Microsoft Corp. is facing a class-action lawsuit over a tool that gathers data on a user’s computer in an effort to detect bootlegged copies of its Windows operating system. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday, concerns Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), an antipiracy tool the company introduced in July 2005. [...]

Europeans get dibs at the official Playstation 3 website access it as well and read up, but luckily we can on all the gooey, sugary news Sony can top us off with. What we can check out on the site consists mostly of exciting pictures of the console, controllers, the usual specs, and other content. [...]

Pro-Palestinian hackers shut down hundreds of Israeli Web sites as Israeli troops invaded southern Gaza after the abduction of an Israeli soldier, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday. The Jerusalem Post said about 700 Web sites were shut down early Wednesday morning in the campaign. Their home pages were replaced by the message, “Hacked by Team-Evil [...]

Two U.S. men have been sentenced to prison terms for their participation in online software piracy, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced late Wednesday. David Chen Pui, 27, of Fountain Valley, California, was sentenced to 12 months in prison for distributing pirated works from his own and other Web sites, and David Lee Pruett, [...]

On Genova Street in downtown Mexico City, illegally copied CDs of music by top U.S. artists sell for 20 pesos, just under $2 a piece, in tiny booths between tables overflowing with batteries, stuffed animals and cheap knockoff sunglasses. That’s about one-tenth the price in nearby stores. Music is even cheaper a few hundred yards [...]

Net neutrality continues to wrangle members of the House and Senate as lawmakers debate the pros and cons of the U.S. Telecom Act. They’re not alone in being divided, though, as government officials too made clear their opposing views in speaking at the Wireless Communications Association conference. Howard Waltzman, chief counsel of Telecommunications and the [...]

He’s bent the ear of world leaders on social causes. He’s a Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He’s a rock star. But could the lead singer of U2 also become a front man for a grass-roots campaign seeking to change how the music industry does business? The Free Software Foundation hopes so. The Boston-based advocacy group [...]

New radio technologies have music industry and radio officials at odds over fair use of audio and video digital transmissions. The implementation of audio and video flags to block unauthorized distribution and replication could be one solution, experts testified Tuesday before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. However, opponents of the flags say [...]

Almost two years ago there were rumors circulating that the next iPod on the horizon might add satellite radio capabilities on-the-go. The rumors, and god knows there are many of them, were sparked by meetings between Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin and Steve Jobs. Apple passed on a iPod Satellite – a device that would have [...]

People who talk on cellphones while driving, even using “hands-free” devices, are as impaired as drunk drivers, researchers said on Thursday. “If legislators really want to address driver distraction, then they should consider outlawing cell phone use while driving,” said Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah who worked on [...]

French lawmakers gave final approval Friday to legislation that could force Apple Computer Inc. to make its iPod and iTunes Music Store compatible with rivals’ music players and online services. Both the Senate and the National Assembly, France’s lower house, voted in favor of the copyright bill, which some analysts said could cause Apple Computer [...]

German experts at a Berlin seminar this week argued that search engines need to be more regulated. They want companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! to exercise editorial control over their search results and filter out sites with x-rated content or that glorify aggression. “Mechanisms have to be developed to deal with illegal content [...]

Spanish activists have launched a web-based campaign to fight the recently-imposed levy on blank media which will “place a tax on blank CDs, DVDs and even flash memory sticks”, as we reported earlier today. Todoscontraelcanon.es (all against the levy) is collecting signatures under a “Your Signature Counts” slogan, and vows to challenge the new Ley [...]

The RIAA has just joined forces with non-profit agency i-Safe to create a program aimed at deterring intellectual property piracy among teenagers. As part of the agreement, i-Safe will help the RIAA create a “nationwide assembly experience on intellectual property” for both middle school and high school students. Mitch Bainwol, chairman and CEO of the [...]

Two new surveys show just how drastically listening habits are shifting and presenting new challenges for the music industry. Ipod_33A new IPSOS poll reveals that 20% of Americans over age 12 own an mp3 player jumping to 54% when looking at teens only. Recent Consumer Electronics Association figures showed music devices accounting for 85% of [...]

As over-the-air mobile downloading starts to take root, more numbers are surfacing on the trend. Already, Sprint has revealed a tally of two million OTA downloads since its service became available late last year. And UK-based 3 shifted more than one million OTA tracks in April alone. But how do those numbers compare to content [...]

A security researcher with expertise in rootkits has built a working prototype of new technology that is capable of creating malware that remains “100 percent undetectable,” even on Windows Vista x64 systems. Joanna Rutkowska, a stealth malware researcher at Singapore-based IT security firm COSEINC, says the new Blue Pill concept uses AMD’s SVM/Pacifica virtualization technology [...]

Wurld Media, Inc. the creator of the legitimate peer-to-peer (p2p) service, Peer Impact, announced today that select movies and television titles from Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. Entertainment are now available via digital download on their revolutionary entertainment network in the US market. This announcement follows Peer Impact’s previously announced agreement, with NBC Universal [...]

Take this for what it’s worth, but PS3 Land is reporting that Track7Games have cancelled PlayStation 3 development on their upcoming multi-platform game Theseis. The site claims that “the developer blames the problem on the exceptionally high cost of developing for PS3.” We have all heard the rumors of how hard it is to develop [...]

The European Commission unveiled plans Thursday that would force telecommunications providers to share broadband infrastructure with rivals and unify regulations in the sector. Viviane Reding, the European Union commissioner in charge of the EU’s telecommunications policy, said the rules would encourage competition. “We must open the markets when they are dominated by dominant players,” she [...]