Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's open admission that the company plans to take free software to court for allegedly infringing on 235 of its patents has (of course) drawn the ire of most of the technology industry. Did the software giant have to go there? Why? No, experts say. The company's strategy is to blackmail the many Fortune 1000 firms operating on Linux software into coming to the negotiating table. The software giant struck its first deal with Linux seller Novell in 2006, a move met with serious criticism by the IT sector. Worse, Microsoft is telling companies to find …

After a statement from the Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal that thousands of sexual offenders are lurking on MySpace, the News Corp. social network urgently responded that it's prepared to work with state attorneys general to stamp out the problem. The company said its cooperation hinges on whether state officials follow the law and subpoena the names. The attorney generals want the MySpace info to be able to lock up sex offenders. MySpace several months ago bulked up its anti-sex predator team when this issue came to the boil several months ago, but the release of user information …

Copyright law has proved to be a real drag on Web users this year. First, the Googlization of YouTube put the stop (inadvertently) on certain video content, then Web radio was told to pay astronomically higher licensing and royalty fees to Big Music to retain the right to Webcast their music. The injustice exposed by the latter could force Congress into overhauling all copyright law--but there's a ways to go yet. The new royalty payments kick in July 15, so the first order of business is getting the yet-to-be-appointed judge in the appeals case to file an emergency stay, …

Microsoft Corp. on Monday mounted an all-out attack on free software, using a Fortune interview as its mouthpiece. The software giant claims that makers of free, open-source software (FOSS), which includes Linux, have benefited from the infringement of no less than 235 software patents belonging to Microsoft. That means the company believes everyone from individual writers of code to the scores of Fortune 500 companies running on Linux should pay royalty and licensing fees to keep operating. Conversely, FOSS pioneer Richard Stallman about 20 years ago implemented a strict set of legally enforceable rules under which all open-source code …

Services like Apple's iTunes will become a thing of the past once we're living in a fully wired, on-demand world. However, what you might not know is that 2007 will be the year online media stores peak, while programming is added to free, ad-supported services like Joost, YouTube, and News Corp./NBC's joint venture. Sales of movie and TV shows are expected to triple from an estimated $98 million last year to $279 million this year, according to Forrester Research, which expects sales to begin their inevitable decline next year. "In the video space, iTunes is just a temporary flash …

Do the legions of ad-haters out there understand that if they want free content on the Web, they have to deal with advertising? That said, there's an entire industry full of intelligent folks who've devoted themselves to creating ad-blocking software. There is a new program developed by conceptual artist Steve Lambert that replaces display ads with contemporary artwork chosen by curators. During a demonstration, the banner and rectangle ads on the Fox News Web site were replaced with a bald eagle illustration. Is this legal? Doesn't that inventory belong to Fox News, or does it belong to the Web …

Advertising's major agency holding companies are now firmly aligned with their global media-selling counterparts: The future is digital. And that's going to mean big changes, just as it has for every other industry affected by this phenomenon. But some would say that Big Advertising is still several steps behind Big Media in addressing a shift that could have a comparatively greater affect on their business. To that point, Mark Reed, CEO of WPP Digital, WPP Group's digital arm, said recently, "We'll be successful when we won't need to exist anymore. Particularly in five years' time, the boundaries of what's …

Reporting from the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Montreal last week, the Times brings back an old issue that continues to hang over the ad industry: consumer privacy versus the collection of user information. Just last fall, the Center for Digital Democracy filed a fresh complaint with the FTC detailing how the combination of user profiling, data mining and targeted advertising threaten consumer privacy. At the show, the CDD's executive director Jeff Chester claimed that the use of IP addresses in collecting user data is essentially the same as collecting personal information, but without names. (He argues they …

According to one measure used by financial analysts, Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion takeover bid for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. values the publisher higher than Google. Let's explain that: The $60-per share offer represents 40 times DJC's projected 2007 earnings, compared to the current price of Google's shares, which values the search giant at about 32 times projected '07 earnings. But if Microsoft approached Google for a buyout (will never happen), it would offer a price per share valuing the company at an even higher price per projected earnings for the year, given the Google's sustained rate …

The traditional media model isn't just shifting, it's collapsing. It's a new world when consumers start taking the initiative to create marketing messages for companies whose products they like. However, brands are our culture, which means that when we take photos of ourselves with the products we love, as Cadillac asked its owners to do in a recent campaign, we do it with pride, and because we want to. Doritos showed the rest of the world how it's done with the user-created commercials it aired during the Super Bowl. The idea: get the audience involved, they'll love your brand …