US Court throws out enforced content protection

A US Appeals Court has overturned a bid by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to force electronics companies to make products that recognise content protection technology and render existing non-compliant products illegal. The FCC was pushing its Broadcast Flag legislation to make it mandatory that televisions, set-top boxes and essentially anything able to utilise high definition television signals should be compliant with protection technologies that dictate how that content is viewed, copied and saved. However, the Appeals court has found that the FCC was going beyond its remit in its zealous campaign, and sided with concerns of associations opposing the Broadcast Flag rule, which included numerous US consumer and library organisations. ...more

Microsoft tries out beta speech

Microsoft has updated its .Net Speech family of products. In a bid to make speech technology more mainstream, Microsoft has announced a new speech software SDK (software development kit), a Joint Development Program for larger businesses implanting speech-based applications and a technical preview of its . ...more

Fog forms first walk-through screen

A Finnish university has developed the world's first walk-through display, by projecting images onto a penetrable dry fog screen. The 'Walk-thru' technology comprises a airflow inside which a thin fog screen is injected. Because the fog is contained within the laminar airflow, it remains crisp and protected from turbulence. ...more

Oftel to slash BT's unmetered dial-up

Oftel has proposed a 17 per cent price cut to the FRIACO unmetered wholesale product it offers to ISPs. When BT first introduced FRIACO (Fixed Rate Internet Access Call Origination) to allow ISPs to offer unmetered dial-up access, it included in the wholesale costs charges for call routing and managing the extra traffic on the network. But by December 2001, BT had introduced network improvements that made these services unnecessary. ...more

UK one of only five to make EU's communications deadline

The UK, along with Ireland, Finland, Denmark and Sweden are the only five countries in the EU to make today's deadline for implementing electronic communications directives into national law. Although we are in the clear, the European Commission is going to put the heat on tardy territories, threatening 'infringement proceedings if action is not taken rapidly'. Italy looks likely to be fashionably late, but seems to have charmed the EU into accepting a date of 31 July for its compliance. ...more