Bragg blasts MySpace terms

UK singer-songwriter Billy Bragg has withdrawn his music from MySpace after discovering that the website's terms and conditions allow it to reuse content without his permission. Bragg has called on other MySpace contributors, of which there are many thousands, to start a 'small revolution' and force the site to remove the clause. 'The real problem is the fact that they can sub-license it to any company they want and keep the royalities themselves without paying the artist a penny,' he said on his now content-free MySpace page. ...more

Spam kingpin seized in the US

The FBI has arrested a spammer who was generating multimillion dollar revenues through his operations. Thought to be responsible for more than a billion spam mails sent to AOL accounts, Christopher Smith (aka 'Rizler') was arrested just after midnight as he got off a flight from the Dominican Republic last Thursday and is expected to appear in court today. Smith had been operating out of the Dominican Republic ever since a US federal judge shut down his Burnsville Internet and Xpress Pharmacy Direct businesses and ordered him to stop selling drugs. ...more

Instant messaging for mobiles

AOL has announced that it is to develop its instant messaging technologies for Symbian OS-based mobile phones. The Symbian OS is designed for the new generation of smart phones, and is used in products including Sony Ericsson's P800 and Nokia's 9210 Communicator range. By joining Symbian's Platinum Program, AOL will have access to Symbian OS source code, enabling it to develop smart phone versions of both its instant messaging services, AIM and ICQ, and its predictive text software, T9 Text Input. ...more

A Web site to encourage the building of Web services

Entitled "The Microsoft Hosted Applications Development Community", it's a new Web site to help developers build the software necessary to support Web-based services. Microsoft is not alone in seeing the Web as the ultimate means of delivering applications and services, so it is keen to establish its own strategy - the .NET way - for putting it all in place. ...more

UK games chart: Final Fantasy XII holds off Crackdown

Final Fantasy XII holds off Crackdown in this week's ELSPA UK Games Chart. Square Enix's fantasy adventure game (PS2) stays at number one with Microsoft's action title (Xb360) - think Grand Theft Auto with super powers - still at number two. The first of two new entries completes the top three: EA's The Sims 2: Seasons (PC), which brings the activities of spring, summer, autumn and winter into the ever-expanding Sims franchise. ...more