MGM vs Grokster case moves to the Supreme Court

The two sides in the bitter dispute over whether peer to peer networking is responsible for illegal file sharing final met at the Supreme Court today. The long running battle between MGM, which represents the movie business, and Grokster and StreamCast Networks, for the p2p companies, seeks to settle once and for all whether peer to peer technology encourages illegal activity. So far the battle has been a 2-0 victory for the file sharers. ...more

EMI rejects Warner takeover proposal

EMI has rejected an 'inadequate' ?2 billion takeover proposal from Warner Music. The company's board said that the proposed offer is not in the best interest of EMI shareholders, given the 'prolonged regulatory uncertainty' that would ensue, not to mention 'unacceptable operational risk at a critical time'. It also believes that Warner has undervalued EMI, both in terms of the value of EMI itself and in terms of the synergies available from a combination' with Warner. ...more

COMMENT: Dire tones of picture phones

Which idiot bought the first camera phone? They must have felt like a complete bozo trying to find someone to send pictures to, just like the owner of the first telephone - all connected up, no-one to phone. Yes, I know you can send pictures to email addresses, but that's not how it's advertised. Putting my cards on the table early on, I fall into the category of those that use - and will continue to use - a mobile phone as, er, a phone that's mobile. ...more

FreeHand update released

Macromedia has released an update for FreeHand MX that fixes a long list of bugs in both the Mac and Windows version. FreeHand MX 11.01 is a free download from www. ...more

Web logging made easy

Web logs, or blogs, may be the fastest growing area on the Web, but creating them can be a confusing and unintuitive process, particularly if you're not particularly au fait with Internet technology. Sparkpod is a new blogging tool that aims to make the process as simple as possible, and appears to succeed. Blogs are a kind of online diary or journal, a handy place to collect your musings and keep in touch with your friend and families. ...more