The European Commission outlined for the first time on Wednesday remedies it intends to impose on US software giant Microsoft for what it called continuing abuses of its dominant market position. The EU executive said it was giving Microsoft a final chance to comment before it orders the global leader to share crucial interface information with competitors in the server market and requires it to allow fairer competition for media players.

Collaborating engineers from IBM, Sony and Toshiba have wrapped up the design for the inner workings of a mysterious new chip called "Cell." The new multimedia processor, touted as a "supercomputer on a chip," is well on the way to completion, IBM says. The chip could end up inside the PlayStation 3, and elements of its design will be seen in future server chips from IBM.

Sony has unveiled a plasma TV with built-in broadband networking that is linked to a Web pad-like remote control by wireless LAN technology. The intention is clearly that Sony's screens can become part of an intelligent home network.

A proposed directive heading for the European Parliament next month could have disastrous consequences for consumers and smaller businesses, while benefiting large copyright holders, according to civil liberties groups. A draft EU directive designed to protect intellectual property rights will undermine small technology companies and criminalise the blind because it gives too much power to large companies, according to a UK-based Internet policy think tank.

Game players can have their PC games automatically update themselves whenever a new patch is released - a model that is also finding increasing favour in the application and OS software market. Software developer Aardwork has launched a subscription-based patch management service for PC gamers. GameShadow identifies which games are stored on a user's PC or network and then uses the company's database to find and install available patches.

Panasonic today announced another milestone in the rapid adoption of DVD-RAM technology for the storage industry, as Host Interface International launched its Double Image® 5.0 back-up/restore software with support for Panasonic's OEM DVD MULTI Drive. When combined with the robust functionality of the SW-9571-CYY DVD MULTI Drive, Double Image 5.0 users will have a fast, reliable and easy-to-use solution for all their current and future DVD storage needs.

South Korea's Samsung will start making and selling Sony Corp memory products used in digital cameras and electronic organizers, the companies said on Wednesday. Samsung will also bundle the Memory Stick with its compatible products, such as DVD players and televisions. The two electronics giants reached a basic agreement in August 2001 to add Memory Stick compatibility to some Samsung products.

Taiwan-based Lite-On IT expects to debut its first home-use DVD recorder later this year, with volume production and shipments set to start in September and October, respectively, the company said. The DVD recorder, supporting the DVD+RW format and a maximum of 4x writing speed, is set to be marketed at below US$399 (£247) as an own-brand product but may also be available for contract manufacturing services, according to Henry Lin, product marketing assistant manager at the company.

The latest report from the Business Software Alliance concludes that software piracy declined in the United States during 2002.The special interest group, an antipiracy organization that's comprised of members such as Apple Computer, Cisco Systems and Microsoft, have released results of its state-by-state analysis of software piracy across the United States. According to BSA's report, the nation's piracy rate dropped 2 percentage points in 2002 compared with 2001, to 23 percent.

Microsoft is taking Media Center further overseas, with plans to launch the PC entertainment software in China, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

We've updated our list of the latest DVD film releases.

Internet users appear to be snubbing the RIAA as they continue to download music files with no regard for copyright, according to a US-based study by Pew. Despite aggressive challenges by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) to on-line music suppliers like the defunct Napster, two-thirds of Internet users in the US who copy digital music on-line say they don't care if the music is copyrighted, according to the report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

MediaTek, the world's largest supplier of semiconductors for DVD players, said second-quarter profit rose 27 percent because the SARS outbreak hindered rivals' efforts to compete for customers in China.

Press Release: ATI's newest multimedia video card joins the award-winning All-In-Wonder family to provide customers with all the best of current PC multimedia technologies combined with fantastic new features such as FM Radio, Dual VGA, Faster-than-Real time DVD / CD Authoring and the next generation Remote Wonder II radio frequency (RF) Remote Control.

Indonesia has responded to pressure from the World Trade Organization and introduced a new law aimed at clamping down on copyright piracy. The move which observers have been calling long overdue has in part been forced by continuing music piracy eroding the government's coffers.

Retail sales of laptop and desktop computers with DVD recorders jumped 550 percent in unit terms during the first half of this year, according to research from NPD Group.

The 321Studios have released an update to the DVD X Copy Xpress. At the same time they released a new version of the Gold -bundle, which includes the Xpress and the original XCopy.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has decried a ruling by the Australian Federal Court that mod chips designed to circumvent copy protection features on gaming consoles are illegal. Last week Sony won an appeal which saw the Federal Court rule that mod chips breached the anti-circumvention provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. These provisions prohibit devices being sold for the purpose of defeating measures designed to protect copyright.

Australia is now officially under the thumb of the mod-chip banners, after the Court of Appeal, accepted its argument that mod-chips should be made illegal. Mod chips enable games console players to overcome protection built into their machines to run imported games bought legitimately and to back up games legitimately. But they also facilitate the playing of pirated games too.

A pair of major music labels have been hit with another round of price-fixing charges courtesy of the U.S Federal Trade Comission (FTC) - a decision which raises the question as to who exactly is to blame for falling music revenue.