Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW - News) said it would start to release important corporate news first over the internet, in what is thought to be the first time a US company has used the online medium as its main channel for price-sensitive information.

While not yet entirely by-passing existing mechanisms for distributing corporate news, Jonathan Schwartz, chief executive officer, suggested the move points to the day when companies stop issuing news releases and communicate with investors directly over the internet instead.

The technology company's move follows a very public exchange with Christopher Cox, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, carried out on Mr Schwartz's blog.

Mr Schwartz complained that Reg FD, the SEC's rule governing how companies release price-sensitive information, "doesn't recognise the internet, or a blog, as the exclusive vehicle through which the public can be fairly informed".

Reg FD, released in 2000, does not lay down specific guidelines for how companies should meet the requirement of "widespread dissemination" of important news, but most companies distribute releases through services such as Newswire and Businesswire, and also to news agencies such as Reuters and Bloomberg.

Unlike information disclosed on "an anachronistic telephonic conference call, or . . . an equivalently anachronistic press release", which is then distributed through the news media, internet communications can be made available to all investors at once and free of charge, Mr Schwartz argued.

In a response on the blog, Mr Cox indicated he was in favour of the idea in principle, provided there were "means to guarantee that a corporation uses its website in ways that assure broad non-discriminatory access".

When Sun reports its latest earnings on Monday the news will be available on its website 10 minutes before it is distributed to news services, Mr Schwartz wroteon Wednesday.