Musicians rally behind online file sharing

A group of prominent musicians has called for the US Supreme Court to not hold online file sharing services legally responsible for any illegal activity by their users. The group, which includes Steve Winwood, Public Enemy's Chuck D and rock group Heart, says that although it is opposed to the stealing of copyrighted work, peer to peer services such as Kazaa and Grokster are a valuable way for artists to distribute their work. 'Musicians are not universally united in opposition to peer-to-peer file sharing,' the group claims in its court filing, despite record companies insisting that they are. ...more

Zune hits a million - and pink is popular

Microsoft claims to have sold a million of its much-maligned Zune music player, but admits sales aren't exactly sparkling. In a low-key interview with a US newspaper, the president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, Robbie Bach, claims 'we've sold a little over a million Zunes', which he says gives it around a 10% share in hard disk music players in the US. However, Bach admits the company has a long way to go before it begins to make serious inroads into the iPod's dominance. ...more

eBay enjoys the Webby Awards 2003

The Webby Awards for 2003 have been announced. Winners of the seventh annual online Oscars include eBay (Services), Lonely Planet Online (Travel), rathergood.com (Weird) and Amazon. ...more

iPod manufacturer withdraws libel action against journalists

A Taiwan iPod manufacturer has withdrawn a libel action against two journalists who reported on conditions at its plant in China's Shenzhen province. Foxconn and the journalists' employer, the China Business News newspaper, issued a joint statement saying that they had resolved their dispute and apologised to each other for 'for the disturbances brought to both of them by the lawsuit'. Foxconn had earlier reduced its damages claim against the report's author, Wang You and editor Weng Bao from 30 million yuan to just one yuan. ...more

Security driving corporate Vista installations

Improved security is the main reason for companies to upgrade to Windows Vista, according to a survey of network and system administrators, with 53% of those who had either tested or already installed the OS identifying it as the most important factor. An additional 14% cited User Account Control (UAC), itself a security feature that limits user privileges to restrict the possibility or potency of malware attacks. In comparison, 22% said that 'improved functionality' was behind their decision to install Vista. ...more