Technologies used by Microsoft and other online advertising outfits to analyze user behavior threaten privacy and must be curbed, a pair of advocacy groups said Wednesday. The Washington-based U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Center for Digital Democracy have asked the Federal Trade Commission to review–and ideally restrict–what they describe as a growing online [...]

Will using BitTorrent harm my computer, and if so and under what conditions will it? BitTorrent itself is highly unlikely to harm your computer. However what you download using BitTorrent – well, that’s a different story. Some caution is called for. And I know some of you are asking … “what’s a BitTorrent?”

A U.S. District judge has ordered a Rockmart woman to pay $6,350 in fines to five major recording companies for charges related to Internet file-sharing. Judge Harold L. Murphy, Rome, granted summary judgment in favor of Maverick, Sony BMG, Atlantic, Capitol and Arisa Recording Companies who claimed in a civil suit that Carma Walls illegally [...]

Security researchers say hackers have published code that could let an attacker disable the built-in firewall on computers running Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. The code, which has been available on the Internet since Sunday, could be used to disable the firewall on completely up-to-date Windows XP computers running Microsoft’s Internet Connection Service (ICS), allowing [...]

Blockbuster Inc said on Wednesday it was changing its online movie rental policy to let customers exchange DVDs through the mail or at its stores. The program, which allows subscribers to double their monthly rentals, comes as Blockbuster strives to meet its online subscriber goals and shore up store-based rentals in an industry that has [...]

Apple infused iTunes with a Latin beat by dedicating part of the online digital entertainment store to Spanish-language music, videos, audio books, podcasts and television shows. The iTunes Latino portion of the website featured music genres including Mexican, alternative rock, pop, Reggaeton and classic rock. Some artists provided exclusive offerings for iTunes, Apple said. “We’re [...]

Cutting-edge music has long been an integral feature of high-end video games. Now, as Electronic Arts and the gaming arm of Def Jam Records gear up for the third in their successful series of Def Jam-branded game titles, and first for next-generation game platforms, music is being incorporated into the fabric of the gameplay as [...]

An explosive device blew out a thick, plate-glass window Tuesday evening at the Silicon Valley headquarters of PayPal, the online payments unit of eBay Inc. No injuries resulted when what local fire officials said was an explosive device shattered a 6-foot-square window on the ground floor of the four-story building in San Jose, California. The [...]

A bill of rights for the internet age has been proposed at a United Nations’ conference in Athens. The bill would update and restate rights that have been enshrined for centuries, said Robin Gross of civil liberties group IP Justice. The proposal was made at the Internet Governance Forum, at which the future of the [...]

A senior executive for Microsoft has said the firm could pull out of non-democratic countries such as China. Fred Tipson, senior policy counsel for the computer giant, said concerns over the repressive regime might force it to reconsider its business in China. “Things are getting bad… and perhaps we have to look again at our [...]

I’ve posted a story about the MPAA’s piracy stats, and that NY is the pirate capital of the world. In the post I said that it was hard to track down the source of CAM releases, but that was a mistake. cap codeAlthough I’m familiar with the watermarks that are put in DVD’s, I never [...]

After more than 2 months of negotiations, KaZaA has now reached a deal with the music publishing industry to settle its claims of copyright infringement. KaZaA, told the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday that it had reached a tentative deal with the National Music Publishers’ Association, or NMPA, It has agreed to [...]