The Napsterite News - Saturday August 4

[TankGirl]

The Napsterite News
Saturday August 4


New bill aims to smooth music downloads

The Music Online Competition Act, or MOCA, would update copyright law to make it easier for online music services to conduct business without worrying about running afoul of the major music labels. Free music sites such as Napster have been hobbled by lawsuits brought by the Recording Industry Association of America, whose major label members fear losing control of their music as it travels across the Internet.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5095196,00.html?chkpt=zdnnp1tp01


Fired over MP3s

While record labels crack down on file-swapping services such as Napster that have allowed unlimited copying and trading of free MP3s, a few individuals are being caught in the MP3 dragnet. MP3s may be hazardous to your career.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6775251.html?tag=mn_hd


South Africa plans hardline Internet snooping legislation

Protest is growing in South Africa about the country's plan to introduce legislation that closely parallels the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. South Africa's Interception and Monitoring Bill aims to "regulate the monitoring of communications" and even advocates banning forms of communications that can't be bugged, which means it goes further than Britain's RIP Act.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/20828.html


SirCam still worming into in-boxes

The persistent e-mail worm noses around PC hard drives and distributes copies of files to everybody in an infected users's address book. In one case, SirCam invaded an FBI network security unit and e-mailed confidential documents to outsiders.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/specialreport/0,12737,6020825,00.html


Start-up bets against P2P distribution

As more and more content delivery start-ups crop up with peer-to-peer technology for easing the Internet's traffic problems, one new company is betting that the future of content distribution lies in centralized, tightly controlled networks.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6774573.html?tag=hot


Origin of the Patents

The adjective "Darwinian" is often applied to the dog-eat-dog software industry. But get ready for software that orchestrates natural selection among computer programs so that researchers can harvest the surviving code. Now reinventing recent patents, genetic programming heads toward automated "invention machines."
http://www.techreview.com/web/knorr/knorr080301.asp


When Galaxies Collide

Like the camera-clutching paparazzi who stalk Gwyneth and Brad, Hubble telescope operators are also interested in the strange couplings of stars. And when two galaxies collide, they merge into a giant disc whose edges quiver like teenagers in love.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,45818,00.html

Enjoy.

- tg