OpenStreetMap, an organisation that is using consumer technology to create copyright-free maps, is meeting this weekend (5-7 May) on the Isle of Wight — to map the whole island and give the data away under a Creative Commons license — via Boing Boing
Property investment and management group Investa is the latest Australian enterprise to implement an Internet Protocol telephony system
ABC’s web site crashed twice as internet users flocked to watch streaming versions of its most popular shows, including Lost
and Desperate Housewives
. It was the first time the shows were available online directly from the network, and the first time the advertising community had gotten a look at what ad products would be offered. It was also the first opportunity for the industry to gauge how popular such an ad-supported offering might be with consumers
Optus is preparing to release details of a $3 billion fibre network plan proposed by Telstra rivals within the next six to eight weeks
Apple has renewed contracts with the world’s four largest music companies to sell songs through its iTunes Music Store, after blocking their attempts to end iTunes’ flat-rate pricing scheme
The federal health and welfare smartcard project may be heading for big problems, according to experts concerned by a lack of detailed planning and apparent Government willingness to work outside the business case
Seiko Epson has succeeded in getting four online retailers of printer ink cartridges to stop selling a number of third-party ink cartridges designed for use in Epson printers. The four retailers are in Germany and agreed in out of court settlements to stop selling the cartridges, which Seiko Epson asserts infringe upon its intellectual property
realestate.com.au has announcing that it has finalised an agreement to acquire all of the shares in Hubonline Global for A$6 million. REA will acquire 87% of the shares in the company for A$5.2 million at completion, and will acquire the remaining 13% within a likely timeframe of 3 months from completion
The US government has asked a federal judge to dismiss the EFF’s civil liberties lawsuit against the AT&T Corporation because of a possibility that military and state secrets would otherwise be disclosed
. The statement concludes by saying: Finally, because the United States intends to assert the state secrets privilege and file a dispositive motion to dismiss this action, the United States requests that discovery proceedings be deferred until the government’s submission has been considered and heard.
You can view the full text of the government’s statement of interest (PDF) on the EFF’s web site
The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a plan allowing providers of high-speed internet services to test electricity lines to deliver internet access
Some of Canada’s best known musicians, including Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLachlin, Sum 41 and Barenaked Ladies, have formed a new copyright coalition. The artists say in a press release that they oppose file sharing lawsuits, the use of DRM, and DMCA-style legislation and that they want record labels to stop claiming that they represent their views
Telstra shares could gain in value by almost a quarter if it successfully fought new internet phone technology, otherwise it risked further declines in revenue
Seagate is shipping its 750-gigabyte Barracuda 7200.10 drive. This drive represents an increase in capacity of 50 percent over the previous industry maximum of 500GB and is the first 3.5-inch internal drive in the industry to achieve 750GB using perpendicular magnetic recording technology
Microsoft is entering the social networking market currently led by MySpace.com and Friendster with its own entry, Wallop
DARPA is funding a startup the supposedly has a unique approach to detect rootkits. The startup, Komoku, is ready to emerge from stealth mode with hardware and software-based technologies to fight the rapid spread of malicious rootkits
. They have a PCI card that doesn’t necessarily determine that a rootkit is installed, only that the OS has changed dramatically enough to warrant investigation. Microsoft, however, demonstrated a rootkit running in a virtual machine outside of the user’s OS workspace that made detection impossible — via Slashdot
The BBC has posted an online interface into a catalogue of 946,614 BBC radio & TV programmes, dating back 75 years — searchable by category, cast and crew
A Cape Breton man who killed two sex offenders in Maine visited the homes of another four sex offenders but no one answered the door. Maine state police say Stephen Marshall had a global satellite positioning programme on his laptop computer, which allowed investigators to trace his movements — via digg
Optus’ bid to wean itself off Telstra ADSL resale and bring more margin back to its broadband business has hit a snag, as technical glitches play havoc with the company’s $150 million Bigfoot project to deploy its own ADSL infrastructure
For the last few years, a coalition of technology companies, academics and computer programmers has been trying to persuade Congress to scale back the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Now Congress is preparing to do precisely the opposite. A proposed copyright law would expand the DMCA’s restrictions on software that can bypass copy protections and grant federal police more wiretapping and enforcement powers. The new law would send you to prison for attempting to infringe copyright. It would make it even more illegal to own tools that could be used to remove copy-restrictions, like DVD-ripping software — it could even bust Symantec for making software that removed the Sony rootkit malicious software that the company distributed with its CDs last year
International carrier Southern Cross Cables said it had fixed a problem with its Internet link between Australia and the United States on Saturday that several local ISPs had warned could cause slow international speeds
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