DRM costs revealed by Korean music service

A Korean digital music service has worked out the monetary 'value' of its DRM technology: about 12p per track. Soribada has agreed a two-tiered pricing structure with the Korea Music Producers' Association (KMPA); tracks with DRM will cost 700 won, 41.4p, while unencumbered songs will be sold for 500 won, 29. ...more

Palm announces Web browser for handhelds

Palm is set to release a Web browser for its range of Internet-enabled handheld devices. Available in Europe at the end of April, the Palm Web Browser features text compression technology - designed to allow text to be downloaded and read while accompanying images are still loading, the ability to redraw pages to fit the Palm screen size, and caching of content to be viewed offline later. The software will cost the 'local equivalent' of $19. ...more

Washington draws a step closer to outlawing spyware

Yesterday members of the US House Energy and Commerce subcommittee voted unanimously in favour of a bill that would force sites to notify visitors before loading 'spyware' on their machines according to Reuters 'Spyware' is defined as a piece of software that monitors user activities on the Internet. This bill would ban such practices as identify theft and logging keystrokes with fines of up to millions of dollars for the worst offenders. The bill would also demand that spyware be made easy to remove. ...more

Virgin claims 93 per cent detection of unwanted emails

Using antivirus and anti-spam technologies at the Internet level is proving a big success, according to Virgin. The UK's fifth largest ISP claims the technologies it uses catches about 500,000 spam and 20,000 virus infected messages a day. Peter Tuomey, Sales & Marketing Director at Virgin. ...more

BPI backs private copying rights

The UK music industry has told a government review of intellectual property rights that it would not object if a private copying provision was written into British law. Currently it is illegal to copy a CD onto a computer or portable device, although the music industry has turned a blind eye to the practice, just as long as copied files are not then shared or sold. But now the BPI, which represents UK record companies, has said that it is prepared to alter the copyright notice that is printed on disc packaging to permit copying for private use. ...more