Modern PC News For Sept 7 2002

...Corel is offering a special incentive to customers who currently own Microsoft Enterprise Agreements. For a limited time period*, these customers can take advantage of a risk-free promotion and deploy Corel's award-winning word-processing application – WordPerfect® 10 – across their organizations. Customers who are interested in this promotion should contact 1-877-OK-COREL and reference the "EA Promotion".

Added Mr. Klembara: "The purpose of this promotion is to reach out to Microsoft customers who are dissatisfied with Microsoft's Enterprise Agreement and offer them an alternative with terms we are confident they will appreciate. Every day, millions of customers rely on the power and precision that WordPerfect provides – it's the premiere choice of customers in the legal and government sectors and the ultimate word processor. With the rollout of our new licensing program, we believe this is a perfect opportunity to invite Microsoft's large-volume enterprise clients to experience the power, stability and exceptional compatibility Corel's flagship word processor has to offer."...

...Special promotion offered from August 1, 2002, to October 31, 2002 only.

Legal and privacy expert Lawrence Lessig describes the privacy and copyright crisis facing the Internet. Find out how free speech is being undermined online on 'Big Thinkers.'

The Internet has changed in many ways in the last five years. It has become faster, bigger, and more accessible to more people. But not everyone is happy about the way the Internet is growing. In this week's episode of "Big Thinkers," we talk to Larry Lessig, widely considered the preeminent mind in the field of Internet privacy, copyright, and law.

Lessig, now a law professor at Stanford University, believes that the Net was built with the same values as the American Constitution. Embedded into the architecture of the network was the right to privacy and the ability to spread knowledge freely. But recently, says Lessig, those values are being corrupted on multiple fronts.

Lessig is passionate in his disdain for corporations and government intervention, which he says are undermining the Internet's ability to spread information freely and stifling its innovative and creative spirit.

Lessig made a name for himself a few years back while serving as "special master" appointed by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in the Microsoft antitrust trial. As one of Microsoft's most outspoken critics, he was a thorn in the side of the company during its saga of appeals.

Lessig has since written two books on the Internet and technology. In "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," Lessig continues to attack the "dark age" tactics suppressing technology and the Internet. The book focuses on government regulation and control of e-commerce. The Internet is "changing from a libertarian's utopia to a place that's controlled by commercial interests," Lessig writes.

In his more recent book, "The Future of Ideas" he details the rise and fall of the Internet revolution and how it's succumbing to a catastrophic counterrevolution. Just when technology was paving the way for an enlightened future, he writes, draconian tactics threatened to pull the plug on that future.

Find out more of what Lessig has to say about the future of the Internet, and what he believes needs to happen if the Internet is to retain its free and open architecture, on this episode of "Big Thinkers."

Lessig is a professor at Stanford Law School. He was also the Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. From 1991 to 1997, he was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

Fact sheet: Lawrence Lessig

Earned a B.A. in economics and a B.S. in management from the University of Pennsylvania. He has a master's in philosophy from Cambridge and is a graduate of Yale Law School.
Once clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia on the US Supreme Court.
Taught at Stanford, Harvard, and the University of Chicago.
Was a columnist for The Industry Standard.
Seeks election to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board of directors.

For more information about Lessig, visit his website. Both of Lessig's books are available from Amazon.com.

The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World, by Lawrence Lessig

Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, by Lawrence Lessig

In a star-studded Hollywood event Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled the much anticipated public beta version of its next-generation Windows Media platform. Under the main spotlight was Windows Media Player 9 Series, an evolutionary update to Microsoft's ubiquitous digital media player.

Among the new features in the beta release are improved media management tools, smart playlists, and enhanced audio and video codecs. A new Mini-Player Mode allows Windows Media Player to shrink onto the taskbar, reminiscent of Microsoft's scrapped Shell Audio Player PowerToy.

"We designed our new player for both the typical user who just wants an easier, faster and more flexible experience, as well as the audiophile who demands the highest possible recording and playback quality," said vice president of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft, Will Poole.

Subscription services play a major role in Windows Media Player 9 Series. A new Services tab allows users to easily sign up to music and video offerings from pressplay, Full Audio, Cinema Now and Intertainer. "Offering pressplay right inside Windows Media Player 9 Series extends the reach of our service to millions of potential new users," said pressplay CEO Mike Bebel in a statement.

...Microsoft did however remove the "Send to Friend" file-swapping option that appeared in early betas.

Windows Media Player 9 Series beta is available for Windows 98, Me, and 2000, along with a separate release for Windows XP that includes additional features optimized for Microsoft's newest operating system. A beta release of Windows Media Encoder 9 Series, a tool for encoding live and pre-recorded audio and video to Windows Media Format, is also available for download.

Consumer electronics company Sonicblue Inc. said Thursday it would lay off 25 percent of its staff, including its chief technology officer, in a cost-cutting move.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sonicblue, best-known for its Rio digital music players and ReplayTV ( news - web sites) digital video recorders, said the restructuring includes consolidating operations in Scottsdale, Az. and Tigard, Ore., into its Santa Clara facility. The cuts are expected to be completed by year-end...

...The DiamondMax Plus 9 rivals Western Digital's US$399 Drivezilla, a 200GB, 7,200rpm hard drive that began shipping in July. Western Digital uses an areal density of 66GB per platter to reach the 200GB mark

...The DiamondMax Plus 9 is Maxtor's highest-performance desktop PC drive to date. The drive pairs storage capacities of 60GB, 80GB, 120GB and 160GB with a rotation speed of 7,200 revolutions per minute...

...Drive makers such as Maxtor will continue to increase the areal densities through research, thus boosting their available storage capacity. Among other things, the increases allow manufacturers to create new drives with the same or better storage capacities, but fewer platters, which helps to reduce the complexity and price of new offerings...

Please WATCH Lawrence Lessig's speech on how Patents and Copywrites are being mis-used to contort the freedoms of the internet.

...MercExchange founder Thomas Woolston, an inventor and patent attorney who has been granted four online auction-related patents since 1998 and has some 10 others pending, said he sued eBay in 2001 after negotiations broke down over the auction site's offer to purchase his patents. The company first contacted Woolston in 2000 with an interest in buying the patents, and e-mails to that effect are expected to figure prominently in the case since they indicate that eBay knew about his patents yet continued to infringe them, he said

..."If (MercExchange) were to prevail on any of its claims, we might be forced to pay significant damages and licensing fees, modify our business practices or even be enjoined from practicing a significant part of our U.S. business. Any such results could materially harm our business," eBay said in its filing. "We are unable to determine what, if any, potential losses we may incur if this lawsuit were to have an unfavorable outcome."

MercExchange has suggested a specific figure to settle the case, but the court has sealed the report and the amount sought is unavailable, said Scott Robertson, an attorney with Hunton & Williams, who represents Woolston and MercExchange.

...Critics say many patented business methods are obvious and that enforcement would hinder the growth of the Internet of e-commerce.

Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos--himself the target of such criticism for patenting the company's "one-click" technology, which speeds up the purchasing stage of an online transaction--called for patent reform in March 2000. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office responded by saying it would give greater scrutiny to e-commerce and business-method patents.

...He filed his idea with the patent office in April 1995 and founded MercExchange to try to turn the idea into a business. But he couldn't raise the funding and eventually turned to the business of licensing his patents to other companies. Today, two companies license his work.

...The judge has not translated MercExchange's patent claims into plain English, an important part of a patent dispute. Until he completes this step, known as the Markman ruling, it's hard to tell how big the threat is to eBay, said Carl Oppedahl, an intellectual property attorney with Dillon, Colo.-based Oppedahl & Larson.

But should the case go to trial, eBay could suffer a serious setback, Oppedahl said.

"Clearly they have some exposure," he said. "No one can predict with certainty what a jury will do."