US Court throws out enforced content protection

A US Appeals Court has overturned a bid by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to force electronics companies to make products that recognise content protection technology and render existing non-compliant products illegal. The FCC was pushing its Broadcast Flag legislation to make it mandatory that televisions, set-top boxes and essentially anything able to utilise high definition television signals should be compliant with protection technologies that dictate how that content is viewed, copied and saved. However, the Appeals court has found that the FCC was going beyond its remit in its zealous campaign, and sided with concerns of associations opposing the Broadcast Flag rule, which included numerous US consumer and library organisations. ...more

UK online ad market set to top ?1bn in 2005

New figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) show that Internet advertising now accounts for 5.8 of the advertising market, beating the 5.1 per cent of outdoor advertising. ...more

Blogs bloom despite lack of gravitas

Despite the ever-increasing popularity of blogging, the notion of citizen journalism still lacks gravitas. According to recent surveys and polls, blogging remains a growth industry. The Pew Internet and American Life Project claims some 39 per cent of people in the US now read blogs: some 57 million in real numbers. ...more

HP claims Memory Spot breakthrough

HP's Bristol Labs has announced a breakthrough in chip design: its Memory Spot research team has come up with a complete wireless system in a single chip about the size of a match tip. The Memory Spot chip is between 2mm and 4mm square with current data capacities of up to 4Mbit. Yet it also includes a wireless antenna, capable of transfers with a theoretical limit of 10Mbit/sec, putting it on a par with early WiFi standards. ...more

Microsoft claims EU censure could mean substandard Windows

Microsoft has insisted that if the EU rules that Windows Media Player must be removed from PCs it will result in a 'substandard' Windows. Giving evidence at the European Commissions enquiry into alleged anti-competitive practices, the company 'ruled out removing Media Player from Windows as part of any settlement', according to Reuters. Microsoft's hardline stance would appear to make an out-of-court settlement unlikely. ...more