Cara Garretson

While online piracy has most notably wreaked havoc on the entertainment industry, a recent survey sponsored by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) shows that makers of professional software are also suffering from unauthorized distribution of files across the Internet.

The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) specification may not be a panacea for the online privacy dilemma, but panelists at a conference in Washington Tuesday said it will go a long way to help consumers better understand Web sites' privacy policies.

Microsoft Corp. chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates sparred with an attorney representing the states suing Microsoft over his interpretation of the states' proposed antitrust remedies, as he began his second day of testimony at the Microsoft remedy hearing Tuesday morning.

A prominent U.S. senator on Thursday introduced a bill designed to safeguard Internet users' privacy while still allowing online businesses to collect personal information by breaking data down into sensitive and non-sensitive categories.

Is there room in the industry for both open source software, which lets users view and tinker with a program's source code, as well as proprietary software? This question and related ones were asked at a conference held in Washington Friday, where panelists discussed the pros and cons of different software licensing models and whether the U.S. government should get involved in the debate.

Microsoft Corp.'s .Net platform for Web services takes advantage of the company's Windows operating system in a way that will make it difficult for other vendors' software to compete, said an AOL Time Warner Inc. (AOLTW) official at the Microsoft remedy hearing Thursday morning.

A U.S. senator on Thursday introduced a controversial bill that would force the inclusion of copyright protection technology in digital media devices ranging from PCs to cable television set-top boxes.

In the United States nearly all of the identification forms citizens use on a regular basis