New Zealand music labels have begun pitching the first "strikes" in their country's "three strikes" regime targeting Internet file-swappers. The New Zealand Herald reports that four major ISPs there have received infringement notices that have been passed along to subscribers after the new rule went into effect on September 1. [......]
The Obama administration has started an official petition website called "We the People," in which Americans can propose and vote on petitions for consideration by the White House. Petitions that cross a popularity threshold (originally 5,000 signatures within 30 days) get an official response from the White House. This being the Internet, one of the first petitions focused on software patents, asking President Obama to "direct the patent office to cease issuing software patents and to void all previously issued software patents." The White House issued its official response on Tuesday. [......]
A federal judge issued a permanent injunction that will force DVD-streaming service Zediva to shut down its service for good and pay $1.8 million to US movie studios. Read More: c|net , Ars Technica , Ars Technica , Ars Technica Read the comments on this post [......]
In 2007, a 12-year-old Justin Bieber began recording videos of himself singing covers of popular songs and uploading them to YouTube. A copyright reform organization called Fight for the Future created a website called FreeBieber.org to highlight the danger that a pending anti-streaming bill could make the creation of such videos a felony[......]
Five years ago this month, Larry Sanger caused a stir when he launched a fork of Wikipedia, the site he helped create in 2001. Sanger believed Wikipedia had fatal weaknesses that could only be fixed by making a clean break from the past. [......]
Nevada's homegrown copyright troll, Righthaven, started life with a plan to save the newspaper business through infringement lawsuits—but nearly staggering incompetence has left the company on the receiving end of fine after fine from federal judges. Today, Righthaven was hit with a new fine for $116,718 in legal fees and $2,770 in costs. [......]
Kids today watch a lot of TV. That's the most immediate take-home message from a new report published by the children's advocacy organization Common Sense Media[......]
Lawyers for AT&T are scheduled to appear before Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle on Monday afternoon to convince her to dismiss Sprint's antitrust challenge to the acquisition of T-Mobile. [......]
Department of Justice antitrust investigators may just as well start leasing space at Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters. The Wall Street Journal reports that the search giant is pondering a bid for Yahoo, reaching out to a pair of private equity firms about assisting with financing. [......]
This stuff writes itself. At the grand opening of a new Windows Store in Seattle folks were camping out for most of the night only to stream in, breathlessly ready to partake in the one exciting product Microsoft could offer - a free concert by the Black Keys.[......]
Do you mind if Microsoft drops a little future on you like a ton of bricks? This HoloDesk uses a half-silvered mirror and a Kinect sensor to "see" your hands in 3D space then project visible objects on and around them, allowing you to juggle virtual spheres, play with phones, and generally get all Minority Report up in this piece. [......]
Amazon did more than just throw down the gauntlet when it announced its $200 Kindle Fire tablet, the e-tailer may have also scared off some of the competition altogether. Oddly enough, the Kindle Fire might actually help Microsoft increase its presence in the mobile market, as OEMs look to Windows 8-based slates in order to avoid a price war among Android tablets. News and rumor site DigiTimes says Hewlett Packard and Dell are two of several PC vendors planning to invest more heavily in Windows 8 tablets rather than try to compete with low cost Android slates. [......]
As far as multi-billion acquisitions go, Microsoft's bid to takeover Skype was, for the most part, nothing but smooth sailing. [......]
In an interview with The Seattle Times , Andy Lee, president of Microsoft's Windows Phone division, took a few potshots at the competition while talking up his company's Mango platform. Mango, or Windows Phone 7.5, was introduced to some existing Windows Phone users last month and introduces 500 new features. [......]
Microsoft has been pretty clear in its message regarding the system requirements for Windows 8. If it will run Windows 7, it will run Windows 8. [......]
