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| US lawmen plan Internet tax Posted by Gubbz on 02-02-2005 01:31 AM - 3 comments |
As the US prepares to struggle with multi-trillion dollar debts, an influential group of lawmakers has proposed levying a tax on all Internet and data connections.
Congressmen on a tax committee have suggested extending an anachronistic three per cent telecommunications tax (dating from 1898), to cover all data communications services to end users. The proposals include broadband, dial-up, fibre, mobile, DSL and other connections, according to CNet News.com.
The lawmen point to the gradual decline of fixed telephony lines as evidence that the tax should be directed to reflect current consumer habits, pointing out future expected growth in voice-over-IP services.
 Source: Macworld UK |
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read 39 times - last comment by c²   |
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| Together in Electric Dreams... Posted by meska on 17-01-2005 01:13 PM - 2 comments |
A computer program is changing the face of the music business by allowing record labels to predict a hit at the click of a mouse. Is this the death of pop as we know it or a new hope for unsigned bands everywhere?
Martin and Ruth, aka Spike, the next big girl/boy duo (so they hope) add some synth and a new background vocal to the mix. He saves the song and she emails it to Polyphonic Human Media Interface who, within 24 hours, will tell them whether their song will be a hit. When the results arrive they hover over the 20in screen and click on the returned mail. There is a graph, showing a cluster of many dots, like a constellation, and somewhere in the cluster a red spot. The spot marks their song, not quite a bullseye, but still in the throng. "It's scored a seven," Ruth says, scanning down. "We're in. The record company will definitely meet us now." Their future suddenly looks a lot rosier.
Sounds unlikely? It shouldn't. Because, while no one's talking about it, it seems that the whole record industry is already using just this process. From unsigned acts dreaming in their garage, to multinationals such as Sony and Universal, everyone is clandestinely using a new and controversial technology to gain an edge on their competitors. And just as with athletes and performance-enhancing drugs, there is a remarkable reluctance to talk about it. But the secret is out: the record biz, once that bastion of wayward creative flair, is succumbing to the plain old-fashioned science of statistical analysis.
 Source: The Guardian Online |
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| Huygens probe lands on Titan Posted by meska on 14-01-2005 05:12 PM - 5 comments |
The Huygens space probe has touched down on the surface of one of Saturn's moons, Titan, and is sending back signals, say space agency scientists.
The spacecraft probe had been transmitting data for over two hours as it plunged towards the moon's surface.
This data has not arrived on Earth yet, but the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, US, detected its carrier signal - a sign the probe was working.
It is the furthest from Earth a spacecraft has ever been landed.
The probe's scientific investigation of this mysterious world could yield clues to how life first arose on Earth.
Scientists were excited when the probe first relayed a signal to say it had negotiated Titan's atmosphere, and announced that the mission was a "success".
"I want to make sure that we don't miss the significance of seeing that signal," said Alphonso Diaz, associate administrator for science at the US space agency (Nasa).
Source: BBC News Online
See how the probe landed |
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| iPod mini revision to deliver storage increase Posted by livePulse on 06-12-2004 11:17 AM - 10 comments |
A revision to Apple Computer's popular iPod mini digital music player is scheduled to debut early next year, AppleInsider has learned.
According to reliable sources, the iPod mini will see an approximate 25% storage increase that will allow it to carry 1250 songs, up from the player's current maximum capacity of 1000 songs.
Like Dell's new Pocket DJ and Rio's Carbon, sources say the new Apple player will be based around a 5GB hard drive. Hitachi, which supplies Apple with drives for the current line of iPod minis, has yet to officially introduce a 5GB version of its microdrive, though similar offerings are reportedly available from both Seagate and Toshiba.
Capacity figures aside, not much more is known about the revised mini. Rumors of potential color alterations and more 'metallic' finishes are abound, but remain unconfirmed at this time.
Apple introduced the iPod mini in January of 2004 to much fan-fare, but was unable to meet demand for the players until the second half of the year, due to poor planning and inadequate supplies of the 4GB microdrives from component supplier Hitachi.
It's likely for this same reason that Apple has never divulged its sales figures for the iPod mini, claiming only to have sold over 6 million total iPods since the original player launched in 2001.
"They've learned from past mistakes with the mini," said one insider, who expects an ample supply of the revised players to be waiting in a warehouse prior to their unveiling.
Also in early 2005, Apple is expected to launch a flash-based iPod that will sell for below (US)$200.
source: AppleInsider |
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| read 359 times - last comment by Gubbz |
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| Europe to gain several 'mini' Apple retail stores Posted by livePulse on 06-12-2004 11:10 AM - 3 comments |
Apple Computer will extend its "mini" retail store strategy into Europe next year, highly reliable sources tell AppleInsider.
Although the company has yet to announce such plans, tipsters claim that approximately 5 Apple "mini" stores are slated to begin appearing throughout the United Kingdom in 2005. And at least one of the stores is scheduled to touch down in a university area of Scotland.
Speaking under anonymity, sources also confirmed that Apple will open a larger-size retail store in Manchester, England during 2005. The store will be the fourth full-sized retail store to open in the UK, joining an already established flagship in London and two forthcoming locations, one in Birmingham and another in Kent.
Introduced a little over a month ago, the company's fledgling mini store strategy aims to place retail outlets in a variety of new and interesting locations not suitable for a full-sized store. Averaging roughly 750-square-feet—half the size of Apple’s smallest full-sized location—the stores sport an all-new design consisting of stainless steel walls and seamless white floors and ceilings.
To date, Apple's mini stores appear only in shopping malls, but may soon begin popping up in airports and near international rail stations. And while it may be too early for outsiders to accurately assess the performance of these smaller retail stores, internal plans to expand the strategy overseas presents a clear indication of prosperity.
In an annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Apple noted that net sales from its retail segment grew 91% to $1.2 billion year-over-year. The company attributes the growth to an increase in total stores from 65 in 2003 to 86 at the end of 2004, including a 36% year-over-year increase in average revenue per store.
source: AppleInsider |
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| read 171 times - last comment by manitari |
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| Music sales rise despite RIAA's best efforts Posted by sam.freak on 22-10-2004 12:11 AM - 1 comment |
"There are no stranger beasts in the business world than the major music labels. Only these creatures, represented by their legal attack dog the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), would apply an excusatory tone to the release of product shipment figures that show a significant increase in sales. Where other companies would brag, the music labels warn that making money is really quite excruciating and depressing.
The RIAA has just released US music sales figures for the first half of 2004. Heaven help us all - CD shipments were up 10 percent compared to 2003 and revenue was up around 4 percent. This is the first time in five years that the first half figures have jumped year-over-year. That's great news, right? Well, not so fast, consumers. You still need to do quite a bit more to help out the emaciated labels."
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Source: Read on @theregister.co.uk |
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| read 192 times - last comment by Fuzi |
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| Indymedia gets its servers back from the FBI Posted by meska on 16-10-2004 10:31 PM - no comments |
Source: The Guardian Online Blog
It is a story with components that would have most conspiracy theorists running for the nearest tinfoil hat shop: a radical media organisation, the FBI and an apparently anonymous foreign government.
Last week, Rackspace, a hosting company with headquarters in Texas, handed two of its London-based web servers to the FBI after a subpoena for their contents was issued by a US district court. The servers contained material belonging to the Independent Media Centre - better known as Indymedia - a conglomeration of global radical anti-globalisation sites produced by ordinary citizens. Indymedia claims it was not informed of the decision to seize its content, nor has it been told the reasons, despite the fact that 20 sites and more than 1m pieces of content were affected.
The FBI has said it was acting on behalf of a foreign government, though for the American subpoena to have power in the UK, it would need approval from either the British courts or the home secretary. Such agreements would usually be made over investigations into terrorism, though nobody involved has been able to confirm this.
"In a huge initial victory for Indymedia, the two servers recently seized by the FBI were returned this morning to Rackspace. Indymedia is now weighing additional legal options after this illegal seizure of its servers."
Like or loathe Indymedia (and there are plenty of both), this is about freedom of expression. And the questions still remain about how, or why, the servers were confiscated in the first place.
Read all here.
FBI returns the servers. |
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| BPI/IFPI land Jetgroove slap Posted by Gubbz on 15-10-2004 01:01 PM - no comments |
Source: Macworld UK
International action by music industry groups, the BPI and IFPI, has led to the removal of 50,000 tracks being offered for sale through Jetgroove.
The site had claimed it would pay royalties to copyright holders based on sale, but had not arranged clearance to trade in these tracks with copyright holders.
While Jetgroove was based in Moscow, its DNS and streaming servers were hosted in the US. The site removed the 50,000 contentious tracks on receiving notice from the industry groups.
BPI Director of Anti-Piracy David Martin said: "Whether it's individuals illegally uploading files to peer-to-peer networks or companies seeking to make money out of our members' copyrights without permission, the BPI's anti-piracy unit is here to protect our members' rights."
Although none of the current remaining tracks and albums are believed to be infringing members' copyrights, the BPI and IFPI will continue to monitor the site. |
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| BPI set to sue music sharers Posted by Gubbz on 07-10-2004 02:41 PM - 5 comments |
Source: Macworld UK
Britain's music industry has today announced that it will start legal action against people who illegally share music online.
The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) will specifically target those people who upload music to file sharing sites, making it available for other people to download.
This doesn't mean that simply downloading music from unsanctioned sites is allowed – that is still an infringement of copyright and you run the risk of being sued.
Breaking the habit
Informa Group analyst Simon Dyson told BBC Breakfast News: "It could be difficult to change the habits of a whole generation. There are some kids who started downloading when they were 11 or 12 and they have never bought a CD. It's going to be a problem for the BPI to turn those around because it's obviously not something they have done before so getting them into buying CDs is going to be difficult."
Rip & Burn editor Tom Dunmore said: "It's not unlike the battle against taping music from the radio which was waged in the 1970s and 80s. What home taping did was make music fans of a whole generation of kids. There will always be that element of illegal copying going on."
He added: "By targeting the biggest uploaders, the BPI is attacked the biggest music fans. There's a logic behind getting that generation that is used to getting music for free to move over but there are other ways of doing it. Cutting prices is key."
Safeguarding the future
BPI spokesman Matt Phillips said that with the threat of prosecution, the industry was saying there "is no excuse for illegal filesharing anymore".
"What we're doing for our customers is safeguarding the future of music," he told Breakfast.
According to the BPI a hardcore 15 per cent of file-sharers are responsible for 75 per cent of all illegal music downloading.
In addition, recent research indicates that eight million people in the UK claim to be downloading music, 92 per cent of them using illegal sites. |
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| read 199 times - last comment by Gubbz |
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| Mathematics threat to ecommerce security Posted by Gubbz on 07-09-2004 05:09 PM - no comments |
Source: MacUser
Mathematicians are on the verge of a breakthrough that could make every single Internet financial transaction insecure, according to The Guardian.
The newspaper's science editor Tim Radford reports that if the Riemann hypothesis has been proved, and it is by no means certain that it has, then all cryptic codes - such as those that protect secure Internet transactions - will be breakable.
Bernhard Riemann, a German mathematician, hypothesised that the apparent random distribution of prime numbers (numbers that can only be divided by themselves and one) can in fact be mapped using a complex formula known as a zeta function.
However it is the apparent random nature of primes that cryptographers use to generate random numbers with which to encrypt data. If the primes are no longer random, then the encryption becomes predictable.
The hypothesis is one of seven so-called 'millenium problems'; any person solving any one will win a $1mn prize from the US Clay Mathematics Institute. |
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| French Consumer Group Takes Action Against Copy-protected CDs Posted by micky on 26-08-2004 01:16 PM - no comments |
Consumers in France have taken legal action against EMI and retailer Fnac, accusing them of deception, because of copy-protection techniques used on CDs. They are unhappy because the copy protection scheme employed by EMI prevents the discs being played on some car stereos, home CD players and PCs – and also stops owners from making personal copies. This contravenes legislation passed in France 1985, stating that consumers can make copies of CDs for personal use.
UFC-Que Choisir is seeking damages for consumers through the legal action, and consequently Fnac and EMI face a fine of up to €188,000 (UK£126,350), if the group is successful. They may also have to remove all copy-protected CDs from sale.
Fnac say that they are confident that they will not be fined, as they claim to have taken adequate steps to inform customers of the potential problems with copy-protected CDs.
UFC-Que Choisir have another copy-protection case going through the courts at the moment, this time concerned with consumers prevented from transferring tracks from CD to portable players.
Source: Digital-Lifestyles.info |
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| File-sharing systems in legal win Posted by ihcra chic on 20-08-2004 02:39 PM - 2 comments |
Fans of file-sharing have been handed a significant victory by a US court.
Federal appeal court judges have ruled that the makers of peer-to-peer software are not responsible for what users do with their network.
They said the structure of the networks made it impossible for the system's creators to exert control over users.
The decision is a blow to the US movie and music industries, who were seeking damages for copyright infringement from file-sharing firms.
Control system
In their ruling, the judges said the case had parallels with older cases which said video recorders should not be banned just because some people put them to illegal ends.
"History has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine, or an MP3 player," wrote the judges in their opinion.
"Thus, it is prudent for courts to exercise caution before restructuring liability theories."
Fred von Lohmann, who represented StreamCast in the case, said: "The same principle that people who make crowbars are not responsible for the robberies that may be committed with those crowbars."
The ruling was the latest in a case brought by US music and movie makers against the Grokster and StreamCast file-sharing systems.
It was made by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals and upheld a decision made in a lower court.
The judges said it should be up to Congress rather than the courts to change copyright laws.
One factor that led the US court to rule in favour of Grokster and StreamCast was the lack of central servers that co-ordinate file-swapping activity.
In the past Napster's use of central servers led the same court to call for that network to be shut down.
Reviewing options
The decision means that instead of suing the creators and operators of file-sharing networks for copyright infringements, record labels and movie makers will have to take the more cumbersome route of finding and suing individual file swappers.
The US record industry has already filed lawsuits against more than 3,400 people and 600 of those cases have been settled for about £3,000 each.
Following the ruling, the Motion Picture Association of America said it was reviewing its options about what to do next.
"Today's decision should not be viewed as a green light for companies or individuals seeking to build businesses that prey on copyright holders' intellectual property," said Jack Valenti, MPAA chief executive.
Mitch Bainwol, head of the Recording Industry Association of America, said the decision did nothing to stop firms such as Grokster and StreamCast doing something about illegal use of their networks.
Source: BBC News Online |
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| read 365 times - last comment by mick |
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| UK government launches Creative Industries Forum Posted by Gubbz on 27-07-2004 12:51 PM - 2 comments |
Source: Macworld UK
The UK government has launched a new initiative aimed at building a framework to protect the intellectual property of the UK creative industries in the digital age.
Launched last night by Arts Minister Estelle Morris and Science and Innovation minister Lord Sainsbury, the new Creative Industries Forum on Intellectual Property is a cross-government body that held its first meeting yesterday.
The group brings together government, non-government and creative industry representatives. It is jointly chaired by Arts Minister Estelle Morris and Lord Sainsbury, and includes representatives from the sector: film, music, publishing, design and computer games. It also includes representatives from ISPs, telecoms companies, hardware manufacturers and consumer groups.
It will attempt to figure out how to approach the opportunities and threats that rapid technological developments are generating for the creative industries, which contribute £54.8 billion to the UK economy.
Issues the Forum hopes to address include:
• Strategies for maximizing the opportunities for the creative industries in a digital environment.
• New business models for that environment.
• Education and awareness raising.
• The challenges that face the sector, such as file-sharing and piracy.
Morris said: "A vibrant, diverse creative sector is important to the UK both culturally and economically. Intellectual Property Rights have always been at the heart of our creative industries - by encouraging and rewarding creativity.
"We've listened to the concerns of our creative industries and know these issues matter, which is why we are joining together to work on a way forward," she added. |
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| read 414 times - last comment by ihcra chic |
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| P2P United Fights New Copyright Bill Posted by micky on 23-07-2004 04:27 PM - no comments |
Earlier this year, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced the "Infringement 4 of Copyrights Act of 2004." The bill is an amendment to the current our copyright laws (Section 501 of title 17, United States Code.)
Specifically, the amendment states, "Whoever intentionally induces any violation identified in subsection (a) shall be liable as an infringer." This is a radical departure from current copyright laws because it targets those who intentionally induce copyright infringement.
Ok, what qualifies an individual as an "intentional inducer?" Subsection "a" identifies this with the following: "In this subsection, the term ‘intentionally induces’ means intentionally aids, abets, induces, or procures, and intent may be shown by acts from which a reasonable person would find intent to induce infringement based upon all relevant information about such acts then reasonably available to the actor, including whether the activity relies on infringement for its commercial viability."
more >>
Source: Slyck News |
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| Microsoft and Apple sued for Infringement of Patent for Online Software Updates Posted by micky on 21-07-2004 11:34 AM - 9 comments |
London, UK, 20 July 2004 – BTG plc (LSE: BGC), the IP and technology commercialisation company, Teleshuttle Corporation and Teleshuttle Technologies LLC today announced that they have filed suit in Federal Court in the Northern District of California against Microsoft and Apple for infringement of Teleshuttle Technologies’ patent covering Microsoft’s and Apple’s web-enabled software update technologies. The suit was filed at approximately 09.00 PDT / 17.00 BST today.
The suit charges Microsoft and Apple with infringement of United States patent number 6,557,054. Specifically, BTG asserts that Microsoft’s and Apple’s operating systems, as well as Microsoft’s Office® products, incorporate the patented technologies.
BTG, which has the exclusive worldwide licensing rights to the patent, is represented by the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett, and Dunner, L.L.P. The suit asks for unspecified damages for past infringing activity and an injunction against future use of the technology. This move follows Microsoft’s and Apple’s delay in entering into licensing agreements with BTG on commercially reasonable terms.
The 6,557,054 patent, granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office on 29 April 2003, is a result of the work of the inventor, Richard Reisman, in the early 1990s, well before the Internet became mainstream. While seeking to create new methods and products to enhance the usefulness of online computing, Reisman conceived and created his inventions. He sought out the assistance of BTG in 1998 to help protect his inventions through patenting. The patent is owned by Teleshuttle Technologies LLC with BTG as the exclusive worldwide licensee.
Source: BTG |
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| read 726 times - last comment by c² |
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Hope
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