Italian police arrest church official in anti-piracy swoop

Italian police have arrested a sacristan working at Naples' main cathedral, the Duomo di Napoli. Together with his son, he is accused of working with a criminal organisation that downloaded music and movie pre-releases from the Internet. In total 11 members of the gang were arrested by the Rome Fiscal Police (GdF) acting on warrants issued by the Public Prosecutor of Naples. ...more

Windows XP braced for Bluetooth

Microsoft said yesterday that it would release an update to computer builders that would add Bluetooth support to Windows XP. Bluetooth took a bit of a knock when it was absent from Windows XP at launch. At the time Microsoft said this was because of a sparsity of commercial hardware around on which to test it. ...more

Europe cracks down on music royalty collections

European Commission is to investigate the activities of societies which collect royalties on behalf of music copyright owners. The EC says there is evidence that they breach EU competition rules. At issue is the so called 'Santiago' agreement which allows a national society to collect royalties on behalf of all other societies within its territory. ...more

BPI calls on Apple to open up iTunes

The BPI has called on Apple to open its iTunes Music Store and make it compatible with portable players beyond its own iPod range. 'We would advocate that Apple opts for interoperability,' BPI chairman Peter Jamieson told the House of Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media & Sport inquiry into New Media and the Creative Industries. Jamieson acknowledged the huge contribution that Apple has made to the development of the digital music business as well as the 'enormous appeal' of its integrated hardware and software. ...more

PalmSource splits directions for smartphones and featurephones

PalmSource is changing direction, creating two new operating systems for smartphones and featurephones. The move is clearly an engagement with market movements - Palm devices such as the Treo 600 and 650 are the growth products, while the humble plain old PDA is a fairly stagnant space. But what has made it possible is PalmSource's acquisition of ChinaMobileSoft (CMS). ...more