Stories by John Blau

A higher German court has ruled to uphold a decision by a lower court to ban the sale of used software licenses, in a case involving a subsidiary of Oracle.
The Appellate Court of Munich ruled on Thursday that the sale of used software licences is illegal, upholding a decision reached by the District Court of Munich on 19 January, which ruled that the sale of software licences by Soft infringed upon copyrights held by Oracle International.

Manufacturers of desktop PCs and notebooks may need to adjust to a tougher sales climate in Germany, Europe's largest IT market, where computer sales dipped in the second quarter, according to market research released Tuesday by Gartner Inc.

Even if mobile TV is still in its infancy and poses numerous technical and legal hurdles, major production studios don't want to miss out on the action.

Forget personal computing. A new world of community computing is knocking on the front door, offering unparalleled communication opportunities and challenges alike. That's how Jonathan Murray, Microsoft's chief technology officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa, envisions a new technological environment that will soon confront users, suppliers and governments alike.

After making a big splash in the news through its US$2.6 billion deal with eBay, Skype Technologies can't be happy about a malicious Trojan horse that is circulating as an e-mail attachment and purports to be the newest release of the company's Internet telephone software.

Strong third-quarter license revenue has prompted SAP AG to raise its full-year forecast, as the German business application vendor continued to grow its market share in the U.S.

Producers of food, consumer electronics and other fast-selling products hoping to attract more eyeballs to their goods should be interested in this technology: Researchers at German electronics giant Siemens have developed ultra-thin miniature colour displays that can be printed onto paper or foil.

Online auction site EBay Inc. has agreed to acquire Internet telephony company Skype Technologies SA for US$2.6 billion.
The deal will help eBay move into new business areas while allowing Skype to expand the customer base for its VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services, the companies said.

All incumbent telephone companies in Western Europe and many of the region's major alternative operators will be offering IPTV (Internet Protocol television) by 2009, according to a new study published Wednesday by IDC.

SAP AG plans to introduce later this year what it says will be a new model for offering CRM (customer relationship management) applications, one that combines elements of both hosted and on-demand computing.

Several big telecommunications operators and, in particular, the world's largest software maker, Microsoft, hope to sway many couch potatoes to zap their old-fashioned notions about television and tune into the convergence of TV and the Internet.

Bob DeRodes, executive vice president and chief information officer (CIO) of The Home Depot Inc., admits that the home improvement company, North America's second largest retailer and a Fortune 13 company, hasn't been on the cutting edge of information technology.
"Four years ago when I joined this company and walked the sales floors, I found one networked PC in the stores," DeRodes said in round-table panel at SAP AG's recent Sapphire user event in Boston. "And when our chairman asked if he could send e-mail to our associates and was told no, he asked why not and was told the necessary infrastructure didn't exist."

While one software visionary wonders how to get young people interested in developing dry business application software, another may have the solution: open source.
"If I could just find a way to get a 22-year-old kid passionate about processes and the improvement of manufacturing and things of this nature, that would be great," said SAP AG board member Shai Agassi, who is responsible for the company's product and technology group. Agassi discussed the company's flagship ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, new Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) and more in an interview at the company's Sapphire user event in Boston.

If business analytics was once the domain of a small group of specially trained experts who could generate and comprehend highly detailed reports, it's time to extend this technology to a much broader base of users. That's what Shai Agassi, SAP board member and president of the product and technology group, told a crowded room of users during the company's European Sapphire customer event in Copenhagen.

Much of the talk at the European Sapphire customer event in Copenhagen centered on the agreement between SAP AG and Microsoft Corp. to jointly develop a product that will integrate components of their respective enterprise and desktop software systems.
Dennis Moore, general manager of emerging systems at SAP, has been heavily involved in the joint development project, code-named Mendocino. Moore sat down with IDG New Services to discuss what Mendocino is all about and how customers of both SAP and Microsoft will benefit.