The MPAA have released their Parent File Scan tool, which 'helps consumers check whether their computers have peer-to-peer software and potentially infringing copies of motion pictures and other copyrighted material'. According to the MPAA, the software does not report any data back to the MPAA. However, users have noted that the software is not accurate; 'tagging' virtually every audio or video file it finds based on file extensions.

Microsoft Corp. says it has no plans to change the way its Windows Media Player handles the download of DRM licenses.

Amid reports that malicious hackers are using the anti-piracy mechanism to infect computers with spyware, adware, dialers and computer viruses, Microsoft officials stressed that the latest attack scenario does not exploit a vulnerability in the software.

Security experts warn that crackers are rigging .wmv files to use the DRM (digital rights management) features of Windows Media Player to browse sites infested with malware.

Coleman also recommended the use of Microsoft's new anti-spyware software, which is capable of detecting and deleting unwanted programs.

A filing on a forum from Phil DeLuca at America's Army game project indicates that the US Army is not at all happy at people s0dding about with its code.

DeLuca said that the US Army is very unhappy with hackers and others breaching its licence agreements, and it knows who these people are.

He said: "We know who you are, and can track down where you play from. We have incontrovertible proof you did something illegal. The Army is angry, and we're coming for you".

Flexbeta.net compares Microsoft's new spyware fighting tool, Windows AntiSpyware, to Ad-Aware and SpyBot S&D; the two leading spyware tools on the market today. The review sets up an infected PC using VMWare Workstation and scans the machine using all three tools to see which tool detects the most spyware. Though still in beta, Microsoft AntiSpyware does an amazing job at detecting spyware by finding twice as many infected files as Ad-Aware and nearly three times as SpyBot.

Microsoft is hosting a discussion on Windows and Linux between its two top Linux consultants. Martin Taylor and Bill Hilf talk about the various OSS licenses, focus on the open source development model, competing implementations of administration tools, TCO, and risk assessment. Also available in offline formats, doc (which looks fine in OpenOffice.org) and wma as well.

The SCO Group has taken its controversial Linux licensing programme worldwide, and is warning of imminent legal action against UK companies.

SCO claims its intellectual property (IP) has been put into Linux without its consent, giving it the right to demand that Linux users buy a licence.

SCO senior vice president and general manager of SCOsource Chris Sontag said the firm expected to start legal action against Linux users in the next couple of weeks.

"There are large Linux users [in the UK] - with very large commercial usage of Linux for which our IP is being exploited - for whom we have a great deal of concern," he said.

"In this current article about OpenOffice.org (also covered at Linux Today), I try to make a point about OpenOffice's commitment to open document formats and interchange as the strongest selling point - never mind cost. The OOo developers are putting a lot of effort into their XML format; will this pay off, and will users notice the significance of OpenDocument/OASIS document formats?" This can't be said enough: file formats are what determine whether and how easily data is portable, or whether the user is just stuck.

Most of the desktop computers in the UK's Department for Work and Pensions were paralyzed for four days on Monday, when a failed upgrade took them offline. The outage, covering 75 percent to 80 percent of the DWP's 80,000 PCs, is one of the largest in the UK government's not entirely impressive IT history.

According to one, a limited network upgrade from Windows 2000 to Windows XP was taking place, but instead of this taking place on only a small number of the target machines, all the clients connected to the network received a partial, but fatal, "upgrade."

Unfortunately the request was made to apply it live and it was rolled out across the estate, which hit around 80 percent of the Win2K desktops. This patch caused the desktops to BSOD and made recovery rather tricky as they couldn't boot to pick any further patches or recalls.

Valve software has disabled the Steam accounts of 20,000 people it has said were attempting to use pirated copies of Half-Life 2.

In a statement released to Shacknews, Valve said that reasons for closing the accounts included credit card fraud, theft of other people's accounts and using cracked versions of Valve games.

It also denied reports that it had deliberately leaked out 'warez' copies of the game to entrap users.

Those who bought the game at retail are required to have the disc in the drive to play, a problem which doesn't plague Steam buyers. Attempts to circumnavigate this issue, however, will lead to account banning as a form of piracy, and has caused something of an outcry among hardcore gamers who are used to the 'buy it and crack it' mentality. They claim that legitimate users are being targetted as pirates without basis.

The Behemothic software company called Microsoft has lawyers who appear to have just made a huge cock-up when they came to sue a software outfit for using the word 'excel'.

It turns out that someone forgot to trademark the name and Microsoft didn't own it either. Apparently the legal eagles sent around a cease and desist letter to Savvysoft, which makes Excel portable to Linux under the name TurboExcel.

They also might not actually get the trademark as there is already an Excel Software which went into business just before the Vole's spreadsheet hit the shops.

Excel Software told NewsFactor hacks that it received a cease-and-desist letter about 15 years ago. But it replied by informing Microsoft it had the name first, and it has never heard from the lair of the Vole since.