Legal experts unveil UK version of the Creative Commons licence

Respected intellectual property expert Lawrence Lessig unveiled a UK version of the Creative Commons licence in London yesterday. The Professor of Law at Stanford University is working with the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at Oxford University on creating a 'UK port' of the Creative Commons licenses. Lessig said in a BBC interview that under current law, 'You either have to break the law or you have to not be creative. ...more

Europe gives Microsoft one week for antitrust compliance

The European Commission has given Microsoft until 1 June to comply with its sanctions imposed for antitrust violations. Microsoft has still to provide information that would enable other software makers to build full interoperability with Windows servers into their own products. European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that Microsoft has agreed to reach an agreement by the end of this month. ...more

iPod maker defends its working conditions

Foxconn, the Taiwanese iPod maker, has defended the working conditions in its Chinese factories, denying claims made by the Mail on Sunday. Foxconn said that the report was a vicious attack on the company and that there are huge discrepancies between the truth and the newspaper's allegations. The Mail on Sunday claimed that Foxconn employees were working in 'slave' conditions, with one plant near Shenzhen employing 200,000 people, who worked 15 hour days for $50 per month and lived 100 to a room in company dormitories. ...more

Macromedia unveils MX 2004 line-up

Macromedia has announced a complete overhaul of its Web authoring and development tools, with the unveiling of the MX 2004 range. As well as new versions of Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks, the range includes a new application, Flash Professional that, 'enables developers to organise and build applications using a forms-based metaphor as an alternative to traditional timeline development.' Not for the faint-hearted, this software is aimed at developers familiar with programming tools such as Visual Basic. ...more

British eBay scammer gets four years

The mastermind behind a British eBay phishing scam that made nearly ?200,000 has been gaoled for four years. David Levi, of Lytham near Blackpool, led a six-man phishing gang that stole identities and bank account details from more than 160 eBayers during 2003 and 2004. Levi and co set up a bogus website posing as the real eBay website and then sent emails that duped users into believing they were legitimate communications from the online auction house. ...more