212w ago - The judge in the much noted Pirate Bay trial could have been biased and a retrial may be issued. According to public radio SR is Judge Tomas Nordström member in several associations treating copyright issues.

To quote: It is my belief that the judge should have resigned from the trial. It is a clear situation of conflict of interests, says attorney Leif Silbersky to public radio SR.

Judge Nordström is a board member the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property and member in the Swedish Association for Copyright, where other members are Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted who all represented copyright owners in the Pirate Bay trial.

The association says to be "a meeting place for qualified discussions on copyright".

I have judged in the trial since I have evaluated that there is no conflict of interests. What is said about my membership in the Swedish Association for Copyright is no ground for conflict of interests. It is an association that shall foster knowledge about copyright and be a place for discussions. I am a member because I want to follow the development...

226w ago - The European Commission has accused Microsoft of harming competition by bundling its Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system.

The commission said it had reached the preliminary view that the US software giant had undermined consumer choice and infringed EU rules.

Microsoft and the European Union have engaged in legal battles over competition issues for years. Last year, the EU fined Microsoft 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m).

Browser Battle

In its statement on Friday the Commission said: "Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice."

Microsoft that it was studying the commission's preliminary finding, and did not rule out requesting a formal hearing. It has been given eight weeks to reply.

The US software firm controls the majority of the web-browsing market through its Explorer browser. Analysts say the company has diversified enormously and is now no longer so reliant on its Windows operating system, with revenue coming from Xbox sales and server software.

In February 2008, the EU fined Microsoft 899m euros for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behavior. The penalty -...

242w ago - In an unfortunate cross-cultural coincidence, Halo developer Bungie has inadvertently drawn parallels to an infamous child abduction case to promote its new Halo 3 expansion pack.

In a new teaser trailer, which depicts a war-torn city landscape, various messages flash up on the screen, including one that asks "Maddie, where are you?"

For many people, particularly living in Britain, this seemingly innocuous phrase will bring back memories of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a three-year old British girl who was allegedly abducted from a Portuguese resort while on holiday with her parents.

At the time of the abduction, the slogan "Find Maddie" and "Where's Maddie?" featured prominently in British newspapers and international publicity campaigns around the world.

Bungie has denied any intent to create publicity by exploiting the McCann disappearance, with a representative claiming "This is both an unfortunate and unintended coincidence" on the official Halo forum.

The case is somewhat similar to an incident several years ago, in which the developers of the PC game Law and Order: Double or Nothing unwittingly included a CCTV still of the murdered British toddler James Bulger in their game.