NEC Selling Computer Manufacturing Unit
Electronics giant NEC Corp. hopes to sell a Japanese computer-manufacturing unit to Solectron Corp., a leading U.S. technology components maker, for undisclosed terms.
NEC said Tuesday that it expects to complete a deal next year under which Solectron, based in Milpitas, Calif., will take over most of NEC Ibaraki, which produces computer servers, workstations and data storage devices at a plant northeast of Tokyo.
Under the agreement, NEC will establish a new company and transfer the unit's manufacturing operations to it before selling the new company to Solectron. The company being sold will employ about 500 of 650 staff now working at NEC Ibaraki.
Macromedia Sues Adobe
San Francisco-based software maker Macromedia Inc. is claiming it owns the patent to Adobe Systems Inc.'s popular Photoshop program, according to a suit filed in federal court Friday.
Macromedia alleges that the technology behind San Jose-based Adobe's Photoshop and GoLive
programs was patented by Macromedia in 1998. The programs are used for, among other things, creating and editing Web sites.
Photoshop is a best-selling product for Adobe, a $1.3 billion company and the nation's leading desktop publishing software maker. The latest retail price for the newest version is $609. GoLive, a Web-authoring tool, sells for $284.
Macromedia is asking a judge to block Adobe from selling the software and seeking "damages in an amount not yet determined."
No court date has been set. Adobe was not immediately available for comment.
Companies Backing New Internet Blocking Plan
The top three Internet companies will start encouraging other firms Tuesday to adopt a system that will allow parents to restrict access to Web sites they find objectionable. The companies hope the system will ward off the threat of government regulation.
Currently, a parent who wishes to block Web sites from a computer must use a filtering program with a preset list of blocked sites.
The Internet Content Rating Association's model is more flexible. Operators flag potentially objectionable content--like female nudity or gambling--on their Web sites. Using a free filtering program, parents can approve or disapprove each category. Any sites containing content that parents find objectionable are automatically blocked. Parents can still block or allow individual sites as well.
AOL Time Warner, Yahoo and Microsoft Network have thrown their support behind the labeling system. The companies represent the three most-visited Internet destinations, and they host thousands of user-created Web pages through community sites like GeoCities.
Yahoo! Adds Features to Instant Messenger Program
Yahoo! Inc. has enhanced its instant-messaging service with a variety of new virtual "environments'' for online chats in a bid for more users and advertising revenue.
Yahoo added themed backgrounds to the messenger service. The real-time chats will appear in new forms such as in frames or thought bubbles in a comic strip, for example.
The new service satisfies two of Yahoo's aims: to make online advertising more appealing and to move up from its third-place position in number of instant messaging users, behind America Online and Microsoft's MSN.
eToys Site Quietly Relaunched
Online toy retailer eToys has been quietly re-launched under its new ownership. The rights to the name and Web site were scooped up by KB Toys Inc. in bankruptcy proceedings in May.
The site, which went live two weeks ago, will continue to focus on specialty learning toys, while kbtoys.com has a broader focus, KB Toys spokesman John Reilly said.
Reilly said e-mails promoting the site were sent out to eToys' customers by the former company. He declined to comment on eToys' sales, but told the Associated Press that traffic has been "good."
KB Toys also plans to promote the eToys' site in its 1,300 stores, he said.
'.biz' Launch Delayed Again
NeuLevel, the operator of the registry for ".biz" domain names ending, has announced that the launch of the registry will be postponed until Nov 7. It had most recently been scheduled to go live tomorrow.
The ".biz" registry is among seven new domain names authorized last year. Together, the names represent the first new generic top level domains since the launch of ".com" and others in the 1980s. Of the new names, ".biz" and ".info" were due to go live first. However, both registries experienced delays.
The ".info" names had been scheduled for a "live" date of Sept. 12--much later than what was hoped for when the names were authorized last year. However, the launch was postponed and the .info registry finally went live at the start of October. The ".biz" registry had recently been scheduled for an Oct. 1 launch., but was postponed until Oct. 23. It has now been pushed back until Nov. 7, at which time new registration requests will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.
NeuLevel said the additional delay was due to the high demand for ".info" names.
Nestlé Criticized in Domain Name Battle
Nestlé of Switzerland was criticized by a domain name arbitration body for attempting to "hijack" the domain name "maggi.com" from an individual whose family name is the same as that of the Nestlé brand used for soup and other products.
Romeo Maggi, also of Switzerland, registered the domain name "maggi.com" in 1996. The Web site for the name bears a family photo and a message that the site is "coming soon."
Maggi originally registered the domain name in the name of his own company, Pro Fiducia Treuhand AG, although he subsequently instructed the domain name registry to transfer ownership to his family name. Nestlé accused him of cybersquatting and brought its claim before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Nestlé said that Maggi had registered and used the name in bad faith. Maggi is a brand used by Nestlé in various food products, including bouillon, soup, seasoning, sauce and prepared dishes.
Maggi argued that his interest in the name was legitimate and further that Nestlé was guilty of "reverse domain name hijacking, on the grounds that [it] is well aware of his legal right to have a domain name corresponding to his family name." The rules followed by WIPO define reverse domain name hijacking as use of the proceedings "in bad faith to attempt to deprive a registered domain-name holder of a domain name."
The three-member panel of WIPO agreed with Maggi and refused to transfer the name.
Microsoft Technology Cracked
An anonymous programmer named "Beale Screamer" cracked part of Microsoft's anti-piracy technology.
Microsoft confirmed that the code can overcome the protections that prevent a song from being copied an unlimited number of times.
The piece of software, which is being distributed anonymously online, aims to override Microsoft's digital rights management (DRM) software. The DRM software enables content owners such as record labels to set rules on how content can be used. Restrictions can be placed on the number of times a song could be played, for example, or specify that the song cannot be transferred to a particular type of technology such as an MP3 or recordable CD.
Microsoft has presented its media protection system as a core attraction of the Windows Media file format and has spent considerable time and effort in promoting the system to music labels and Hollywood studios in the hope that it will become their preferred route for content distribution.