How to Use Windows

RealNetworks tried to fight the good fight against the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), but in the end, someone had to lose, and that someone is RealNetworks. A U.S. District Judge has issued a permanent injunction barring RealNetworks from selling RealDVD, the company’s controversial DVD copying software. In addition, the two sides reached a settlement offer that will also have RealNetworks forking over $4.5 million to the movie studios to pay for legal fees.

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Kaspersky on Monday announced it has been successful in patenting a hardware-based antivirus system designed primarily for fighting rootkits. Patent No. 7,657,941 was registered earlier this month and describes a technology developed by Oleg Zaitsev, senior technology expert at Kaspersky Lab. The patent describes a device that is installed between a hard drive or SSD and the computing unit (CPU or RAM) and connected to a system bus. It can also be integrated into the disk controller.

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Seven months ago, the New York Attorney General’s office slapped both Symantec and McAfee with $375,000 in fines to settle charges that they automatically charged customers software subscription renewal fees without their consent. Symantec may have been slow to learn its lesson, because now a New York man is suing the security software maker for the same reason. In the lawsuit, Kenneth Elan says he purchased a copy of Norton Antivirus in 2007. According to Elan, Symantec notified him in early 2009 that his software license had been automatically renewed and his credit card charged $76.03. Now Elan is taking Symantec to court, claiming the company did not abide by the above-mentioned settlement, in which Symantec and McAfee agreed to “provide electronics notification to consumers before and after renewal of the subscription.” “Prior to the automatic renewal, defendant failed to offer plaintiff an opportunity to decline to renew the license for another year,” the lawsuit alleges

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Congress held a hearing today to review the proposed purchase of NBC by Comcast. In that hearing Rep. Rick Boucher asked NBC CEO Jeff Zucker about the blocking of Boxee from Hulu content. Mr. Zucker’s answer was uncompromising, if a bit ham-handed

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Stealing Internet service is serious business, especially when you’ve made a business out of allowing others to hop online for free. That’s what 26-year-old Matthew Delorey of New Bedford, Mass., is accused of doing, who was arrested for allegedly selling hacked cable modems that gave customers free Internet access. Charged with one count each of conspiracy and wire fraud, if convicted, Delorey will face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

For the full story, go to Maximum PC

It’s bad enough trying to dodge sports cars and sedans drifting into opposing lanes because the driver’s busy firing off a text message, but try going up against a bus or 18-wheeler and let us know how that plays out. That’s not something we ever want to encounter, nor does the Department of Transportation like the idea, who has now made it illegal for bus drivers and truckers to pound out a message on their cellphone rather than pay attention to the road. “We want the drivers of big rigs and buses and those who share the roads with them to be safe,” said Ray LaHood, Transportation Secretary.

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in basketball, a shooter sometimes gets into a ‘zone,’ a mental state where everything’s going for them and they just can’t miss a shot. This is exactly the place Rambus finds itself in, only in a different kind of court, and a different game altogether. The latest opponent to go down against Rambus is Nvidia, who a judge ruled was guilty of violating three patents belonging to Rambus.

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If at first you don’t succeed, sue, sue again. The reason? You might score a $900 million settlement , just as sue-happy Rambus did after years of litigation over memory patents. And this could be just the beginning, but more on that in a moment

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Do you remember reading about something called the SarcMarc here last week? It is a downloadable punctuation mark for giving adequate notice of the sarcasm that precedes it. Though it may appear rather impractical to the vast majority, especially considering the fact that it costs $1.99, a certain Paul Chambers might even kill for such a contrived punctuation mark after a frivolous Twitter post got him booked under the UK’s Terrorism Act. After inclement weather put his travel plans in jeopardy, the 26-year-old Britisher joked on Twitter that he would blow the Robin Hood “airport sky high.” The tweet followed the airport’s closure on January 6, 2009 due to heavy snow.

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Microsoft isn’t yet finished fighting what it considers the good fight and has filed a second appeal in its patent case against i4i. According to Microsoft, the original judgment could set a dangerous precedent for future patent cases, TGDaily reports. The dispute stems from August of last year, in which Microsoft was found guilty of violating an XML patent held by Toronto-based i4i. Microsoft was then banned from selling or importing into the U.S

For the full story, go to Maximum PC