The Register reports that the French National Assembly has now voted through its “three strikes law” designed to clamp down on file-sharing and illegal downloads. 

Yahoo!News reveals that “IBM cut its offer for Sun Microsystems Inc to $9.55 a share after a thorough vetting and may soon unveil details of its largest- ever takeover, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.  But the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal, said that price was not final, although IBM had decided Sun Micro was worth less than thought after a weeks-long due diligence process.  A merger would create a server industry powerhouse with a commanding 65 percent of the $17 billion Unix server market, a dominance analysts say might trigger antitrust scrutiny and concerns from clients.”

According to a different Yahoo!Tech article, Internet calling companies such as eBay unit Skype have called on European policymakers to adopt policies that let consumers access their services through smart phones on any public network.  The Voice on the Net (VON) coalition Europe, which also includes Google Inc, Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp, argues carriers are blocking their applications on their cellular or 3G networks, which limits consumer choice.  The appeal was sparked by news that German mobile operator T-Mobile, the wireless unit of Deutsche Telekom, did not allow customers to use the Skype application on the iPhone. 

[…]  ‘Blocking of voice applications on mobile devices, such as the announcement of T-Mobile to block Skype on iPhones in Germany, is highly detrimental for consumer welfare in Europe,’ VON said in a statement.”

Internetnews.com writes that “eBay is making its pitch to developers, encouraging them to create apps for the auction giant's new application marketplace it plans to release this summer.  eBay yesterday introduced an enhanced version of its eBay Selling Manager, which will offer third-party tools designed to aid the site's 25 million sellers, who deal in everything from baseball cards to vacation homes.  For now, some of the details surrounding eBay's marketplace — where those third-party apps will be sold to sellers — remain a work in progress, with company execs admitting that they hope to learn from developer feedback on how best to tailor the program.”

ZDNet.com has an interesting post in which editor Sam Diaz explains why he thinks now is not the right time for Twitter to be acquired (by Google or anyone else).