MS slammed over anti-Linux ad

Microsoft sources have dismissed a British regulatory agency`s objections to a recent anti-Linux advertising campaign. Eweek quotes unnamed sources as saying the British objections are moot because the advertisement is no longer running.

Earlier this week, the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that a magazine advert in which Microsoft claimed open source Linux was more expensive to run than Windows was misleading. Tracey Pretorius, the manager for Microsoft UK, said the company had been working with the ASA to "understand and address their concerns about the advertisement in question".

US law enforcement officials have raided five homes and one Internet service provider in the first federal enforcement action against piracy on peer-to-peer networks, reports PCWorld. Computers, software and other equipment were seized in the raids in Texas, New York and Wisconsin.

The action targets illegal distribution of copyright-protected movies, software, games and music on five peer-to-peer networks operated by a group known as The Underground Network.

NTT DoCoMo will release a handset compatible with non-Japanese cellular networks and with its own 3G (third-generation) mobile network early next year, reports Infoworld. The handset will be made by Motorola for DoCoMo and will also support wireless LAN, said the two companies.

The announcement comes eight months after DoCoMo said it was investing about 37 billion yen (then worth $344 million) over two years in six companies, including Motorola, to develop advanced handset technologies compatible with WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access).

Motorola was the only non-Japanese handset maker to be a part of the development project. The other companies were Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Sharp.

A Jewish dating site has been using pictures of porn stars in a bid to boost its visitor numbers, reports SACM.

The Ha`aretz newspaper claimed it investigated one of MatchNet`s dating Web sites, JDate, and found that a number of the girls featured on the site, who claim to be attractive, single, and looking for a good Jewish husband from a good family, are actually part of the adult-entertainment industry.

JDate claims the images came from an archive of pictures, which is based in Germany.