BSA software audit ‘will not trigger legal action’
out-law.com
The Business Software Alliance has launched a self-audit tool to help European businesses determine
whether they’re licence-compliant. While a BSA spokesman insists audit information won’t be passed to enforcement teams, it will be kept on file in the event the companies are coincidentally investigated.
Don’t be surprised to see a similar regime in Canada soon.
Mom sues RIAA members for racketeering
The Register
Record labels have been called plenty of bad names, but Michele Scimeca calls them gangsters. She says their demands for $150,000 per copyright infringement after her daughter used the Kazaa file-sharing network for a school project is a violation of U.S. RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) laws. Essentially, says her lawyer, the record labels are banding together to extort money from users of peer-to-peer networks.
Antipiracy law heads for EU vote
Cnet News.com
Meanwhile, back over the other side of the pond, the European Parliament is set to vote on tough new counterfeiting and piracy legislation that, while cracking down on illegal software and file circulation, could criminalize innocent behaviour like street entertainment, according to some critics.
Open source group fires in ACCC complaint over SCO
ZD Net Australia
A new shot fired in the SCO-Linux Wars: Open Source Victoria has filed a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, saying SCO’s tactics amount to an attempt to alter previously granted, valid licences.
Spam spreads to mobile phones
CNN Money
It was only a matter of time … A U.K. technology firm reports that 65 per cent of European mobile phone users receive up to five unsolicited text messages a week. An independent committee has logged more than 10,000 phone-spam complaints.
Microsoft’s Media Alert
TechWeb
An imminent decision in the European Union’s antitrust battle with Microsoft over the bundling of Windows Media Player will have an impact on the increasing number of enterprises looking to protect corporate content with digital rights management technology.
The Computer Ate My Vote
Wired News
Ben Cohen — co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream — is on a campaign to secure e-voting machines. He wants the rest of the U.S. to follow the lead of California, Nevada and Washington by insisting that electronic voting machines produce a voter-verified paper audit trail.
Smart Software Gives Surveillance Eyes a ‘Brain’
University of Rochester (press release)
University researchers have found a way to equip a surveillance camera with a rudimentary “”brain”” trained to look for changes to the scene it’s observing — like a missing piece of lab equipment, or a gun suddenly appearing at an airport.
People lie more on the phone than by e-mail
New Scientist
A study of Cornell University students who kept a communications diary found that they lied less in e-mail than face-to-face or on the phone. Presuming, of course, they didn’t lie more in their communications journals.
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