Court says LimeWire has no case against record labels
A District Judge said that the peer-to-peer network had failed to make a case that its business had been harmed by the record labels' actions.
All four major global record labels -- Universal Music, Warner Music, EMI, and Sony BMG -- had filed a motion to dismiss a September 2006 countersuit against them by defendant Limewire, the P2P file-sharing service. US District Court Judge Gerard Lynch of New York's Southern district granted that motion yesterday, along with several other claims made under state law, however without prejudice.
Facebook partners send data even if user opts out of 'Beacon'
Security researchers claim the social networking site is still tracking users even if they are not logged in or have opted out of its Beacon service, a charge Facebook denies by saying it deletes the data.
Last Monday, CA researcher Stefan Berteau posted details of how Facebook seems to still be tracking users even though a user may not be logged into the site, and even if the user had already opted out of Beacon. He tested out his hypothesis by visiting a site that participates in the program, epicurious.com.
The last AT&T pay phone, as a chapter of history closes
With cellular phones becoming ever more popular, most companies in the pay phone business are deciding maybe its a good idea to get out now.
AT&T is the latest to announce its exit. In a statement Monday, it said that it would honor all customer service and contracts for the time being, but would exit completely from the market by the end of next year.
AT&T, Apple slapped with suit over visual voicemail
Klausner Technologies has sued the two companies, claiming one of the signature features of the iPhone violates two of its patents.
While many patent cases have little prior case law to work with, the firm has already litigated successfully with two other companies who later licensed the technology. Both Vonage and AOL have struck agreements with the company.
Calif. government site still serving up malware, porn
The same Web hosting provider that was found to have allowed hackers into a government Web site in California due to shoddy server security is still causing problems for that county's IT administrators.
The Marin County Transportation Authority was found to linking to sites with pornography and malware, similar to what occurred nearly two months ago.
Creative debuts 32 GB flash Zen for Singapore, US
Creative upped the ante on flash-based players, offering the first flash-based player with storage comparable to some of today's hard-drive based models.
The latest Zen model will come with 32 GB of storage, slightly more than the standard sized Zune and iPod models. At that size, it would be the first flash-based player to eclipse the capacity of currently available HDD-based devices.
AOL turns to Amazon for video downloads
After apparently sluggish sales at its own homegrown store, AOL has decided to end its own video download service and outsource it to Amazon's Unbox.
Although financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, both sites would split revenues from videos sold through AOL, the companies said. AOL's own service lasted for about one year.
Record label holdouts pushed to offer DRM-free songs in MP3
With EMI and Universal seeing success in offering its catalogs in MP3, remaining holdouts Sony BMG and Warner Music Group are facing pressure to do the same.
Sources are telling Billboard magazine that several factors are coming together to force the labels' hands. First, Pepsi is planning an MP3 music giveaway for next year. In addition, Wal-Mart is now telling labels to start offering DRM-less tracks or risk delisting from their online store.
LiveJournal sold to Russian media company SUP
The transaction is intended to allow Six Apart to focus on its other core brands, including MovableType, TypePad, and Vox.
This morning, blogging software producer Six Apart announced it's selling the rest of its LiveJournal service -- that part which Russian media company SUP hasn't already been running there -- to SUP for an undisclosed sum.
z4 re-sues Microsoft over patents
Just days after having its $140 million plus judgment against Microsoft upheld by the courts, patent holding company z4 sued Microsoft again over what it saw as insufficient progress in complying with the terms of the ruling.
Z4 says that Microsoft products continue to infringe on its rights to certain patents surrounding software activation. Microsoft has yet to comment on this latest salvo by the small Michigan company.
NEC device is said to translate Japanese on the fly
New allies argue for DOJ to lay off Microsoft
Microsoft has found allies willing to argue against further antitrust oversight, though these new allies have attracted their own share of scrutiny.
Financial transaction processing giant Visa and paper products producer Weyerhaeuser filed amicus briefs on behalf of Microsoft earlier this month, asking a federal court to allow the US Justice Dept.'s oversight period over Microsoft's business activities to lapse.
Zander cedes top spot at Motorola
Amid criticism over the company's shortcomings and a much weaker position in the mobile phone market, Motorola CEO Ed Zander will step down at the end of the year.
The change would take effect on January 1, according to a statement from the company. Zander would be replaced by current president and chief operating officer Greg Brown, who joined the company in 2003. He would stay as chairman until the shareholder meeting in March of next year, and serve in an advisory role through January 2009.
University of Oregon takes a stand against RIAA
Facebook caves to pressure, MoveOn over Beacon
Despite criticism, Facebook will not end its Beacon service, but will rather make some changes to appease vocal critics such as the liberal activist group MoveOn.org.
MoveOn had led the criticism against the project, where e-commerce partners send certain aspects of customers activities on its sites to their Facebook profiles, calling it an invasion of privacy.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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