Joris Evers

Napster Inc.'s US$1 billion offer to settle ongoing litigation in the United States is only applauded by its present backers. Adversaries are telling the company behind the popular music-swapping service to act like a responsible business and stop its media offensive.

Microsoft Corp. has signed agreements with Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and the U.K.'s Sendo PLC to manufacture mobile phone handsets using its Stinger operating system, the company announced Monday.

Napster Inc. will launch a subscription service this year that promises high-quality music downloads, a spokesman for German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG confirmed.

Vignette Corp., a supplier of electronic-business applications, confirmed Friday that it has cut about 450 jobs, or 15 per cent of its work force, to reduce operations cost.

Computer virus watchers are warning of a variant of the infamous Melissa virus that slips by detection software because of an altered file format.

A security vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player 7 can allow a hacker to get full control over a user's computer, a well known bug hunter said.

Oracle Corp. announced Tuesday three new products that the company says add a new layer to its Exchange Marketplace product.

The Undernet, part of the chat network IRC (Internet Relay Chat), is under attack from hackers and this siege also hurts other services offered by companies that run Undernet servers, the organization says.