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Pirate Bay buyer could face reprecussions
Internet cafe operator Global Gaming Factory X will be delisted from a Swedish stock exchange if it engages in illegal activities involving the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, which it plans to acquire for 7.8 million dollars, a stock exchange official has warned. Companies that are involved in illegal activities aren’t allowed to be listed on AktieTorget, according to the exchange’s head of market surveillance. It will be up to the courts to decide whether what the company eventually does with The Pirate Bay is legal, the official said. Global Gaming Factory has said it wants to pay content providers and copyright owners for files downloaded.
New HTML won’t include multimedia tags
The latest rewrite of the Web’s mother tongue won’t recommend the use of specific audio and video encoding formats that could make it cheaper and easier for people to distribute multimedia content. The major browser makers have been unable to agree on an encoding format they will support in their products, according to the editor of the HTML 5 specification at the World Wide Web Consortium. Plans have been discussed for years to incorporate two new tags — and — into HTML 5, the next specification under development. The original HTML specification never included those tags, forcing people to download plugins from various vendors to play audio and video content, and it looks as though that will continue to be the case.
Privacy advocates want action for online data collection rules
Four advertising trade groups say online consumers should get more information about what data is being tracked and collected for the purposes of behavioral advertising, and they should have more control over that data. Online advertising networks should also maintain appropriate physical, electronic, and administrative safeguards to protect data collected, they say. Privacy advocates sounded less than impressed with the new principles. The Center for Democracy and Technology said action, not words, is what’s needed. It will continue to push Congress to pass comprehensive privacy legislation, including rules for online data collection.
Google Book Search under investigation
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a settlement involving Google Book Search for possible antitrust violations, following months of speculation that the agency had its eye on the service. The DOJ told the court overseeing the settlement of a lawsuit filed by The Authors Guild against Google that it has opened an investigation into the settlement after reviewing concerns that it would give Google too much control over so-called orphan works, books still in copyright but for which the copyright owner can no longer be traced.
And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I’m Peter Sayer in Paris. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.
