The Pirate Party, a party campaigning for online civil rights, has won at least one seat in the European Parliament, after obtaining 7.1 percent of the votes in elections in Sweden.

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a U.S. judge to extend her antitrust judgment against Microsoft by at least 18 months in order to give the company enough time to fix problems in technical documentation required in a communication protocols licensing program.

Microsoft will release three sets of security updates next Tuesday, fixing at least one critical bug in its Windows operating system.

Internet and telephone traffic between Europe and the Middle East and Asia was hampered Friday after three major underwater data lines were cut, according to France Telecom.

Attorneys representing Oracle in the company's lawsuit against rival SAP and its TomorrowNow subsidiary have for the first time publicly put a dollar figure -- "likely" $1 billion or more -- on the damages they believe the enterprise software maker deserves.

Microsoft Corp. announced Tuesday that it would post the release candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to its download site this evening at approximately 6 p.m. Eastern time.

Microsoft Corp. rolled out a limited beta of its Live Office Workspace file-sharing and collaboration service Monday but will not open it to all comers for at least several weeks, and perhaps months.

Microsoft Corp. has partnered with handset manufacturer Nokia Corp. to deliver some of its Windows Live services on wireless handsets in Europe and the Middle East.

Intel Corp. President and CEO Paul Otellini Monday confirmed the company plans to build a US$2.5 billion chip plant in China. The plant, to be built in Dalian, on China's northeastern coast, will enter production during the first half of 2010.

IBM Corp. and Intel Corp. accelerated their horse race in semiconductors when each unveiled at midnight Saturday Eastern Time similar chip-manufacturing advances.

IBM Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have developed a free, entry-level, enterprise search application that at least one analyst believes will seriously disrupt the low-end segment of this market where Google Inc. has been selling many of its Mini search devices.

Microsoft Corp. has initiated 97 lawsuits throughout Europe and the Middle East during its eight-month investigation into fraudulent Web pages, with another 32 criminal complaints filed in cooperation with local authorities, the company said Wednesday.

Windows Live Messenger, the next-generation version of Microsoft Corp.'s instant messaging service for consumers, will be available for download in final form right after midnight Tuesday, U.S. Eastern Time.

Authorities in Bulgaria arrested eight people last week who allegedly stole financial information using a variety of fake Web pages carrying Microsoft Corp. logos, netting the group at least US$50,000.