Public debate on the third revision of the General Public License began on Monday as the Free Software Foundation released the first draft of the popular open source license.

The new version of the license focuses on patents and digital rights management issues that have come to the forefront since the GPL was last updated nearly a decade and a half ago.

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As Apple's stratospheric rise continues, Apple CEO Steve Jobs shared a jab at Dell chairman Michael Dell with employees via e-mail on Friday. The comments are a response to a 1997 comment by Dell, who was asked what he'd do with Apple, then financially struggling and near collapse.

"What would I do?" Dell responded. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." A few weeks later at Apple's official announcement of Jobs' return, with a picture of Dell's face covered by a bull's-eye, Jobs said, "You're in our sights."

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In a move that will expand the company's market reach, Cisco Systems has plans to start selling a line of consumer products including phones, radios and home theater devices, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Cisco believes it can define itself by adding Internet connectivity to these devices, thus creating a new market.

Cisco is commonly known for its networking products, and owns Linksys, a maker of consumer network devices. Chief development officer Charles Giancarlo told the paper he believes Cisco's ties with Google and Yahoo will also give it an advantage over competitors. A release date for any new consumer products from the company was not given.

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Mozilla plans to have an early alpha version of Firefox 2.0 in users hands by February, with builds of Firefox, Camino and Thunderbird for Macs running on Intel processors available the following month, recent statements from company developers indicate.

Details of a release date for Firefox 2.0 Alpha 1 appeared in the January 4 mozilla.org staff meeting minutes released late last week. It also noted that a security and stability update would be coming to Firefox 1.5 by the end of this month.

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Microsoft has directly responded to accusations by security researcher Steve Gibson who claimed the company intentionally left the Windows Meta File vulnerability open as some kind of "backdoor." The company says the function in question exists due to legacy code, not some nefarious intent.

"This was not a mistake. This is not buggy code. This was put into Windows by someone," Gibson said on his podcast called Security Now. "I believe that some very clever and industrious hacker figured this out, started using it and Microsoft was caught off guard and thought: Whoops, we've got to close this backdoor down."

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Research firm NPD Group announced Friday that Microsoft has sold 600,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the U.S. since the device's launch in November. Despite holiday shipments falling below analyst expectations, Microsoft still expects to sell between 4.5 and 5.5 million Xbox 360s by the end of June.

NPD Group numbers include two-thirds of retail outlets in the United States. The figures do not include Xbox 360 sales in Japan, where initial launch figures were disappointing, and Europe, where Microsoft blew through its 300,000-console inventory within days. Sales in all regions could accelerate later this month when more game titles hit store shelves.

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Digital music industry officials are complaining that the record industry's alleged collusion extends into the subscription business as well, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. According to industry insiders, the record companies are using "most favored nation" clauses in contracts to keep prices artificially high.

The clauses would allow another label to benefit from better licensing terms if a competing label renegotiates with a digital music provider. However, since the terms appear in just about every contract these providers have negotiated, it has the net effect of increasing the cost to procure music for these services.

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Microsoft reiterated its commitment to the Macintosh platform on Friday, telling BetaNews that it was not exiting the consumer side of the Mac market. However, the company did acknowledge that corporate enhancements to its products were taking precedence at the current time.

Scott Erickson, director of product management and marketing for the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft, says that the division spends an equal amount of resources on both the business and consumer side.

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The response to our previous post on Windows Live Messenger invitations was beyond what we could have imagined, so we've decided to offer another opportunity to join the beta. Many of you came up with excellent ideas for features in Windows Vista, but we could only choose 35.

And the winners are...

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The United States government said Friday that would offer tax breaks in 2006 to taxpayers who opt to buy hybrid gasoline and electronic vehicles. Tax breaks of up to $3,400 would be awarded based on the fuel-efficiency of the vehicle purchased or leased.

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow made the announcement at Ford research center near Detroit. "I'm pleased to announce the issuance of IRS guidance for the hybrid vehicle tax credit because the development and use of hybrid vehicles is a key step toward reducing gasoline consumption, emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

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UPDATED Microsoft is currently testing a Slingbox-like add-on that would allow Windows Media Center users to watch programming on their PCs from anywhere using mobile devices and laptops, BetaNews has learned.

The feature uses a software application rather than a set-top box, as Slingbox utilizes to control a TiVo, cable or satellite box remotely. The resulting stream would play through Windows Media Player.

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The Anti-Spyware Coalition has published a final draft of criteria to use in defining whether or not a software application is spyware. The document is designed to help anti-spyware vendors properly categorize malware and avoid legal attacks from companies who claim their software is unfairly targeted.

With 43 percent of Internet users reporting they have been infected with spyware, tools to detect and remove the malicious applications have become a prerequisite for PC users. But much confusion still exists on what constitutes spyware and adware, which has led to improper classification and even lawsuits.

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Microsoft's new system for selling advertising within its search results will go live in June, the company announced Friday. MSN adCenter will compete with rival offerings from Google and Yahoo, as well as eventually become a one-stop-shop for advertising across any of Microsoft's online services.

Eventually, a user would be able to buy ad space on services like MSN Spaces or Office Live. The tools to make this happen are not yet complete, Microsoft says, but should be over the next year. The technology would alllow an advertiser to target their campaigns to specific demographics.

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The Department of Homeland Security said Friday it would begin testing "e-Passports" in the international terminal of San Francisco International Airport. The trial is a joint effort of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

Citizens of Australia and New Zealand that have been issued the new passports, as well as Singapore Airlines crew and U.S. diplomats will participate in the test.

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UPDATED Microsoft has confirmed to BetaNews that it will no longer develop Windows Media Player for Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Support will also no longer be offered to Mac users. The decision means Apple customers will have no chance to play DRM protected Windows Media content.

The death knell sounded for WMP for Mac yesterday, following the release of Windows Media Components for QuickTime by developer Flip4Mac. Microsoft began directing Web site visitors to download the third party software. Flip4Mac's components integrate into Apple's QuickTime and enable support for Windows Media Video and Audio.

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