of the divided entertainment and technology industries.

At issue is whether P2P network operators are liable for the copyright infringement committed by their users. Monday will be the last day for the nation's high court to hand down a decision before summer recess begins. It is unlikely the opinions will be pushed into the term starting October 3, says SCOTUSblog.

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Microsoft has upped the intellectual property protections it offers to PC makers, which shields them from claims of patent infringement and other IP-related disputes. The move comes after a number of high-profile lawsuits targeting manufacturers using Microsoft software.

New protections will include no monetary limits on legal fees and idemnification from patent claims, copyright claims, as well as trade secret and trademark claims. Microsoft will also provide capped monetary protections for damages and settlements related to an IP case.

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Responding to a flurry of bad press and advertisers pulling their marketing buys, Yahoo has completely shut down its unmonitored user-created chat rooms, which reportedly were being used to promote sex with minors. The company did not say how long the chats would be closed, but will leave open company-created rooms.

It's not a secret that some of the largest Internet destinations, while catering to children, have long been profiting off adult-oriented chat rooms. AOL found early success thanks to its sex chats and Yahoo draws millions of users each day to its chat rooms.

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Microsoft has added a new alert bar to its Hotmail service that notifies users when the sender of an incoming e-mail cannot be verified. The technology utilizes Microsoft's Sender ID Framework, which is designed to cut down on the number of spam messages and phishing attacks flooding customer inboxes.

Sender ID is one of a number of new standards proposed to combat spammers and has been backed by large service providers such as America Online. The technology was initially met with concern over its proprietary nature, but Microsoft subsequently opened up Sender ID to ensure compatibility with Sender Policy Framework, a competing anti-spam technology.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt has acknowledged that his company's Google Payment Corp. subsidiary is engineering an electronic payment system, but shrugged off speculation that it would be competing with eBay's PayPal. Rumors of a planned service peaked over the weekend and sent eBay shares falling early Monday.

"We do not intend to offer a person-to-person, stored-value payments system," Schmidt said in a statement read to reporters. "The payment services we are working on are a natural evolution of Google's existing online products and advertising programs, which today connect millions of consumers and advertisers."

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In a move that could spark a price war with more established rivals Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark, Dell has launched a new laser printer priced at just $99 USD. Despite its low price tag, the Dell 1100 printer is more than capable for home and small office settings with a speed of 15 pages a minute and 600 dpi resolution.

The cheapest lasers from HP and Lexmark more than double Dell's $99 price, and 2,000-page toner for the 1100 costs only $65 compared with $94 from Lexmark. A 1,000-page toner cartridge ships with the printer. "Customers are eager for a low-priced personal laser that fits comfortably on their desks and within their budgets," said Tim Peters, vice president of Dell's Imaging and Printing business. "The 1100 addresses that broad market need."

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Microsoft is seeking beta testers as it prepares to roll out a pre-release version of Windows OneCare, the company's comprehensive security package it announced in May. The beta program will run during the summer and will be followed by a wider public beta test later in the year.

Windows OneCare will run in the background, notifying users of updates and potential threats to their system, such as worms, viruses and spyware. OneCare will also automatically carry out PC maintenance and backups. Interested Windows users can apply now for the summer beta test by visiting Microsoft Beta using the Guest ID: OneCare.

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As the months wind down to Sony's European PSP launch on September 1, the company is focusing its marketing attention not only on games, but also movies. Highlighting the device's multimedia capabilities, Sony intends to have 10 films on sale by the time the PSP hits EU shelves compared to only 20 games.

Sony says it has already sold 100,000 movies for the PSP, not including Spider-Man 2, which came bundled with the unit. The PSP uses a proprietary disc format called UMD that Sony hopes could offer studios another outlet for sales amid flattening DVD revenues.

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After nearly nine months of testing, Microsoft's next-generation command line based shell has reached Beta 1. Code-named "Monad," the new programmable Unix-like shell was originally thought to be a component of Longhorn, but Microsoft executives have recently indicated the technology is actually three to five years away.

Monad will, however, play a central role in Exchange 12. Administrative functions will be built atop the new shell, which would enable users to do everything from the command line that can be done from the graphical interface. Users interested in trying out Monad can join the beta program by visiting Beta Place with the Guest ID: mshPDC.

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Despite expectations, the United States Supreme Court said Monday it would not yet issue a much-anticipated ruling on the Grokster file sharing lawsuit that has divided the entertainment industry. A decision could be handed down as soon as Thursday, or sometime next week.

At issue is whether two P2P network operators, Grokster and StreamCast are liable for the copyright infringement committed by their users. The nation's high court also said it would not yet rule on whether cable companies and voice over IP providers deserve to be treated differently under a separate set of government regulations than standard telephone operators.

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According to reports, Google is readying a new electronic payment service that could pit the search giant against eBay-owned PayPal. Rumors of the new initiative peaked over the weekend following a Piper Jaffray Internet conference, where a number of industry exectives suggested they had heard of plans for "Google Wallet."

While few details are known, the service would likely integrate with Google's existing payments for advertising on its searches, and with a new Google Video service that will allow consumers to purchase video clips offered by third-parties directly through Google.

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