It's unfortunate that companies still feel the need to equate patents to "innovation" when the opposite is often true. These days, unfortunately, many companies feel the need to get patents simply as a defensive measure. Whether for defense or offense, it appears that Bill Gates believes Microsoft needs more patents.

Some recently noted Microsoft patents include saving the name of a game you're playing, showing that someone is "typing a message" in IM software, thread based email, writing an application in HTML, grouping programs together in the taskbar, pronouns used in programming and the concept of giving "kudos" points for style and flair. Well, kudos to Microsoft then, on the style and flair with which they've been granted so many questionable patents.

Microsoft will pay upstart Linux seller Lindows $20 million to settle a long-running trademark dispute, according to a regulatory document filed Monday.

In exchange for the payment, Lindows--which recently renamed most of its products "Linspire" to work around European trademark suits--will give up the Lindows name and assign related Web domains to Microsoft, according to the registration statement Lindows filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tom Burt, vice president and deputy general counsel for Microsoft, said in the statement that agreement meets Microsoft's goals for protecting the Windows name. "We are pleased that Lindows will now compete in the marketplace with a name distinctly its own," he said.

This certainly isn't a new or unique story, but Broadband Reports has yet another story about ridiculous and pointless copy protection. The copy protection scheme, called Starforce, appears to be mainly used for protecting certain PC games from being copied. Of course, like so many copy protection schemes it does this by assuming all legitimate customers are criminals. Not only that, but it installs itself without letting you know (not even in the EULA), hides itself on your PC, slows down the PC, causes all sorts of other problems and errors, and is nearly impossible to remove -- even after the protected application has been removed. In other words, it's just as bad as some adware/spyware out there -- except that it's screwing things up for legitimate customers who actually went out and bought the games in question. As the article points out, every one of those games is available in a cracked version online, so this "copy protection" scheme doesn't actually prevent copies. It only serves to anger legitimate customers. Why is anyone using this product on their software?

After being berated by Microsoft for attempting to sell Linux on some of the company's desktop systems, Dell has decided to stop selling Windows altogether. CEO Michael Dell said, in a fictional conference call with reporters, "Microsoft is in no position to push us around. By selling Linux, we will save each customer nearly $200 per computer. If Microsoft would like to continue selling Windows through Dell, it will need to ask very nicely and accept that we have the right to sell other operating systems."

Microsoft has reacted angrily to the news. Steve Ballmer is in the hospital recovering from choking on his breakfast after receiving the news, but a spokesperson says that "Microsoft is not impressed with Dell's actions and will be taking anti-competitive action to ensure that the hardware company changes its mind."

Email users are more likely to open attachments now than they were 12 months ago, despite the well-publicised spread of viruses MyDoom and Netsky this year.

85% of 1,162 people questioned by Tickbox.net and online marketing agency Markettiers4dc said they would open an attachment sent by a friend or colleague, compared to 84% last year.

Humorous content was cited as the top reason people opened attachments or forwarded them to friends. 83% of respondents forwarded emails to make the recipient laugh. 58% sent emails on to recommend something.

Despite reports of companies adopting stringent email policies due to the threat of viruses, only 5% of people surveyed reported being unable to open attachments.

The software collossus which bestrides the Andes to the Ganges is having a little trouble with its staff.

Ballmer quietly announced he was cutting their stock discounts, prescription drug payments and parental leave to save the ailing company $80 million, as it aims to trim more than $1 billion from Vole's cost structure this year. For the record, Steve is sitting on more than $56 billion in cash that the company does not really know what to do with.

WashTech, which is trying to unionise workers at Microsoft, said the cuts could be a turning point in labour management relations at Vole.

Napster moved into damage control mode today after a university gave some idea as to how much a RIAA music tax will add to student costs.

Ohio University believes it will need 5,000 students to pay the $3 fee to make Napster a break-even proposition for the school. Napster has demanded that Ohio University stay silent about the price before anyone catches wind of the cost.

"Napster called us today and said we should not publicize the details or discuss our contract," said Sean O'Malley, spokesman Communication Network Services at OU. "The price was an idea they had suggested early on."

On the plus side, Napster users at the school would be able to download as much music as they like for $3 per month - Windows users only, of course. Sadly, the DRM restrictions with Napster run high. Users can only make 3 copies of a song before the files become unplayable. In addition, students must pay 99 cents per song to move the file from their computer onto a CD or music playing device.

Students would also only be able to download songs while they are on the school network. Once they leave school their music disappears. Has renting culture ever been more fun?

It's been a long road since Slashdot first carried the story that Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) was speaking out about the DMCA's trampling of fair-use rights. Well, his bill (HR 107) gets a hearing this Wednesday and the multi-billion-dollar music and movie industries have called out their Big Guns to stop it. This morning an urgent message from the Professional Photographers of America arrived in my inbox characterizing Boucher's bill as 'A bill that would make it impossible for photographers to protect their work' and other lies (apparently, the RIAA and MPAA have recruited the PPA into their Axis of Evil). The alert finishes by saying that 'a strong grassroots effort combined with [our] recent lobbying efforts should be enough to keep this harmful bill locked in the subcommittee ... until Congress adjourns.' Let's give these folks a little taste of the slashdot effect and do a little 'grassroots' contacting of congresscritters ourselves.

A new type of MP3 format being released in the next few months of 2004 will benefit audio enthusiasts with superb digital surround sound 5.1 playback, but will disturb the peer-to-peer file traders. Current MP3 files only use two channels, the "Super MP3", as I call it, will support four channel audio from a down-mixed 5.1 surround sound source.

Fraunhofer Institute, originator of the MP3, will add the Dubbed Light Weight Digital Rights Management (LWDRM) code to all new MP3 files. If the owner who originally purchased the rights to that MP3 file publishes it online in a shared environment, the file will display the original owners digital signature, thus allowing the individuals to be immediately identified.

This new trackable, un-sharable "Super MP3" may be an attempt by the Fraunhofer Institute to make amends with the disgruntled music industry.

According to Merijn Bellekom, who has been tracking CWS and its many variants -- more than two dozen since CWS first appeared last summer -- CWS is "the most complex, invisible and devious hijacker" ever programmed.

CWS-infected computers are often plagued with a constant barrage of pornography pop-up ads. A hundred or more bookmarks, some for extremely hard-core pornography websites, are often added by CWS to Internet Explorer's Favorites folder.

Almost all versions of CWS significantly slow the performance of infected computers, and some can cause the system to freeze, crash or randomly reboot. CWS also collects and transfers personal information from the infected PC. A few versions of CWS can add websites to Internet Explorer's "trusted sites" zone, which allows those websites to install new programs on the infected PC without the computer owner's knowledge or permission. Several CWS variants are capable of automatically self-updating their programming code.

A few versions of CWS block a user's access to more than two dozen websites that offer advice on how to detect and delete spyware. Some CWS versions also disable firewall programs.