Feeding speculation that Amazon.com is planning a gaming push, the company has snagged Microsoft’s director of game platform strategy.

Andre Vrignaud announced his departure Friday on his personal blog. “Can’t really talk about details at this point, but it’ll become pretty evident soon enough…and you all know where my passions lie,” he said in the blog.

He added that he is “excited about where Microsoft is going in the next few years” but is “very intrigued about what Amazon is looking to do.”

Vrignaud’s departure from Microsoft is potentially a major blow to the company. Vrignaud, who has worked in the game industry for more than 20 years, had been at Microsoft since 2002 and helped oversee the game platform strategy for Xbox, Xbox Live, and Windows. During that period, Microsoft has gone from a hopeful contender to a major player in gaming.

Earlier this year, Engadget found that Amazon had posted a job opening for a “stealth project” in its digital video game business. Currently, Amazon lists several game job openings, including a senior product manager posting that mentions the “launch of a new initiative in our digital video games business.” So far, Amazon has been tight-lipped about any such plans. But those job openings and Vrignaud’s arrival seem to indicate that Amazon has something planned.

Amazon did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

Court documents filed Tuesday morning in California’s Santa Clara County show that HP is accusing its former CEO of breach of contract and threatened misappropriation of trade secrets.

Mark Hurd

(Credit: HP)

HP released a statement Tuesday morning saying that “Mark Hurd agreed to and signed agreements designed to protect HP’s trade secrets and confidential information. HP intends to enforce those agreements.”

According to court documents (embedded below), HP believes that Hurd’s hiring by Oracle is a threat to the company and violates confidentiality agreements he signed on three different occasions during his tenure at HP.

Hurd was hired as co-president of Oracle, one of HP’s competitors, on Monday.

“Despite being paid millions of dollars in cash, stock, and stock options in exchange for Hurd’s agreements to protect HP’s trade secrets and confidential information during his employment and following his departure from his positions at HP as chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president, HP is informed and believes and thereon alleges that Hurd has put HP’s most valuable trade secrets and confidential information in peril,” the suit says.

Working at Oracle, Hurd “will be in a situation in which he cannot perform his duties for Oracle without necessarily using and disclosing HP’s trade secrets and confidential information to others,” according to the suit.

HP is asking for unspecified “injunctive relief” and an order for Hurd to provide written notification to HP of his employment by Oracle.

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In August, Hurd resigned suddenly after HP’s board of directors concluded that he had violated the company’s code of business conduct in connection with his relationship with a former marketing contractor who worked with HP.

The separation agreement that Hurd signed on August 6 when he resigned from HP does not include any noncompete clause. However, the document states “the Confidentiality Agreements shall remain in full force and effect.”

According to HP, the confidentiality agreement Hurd signed states that after leaving the company he would not provide services to any competitor of HP in any capacity. That agreement also states he would not solicit any HP customers, employees, or suppliers after leaving the company.

If he did take a job with a competitor in the year after leaving HP, Hurd had agreed to provide HP with written notice before taking the job, according to court documents. HP says he failed to do so when hired by Oracle.

Focus on trade secrets
The interesting part of the legal skirmish is HP’s claim of “threatened misappropriation of trade secrets.” HP is effectively suing Hurd for something he hasn’t done yet, which is share HP’s trade secrets with Oracle. It’s an odd claim, but also a legal maneuver made necessary because the state of California looks askance at noncompete agreements.

“California is very hostile [toward] claims of noncompetition like this one,” said Stephen Kramarsky, partner at the law firm Dewey, Pegno & Kramarsky. “It does enforce a company’s ability to protect its trade secrets, and that’s the allegation they have left, that [Hurd] has stolen trade secrets.”

Because the suit was filed just a day after Oracle announced it planned to hire Hurd, and because HP probably doesn’t yet have evidence suggesting that trade secrets may have been stolen, HP can only claim “inevitable disclosure” of such proprietary information about his former company. Essentially, in the normal course of doing his job as co-president at Oracle, Hurd would inevitably draw on information gathered while at the helm of HP–which HP states in the complaint.

Lawsuits like this one face tough going in California because the state specifically does not want companies turning confidentiality agreements into after-the-fact noncompete agreements, according to Kramarsky.

“It’s an interesting little dance [HP's lawyers have] to do,” he said. “His confidentiality agreements are enforceable. He can’t post HP confidential documents on the Internet. But that doesn’t mean he can’t use the knowledge that’s in his brain.”

Also of note is what HP didn’t ask for. Instead of filing a temporary restraining order preventing Hurd from beginning work at Oracle, which is what companies typically do in these types of suits–as IBM did when it sued Mark Papermaster over his hiring at Apple in 2008–HP asked for retroactive notice that he is joining Oracle, something that is now practically meaningless.

But several times in the complaint, HP ties Hurd’s confidentiality agreement to the large settlement Hurd received upon his agreement to resign last month.

“If you’re not getting a restraining order, then probably what you’re doing is maneuvering for position in a settlement,” said Kramarsky. Many times these cases are settled out of court, as we saw in the Papermaster-IBM battle, as well as Microsoft’s 2005 suit over Kai-Fu Lee joining Google.

And as part of any such eventual settlement–and most of these cases do settle out of court–HP could be angling for Hurd to give back some of his severance package, which is reportedly worth up to $40 million.

Court Filing: HP Civil Complaint Against Mark Hurd

This story was updated several times, the last at 2:10 p.m. PDT.

Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She’s also one of the hosts of CNET News’ Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she’s a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Apple’s plan to extend the length of song samples doesn’t appear to be dead.

“We are in active negotiations with Apple,” about the length of song samples, said Hanna Pantle, a spokeswoman for Broadcast Music Inc., (BMI) one of the performing-rights organizations that collects royalties on behalf of songwriters and music publishers. She declined to provide any details.

“We are in active negotiations with Apple,”

–Hanna Pantle, BMI spokeswoman

At BMI’s rival, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), a spokesman declined to comment. A source close to the company, however, said Apple has a license with ASCAP that doesn’t appear to put any time limits on song samples. Apple also has agreements with the four major record companies to allow iTunes to boost the length of song samples from 30 seconds to 90 seconds, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the deal.

So what went wrong? Why didn’t Apple CEO Steve Jobs roll out the longer samples, as expected during his company’s media event last Wednesday?

Even with all the labels on board, Apple didn’t have all the licenses iTunes needed. Leaders at the National Music Publishers Association, the largest trade trade group representing music publishers, informed Apple that it couldn’t offer extended samples until reaching an agreement with them. But that’s the whole story. Some from the music sector say Apple simply tried to rush a deal through and misjudged its ability to get a deal done without agreements from all the necessary parties. Apple has made it clear that it doesn’t want to pay to license song samples, insiders say, and even they acknowledge that Apple also wants to avoid the nightmare that other music services have gone through when trying to obtain licenses from untold numbers of rights holders.

Ping isn’t enough
What all this means is that Apple has more work to do–possibly much more–before it can offer longer samples. Meanwhile, Google is paying close attention to Apple’s efforts, according to the music industry sources. The search engine plans to launch a music service perhaps as early as this fall, the sources said. How the recording sector responds to longer song samples could give Apple and Google insight into how many hoops they may have to jump through to license cloud music services.

Both companies have talked to the major labels about storing copies of their users’ music libraries on the companies’ servers so that they can be accessed from any Web-enabled device, sources have told CNET. One source said because these kinds of cloud services are unprecedented for the music sector, the licensing process could prove complex.

When it comes to lengthening song samples, Apple is breaking ground. For years, the music industry has defined a sample as 30 seconds. But Apple has plenty of reasons to provide bigger samples. When it comes to helping users discover new music, the iTunes Store has not kept pace with services such as YouTube and Vevo, which offer a smorgasbord of music videos. Clicking on these, and a music buyer gets to hear free, full-length songs.

Apple’s iTunes may be the No. 1 music retailer, but it is apparently not where the music-buying process begins for many iTunes users. Apple obviously recognizes the problem and tried to address it on Wednesday by adding to iTunes a music-focused social-networking service called Ping. This feature, however, has been met with a wave of criticism. Complaints range from the amount of spam found there to Ping’s inability to integrate Facebook.

We don’t know exactly why Apple pulled the song samples from Wednesday’s presentation. But Jay Rosenthal, the NMPA’s general counsel, said last week that he and David Israelite, the NMPA’s chief executive, read on Monday on CNET that Apple had struck deals with the major labels to boost the length of song sales and wondered why Apple had not come to them about a deal.

On either Monday or Tuesday, Israelite sought an outside legal opinion and was told that Apple couldn’t legally offer longer samples without permission from the music publishers. On the day before Apple’s event, Israelite informed Apple of the NMPA’s position.

“We believe that a license is necessary, and conversations must occur before song samples are extended,” Rosenthal told CNET last Wednesday. NMPA representatives declined to comment for this story.

Here come publishers
It’s clear that the NMPA isn’t pleased about being left out of the negotiations between Apple and the major labels. There’s some history here: The top four labels own the largest publishing companies and have much to say about publishing deals, as well as agreements over recording rights. But not the final say.

Here’s how these things often work: Many by now have heard the version of the song “Creep” used in the trailer for the upcoming film about Facebook, “The Social Network.” The song in the trailer is a cover version sung by a women’s choir. To include the song, the filmmakers likely had to obtain the rights to the song’s lyrics and music composition from the song’s publishers.

Had the filmmakers wanted to use the version recorded by Radiohead, the band that made “Creep” famous, they would have presumably needed to acquire the recorded-music rights from EMI, Radiohead’s former record label. They would still be required to pay for the publishing rights as well. When the movie appears on TV or cable, the filmmakers will need to pay a public performance feel (take a deep breath).

It’s important to note that publishers get a taste in practically every situation. That’s partly why some in the music business guess that Israelite, from the NMPA, jumped into the middle of Apple’s song sample deal and why he’s asserting himself, according to two music sector sources. For years, the publishers were treated as an afterthought, while the major labels drove most of the important deals. Israelite did not respond to interview requests for this story.

When it comes to song samples, Israelite told CNET last week that the NMPA “has not raised any substantive objection to the concept of longer song samples.” That may be, but some powerful members of his organization have said publicly that they want Apple to pay for the right to offer song samples.

“In the U.S., while we do get paid a mechanical (licensing fee) from iTunes, we are not getting any performance income from Apple yet,” David Renzer, chairman of Universal Music Publishing Group, said in an interview last year with entertainment industry publication Encore. “[On iTunes], you can stream radio, and you can preview [tracks], things that we should be getting paid performance income for.”

So some publishers want Apple to pay for samples, and Apple has refused to make such an agreement, arguing that a 30-second sample is promotional. What Apple and the publishers have to determine is, what happens when a song sample is 60 seconds or 90 seconds long?

It’s going to be interesting to see if Apple gets the longer song samples. That may tell us a lot about whether iTunes still has the weight to dictate terms to the music sector. As the executive from the music-publishing arena said, Apple is the only game in town. Unlike the film studios, which have multiple Internet outlets from which to sell, including Netflix, iTunes, and Hulu, the music industry–after all these years–really only has Apple.

Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at @sandoCNET.

CARY, N.C. – Alfred Mockett, a former executive with software management services firm Motive, is the new chief executive officer at yellow pages and Internet advertising firm Dex One (NYSE: DEXO).

Mockett assumes the position on Sept. 13.

He also will become a member of the Dex board of directors.

Alcatel-Lucent purchased Motive in 2008.

Dex One shares closed at $9.75 on Friday and fell slightly in trading early Tuesday.

Since emerging from bankruptcy, Dex One shares traded as high as $35 on Feb. 2. Its low is $8.35.

Dex One awarded Mockett 200,000 shares that vest over three years without a strike price. Another 200,000 shares that vest over four years are priced with a strike price of $9.75. A further 600,000 stock options are set with prices of $15 for 200,000, $23 for a another 200,000 and $32 for a further 200,000.

David Swanson, who had been CEO of the company since May of 2002 and chairman since December of that year, left the company in May.

The company, formerly known as R.H. Donnelley, recently emerged from bankruptcy.

“In Alfred Mockett, we have chosen a proven business leader who has successfully directed transformational change at a number of organizations, helping them post profitable growth and increase shareholder value,” said Dex One board member Alan Schultz in a statement. He led the firm’s search committee.

Mockett’s career stretches over more than 30 years, including a 10-year stint at BT (British Telecom), Memorex Telex and American Management System.

He was chairman and CEO at motive before its acquisition.

Dex One, which has some 3,500 employees, is based in Cary.

The big picture? Android and Apple will squeeze rivals such as Nokia and Research in Motion, according to the Piper Jaffray report. These also-rans will duke it out for the 20 percent share left on the table.

Android will grab half of the smartphone market ultimately just because of its product cycle and multiple partners. The HTC, Motorola and Samsung Android device barrage is impressive. In the end, RIM and Nokia will cave and adopt Android as an operating system and give the operating system a massive market share boost.

Read more of “Android to control half of smartphone market, say analysts” at ZDNet’s Between the Lines.

Larry Dignan is editor in chief of ZDNet and editorial director of CNET’s TechRepublic. He has covered the technology and financial-services industries since 1995.

The watchdog said it is still waiting on the government to publish the outcome of its consultation into how the costs of any obligations applied to ISPs would be shared.

That initial consultation was launched by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS).

An Ofcom spokesman said: “Our tariff-setting work will be dependent on the government’s cost sharing consultation.”

Ofcom published its Draft Code of Practice for tackling online piracy in May, and consultation closed on 30 July.

The code of practice set out by Ofcom would be applicable only to large fixed line ISPs covering 96.5 per cent of the UK residential and SME business market.

The code is a requirement of the Digital Economy Act, which was made law on 12 April, and which went into force on 12 June.

Ofcom’s second and third consultations on enforcement of its draft code and tariff settings were due to start in July and September.

These consultations, however, depended on the results of the BIS consultation into cost sharing, which have not yet materialised.

BIS was unavailable to comment on the delay to the publication of its consultation findings.

At last count, 1989 people participated in the Mashable poll. Thirty-three of them believed Adult Services shouldn’t be censored because prostitution is illegal; 22 percent opposed censorship because they believed existing policies at the service were sufficient in dealing with prostitution; and 16 percent voted no “for another reason.”

Of those supporting censorship, 19 percent felt it should be done because Craigslist is indirectly profiteering from prostitution. The service charges $10 for an ad in the section and $5 for a renewal. This year, it’s estimated Craigslist will earn $44 million from the section, or a third of all its revenues. Another 10 percent endorsed censorship “for other reasons.”The Post poll garnered 2089 respondents. Thirty-six percent of them agreed with the decision to block off the section because the ads were inappropriate. Another 12 percent “sort of” supported the decision because they felt the company should have taken better steps to police the ads.

The brass at Craigslist have been mum on the shutdown since they stopped taking advertising for the section and replaced its links on landing pages throughout the United States with the word “censored” in white type on a black background. That graphic treatment makes the word very prominent on the relatively drab pages. It has also led to speculation that there’s more behind the shutdown than a unilateral capitulation to the forces of morality.

Some quarters have argued that the shutdown is a high stakes public relations ploy by Craigslist to win support for reopening the section, which is alive and well under its old nomenclature “Erotic Services” on the company’s sites outside the United States. Last year, in an action designed to blunt pressure to stop taking adult-oriented ads from a number of Attorneys General, Craigslist shuttered its Erotics Services category in the United States and replaced it with an Adults Services one.

It’s easy to see why such a ploy would be very risky. While the shutdown will raise an expected hue and cry from the civil libertarian set, it will also associate Craigslist in the mind of many in the public who get their news only through headlines as an ally of sex peddlers, prostitutes and traffickers of women and children.

Whatever Craigslist’s motives for blocking access to Adult Services, the move may be more sizzle to steak because there are signs that the ads are moving into other areas of the network. On Sunday, ads alluding to cash exchanges for sexual services and seeking massage clients could be found in the Casual Encounters section of the service’s websites, according to ABC News.

All contents copyright 1995-2010 Network World, Inc. http://www.networkworld.com

According to Apple: “The Apple Consultants Network features a community of professional service providers and consultants that specialise in Apple and third-party solutions. Members are certified professionals, fluent in multi-platform solutions, and deliver on-site technology services and support.”

Set up by the Mac maker, the Apple Consultants Network is an online directory of experts, designed to enable Mac users to get the most out of Apple hardware and software.

So far, it’s been hugely successful in other countries, helping thousands of businesses to maximise potential by matching Apple Certified consultants with businesses who need help.

The minimum requirement for consideration is Apple Certification as a Support Professional, Technical Coordinator or System Administrator. You should have at least one staff member with the qualification at every location you wish to register. Apple notes, the scheme has an annual fee of £329 (including VAT), if your application is successful.

As well as a listing in the Apple Consultants Network directory, Apple experts will receive other benefits, including discounts on Apple products and authorisation to use the network’s logo. And, of course, customers will know that you can provide them with Apple certified advice and support.

According to Apple: “For a nominal annual subscription fee, your business will benefit from increased recognition and credibility through your affiliation with the Apple Consultants Network brand, and through your listings in the program’s online referral directory. You’ll get inside access to the latest news and information from Apple, and to a wealth of resources that include use of the program logo, products discounts, and more.”

A directory of UK certified consultants can be found at http://consultants.apple.com/uk/locator.php.

More details of the Apple Consultants Network can be found at www.macworld.co.uk/promotions/.

It is difficult to find a mobile phone user who didn’t get the anonymous SMS message presaging the three days of violence, which left 13 dead and about 400 wounded as police clashed with people protesting sharp increases in the cost of living.

"Mozambican, prepare yourself to enjoy the great day of the strike," it said.

"Let’s protest the increase in energy, water, mini-bus taxi and bread prices. Send to other Mozambicans."

The message, and the ensuing unrest, show the new organizational power cell phones have brought to the poor in a country where 65% of the population lives in poverty, and exercises little political clout.

"That message went around to the whole world," said Samira, a 35-year-old who lives in Mafalala, a neighborhood of tin shacks on the edge of Maputo that saw some of the deadliest violence.

"Even me, when I saw the message I forwarded it to other people. To my friends, my sister.’I'm asking you, please read this message.’"

"There have been protests before, but they were never organized by SMS," said Hares Serafim Mulango, an 18-year-old high school student from Mafalala.

"SMS is easier, because with SMS they tell you about situations far away from you."

Organizing formal protests is difficult in Mozambique, where getting a permit to march is a time-intensive bureaucratic procedure.

The explosion of cell phones has given the poor access to a political platform unavailable to them before.

"This technology is a new way of giving a voice, of giving power, of giving a means of expression that poor people themselves don’t have," Joao Pereira, director of the Mozambican Civil Society Support Mechanism, said.

"That group is never represented. That group is made up of the people who vote the least," he said.

Only about a quarter of Mozambique’s 20 million people have cell phones, but that’s twice as many people as have access to electricity, and the number has been growing by about 50% a year since 2004, according to the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union.

The cell phone messages added to the embarrassment the protests posed for President Armando Guebuza and ruling party Frelimo, in power since Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

Guebuza swept to victory in a 75% landslide in elections last year, but his government has been unable to stop the recent slide of Mozambique’s currency, the metical, which has plunged 43% against the South African rand.

The drop in value has made residents of the import-dependent country struggle to buy basic necessities.

After an emergency cabinet meeting Thursday ended with an appeal for calm and a statement that price increases were "irreversible," more text messages circulated criticizing the government’s response.

"Mozambicans, the government appears to have met just for a coffee and whiskey and not to resolve the problems of the people," one message said.

Pereira said cell phone technology is giving the poor a voice in politics in a country with a weak opposition, and where media are dominated by the state-owned newspaper and television station.

"It’s an instrument of empowerment. It’s a way of increasing the participation of the most marginalized parts of this society in the democratic system," he said.