Microsoft News Tracker

Based on the amount of press coverage and blog posts, it’s the biggest story of the day. What started it all is that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 team has agreed to use the same icon as Mozilla’s Firefox to indicate the presence of a RSS feed on a web page. The possibility that Microsoft might use something else had geeky passions inflamed earlier in the year. Who knows what could be next? Maybe they’ll agree on whether they are “bookmarks” or “favorites.”

Microsoft’s web advertising service, MSN adCenter, seems to be growing as Jennifer Laycock reports at Search Engine Guide:

Last week, I received an email in my inbox from MSN adCenter telling me that I was part of the next round of testers that were going to be give access to set up a pay-per-click campaign. I spoke with a few folks at SES Chicago that heard the same, so it seems that the next round let quite a few more people in the door. MSN is still showing Overture listings 75% of the time, but new adCenter advertisers will see their listings showing up for about a quarter of the searches run at MSN.

More details at the link, but note that this is the advertisers’ side of the program. There’s no word on a publishers’ side other than the ads appearing at Microsoft properties.

Press release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has filed 10 lawsuits against companies for allegedly pirating software and against people for allegedly selling not-for-resale software to unsuspecting purchasers. The actions, taken amid a technology landscape pocked by the fraudulent activities of those seeking to undermine fair business practices, are designed to help protect Microsoft’s partners and consumers from those engaging in the illegal sale of Microsoft® software — from counterfeit products to not-for-resale software deceitfully obtained and sold at retail.

Seven lawsuits filed against nine individuals from California, Maryland, New York, Texas and Virginia allege breach of a software agreement by which the individuals obtained a number of Microsoft Action Pack Subscriptions (MAPS). The MAPS Initiative is a program that provides eligible partners with discounted Microsoft software packages for product evaluation and internal use. The MAPS-related lawsuits, the first Microsoft has filed, allege egregious abuse of this program by people who have repeatedly and knowingly broken the terms of the agreement. Some of those named in the suits have allegedly attempted to sell software from their subscriptions to consumers through online auction sites.
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Three other lawsuits, filed by Microsoft against companies in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, allege counterfeit software abuses.

In related news from last week, Microsoft and eBay UK substantially reduced pirated Microsoft sales:

According to Microsoft, more than 21,000 suspect software sales were removed from the UK eBay site between August and October this year.

Over half (52 per cent) were sales of counterfeit Microsoft Windows, while 36 oer cent were fake copies of Microsoft Office.

According to Microsoft, the crackdown is working. It says that eBay removed 11,535 suspected counterfeit sales from the site in August. This fell to 4,460 in September and 5,423 in October.

A band of approximately 100 suspected illegal traders accounted for more than 3,000 of the items.

and closed down the UK firm Zoobon:

The current stage in the campaign against piracy from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has claimed its latest victim after Manchester based Internet retailer Zoobon was closed down for selling counterfeit Microsoft software.
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Following the investigations, an out-of-court settlement was reached between Microsoft and the individuals behind Zoobon under which they ceased trading and gave an undertakings not to sell counterfeit Microsoft software in the future. Zoobon’s site on eBay site has closed down.

Finally, speaking of the Business Software Alliance, they released a study done with consultants on the economic effects of software piracy reduction. Microsoft issued a statement in support of it.

Paul Thurrott has the latest buzz on Community Technical Previews for Windows Vista:

Sources at Microsoft have told me that the eagerly-awaited December Community Technical Preview (CTP) build of Windows Vista will be delivered to beta testers on Monday. According to my sources, the CTP is build 5270…

Earlier this month, Microsoft promised two Vista deliverables for December. The first, the December CTP, is a dramatic improvement over previous CTPs and includes many new features. In late December, Microsoft will ship internally a feature-complete build of Windows Vista. That build will form the basis for the next CTP, due in January of February 2006. After that, the company will focus solely on bug fixes and fit and finish issues, and will not add any more major new features to the product.

You may recall that the promised November CTP was skipped in favor of a new Vista beta plan.

Michael Liedtke at the AP:

Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are setting aside their bitter animosity to back a new Internet research laboratory aimed at helping entrepreneurs introduce more groundbreaking ideas to a mass audience.

Sun Microsystems Inc. also is joining the $7.5 million project at the University of California, Berkeley. The Reliable, Adaptive and Distributed Systems, or RAD, lab was scheduled to open Thursday and will dole out $1.5 million annually over five years, with each company contributing equally.

Staffed initially by six UC Berkeley faculty members and 10 computer science graduates, the lab plans to develop an array of Web-based software services that will be given away to anyone who wants it.

More by following the link including the increasing trend among universities to turn to business for research funding.