MPs call for better labelling of digital content

MPs have called for new labelling regulations for digital content, so that consumers know exactly what they can and cannot do with their downloads. The recommendation comes in the All Parliamentary Internet Group's (APIG) report on copy protection (DRM) systems, which is published today. The report also calls for an inquiry into digital music pricing and warns makers of DRM systems to learn from the experience of Sony BMG in the US and avoid DRM technologies that install hidden, virus-like files on users' computers. ...more

Online photo labs refuse to print copyright snaps

Online photo labs are increasingly refusing to make prints from digital images sent in by customers because the photographs are too good. Copyright law prohibits photo labs from making prints of any image that is not owned by the customer in question. A combination of the ever improving technology built into digital cameras, the fall in the price of high-end cameras and the so-called digital SLRs, and the increasing use of Photoshop and other software packages to retouch and enhance images, is creating end results that are difficult to distinguish from the work of a professional. ...more

Liberty Alliance bears fruit

Sun has launched version 6.0 of its Sun ONE Identity Server. While this may catch the eye of certain system administrators, of wider interest is fact that it incorporates work from the Liberty Alliance. ...more

Professional piracy rocketing warns BPI

Professional piracy is rocketing, according to the British Phonographic Institution (BPI), with profits from counterfeit CDs soaring to ?56.1mn in the UK alone. The figure represents a 13 per cent increase over last year's profits and by volume constitutes 4. ...more

New variant adds to Netsky damage

The sky's the limit for Netsky D with nearly 40,000 infected mails intercepted so far, according to MessageLabs. The UK security company pinpoints the first identification of the worm just before 10am yesterday morning, originating from France. And if your computer began emitting beeping sounds this morning, the chances are, you've got it too. ...more