Summer date for Napster subs

German media giant Bertelsmann plans to introduce its subscription service for Napster-based music downloads this summer. Speaking in Davos, at the World Economic Forum, the Bertelsmann CEO outlined the plans. "I'm convinced we can introduce in June or July of this year a subscription model, with a real working digital rights management system," said Thomas Middelhoff. ...more

Mozilla previews new website

The Mozilla organisation has released a preview of its redesigned website which should make it easier to locate its various Internet software offerings and to find information about them. The organisation developes the Mozilla software suite - comprising a Web browser, email client and chat client - as well as the Firebird and Camino browsers, the Thunderbird email client and the Bugzilla 'enterprise-grade' bug tracking software. The new website can be seen at website-beta. ...more

Half-Life Divas

The highly anticipated MOD for Half-Life, The Opera, has finally touched down. This project attempts to recreate the stylised gunfight choreography seen in the Hong Kong Blood Opera movies. If I mention director John Woo, you might get a better idea of what I mean. ...more

BSkyB suspends Net content after Microsoft patches DRM

BSkyB has suspended film downloads and Web access to sports clips until Microsoft patches a breach in the DRM technology designed to prevent unauthorised copying of the content. Sky said that the services would remain offline until the flaw had been fixed. 'We took this step as a precaution after Microsoft said it was working on an update to its Digital Rights Management software, which is used to protect content on Sky by broadband against unauthorised copying or distribution,' a spokesman for the satellite TV and broadband provider said. ...more

Microsoft unveils new security brand

Microsoft has unveiled a new brand, 'Forefront', that will act as an umbrella for a range of business-oriented security products for client and server-based services. Microsoft promises that the new brand will integrate with customers' existing infrastructure and will simplify the task of managing and controlling IT security and access. As an example, Microsoft is rebranding its Windows Client Protection as 'Forefront Client Security'. ...more