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Apple’s efforts to build its own chip development brain trust out of its acquisition of PA Semi have run afoul of IBM. Mark Papermaster, a 26-year IBM veteran and vice president of its Blade Development unit–a division that designs corporate data centers, plans to take a new job with Apple in early November, and Big Blue is doing its damndest to stop him. The company has filed suit against Papermaster, claiming his noncompete agreement with IBM prohibits him from taking a job with Apple.

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Microsoft’s renewed antipiracy push isn’t currying much favor among PC users running pirated software. In China, a nation where 82 percent of all software is unlicensed, many are lambasting the company over its Windows Genuine Advantage program, which blackens the desktop backgrounds of PCs running unlicensed copies of Windows and pesters their owners with constant warning messages.

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Steve Martin once said, “The difference between a good comedian and a great one is ti … ming, tiiiii-ming, timmm-ing . . . timing!” If that’s the case, Microsoft’s comedic timing is impeccable. In a status report filed with Federal antitrust regulators yesterday, Microsoft said it had done much to comply with its 2002 antitrust consent decree and generally applauded its efforts toward interoperability and fair competition.

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If there was an Emmy Award for legislation production, NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker would surely win it. Last October he called upon Congress to pass a bill that would create a dedicated intellectual-property enforcement bureau and today it’s looking more and more like he’s going to get it.
This week members of the House [...]

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It’s been a year since Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer first claimed the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft’s intellectual property and six months since the company’s general counsel, Brad Smith, and vice president of intellectual property and licensing, Horacio Gutierrez, told Fortune magazine that Linux and other open-source software projects between them violate 235 Microsoft [...]

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Nothing like an alarmist study to get Washington lawmakers worked up into a pro-legislation lather. Which is exactly what NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker gave them at an antipiracy summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today.
Citing an Institute for Policy Innovation study that estimates that copyright-industry piracy costs the U.S. economy $58 [...]

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The laundry rooms at Sun Microsystems and Network Appliance must be on the fritz, because the two companies have begun washing their dirty laundry in public. Yesterday, NetApp sued Sun, alleging that its ZFS storage software, a key element of its Solaris operating system, violates seven NetApp patents. Dave Hitz, co-founder of NetApp, explained the [...]

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Well, Marc Andreessen must be grinning into his cornflakes this morning. At market open today Hewlett-Packard said it had agreed to acquire Opsware, the enterprise-software company Andreessen founded back in 1999, for $1.65 billion. H-P will pay $14.25 for each share of Opsware, a 39% premium over Friday’s close of $10.28.
At that price, Andreessen–who [...]

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Seeking to outsource its enforcement costs, the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America] asks universities to point fingers at their students, to filter their Internet access and to pass along notices of claimed copyright infringement. … But these responses distort the university’s educational mission. They impose financial and nonmonetary costs, including compromised student privacy, [...]

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