Monday, April 12, 2004

Microsoft's eye on data protection. The software giant's settlement with InterTrust reflects a growing focus on digital rights management across a wide spectrum of computing tasks. [CNET News.com] 9:59:39 PM    comment []

Vietnamese cops tighten controls on Internet access (The Star Online) Owners of Internet cafes in Dong Nai province, next to Ho Chi Minh City, are required to prevent customers' access to websites with "bad content" and to install software to control the information available, the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said. Police are also requiring Internet cafe owners to keep for 30 days customers' personal information such as names, addresses, identification numbers and the duration of their Internet access. 7:44:59 PM    comment []

Music Sales in the Age of File Sharing. Freedom-to-tinker points to the work of Eric Boorstin at Princeton, who recently filed his senior thesis, Music Sales in the Age of File Sharing (Boorstin, April 9 2004) . (via Techdirt) In the follow-up to three different studies on the impact of file sharing Ed Felten draws in Freedom to tinker (..... is your freedom to understand, discuss, repair, and modify the technological devices you own) a 'Grand Unified Theory of Filesharing'. This 'theory' tries to explain seemingly different conclusions found in the studies. [Smart Mobs] 6:55:03 PM    comment []

U.S. music sales continue to rise despite piracy (AP) Interesting headline choice. They rejected: U.S. music sales continue to rise despite executives' stupidity U.S. music sales continue to rise despite recession U.S. music sales continue to rise despite increased Internet use U.S. music sales continue to rise despite lame content 4:44:39 PM    comment []

Eszter! Life beyond Google: Anecdotal evidence suggests that thanks to Google, the web offers information on everything to everyone. But, we have yet to see empirical evidence to back up such claims, argues Dr Eszter Hargittai. (BBC News) I am not anti-Google and in fact use its services daily, but it is important to remember that it is a privately-held company with no obligation to serving the public interest. We should tread with caution when thinking of it as the be all and end all of access to information online. Google is not the only way to find information online and not everyone uses Google. But, most importantly, many people neither use Google nor know how to find information on the web, making the internet in general a source of only limited information for many. 4:44:34 PM    comment []

Tiny Loans Have Big Impact on Poor. Vinod Khosla, a successful, high-profile venture capitalist, is devoting attention to microfinance initiatives is Asia. By Saritha Rai. [New York Times: International] 7:06:17 AM    comment []

MSFT pays $440MM to settle DRM patent dispute Microsoft has settled its patent dispute with Sony/Philips, who acquired a company called Intertrust solely for its patent on DRM, which conflicted with the patent that Microsoft got when it took a controlling interest in another company called ContentGuard. Microsoft is paying $440m to settle its long-running digital rights management (DRM) patent infringement dispute with Intertrust. The one-off pay-out means that Microsoft customers can use their software "as they are intended to be used without requiring a license from InterTrust". Link (thanks, Cory!) 7:03:15 AM    comment []