Articles by Keith Regan

A host of trends in the technology industry could lead to a sharp increase in licensing fees next year and beyond, and enterprises should consider renegotiating existing deals now, research firm Gartner says in a new report The firm said that even if per-unit software prices change little, as expected, total license fees paid could double on averag...

Working through the weekend on a hotly contested topic with ramifications for the Internet and technology industries, the U.S. Senate approved a modified version of a controversial copyright protection bill being backed by the entertainment industry The Senate on Saturday passed what it's calling the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2004, ...

An adult Web site publisher is suing Google, saying the search engine company made it easier for users to see the site's copyrighted nude photographs without paying or gaining access through the proper channels Perfect 10 sued Google for copyright infringement in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, saying that...

Broadcom has rolled out a new line of local area network (LAN) chipsets that it says can increase the range of existing WiFi networks by as much as 50 percent in both office and home settings Broadcom said its Broadrange 54g chipsets rely on advanced signal processing technology to boost the range from which wireless-enabled computers can access a ...

Muscling into territory previously controlled by rising competitor AMD, Intel has struck a broad cross-licensing agreement with graphics chip maker nVidia The result of the multi-year deal will be that nVidia can design its graphics chipsets to work with Intel processors. nVidia has seen its market share erode some in recent quarters, but analysts ...

Showing no sign of letting up in its legal war against music swappers, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed another 761 copyright-infringement lawsuits against individuals As in the most recent batch of suits filed last month, the RIAA once again set its sights squarely on college-aged file sharers, suing 25 unnamed studen...

Microsoft might be considering some interim updates to its Internet Explorer (IE) browser that would improve the browser's overall functionality before the advent of Windows successor Longhorn, expected in 2006 Previously, the software giant had said it would not offer any substantial updates to IE until it launched Longhorn. It has offered numerou...

Search engine leader and stock market darling Google has warned investors that its skyrocketing growth rate is slowing, a development analysts knew was inevitable but one that might be coming sooner than many had expected In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google said that the growth rate would drop due to competition and the ...

In one of the largest retail mergers in recent memory that could alter both the world of traditional retail and the e-commerce landscape, Sears Roebuck & Co. has agreed to merge with the resurgent Kmart chain in a deal worth US$11 billion The result will be Sears Holding Corp., which will become the third-largest retailer in the U.S. and have annua...

Hoping to secure large corporate customers by addressing one of the fastest-growing Internet-related security threats, McAfee has launched an enterprise software product aimed specifically at identifying and eradicating spyware, adware and related programs McAfee's Anti-Spyware Enterprise Edition Module comes just two weeks after rival Computer Ass...

Dell and Microsoft have struck a partnership aimed at making it easier and faster for enterprises to update their server software with security patches and new releases The companies said they will work to merge Dell's OpenManage 4 systems management software and Microsoft's Systems Management Server 2003 to produce a tool that enables administrato...

In separate moves that suggest strong desire among media giants to position themselves in the online news and information fields, Dow Jones agreed to buy MarketWatch in a deal worth US$519 million, while Yahoo announced it had hired a former Wall Street Journal Online executive to head its own news division Dow Jones will pay $18 per share in cash ...

Hoping to grab a piece of a business that combines two of the hottest Web sectors -- travel and search -- America Online has purchased a stake in a startup software company already backed by the founders of Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz AOL made an undisclosed investment in Kayak Software as part of a multi-year marketing and technology agreement...

Culminating its months-long investigation into the theft of Microsoft's viciously guarded Windows source code, the FBI has arrested a Connecticut man it said used a Web site to distribute parts of the operating system William O. Genovese Jr., 27, faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of US$250,000 if convicted on charges of distributing the sto...

Security software firm Finjan said its research lab has turned up 10 "serious" flaws in Microsoft's Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, an upgrade that Microsoft is touting as a way to better secure its flagship platform The vulnerabilities allow a range of attacks to be successful, in some cases giving attackers access to a computer's local files, or t...

Leading chipmaker Intel did not have to search far and wide for a replacement for its outgoing CEO, naming longtime executive and current president and chief operating officer Paul Otellini to the top post Intel's Board of Directors elected Otellini to take over from Craig Barrett effective in May of 2005. Barrett, who was CEO for seven years, will...

Skype Technologies, viewed by many as a pathfinder in the bid to bring voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calling to consumers, said it has collaborated with Siemens on technology that will enable traditional cordless phone users to have their calls sent over the Internet The product, being made available first in European countries such as Englan...

Confident that its technology now is on a par with its competition, Microsoft reportedly plans to formally launch its long-awaited new search product tomorrow, taking the search wars to a new level in the process Microsoft reportedly has been working on the search engine for 18 months and made a beta version of it available for public and developer...

Security firms are warning of a new e-mail worm that began infecting computers just days after the vulnerability it exploits in the Internet Explorer (IE) browser was made public The worm, which some information security experts say is a variation of the MyDoom virus that ravaged the Web earlier this year, is spread through e-mail but does not rely...

In just the latest example of a technology company aggressively protecting its intellectual property, Toshiba has filed lawsuits alleging that Hynix memory chips violate Toshiba patents Japan's Toshiba filed suits in Tokyo and in U.S. District Court in Texas. The Japanese suit alleged infringement on patents relating to flash memory technology used...