In Germany, the file-hosting service Rapidshare has handed over the personal details of alleged copyright infringers to several major record labels. The information is used to pursue legal action against the Rapidshare users and at least one alleged uploader saw his house raided
The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, today ruled out building a single state super-database
to track everybody’s use of email, internet, text messages and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Smith said creating a single database run by the state to hold such personal data would amount to an extreme solution representing an unwarranted intrusion of personal privacy. Instead the Home Office is looking at a £2bn solution that would involve requiring communications companies such as BT, Virgin Media, O2 and others to retain such personal data for up to 12 months
Barbara Ringer believed, above all, that copyrights should protect the creative people in American life — the authors, songwriters and performers whose work was too often printed, plagiarised or broadcast without permission. By 1955, she was writing papers and commissioning studies on how the nation’s copyright laws should be revised. For years, Ms Ringer devoted much of her time to drafting a new, comprehensive copyright act and educating congressmen about why it was needed. Foreseeing the rise of the Internet, she inserted provisions into the law to protect authors from the unauthorized reproduction of their work, even by means not yet devised. The basic human rights of individual authors throughout the world,
she warned in a 1975 speech, are being sacrificed more and more on the altar of … the technological revolution.
Ms Ringer spent 21 years drafting the legislation and lobbying Congress before the Copyright Act of 1976 was finally passed. She wrote most of the bill herself
Copyright term for music recordings must be extended from 50 years to 70 years, says legislation adopted on Thursday by the European Parliament. By adopting the report by Brian Crowley (IE, UEN) with 377 votes in favour, 178 against and 37 abstentions, MEPs voted to increase the term of copyright protection to ensure that performers continue to receive royalties for 70 years from the first publication or performance of their song. The European Commission had previously proposed an extension of the copyright protection up to 95 years. According to Mr Crowley, the compromise reached by the Parliament on 70 years takes into account Council’s resistance and would facilitate an agreement with national governments
A Vietnamese security company has detected what it believes is a new worm that thwarts Google’s security protections in order to register new dummy Gmail accounts from which to send spam. Bach Koa Internetwork Security (BKIS) said the worm was discovered earlier this week in one of its honeypots, the term for a computer set up to catch samples of malicious software. BKIS has named the malware W32.Gaptcha.Worm
Researchers have developed a material that almost instantaneously (30 ms) changes from clear to dark blue when exposed to ultraviolet light, and it just as quickly reverts to clear when the light is turned off. The new material, one of a class called photochromics, could be useful in optical data storage as well as in super-fancy sunglasses — via Slashdot
Apple has been found guilty of willfully infringing on a predictive snooping
patent awarded to Opti Inc. in 2002. The company has been ordered to pay just over $19 million in compensation, despite its attempts to have the patent thrown out
Google Street View, the controversial web site that shows 360-degree street views of many of Britain’s cities does not breach the Data Protection Act, the information commissioner ruled today. Hundreds of people complained that their privacy was breached by the service, which launched last month for 25 cities and towns. Today the Information Commissioner’s Office rejected those complaints but said it would watch Google closely to ensure that it responded quickly to requests for the removal of images that identified individuals
T-Mobile USA has announced the first-of-its-kind embedded SIM for Machine-to-Machine solutions. Nearly the size of a head of a pin, the durable embedded SIM withstands challenging environmental factors such as temperature, humidity and motion to deliver reliable wireless connectivity. The embedded SIM is ideal for telematics and smart grid infrastructure solutions where environmental factors may reduce reliability and increase maintenance costs of removable SIM-based solutions. The embedded SIM preserves many of the benefits of a GSM-based SIM solution (authentication, encryption and storage), but at a fraction the size of the traditional SIM you’d find in a mobile phone. In addition to the much smaller size, the embedded SIM differs from today’s SIMs in that it’s built from silicon — not plastic
Yahoo is to close its personal web hosting site GeoCities later this year. In a statement, the firm says it will no longer be accepting new customers and will focus on helping customers build new relationships online
. Yahoo bought GeoCities for $3.57bn at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999. At its peak, GeoCities boasted millions of active accounts, but it has since fallen out of fashion, with users migrating to social networking sites
A cloned beagle named Ruppy — short for Ruby Puppy — is the world’s first transgenic dog. She and four other beagles all produce a fluorescent protein that glows red under ultraviolet light. A team led by Byeong-Chun Lee of Seoul National University in South Korea created the dogs by cloning fibroblast cells that express a red fluorescent gene produced by sea anemones. Lee and stem cell researcher Woo Suk Hwang were part of a team that created the first cloned dog, SnuppyMovie Camera, in 2005. Much of Hwang’s work on human cells turned out to be fraudulent, but Snuppy was not, an investigation later concluded
One of the biggest cases in file-sharing history ended last week with The Pirate Bay Four sentenced to huge fines and jail time. Today it is revealed that far from being impartial, the judge in the case is a member of pro-copyright groups — along with Henrik Pontén, Monique Wadsted and Peter Danowsky. There are loud calls for a retrial
Australia’s top science agency has walloped some of the world’s biggest industrial giants in the US patent courts to bring the country a pay check worth up to $1 billion over the next five to 10 years. The CSIRO has won its long-running battle to enforce a patent on technology used in Wi-fi connections that have become virtually ubiquitous in laptops and other devices around the world. Hewlett-Packard was the first of 13 companies to back down early this month when it opted to settle the patent dispute rather than take it before a jury trial in the US federal court. Alex Zelinsky, director of the science agency’s ICT Centre, today confirmed that all of its opponents had chosen to settle the case rather than go ahead with another trial
The Rudd Government has committed to establishing a dedicated ABC children’s digital television channel, ABC3
Germany’s cabinet has agreed a draft law to block access to child-porn web sites, Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Wednesday. The government signed agreements last Friday with the country’s main Internet service providers (ISPs) — representing 75 percent of the German market — to block around 1,500 sites per day with illegal images of children. Internet users hoping to download child porn will instead be met with a large red stop
sign, warning of the impact of paedophilia on the victims. They will not have their personal details or IP addressed recorded
BT and other mobile broadband providers are blocking access to The Pirate Bay, as part of a self-regulation
scheme. BT Mobile Broadband users who attempt to access the notorious BitTorrent tracker site are met with a content blocked
message. The warning page states the page has been blocked in compliance with a new UK voluntary code
Microsoft’s biggest-ever Australian grant will help create social networks for the blind. Social networking websites and digitised libraries have become important sources of modern information, but until now they have been inaccessible to the 300,000 Australians who are blind or who have low vision. Microsoft has today announced its largest Australian software grant, valued at $6.7 million, to Vision Australia
A revolutionary Australian National University-developed propulsion system will be the first of its kind to be tested in space. The new type of rocket engine, called a plasma thruster is being modified to be launched within the next four years as part of a prototype satellite
Leading scientist Stephen Hawking‘s condition has improved
after being admitted to hospital with chest problems, Cambridge University says. His employers said Professor Hawking was undergoing tests on Monday at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. A university spokesman said the 67-year-old, who has motor neurone disease, was now comfortable
Software giant Oracle is to buy server and software maker Sun Microsystems, the two companies announced late Monday. In a joint statement, Oracle said the transaction was valued at approximately US$7.4 billion, or US$5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt. Sun’s stock will be bought at US$9.50 in cash per share. The deal has been unanimously approved by Sun’s board, but still needs to be approved by Sun’s shareholders and financial regulators, the companies said
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