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■ Piracy
MPAA, Web site strike deal
In a deal aimed at reducing illegal Internet traffic in pirated films, Hollywood reached an agreement on Tuesday with the creator of the popular file-sharing software BitTorrent. The agreement requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to prevent his Web site, bittorrent.com, from locating pirated versions of popular movies. BitTorrent must remove Web links leading to illegal content owned by the seven studios that are members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). "BitTorrent Inc discourages the use of its technology for distributing films without a license to do so," Cohen said in the statement. "As such, we are pleased to work with the film industry to remove unauthorized content from bittorrent.com's search engine," he said.

■ Fast Food
McDonald's launches card
McDonald's Corp has an idea for a stocking stuffer, and it doesn't require substituting burgers and fries for the traditional holiday dinner. The fast-food chain formally launched its new reloadable convenience card -- the Arch Card -- with the start of a US marketing campaign yesterday, joining the growing group of restaurant operators that offer loyalty debit cards. Many of McDonald's 13,000-plus US restaurants have been offering the Arch Card for months, but the company has been waiting until the holiday shopping season to actively promote them as gift cards. Next year, the advertising campaign will switch themes to promote convenience.

■ Airlines
Malaysia Air to hike prices
Malaysia Airlines plans to increase its fares and sell some of its assets to reverse huge losses, a report said yesterday. Deputy Transport Minister Douglas Uggah Embas said the national carrier's plans to hike fares for both domestic and international routes would take into account the prices offered by other regional airlines so that it remained competitive, the New Straits Times reported. Malaysia Airlines operates one of Southeast Asia's biggest passenger fleets, with about 100 planes and more than 9,000 employees. The government owns 69 percent of the airline, which analysts said has been hit by poor management, escalating operation costs and stiff competition in the region. In the quarter through June, the airline reported its worst quarterly performance in four years, with a 280.7 million ringgit (US$74.5 million) loss that it blamed on high fuel and operating costs.

■ Petroleum
Nippon Oil plans tie-up
Japan's largest oil distributor, Nippon Oil Corp, plans to propose a tie-up with Teikoku Oil Co and Inpex Corp, who are scheduled to merge in April to form the country's biggest natural resource developer, a report said yesterday. Before Teikoku Oil and Inpex hold their extraordinary shareholders meetings in January for approval of the merger, Nippon Oil "will make various proposals, including operational consolidation and tie-ups, to Teikoku Oil," a Nippon Oil official told the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. A tie-up between Nippon Oil and the Teikoku Oil-Inpex entity would create a major company handling oil-field development to refining and sales, the newspaper said. However, Teikoku Oil and Inpex may reject Nippon Oil's approach because they are focused on first becoming an oil-field development specialist, it added.

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