Corporate and legal

A preliminary ruling found that Intel's pricing practices did not hurt consumers, snapping a long legal losing streak for the chipmaker.

In a 112 page opinion, a special master for the U.S. District Court in Delaware recommended that the court deny class action status to plaintiffs seeking damages resulting from Intel pricing practices that, the plaintiffs alleged, "severely limit" PC makers from purchasing processors from Intel's competitors.

The "purposes and effect" was to exclude Advanced Micro Devices from the market, resulting in higher prices, according the plaintiffs.

Rejecting these allegations, Special Master Vincent … Read more

So guess what Microsoft thinks of Yahoo Japan's decision to swap it out for Google as main search partner?

Yeah, not too happy about it. And it's going to do all that it can to thwart the deal. "We plan to present evidence to the Japanese FTC explaining why we believe that this deal is substantially more harmful to competition than Google's deal with Yahoo in 2008 that the DOJ found to be illegal," the company said in a statement issued Friday afternoon.

Not all that surprising given the situation and Microsoft General Counsel Brad … Read more

In its App Store, Apple provides a platform for third-party developers to design and sell mobile applications. But the company also appears to have its eye on patenting a few key types of apps.

Unwired View unearthed three patent applications filed on Apple's behalf that cover travel- and shopping-related apps. One for travel booking, one for hotel services, and another for high-end fashion retail. All three were applied for between October and December, but were published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday.

The first, a travel-booking app, is designed to reserve travel plans, check in to … Read more

Samsung reported on Friday a record profit for its second quarter, triggered by a rebound in demand for computer memory chips and by rising sales for LCD TVs.

For the quarter ended June 30, the electronics company earned 4.28 trillion Korean won ($3.6 billion), an 83 percent leap from the 2.33 trillion won it earned in the prior year's second quarter. Operating profits, which are sales minus expenses, also reached record levels, rising 88 percent to hit 5.01 trillion won, while sales grew 17 percent to 37.89 trillion won.

Samsung attributed the strong results … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice is adding its heft to a whistleblower lawsuit charging that Oracle committed fraud in conjunction with a multimillion-dollar government contract.

In a nutshell, the lawsuit argues that Oracle's government customers--a wide array of agencies, including the State Department, the Energy Department, and the Justice Department itself--got deals "far inferior" to those the enterprise software giant gave to its commercial clients.

The allegations stem from a software deal between Oracle and the federal General Services Administration that the Justice Department says involved "hundreds of millions of dollars in sales" and … Read more

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey won't be leading the Motion Picture Association of America after all, the organization said Thursday.

In a terse statement, the film industry's trade group said the two sides "have agreed to end negotiations regarding the position of chief executive officer of the MPAA. The search process for a new CEO will continue.

The Hollywood Reporter said last week that the deal was all but done. The only thing left to be done was to settle on a start date.

Kerrey, a popular lawmaker and former Vietnam war hero, would have been … Read more

LAS VEGAS--The United States should decide on rules for attacking other nations' networks in advance of an actual cyberwar, which could include an international agreement not to disable banks and electrical grids, the former head of the CIA and National Security Agency said Thursday.

Michael Hayden, who was the principal deputy director of national intelligence and retired last year, said the rules of engagement for electronic battlefields are still too murky, even after the Defense Department created the U.S. Cyber Command last spring. The new organization is charged with allowing the U.S. armed forces to conduct "full-spectrum … Read more

REDMOND, Wash.--Steve Ballmer made the case Thursday that Microsoft not only gets the consumer market, but is set to grow its business there.

Speaking at the company's financial analyst meeting here, Microsoft's CEO began his speech by talking about the current state of the company's consumer business. His talk follows Kevin Turner's chat earlier in the day focusing on momentum with business customers.

"Our biggest consumer product, no question is Windows," Ballmer said, noting that most computers these days are sold to individuals, rather than businesses.

"Suffice to say I didn't … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

The U.S. Copyright Office on Monday granted an exemption to users who install unapproved applications or switch carriers on their smartphones. That act, when applied to the Apple iPhone, is often referred to as "jailbreaking."

Apple and others have argued that such activities violate provisions of 1998 revisions to federal copyright law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, specifically provisions that forbid the circumvention of security technologies a copyright holder uses to ensure that its software is not modified without permission.

The Copyright Office … Read more