Bid for new online music rules rejected

The European Parliament has called for binding rules to regulate the bloc's online music market and protect less powerful artists, but the proposal was rejected by the bloc's executive. It was the latest spat in the European Union's tortuous efforts to get agreement in the hotly contested field of intellectual property rights. In October 2005, the EU's Executive Commission published nonbinding guidelines allowing artists to choose which collective rights management society (CRMs) they want handle their online music copyright across Europe. ...more

And now, here on Channel 4, there's online education

Forget Hollyoaks or Frasier, Channel 4 is celebrating the award of a ?6m government contract to provide an online-based education service. Aimed at children aged seven to eleven, the service will take the form of a Web site and a tie in series (called What if? and due to be broadcast in September). The Guardian reports that Channel 4 will be working in partnership with Oracle and an education consultancy called Intuitive Media to develop the site, called "GridClub". ...more

UK broadband infrastructure falling short - government body

The UK's broadband infrastructure may be unable meet the future needs of intensive Internet users and content providers, according to the government's advisory group on broadband and digital convergence. In a report published today, the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) says that unless uncertainties surrounding next-generation broadband are resolved within two years UK competitiveness may suffer and the digital divide widen. The BSG is concerned that the market will not deliver the ever-increasing bandwidth that users and content providers expect. ...more

New studio is TV free

Formac has released the Studio DV, a new cheaper version of its video input hardware. Studio DV is a FireWire device that converts video from a VCR, camcorder or DVD player into a DV stream that can be saved and edited on a computer and, if desired, recorded back to VHS tape. However, unlike the Formac Studio it doesn't have a TV/radio tuner, bringing the price down about ?100 to ?249 +VAT. ...more

New 40Gb optical disk from Sony

Sony has announced a new rewritable optical disk. The new format will hold up to 40Gb of data and there are already plans to develop even larger capacity disks. The new format is called 5. ...more