Responding to our story yesterday on comments made last week to an analysts' conference by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, which were interpreted later as a threat against Linux distributors and/or users - and whose interpretation Microsoft repeatedly refused to deny - Novell's global public relations director Bruce Lowry told BetaNews this afternoon that his company interprets its cooperation agreement with Microsoft as mutual decision not to press the issue of whose code appears in whose operating system.

On February 15, Ballmer repeated an oft-spoken claim that Windows in the enterprise is less expensive to use and maintain than Linux - a claim which indeed has been substantiated by independent research, although other researchers present evidence to dispute it. But a sentence he spoke immediately afterward -- especially when presented out of context from Ballmer's "cheaper Windows" build-up -- appears to say that Novell's agreement with the company places a monetary value on the intellectual property Microsoft has often claimed that Linux authors have misappropriated.

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2:00 pm ET February 23, 2006 - BetaNews has received comments from both Microsoft and Office Live, LLC regarding the trademark suit.

Microsoft spokesperson Jack Evans told BetaNews that it felt that Office Live had no trademark on the name, and it would seek to have its claims invalidated in “its common connotation."

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With Alcatel-Lucent having been awarded $1.5 billion from Microsoft by a Jury in San Diego yesterday, the other hundreds of companies who hold Fraunhofer/Thomson licenses to the MP3 audio format whose names aren't "Microsoft" must be asking themselves whether similar fates await them in the near future. Now that the descendent of Fraunhofer's former partner is staring at a potential platinum mine of litigation success, has this verdict set a legal precedent that the party who has an idea for an invention can successfully sue anyone who implements that idea - even if it was done with consent?

We took this question, among others, to Info-Tech senior research analyst Carmi Levy, who frequently provides his insight to BetaNews.

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A man who allegedly uploaded a copy of the movie "Flushed Away" to the Internet was tracked down using a wartermark on the film and now faces a felony charge that could send him to prison for up to three years. 27 year-old Salvador Nunez Jr. obtained the movie from his sister, an Oscar voter.

Nunez admitted to also uploading "Happy Feet," but only "Flushed Away" was discovered on his hard drive when FBI agents visited his house. Movie screeners, which are sent to voters in advance of their official DVD release, are often leaked to the Internet and watermarking technology has recently been implemented to track their source.

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Qualcomm received some good news on the legal front Friday, with an antitrust suit against it dismissed, and Broadcom agreeing to drop patent infringement suits over Bluetooth technology.

The settlement does not affect other suits between the two companies, and terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The case involved claims surround two patents from both companies. A trial scheduled for March 5 has been cancelled as a result.

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Sony announced some changes in the PlayStation 3 specification for the Eurasia, Africa and Australia launch set for March 23, including less backwards compatibility than its North American PS3.

The change is due to a hardware switch within the console itself. Some functionality that had previously been controlled by a dedicated chip would now be controlled by software, which would adversely affect backwards compatibility.

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In the first of a series of patent disputes regarding its claims to rights to technologies used in MP3 audio codecs, French telecommunications firm Alcatel-Lucent -- which now owns the IP first conceived by Bell Laboratories -- was awarded $1.5 billion in a jury verdict against Microsoft in a federal district court in Seattle this afternoon.

The verdict is an indication that the jury did not side with Microsoft's contention that Lucent, prior to its acquisition by Alcatel, posted a retroactive date on a patent re-application for so-called layer-3 audio technologies, thus to give the appearance that AT&T Bell Labs -- Lucent's predecessor -- worked on MP3 prior to its involvement with Fraunhofer Labs, one of Germany's leading technology research institutions. Microsoft's license to use MP3 in its Windows Media Player and other software and devices was issued by Fraunhofer, which continues to claim co-ownership of MP3.

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After much hoopla over Windows Presentation Foundation and its promise to create rich graphical user interfaces for Vista, not many of the demonstrated technologies have become reality.

Thus, the company set out this week with three media partners including Associated Newspapers, Hearst, and Forbes to leverage the power of WPF through a new digital reader application.

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Comments made by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last Thursday to an analyst conference for the most part went unnoticed until stories this morning cited excerpts from a freshly published transcript of that conference. In one such story, an excerpted partial sentence was interpreted as part of a statement that Microsoft may yet exercise its option to sue manufacturers of Linux operating systems other than Novell for infringement of patent.

A fresh read of the extended excerpt from that transcript, however, suggests at first this may not have been Ballmer's intended meaning. Here is the extended excerpt from Ballmer's speech to the analysts' group:

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Wal-Mart said Thursday that it plans to stock about 2,800 of its stores with a special Academy Awards section of DVDs including popular titles that many of its consumers may own on VHS. The company is clearing out the last of its inventory of the aging format and spots a new market opportunity.

"It's the right timing to have these classics highlighted and available on DVD at an even better value, so that everyone who loves movies can replenish or create a new, personal movie collection," Wal-Mart Entertainment senior vice president Gary Severson said.

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Congress plans to hold hearings into the merger of satellite radio providers XM and Sirius next Wednesday, with the House Judiciary Committee slated to ask CEO designate Mel Karmazin and others how the merger benefits consumers.

Most analysts agree that much of the political opposition will come from Democrats, and say that now is the best time to push through any merger. If Democrats take over the executive branch in next year's elections, such a merger may be near impossible.

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IFC said Wednesday that it will initially add the movies that it received a nomination for the 2007 Independent Spirit Awards to the iTunes Movie Store, of which six have gained that nod. Another seven will also be added, which have been nominated in previous years. Among the films added are "American Gun," "Happy Here and Now" and "Land of Plenty," among others. All downloads would be priced at $9.99 USD.

New York based IFC Films is one of the largest independent distributors and garnered the most Spirit Award nominations of any one company. "By making IFC films available on the world's most popular online movie store we're giving independent filmmakers the exciting opportunity to reach a wider audience of movie enthusiasts," IFC's senior president of sales and devlopment Lisa Schwartz said.

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The Birmingham, Alabama Veterans Administration Medical Center said this week it is seeking the return of an external Iomega hard drive containing personal information on at least a half-million people. The Center has brought in the FBI to help investigate and is offering a $25,000 reward.

The drive was reported missing by an employee who had used it to backup medical records. Although the sensitive data on the drive has not surfaced elsewhere, recent cases of identity theft have prompted the FBI to get involved in a number of similar stolen hard drive cases. A bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate would hold IT managers responsible for such privacy breaches.

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Opera on Wednesday updated the Java-based version of its Web browser for mobile phones, improving connectivity and adding support for more handset models. Opera Mini 3.1 offers one new feature: the ability to better manage RSS feeds.

Newly supported devices include T-Mobile's popular Dash and IDEN-based Motorola phones. Rendering fixes were also made for Samsung's BlackJack. Opera Mini 3.1 is a free download available from the company's Web site. Separately, Google recently released a Windows Mobile based version of its Google Maps application, removing the requirement of Java on Microsoft smartphones.

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Earlier this week, AMD's introduction of the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ processor at the $464 suggested price point signaled the start of CPU price reductions in its midrange segment. But since that time, pre-order prices for the 6000+ have risen, not fallen; and meanwhile, street prices for Intel CPUs have declined a tick or two, according to Pricewatch.

As a result, based on our latest computer models, you're likely to be able to purchase a better performing processor from Intel than AMD for purchases of about $375 and higher. For lower purchases, AMD will offer the better value. AMD has made some gains in pushing that mark higher, though Intel prices have responded almost in kind. Last November, the crossover point was closer to $350.

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