EU pressures music industry to simplify online licensing

The European Union is increasing the pressure on record companies to simplify the licensing of music to online stores. As things stand, store operators such as Apple and Napster have to secure separate licensing deals for each country in which they wish to sell downloads. Naturally this has slowed the introduction of services, with only Apple established beyond the core markets in the UK, France and Germany and some services including Yahoo!'s yet to break out of the US. ...more

Web-based services threatened by patent

Not a week goes by these days without one software developer alleging that another has infringed one of its patents and this week is no exception, with Microsoft's .Net strategy now supposedly under threat. Charlie Northrup, CEO of Global Technologies, a software developer from New Jersey, US, owns a patent for diverse computer systems connecting to servers over the Internet to run software on multiple platforms. ...more

Microsoft sends Live Communications Server 2005 in beta

Microsoft's Office Live Communications Server 2005 has now gone into beta testing. The new version can extend IM beyond the corporate network with messages secured through a high level of encryption according to the Redmond company. The new version, previously codenamed 'Vienna' is looking to take corporate instant messaging beyond the office and offer it to home workers and employees on the road. ...more

AOL takes stock of Google

AOL has the right to buy 1.9 million shares in Google when it goes public, expected later this year. According its annual report, AOL cut a deal in June of 2002 with Google to buy 1. ...more

EU ad ban casts gloom for mobile operators

Valuable advertising revenues could be denied mobile operators as the Government introduces EU directives to ban ads sent to mobile phones. Location-based marketing, where users would receive adverts and information based on where they are, would be a valuable tool to help 3G mobile operators recoup the cost of licences and the funding needed to set up the networks. But the Data Protection Commission has confirmed that this kind of advertising could contravene the new rules. ...more