Privateering proves counterfoil to pirates

Internet file sharing reduces the demand for counterfeit CDs and DVDs, according to a US academic, who believes that suing p2p users is counterproductive and can actually reduce record label and movie studio profits. Tunay Tunca, assistant professor of operations, information and technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, together with student Qiong Wu found that increased file sharing has reduced demand for commercially pirated products sold on the black market. They believe that a combination of sharing and 'strategic pricing' could suppress counterfeiting and increase profits. ...more

YouTube eyes advertising revenues

YouTube has begun to reveal how it hopes to cash in on its phenomenal success by announcing two new advertising concepts: Participatory Video Ads (PVA) and Brand Channels. A PVA is a user-initiated video advertisement with all of the YouTube community features enabled. Consumers can rate, share, comment and embed advertising content that they find 'interesting, informative and entertaining'. ...more

AOL lays off 1300 staff

AOL is cutting 1300 of its staff with the brunt of the cuts falling at its customer support call centres. The cuts represent seven per cent of AOL's workforce worldwide. The official reason is that the nature of AOL subscribers has changed with today's customers being much more knowledgeable than at the height of its expansion in the mid 1990s. ...more

Every broadband vote counts, says BT boss

Internet users who don't have broadband capability at their local exchange can have it- providing they vote for it says BT. Under the scheme - which will start 1 July - BT Wholesale will log 'firm' consumer and business demand for fast Internet access in particular areas. To encourage demand, and open up the possibility of web users canvassing their neighbours to sign up for broadband, BT intends to publish the number of signups needed within an area before it will upgrade the exchange. ...more

Microsoft releases May's bulletins

Microsoft has released its security bulletins for May with critical patches for Windows and Exchange as well as a further Moderate rated patch for Windows. The Exchange patch covers Exchange Server 2000 with Post-SP3, up to Exchange Server 2003 with SP2. A vulnerability in the Exchange Calendar could allow an attacker to create a message with certain vCal or iCal properties that would allow remote code execution. ...more