iPod manufacturer withdraws libel action against journalists

A Taiwan iPod manufacturer has withdrawn a libel action against two journalists who reported on conditions at its plant in China's Shenzhen province. Foxconn and the journalists' employer, the China Business News newspaper, issued a joint statement saying that they had resolved their dispute and apologised to each other for 'for the disturbances brought to both of them by the lawsuit'. Foxconn had earlier reduced its damages claim against the report's author, Wang You and editor Weng Bao from 30 million yuan to just one yuan. ...more

EC may lose veto on Microsoft and Time Warner DRM purchase

Microsoft and Time Warner's proposed purchase of Digital Rights Management (DRM) developer ContentGuard looks like it might avoid a European Commission veto. Last week's announcement that French technology company Thomson had joined the consortium seeking to buy ContentGuard throws into doubt the Commission's ability to intervene. Under EU rules, if two companies buy a third company it must notify the Commission as either one of the buyers would be in a position to block any decisions. ...more

PC Pro: Change of specification to JAL Recommended PC

JAL has been forced to replace the monitor included with its Monarch XP3000 PC, which has won a Recommended award in the January 2004 issue of PC Pro. JAL has been forced to replace the monitor included with its Monarch XP3000 PC, which has won a Recommended award in the January 2004 issue of PC Pro. Instead of the Sharp LL-T17D4-B monitor, which won't be available until January due to shortages, JAL will ship the PC with the Iiyama ProLite E431B. ...more

Music publishers are restricting online growth - DiMA

The head of the body that represents online music services has said that music publishers' demands are restricting the growth of the industry. Jonathan Potter, director of DiMA, the Digital Media Association, said that unless publishers accept a smaller share of the digital music pie for songwriters, the online services will not be able to cut prices in order to better compete with the 'free' music available on p2p file sharing networks. Publishers receive about nine per cent of each track sold. ...more

The Wrong Guy heads for Hollywood

An unemployed Congolese man interviewed by the BBC when he was mistakenly thought to be an Internet expert has signed a six-figure film contract. Guy Goma was waiting to be interviewed for a job, when a mix-up led resulted in him facing questions about Apple Computer's court victory over The Beatles' company Apple Corps, over a long-running trademark dispute. The BBC was meant to be questioning computer journalist Guy Kewney. ...more