Blizzard wins anti-piracy fight

Three men have been found guilty of illegally by-passing anti-piracy controls by developing free technology to let computer users play some games against each other online without using the game maker`s own system, AP reports.

Attorneys for Tim Jung, Ross Combs and Rob Crittenden argued that the trio engaged in allowable fair use because they had legally bought the games and were not profiting from the bypass technology, called BnetD.

Blizzard Entertainment claimed that BnetD, which the trio also distributed to others over the Internet, disabled controls meant to ensure players used a non-pirated copy of the game.

The three were found guilty of violating the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as well as software licence agreements, by helping people bypass Blizzard`s system for playing multiplayer games online.

Adobe has beefed up its server software for handling the flow of business forms based on the PDF format, reports CNET.

The company is expected to release an upgrade to its Adobe LifeCycle Document Services line, which includes an enhanced process management server.

It also signed on third-party software companies to build add-ons.

LifeCycle Document Services is a suite of servers for updating and routing RDF documents.

Seiko Epson is showing a prototype mini-projector using an LED light source at this week`s IFA 2005 World Consumer Electronics Fair in Berlin, reports DigiTimes.

With a footprint of 13.8cm by 10.3cm, smaller than a sheet of A6 paper, and a slender profile, the 500g prototype projector can fit into the palm of a user`s hand.

Although the company has no immediate plans to market the mini-projector, company representatives believe the prototype demonstrates how compact mobile 3LCD projectors could get.

The SCO Group, which launched a high-profile attack against Linux, has signed a partnership with open source database seller MySQL, CNET reports.

SCO and MySQL will work on joint certification, marketing, sales, training and business development work for a version of the database for SCO`s new OpenServer 6 version of Unix.

SCO, whose lawyers once derided the General Public Licence (GPL) as unconstitutional in the company`s legal attack on Linux, has nonetheless distributed several open source programs covered by the GPL.