The latest version of Kazaa now offers internet phone technology from Skype. This seems to be a natural progression for their P2P technology, enhancing the possible non-infringing uses of such networks. However, Kazaa still suffers from spyware, and it has Read more…
Trust James Boyle to cut through the nonsense and provide an excellent picture of what is taking place with the calls for more protection for databases. The evidence is finally taking shape that more protection for databases in Europe has Read more…
CNN reports that new software is being designed to tackle art forgeries. The software conducts a mathematical analysis of the piece, uses some algorithms and establishes wether a piece is forged or not. I am guessing that this will work Read more…
The Nosoftwarepatents.com website has posted a statement by European OSS superstars Linus Torvalds (Linux), Michael Widenius (MySQL) and Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP) against software patents. The statement pleas to the European Council to consider the damage caused by software patents. They Read more…
A new bill has passed in the United States which makes it a criminal offence to record movies in the theatre. The new bill had provisions that criminalised file sharing, but consumer pressure was enough to get them to drop Read more…
Attempts by the United States to obtain an agreement to ban cloning have stalled. Many countries oppose an all-out ban and prefer to maintain options open in things like stem cell research. Good news, but I wonder if the Bush Read more…
The latest FUD from Microsoft may just be mere rubbish. Steve Ballmer recently made it clear in a conference in Asia that Linux violates 283 software patents. The problem is that this is done by quoting a study that actually Read more…
For those of us who rely upon Google for research, the new Google Scholar service comes at a great time. The service filters search results from several academic databases and journals. I have tested it and it works great. Is Read more…
As usual, Windows computers have been hit with a virus. The Sober-I virus has been hitting Windows machines since yesterday. Apparently it replicates itself using Windows mailing programmes, and sends loads of copies of itself. It also deletes and modifies Read more…
Researchers testifying to the U.S. Senate have expressed that porn is more harmful and addictive than hard drugs like cocaine, leading to “addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction”. They want more research about porn. Is a ban in Read more…