January 20 2004 -
Microsoft: We took MikeRoweSoft too seriously
- By Munir
Kotadia, ZDNet (UK), Microsoft says it may have been overaggressive in
threatening Web entrepreneur Mike Rowe over the name of his Web site,
Mikerowesoft.com. Rowe, a 17-year-old student from Vancouver,
British Columbia, registered Mikerowesoft.com to front his part-time Web
site design business in August 2003. Three months later, he received an
e-mail from Microsoft's lawyers, asking him to transfer the domain name
to Microsoft. They offered to pay him a "settlement" of $10, which is
the cost of his original registration fee...
January 14 2004 -
Drunk driver
ordered to carry coffin photo
- Judge rules convict must reflect on picture of deceased
victim, The Associated Press, BUTLER, Pa. - A woman who was drunk
when she killed a man in a head-on collision must carry a photograph of
the teacher in his coffin as part of her five years of probation, a
judge ruled...
January 29 2004 -
Ashcroft says surveillance powers should stand
- By Declan
McCullagh, CNET News.com, The Bush administration is warning
Congress not to tinker with the Internet surveillance powers that the
USA Patriot Act awarded to federal police. In a four-page letter to the
Senate on Thursday, Attorney General John Ashcroft said that defanging
the controversial law, which has been criticized by every major
Democratic presidential contender, would "undermine our ongoing campaign
to detect and prevent catastrophic terrorist attacks." Were Congress to
vote to amend the USA Patriot Act, Ashcroft indicated, President Bush
would veto the bill...
January 22 2004 -
Governments vote against Microsoft
- By David Becker, CNET News.com, Microsoft
has had its share of bad courtroom experiences, but lately the software
giant has been taking some of its hardest knocks in city council and
legislative chambers. While government customers account for less than
10 percent of Microsoft's revenue, according to analyst estimates,
they've caused a disproportionate share of headaches for the company
over the past year. Ambitious projects to migrate government computers
to Linux and other competing software, official decrees favoring
open-source products and hard-nosed licensing negotiations have put
government customers well ahead of private business when it comes to
testing Microsoft's mettle...
