Into Tech

Around 800 Virgin Media broadband customers have been sent letters informing them that they have been identified as file-sharers and politely telling them to cease downloading copyright protected content, specifically music. They are also warned that if they don’t stop, “further steps” will be taken against them….

There’s a neat little rule in press coverage: three stories makes a “trend” even if there’s not much more to it. This works particularly well on stories where you’re trying to scare people into worrying about something “bad” happening out there. Of course, rather than explore how widespread the problem is, the report usually just quotes a few …

Right on the heels of the awful court decision in France saying that eBay can be barred from selling even legitimate products, it appears some companies in England are shooting for a similar ruling. Jon Pyser writes in to let us know that a bunch of baby stroller companies in the UK are pushing hard to …

There are some competing opinion pieces in the LA Times, starting off with one siding with J.R.R. Tolkien’s kids in their legal fight for royalties from the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies:

Tolkien obviously isn’t Peter Jackson, who directed the franchise, or Liv Tyler or Viggo Mortensen, who starred in it, or New Line Cinema, the studio that …

After reports said that UK broadband ISP Virgin Media would become the recording industry’s copyright cop, Virgin came out denying it, saying that kicking users off the internet was draconian. However, it later admitted that it would send warning letters to people, based on the flimsy evidence used by the recording industry. Now Virgin has …

LVMH’s successful case against eBay (eBay hit with £30m fine for sales of fake luxuries, July 1) once again highlights the lack of protection that exists for consumers using online auction sites. The e-commerce of illegal goods impacts on companies in all markets, from fashion and record labels to fragrance and pharmaceutical manufacturers. While auction sites are a great …

Mark Cuban has a weird obsession with trying to convince people that YouTube is illegal, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. His latest discussion on the topic is a real stretch. In response to the bad ruling that gives YouTube log files to Viacom, Cuban is saying that Viacom can now wipe out Google’s DMCA …

We’ve covered the concept of SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suits plenty of times before. These are bogus lawsuits filed to try to bully a critic into shutting up. In one such case, involving an incredibly broad subpoena against a librarian blogger compiling information on the potential link between mercury and autism, a magistrate judge has …

Two different themes we’ve discussed here quite often are (1) that movie theaters need to stop worrying about piracy, and focus more on improving the moviegoing experience and (2) that advertising is content — and it better be good content if you want the advertising to be effective. That’s why it’s somewhat encouraging to see that movie …

A new survey on broadband adoption in the US suggests that broadband adoption in the US may be leveling off, or stalling out completely as the numbers aren’t all that different than they were at the end of 2007 (55% have broadband now, compared to 54% in December). Of course, there are a variety of different groups …

In the ongoing trainwreck that is Viacom’s misguided lawsuit against YouTube (the one they would be better off losing) a judge has come out with a ruling on evidence that Google has to hand over to Viacom — and it’s being portrayed in the press as both a win and a loss for Google. On the “win” …

Lacklustre, namby-pamby, average Joe PC users needn’t bother reading any further, for the NZXT Sentry LX fan controller is designed purely for the hardcore gamer who is just a little concerned about melting down his entire system due to gaming exertion… …

Users of Fring, a mobile internet service and community which brings VoIP calls and IM applications to a range of mobile phones, can now use Facebook directly from their cell phone.
The service, which is available via a new Settings menu option called fringAdd-ons, allows ‘Fringers’ to use the Facebook platform for tasks such as [...]

Satellite navigation devices are great, except when they accidentally land you on railway lines, but they can still wind you up in a serious traffic jam if you’re not careful. Although many models can work with information fed in from cameras and sensors to help drivers avoid traffic …

The classic concept of how to force someone to think for themselves rather than mindlessly obey authority is to have two equally powerful authority figures demand that the individual do the completely opposite actions (an example: having two top generals on either side of a low ranking soldier, one demanding he sit down, and the other demanding he stand). …

I’d rather forgotten that Sharp still make phones other than Mickey Mouse ones but they’ve gone and blindsided me with the launch of their 5.2-megapixel 923SH in Japan today. This rather strange looking handset is very neatly displaying perhaps its best feature, that of its 3.3-inch AQUOS swiveling …

There are plenty of day-to-day annoyances that get up our proverbial nose but one of the worst has got to be waiting an unreasonably long time to get served at a bar. Whether it’s understaffing on the busiest day of the week or the penchant to hire village idiots …

If you’re into music you probably already know that the best way to get the most from your tunes with a pair of compact headphones is to opt for the in-ear ‘bud variety. There’s no point spending hundreds of pounds on a top of the range …

Back in November, the news broke on the Friday after Thanksgiving that the federal government routinely asked for and received information from mobile phone operators about the location of various mobile phones (effectively tracking their owners) without bothering to show any sort of probable cause. This should raise plenty of concern (especially combined with the warrantless wiretapping program), …

It may seem like a bit of a bit of a bum move but Hitachi is continuing to push the development of high-capacity hard drives and is currently working on a 5TB model set for release in 2010. It seems clear that solid-state drives are the future of storage …