UK public backs copyright extension - survey

A majority of British consumers support extended copyright protection for UK recording artists, according to a survey commissioned by the BPI. The YouGov Poll found that 62 per cent of those asked agreed that the term of copyright for sound recordings should be extended from its current 50 years to 95 years, bringing UK law in line with the US. Only 20 per cent of respondents did not agree that the copyright period should be lengthened. ...more

Microsoft Judge lays down the law

The new Judge in the Microsoft anti-trust hearing has held her first "status meeting" for the case and has cracked the whip. She is expecting both sides to reach a settlement, on the understanding that - should they fail - she will accept no limit on her ability to impose a "remedy", i.e. ...more

EMI boss denies single-price link with music piracy

The chairman of EMI has said that a single price for music downloads does not deter file sharing. Eric Nicoli made the comments after Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that if the record companies forced a rise in price for some tracks on the iTunes Music Store then its users will 'go back to piracy'. That's 'piracy' as in file sharing not rape and pillage on the open seas. ...more

Motorola, Cisco to develop dual-mode mobiles for enterprises

Motorola and Cisco are joining forces to develop a dual-mode wireless and cellular mobile phone for the enterprise. The companies plan to launch the product early next year and it will be available as an extension to Cisco's CallManager IP-based standards-compliant communication systems. The companies say that such a phone will reduce call costs and add security features only available to IP-based communication. ...more

UPDATED: AMD to drop ATi brand

UPDATED: See AMD stays hand over ATi brand axe AMD has announced that it's going to drop the ATi brand name following its takeover of the Canadian graphics underdog. Gareth Cater from AMD told our sister publication Custom PC that 'the new company will be called AMD,' meaning that we could shortly be seeing AMD-branded Radeon graphics chips. We asked Richard Baker from AMD if this meant that the memorable Radeon name would also be biting the dust, but he replied that 'we haven't made any final decisions yet, but I'd personally be very surprised if we dropped any of those product names. ...more