Google said Tuesday it has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN), and in the process pledged not to assert its patents against other Linux developers in the organization. OIN essentially serves as a clearing house for cross-licensing patents, and counts IBM, Oracle and Sony as members.

Since its inception, Google has utilized Linux to build the largest search engine in the world. Now, the company says it feels "a strong responsibility to the Linux community, and we’re always looking for creative ways to put our resources in the hands of Linux developers." Hundreds of Google employees have submitted patches to the Linux operating system, and the company has open-sourced over a million lines of its own code.

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Members of the National Music Publishers Association said Tuesday that they planned to join a lawsuit against YouTube over copyright infringement, signaling more legal trouble for Google's video site.

The original lawsuit was filed by British Soccer organization Premier League in May, and sought class-action status. Since then, music publisher Bourne has joined, and Robert Tur, owner of the Los Angeles News Service also plans to join the suit shortly.

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Microsoft has opened a special Web site to help customers track their Xbox 360 repairs, which follows last month's 3-year warranty extension that was made due to high failure rates for the Redmond company's flagship game console.

From the site, customers can register their Xbox, schedule a repair, and track the status of the entire process. For now, the service appears only to be open for those in the United States, but Microsoft's warranty extension does apply worldwide. According to some reports, as many as 3 out of every 10 Xbox 360 units had some sort of problem.

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The first real test of the viability of DRM-free music sales came this past quarter, as investors monitored whether EMI Music's recent arrangements with Apple and Amazon to sell unlocked tracks on their services at a premium, would lift the publisher out of its financial doldrums. The news this quarter is mixed: While the reaction to the move appears strongly positive from consumers, the publisher's conventional businesses are sinking at too fast a rate.

In its preliminary quarterly report issued this morning, EMI Music said that revenues from digital music sales increased 26% over the previous quarter, while revenue from its physical music sales declined by 19.8%. If that were the final score, it would sound like a win for digital. It's not, since physical sales constitutes a greater share of the overall business: After adjusting for inflation, EMI Music's total revenues declined by 5.1%.

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Last week, the US Senate's chief sponsors of the Internet Radio Equality Act vowed to push for its expedited approval, if broadcasters and the SoundExchange performance rights organization haven't reached a compromise agreement by the time the Senate returns from its summer recess on Labor Day (September 3).

As Sens. Ron Wyden (D - Ore.) and Sam Brownback (R - Kan.) jointly stated, they're fully aware now of what appears to be a plan by the PRO to leverage a planned $500 USD minimum annual royalty fee per channel to apply to each stream or playlist a Webcasting service generates. Literally, each Pandora channel generated for a user could carry a $500 USD fee.

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Sony on Monday announced the immediate availability of the 80GB PlayStation 3 model, offering a free copy of off-road racing game MotorStorm to all buyers of the $599 USD game console. The new PS3 is nearly identical to the discontinued 60GB model, but features a larger hard drive and lacks the "Emotion Engine" chip used for supporting older PS2 titles.

Sony has dropped the price of the 60GB PS3 to $499 while supplies remain, and the company says the lower cost has brought about "a surge in sales." According to Sony, retail sales of the 60GB PS3 have jumped 113% compared to the four weeks prior to the price drop. Inventory of the 60GB PS3 is expected to be depleted by the fall, Sony added.

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Following last week's report by University of California, Davis engineers on the integrity -- or lack thereof -- of electronic voting machines used in statewide elections, the California Secretary of State late last week revoked the approval of systems from Diebold, Hart InterCivic, Sequoia, and Elections Systems and Software, Inc. Manufacturers now each have 30 days to come up with a plan for how they intend to harden their systems' internal configuration security, and 45 days for a network security hardening plan, before their systems can be submitted for re-approval for use in next February's presidential primary.

Among the findings Sec. of State Debra Bowen cited in her proclamations this morning was this: "The Diebold Red Team members [from UC Davis], with access only to the Windows operating system on the Diebold GEMS election management server supplied to Diebold and without requiring access to Diebold source code, were able to access the Diebold voting system server software and to corrupt the election management system database, which could result in manipulated voter totals or the inability to read election results, rendering an election impossible to complete electronically."

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Time Warner is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of persons involved in a suspected copper theft in Texas.

The company said that someone vandalized the fiber-optic lines in conduits that ran through the I-35 underpass near the Trinity River in Dallas. The incidents occurred on June 19 and July 24, officials say.

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Last week, members of the human rights organization Dui Hua Foundation presented evidence to Congress that Yahoo expeditiously complied with a Chinese state request for information on a citizen the government later sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for inciting rebellion. On Friday, Rep. Tom Lantos (D - Calif.) responded to Dui Hua's evidence by opening a formal investigation.

Yahoo's apparent compliance with China's request for e-mails from Wang Xiaoning's account may not have been illegal under US law. However, in the Washington Post last weekend, Rep. Lantos suggested that a Yahoo official's testimony before Congress in February 2006 may have been false. At that time, Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan suggested that, while Yahoo complied with the Chinese government's request, it had no knowledge of China's intentions - and perhaps no interest as well.

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Microsoft said Monday that it had partnered with NASA to give an unprecedented look at the Endeavour Shuttle launch through Photosynth, its platform that uses standard camera images to create navigable 3D views. 360 degree views of the shuttle boosters, Vehicle Assembly Building, and launchpad will be available, NASA and Microsoft said.

MSNBC, a joint partnership between NBC and Microsoft, will also provide additional multimedia surrounding the launch, as well as linking back to the Photosynth collections. "This collaboration with Microsoft gives the public a new way to explore and participate in America's space program," NASA Space Operations Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier said. He added that the technology could be used for future missions.

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Toshiba confirmed that it will soon be launching its third-generation HD DVD players, with enhancements across the board. All three models are available for under $500, which could help spur adoption of the fledgling format.

As reported by BetaNews on Friday, the new lineup features the HD-A3, HD-A30, and HD-A35. Prices are $299, $399, and $499 USD, respectively. The HD-A30 will be available next month, while the HD-A3 and HD-A35 are not due until October.

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San Francisco's plans for free Wi-Fi access around the city may be in jeopardy following EarthLink's failure to respond to proposed changes in the city's contract.

The news follows comments by EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff that seemed to indicate the ISP might be backing off its ambitious municipal wireless plans. For whatever reason, the company did not respond to changes in the contract proposed by city supervisors.

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Following in the footsteps of Dell, Lenovo said Monday that it plans to give both consumers and businesses the option to have Linux installed as the default operating system over Windows on select models. The company announced a partnership with Novell that puts SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on laptop models aimed at commercial customers, although they would also be available to individual customers as well.

Support for the OS would come from Lenovo itself, with Novell providing the maintenance updates directly to customers. "We have seen more customers utilizing and requesting open source notebook solutions in education, government and the enterprise since our ThinkPad T60p Linux announcement, and today's announcement expands upon our efforts by offering customers more Linux options," Lenovo notebook business chief Sam Dusi said.

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The identity of Fake Steve Jobs is a secret no more. The author of the popular Web log that for the past year has taken a candid look at the world of CEO blogs -- and even has the real Steve Jobs reading it -- has finally revealed himself.

Writers at The New York Times discovered the identity of FSJ after it obtained the manuscript book to come out in October to be written in the voice of the Fake Steve Jobs character, Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody.

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The war between Intel and AMD this week became almost entirely rhetorical, following the European Commission's action last week, charging Intel with abuse of its dominant power status on that continent. While US antitrust law holds companies to a higher standard of conduct once they have attained monopoly power through non-illegal means, EU law sets the bar somewhat lower, where the test is dominant power.

But just what is dominant power, legally speaking? A Wall Street Journal editorial last Tuesday raised the question. It's easy to call Intel's 80% market share there "dominant;" but the article asked, why should a company expect to compete its little heart out using any means necessary, until it reaches 80% or some such point, after which time it can no longer be allowed to compete the same way?

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