Canada proposes copying tax

Canada is proposing to impose a tax on removable media such as blank CDs and on MP3 players, passing the revenues on to musicians. However, according to the Wired report, the proposed tax, called the Private Copying Tariff, is unlikely to be enacted, as it could have a 'devastating impact' on Canada's growing technology industries. MP3 player manufacturers could bear the heaviest brunt, a tax of $21 per gigabyte of memory, which would, for example, push up the price of Apple's iPod by over $100 (?44). ...more

Amazon Unboxes video download service

Amazon has launched a video downloads service in the US, Amazon Unbox, selling 'DVD-quality' movies and TV shows. The service has begun selling movies from seven movie studios as well as TV shows from more than 20 broadcasters, including the BBC. Content is encoded at 2,500Kbps using the VC-1 Advanced Profile codec and downloads include a second file optimised for playback on any Windows Media-compatible portable device, but not an iPod. ...more

Hotmail goes Windows Live

Microsoft has announced the global launch of Windows Live Hotmail, having completed a beta test involving some 20 million users. The upgraded webmail service succeeds the hugely popular MSN Hotmail and is designed to be safer and more powerful. While most users are likely, as before, to access Hotmail via a Web browser, the new version also provides support for Windows Mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDAs and desktop email clients. ...more

Liberty Alliance responds to MS and IBM identity system

Liberty Alliance has responded to the WS-Federation specification for managing user identities as part of Web Services - IBM and Microsoft want to federate your identity. It has also published a set of business guidelines - templates to help organisations manage the propagation of user identities and policies. This area concerns a 'federated identity' system, such as that can support single sign-ins - eg a single login can be propagated across all participating trusted systems. ...more

Microsoft releases version 7.5 of Messenger

Doubtless stung by having the upstart Google impinge on its turf, not once but twice in a week, Microsoft has introduced an incremental upgrade of its MSN Messenger, IM software. The new version allows users record up to 15 seconds of sound that can be sent to others like any other IM and they can listen to it immediately. Sound quality also gets a boost using echo cancellation. ...more