Microsoft Corp. said Monday that Steven Sinofsky, the president of its Windows and Windows Live operations, is leaving the company.

Sinofsky's departure comes just weeks after the Redmond, Wash., software company launched Windows 8, which represented a major overhaul of its ubiquitous computer operating system.

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Microsoft has announced aggressive upgrade pricing for its upcoming Windows 8 operating system: anyone running a copy of Windows from the last decade can upgrade for $40, making this potentially the cheapest Windows ever.

The upgrade is a bit of a Hail Mary move: selling the OS is a profitable business, but it's possible that at the familar $100-$200 price, uptake of the risky new OS might be less than enthusiastic and the next phase of Microsoft's business may not take off. After all, many businesses and individuals just recently updated to Windows 7, and many are still running the venerable XP. The cost of upgrading again could be a significant deterrent. If Microsoft can't capture a big audience for Windows 8, its whole strategy for the next few years falls apart.

But if Microsoft offers this one-time "pardon" to its many legacy users, it could spur the kind of sales it needs to make Windows 8 the most popular OS they support, albeit at the cost of many millions of dollars. Notably, this is the "Pro" version, not the cheaper "RT" version that is aimed strictly at tablets.

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MEPs on a key European parliamentary committee have voted to reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) by 19 votes to 12.

Many regard it as the deathblow for the controversial treaty because the trade committee formally recommends how to vote to the wider parliament.

The European Parliament vote is due to take place in July.

Acta aims to tighten rules on both online and offline piracy but has attracted many critics.

One of its harshest detractors has been UK MEP David Martin, the lead member of the committee.

Speaking after the Inta vote, he said: "This was not an anti-intellectual property vote. This group believes Europe does have to protect its intellectual property but Acta was too vague a document," he said.

He said that it "left many questions unanswered", including the role of ISPs in policing the internet. He also said that many on the committee felt that the sanctions for breaches of copyright were "disproportionate".

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