European Commission warms to Oracle

The European Commission (EC) said it is in "constructive talks" with Oracle about the ongoing maintenance of MySQL, raising the prospect that it will finally approve the database giant's acquisition of Sun, reports Computing.co.uk.

Oracle has submitted its proposals for MySQL ahead of a date set by the EC, saying anyone that wants access to MySQL can do so without taking on a commercial licence. This assurance appears to have allayed some of the EC's concerns.

In a statement, the EC said: "Today's announcement by Oracle of a series of undertakings to customers, developers and users of MySQL is an important new element to be taken into account in the ongoing proceedings. In particular, Oracle's binding contractual undertakings to storage engine vendors regarding copyright non-assertion and the extension over a period of up to five years of the terms and conditions of existing commercial licences are significant new facts."

Hackers have released software they say sabotages a suite of forensics utilities Microsoft provides for free to hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the globe, writes The Register.

Decaf is a light-weight application that monitors Windows systems for the presence of Cofee, a bundle of some 150 point-and-click tools used by police to collect digital evidence at crime scenes. When a USB stick containing the Microsoft software is attached to a protected PC, Decaf automatically executes a variety of countermeasures.

"We want to promote a healthy unrestricted free flow of Internet traffic and show why law enforcement should not solely rely on Microsoft to automate their intelligent evidence finding," one of the two hackers behind Decaf told The Register, in explaining the objective of the project.

Swedish and Norwegian mobile users could be among the first to use a fourth-generation (4G) mobile network, says The BBC.

Mobile phone firm TeliaSonera has completed work on two 4G networks in Oslo and Stockholm.

The company said the first customers will be able to start using the networks in early 2010.

Microsoft said late Monday it is suspending access to an MSN China microblogging site amid allegations the service is based on code swiped from a rival, states CNet.

Canadian start-up Plurk lashed out at Microsoft earlier on Monday, saying that 80% of the code for Juku appeared to be lifted directly from its service.

Microsoft reiterated that it is investigating the matter but issued a statement saying it was pulling down the Juku feature while it looks into things.