eu

Updated at 1:05 p.m. PDT to include Intel's response.

Europe's governing body said Thursday it is expanding the number of antitrust charges it is bringing against Intel.

The European Commission's official announcement confirms a report that appeared earlier this week in The Wall Street Journal.

The commission filed court papers Thursday bringing three additional charges against Intel for abusing its dominant position in the chip market in Europe, including offering inducements to European retailers for not buying processors from the company's competitors, chiefly Advanced Micro Devices.

In addition, Intel is charged with paying "… Read more

Intel is expected to face new antitrust charges from European regulators that focus on the chip giant's marketing and sales practices, according to a report Tuesday night on The Wall Street Journal's Web site, citing unidentified people familiar with matter.

The new charges, which could come as early as Thursday, allege that Intel offered inducements to European retailers in return for not buying processors from rival Advanced Micro Devices, the paper reported.

"We are continuing to cooperate and really don't know what the commission will do," Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy told the paper when asked … Read more

Jerry Yang may have a dysfunctional relationship with Carl Icahn, but he can take comfort knowing that Europe's top regulator is making Microsoft equally miserable.

The ever-entertaining Neelie Kroes, who is the European Union's competition commissioner, again poked her finger in Steve Ballmer's eye. Earlier this week, she encouraged EU member countries to break their reliance on a single software supplier. (Guess who she had in mind?)

"I know a smart business decision when I see one--choosing open standards is a very smart business decision indeed," Kroes said in a speech. "No citizen or … Read more

Rising materials costs, engineering challenges, and installation snags threaten European goals to dramatically expand wind power, according to a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates.

The European Union aims to get 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020. But wind power won't meet a significant portion of that unless more government subsidies help companies offset increased costs, the firm warned Wednesday.

The world market for wind power will grow by 155 percent by 2012, according to a March report by the Global Wind Energy Council.

But a global backlog of turbines has sent wind park builders scrambling … Read more

Update 10:40 a.m. PDT: I added comment from Google and its confirmation that it has indeed begun photographing European cities.

Google Street View would raise problems if brought to Europe, an official with the European Union's data protection agency said Thursday.

"Making pictures everywhere is certainly going to create some problems," EU Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx said at a news conference to present his annual report, according to a Reuters report.

Hustinx also said he expected Google would be able to comply with laws.

"Apparently there is the capacity to adapt this in … Read more

European regulators sent shock-waves through the search engine industry earlier this week, when they proposed significantly tighter rules for logging data. If the EU adopts the proposed rules, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft will have to significantly reduce the amount of time they keep identifying search logs, and will have to start treating IP addresses as personally identifiable data -- something that Google has been particularly vocal against.

Google has recently engaged in a major public relations effort to try and make a credible argument for keeping log data. The company has trotted out respected employee researchers to try and make … Read more

It's Official: Hulu Opens Up on Wednesday http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/10/ its-official-hulu-opens-up-on-wednesday/

Ars: Buzzkill http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080311-restrictions-distribution-rifts-may-hamstring-hulus-launch.html

Kentucky lawmaker wants to make anonymous Internet posting illegal (thanks, Jim!) http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080310-lawmakers-attempt-to-criminalize-anonymous-posting-doomed.html http://www.wtvq.com/content/midatlantic/tvq/ video.apx.-content-articles-TVQ-2008-03-05-0011.html

Michael Jackson’s company denies Beatles coming to iTunes http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9890124-7.html

Lionsgate adding iTunes digital copy to some DVDs http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/03/11/ lionsgate-adding-itunes-digital-copy-to-some-dvds

EU clears Google-DoubleClick’s $3.1 billion merger http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080311-eu-clears-googledoubleclicks-3-1-merger.html… Read more

Google Sites: What’s all the fuss? http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9881642-80.html

Under the bonnet of Android http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/02/under_the_bonnet_of_android_1.html

Apple: All signs point to a more business friendly iPhone http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8104

Sprint raises stakes in the $99.99 unlimited battle http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9881662-7.html

EU may begin treating ‘Net censorship as a trade barrier http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080227-eu-may-begin-treating-net-censorship-as-a-trade-barrier.html

Former FBI Agent Calls for a Second Internet http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/27/2310247

MLB … Read more

I can understand why Steve Ballmer may be wondering if he'll ever catch a break from Neelie Kroes.

Europe's top regulator again stuck it to Microsoft--this time it was a $1.3 billion penalty for noncompliance with previous regulatory decisions. So far, Microsoft has paid more than $2 billion in fines to the EU. A billion here, a billion there--Everett Dirkson, where have you gone?

And no matter how much Ballmer coos about turning the page and being a good corporate citizen, the Old World's regulatory mandarins still distrust Microsoft. Take a listen to the recording of Kroes' news conference. … Read more