Week in review: Green power plays

(continued from previous page)

The approval for the merger came in a 4-1 vote by regulators. In her dissent, Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour said she determined that the two companies' product markets overlap in key ways that could "substantially lessen competition" down the road.

Rivals such as Microsoft have challenged the merger, complaining that it would give Google an unfair advantage in search and publisher-based advertising tools.

On Wednesday, Microsoft and entertainment media giant Viacom announced a $500 million advertising agreement that Google cited as evidence of a "highly competitive" market for online ads.

European lawmakers plan to hold a hearing next month to scrutinize the privacy implications of the Google-DoubleClick merger. The European Commission is expected to announce its decision on the deal April 2.

Meanwhile, across the way, the Federal Communications Commission released names of applicants planning to bid in the much-anticipated January auction of 700MHz wireless spectrum. And though Google may have grabbed the auction spotlight, it's not the only nontraditional player that wants a valuable piece of the airwaves; bidders might also include cable operator Cablevision, mobile chipmaker Qualcomm, and satellite TV provider EchoStar.

That Google was among the 266 companies filing an application by the December 3 deadline was no surprise. Google said earlier this year that it was willing to put up at least $4.6 billion for licenses in the "C" block of spectrum--a chunk that Verizon and others would like to get their hands on. Also throwing its hat into the auction ring is Vulcan Spectrum, a venture led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

And from the courts came an important decision for peer-to-peer watchers. A federal judge ruled this week against the BitTorrent indexing service TorrentSpy.com, saying that its hiding and destruction of evidence made a fair trial impossible.

A Los Angeles court agreed with the Motion Picture Association of America's attorneys that the extraordinarily harsh sanction of terminating the case was necessary because TorrentSpy operators' actions affected the ability for the movie studios to prove its case.

While the association sees the court decision as a victory for major Hollywood studios, TorrentSpy's attorney Ira Rothken said he does not believe any data was intentionally destroyed and the company will appeal the decision.

Some attempts to clear agendas for the new year were unsuccessful. After a day of back-and-forth on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid emerged on Monday evening and announced he would postpone debate on the so-called FISA Amendments Act, a complex law that would let telephone and Internet companies off the hook from lawsuits alleging illicit cooperation with federal government spies.

That bill, which has already been approved in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would grant such corporate immunity and make it easier for the feds to snoop on phone calls and e-mails involving foreigners and Americans without a warrant, drawing rampant criticism from civil liberties groups.

The latest action is a blow to the White House, which has been pressuring Congress to enact a more lasting replacement to the Protect America Act, a wiretapping law expansion set to expire in early February.

Looking back on 2007
Like our "Week in review" features? If so, you might enjoy perusing our "Year in review" features, which offer a recap of 2007's biggest headlines, as well as insight into what those stories mean for the year to come. The feature is broken out by topics.

We'll continue publishing the "Year in review" features through the beginning of January. So far we've published: Digital kids; Web 2.0; Science; Apple/iPhone; Gadgets and TV; Enterprise software; Chips; Microsoft; Personal computers; Green tech transportation; and Newsmakers.

Also of note
A behind the scenes look at Ugobe, maker of a dino-robot named Pleo...Personnel changes: Sprint Nextel names Dan Hesse as its president; Cisco's second-in-command, Charles Giancarlo, steps down; and Red Hat to get new CEO from Delta Airlines...Poll: Best SLR rivals to Canon and Nikon...DNA dating site predicts chemical romance...ThinkSecret Apple rumor Web site will shut down...Open-source Samba gets inside look at Microsoft specs...Report: Girls blog, boys post video.