75 MPs back copyright extension motion

Seventy-five MPs have signed a parliamentary motion calling for an extension of the lifetime of copyright on sound recordings. The Early Day Motion, tabled by Labour MP for Linlithgow & Falkirk East Michael Connarty, argues that 'thousands of musicians and their record companies will lose out over the next few years because of the shorter copyright term for sound recordings relative to that granted to almost all other creators'. Currently recorded works are protected for 50 years. ...more

SCO running out of time to keep lid on code

Judge sets 'discovery' deadline at Hallowe'en meeting. The administrative Judge handling the SCO case has told the company that if it doesn't have a good reason for not meeting IBM's requests for documents so that it can build its defence and counterclaim cases, the issue will go to discussion which is likely to result in SCO being compelled to do so. Of course, at the heart of these requests is the specific code that SCO alleges IBM used in building its AIX version of Unix and then 'misappropriated' into Linux. ...more

Mandrake emerges from bankruptcy and restructuring

Mandrake has been given court approval to exit bankruptcy. France's Commerce Court accepted Mandrake's exit plan from 'redressement judiciaire' (Chapter 11-style bankruptcy protection) without amending the company's proposal, thus ending 14 months of financial restructuring. The company recently showed off its first profitable quarter since 1999. ...more

Parents fret over kids' 3G Web surfing

Parents worry that 3G phones will mean children will be surfing far from their supervision, but also that their children know far more about the technology than they do. According to children's charity NCH, a NOP Poll yesterday showed that nearly three in four parents worry that phones offering Web surfing will put their children in increased danger by allowing them to connect from anywhere. But while they are worried that they can not be there to supervise their use, 63 per cent say their children know more about the phones than they do anyway. ...more

Gates announces Media2Go at CES

Bill Gates unveils Microsoft's venture into portable media players at his CES keynote with the Media2Go device platform. Working together with Intel, who were already working on a PVP (Personal Video Player), a Media2Go device sports WindowsCE embedded operating system, Intel's XScale processors (as used in many PocketPC devices), a 4in LCD screen and a 20Gb hard drive. Using Microsoft's Sync & Go software, users will be able to set up the device to grab selected video, audio and image files, including favourite TV programs, from an XP-based PC. ...more