general counsel

Score one for Hollywood. RealNetworks agreed this week to settle lawsuits with major movie and TV studios for its RealDVD product, which allows users to copy DVDs onto hard drives.

As part of the settlement, RealNetworks will pay the studios $4.5 million to cover legal costs. In its announcement, RealNetworks said all parties have agreed to the "terms of a permanent injunction that will prohibit RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of copyrighted content protected by the Content Scramble System, ArccOS or RipGuard."

Score one for Hollywood. RealNetworks agreed this week to settle lawsuits with major movie and TV studios for its RealDVD product, which allows users to copy DVDs onto hard drives.

As part of the settlement, RealNetworks will pay the studios $4.5 million to cover legal costs. In its announcement, RealNetworks said all parties have agree to the "terms of a permanent injunction that will prohibit RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of copyrighted content protected by the Content Scramble System, ArccOS or RipGuard."

Microsoft is cracking down on botnets through the legal system -- and winning. The software giant launched a legal assault this week against networks of compromised computers controlled by hackers, and a federal judge in Alexandria, Va., agreed to its request to deactivate 277 infringing domain names.

On Thursday, Facebook won a victory for social-networking users everywhere. The U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., awarded Facebook $711 million in damages against Sanford Wallace, aka the spam king.

Facebook said Wallace, Adam Arzoomanian and Scott Shaw broke the law by sending unwanted messages and wall posts to people on Facebook, violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Anti-Phishing Act, and the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM).

In a move to close a decade-long chapter of competition concerns, Microsoft on Wednesday agreed to provide a choice of browsers in the European Union. The software giant usually configures Internet Explorer as the default browser for its Windows operating system, but agreed to test-market measures to give consumers an option to download and install competing browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox.

TiVo is so well known as the pioneer of digital video recorders that many people mistakenly call any DVR a "TiVo." But if the company has its way, that perception may soon have the support of law, which could dramatically reshape the TV business.

In a patent infringement case coming to a head against Dish Network -- as well as cases filed last week against Verizon and AT&T -- TiVo says that it owns the technology behind processes found in almost every DVR.

Microsoft has retreated in the battle for Internet Explorer in Europe. On Friday, it offered to implement a browser ballot favored by the European Commission.

Countering charges that it forced Internet Explorer on users to the detriment of alternative browsers, Microsoft had planned to ship a special European version of Windows 7 without a browser. That would have created major headaches for users, who would have no means to download a browser, whether Internet Explorer or an alternative, and it would make an upgrade to Windows 7 more difficult.

Rambus Inc. said Thursday that the Federal Trade Commission has dropped its claim that the memory chip company violated antitrust laws in patenting technologies that were eventually incorporated into industry standards.

The company's shares jumped 12 percent in midday trading Thursday.

On Wednesday, the European Commission fined Intel a record 1.06 billion Euros (US$1.44 billion) for anticompetitive behavior. Intel said it will appeal.

The EC said the U.S.-based chipmaker gave discounts and payments to European computer manufacturers to use Intel's processors and prevent them from going to archrival Advanced Micro Devices. The investigation began in 2000.

Minnesota officials are trying a novel tactic to block online gambling sites -- using a federal law that enables restrictions on phone calls used for wagering.

The state's Department of Public Safety said Wednesday it had asked 11 Internet service providers to block access to 200 online gambling sites.

The state is citing a federal law that requires "common carriers," a term that mainly applies to phone companies, to comply with requests that they block telecommunications services used for gambling.