After battling for more than a year to shut Napster down, the recording industry in the United States has asked a federal judge to issue summary judgment against the song-swap service, calling it a business built on the intentional, massive infringement of plaintiffs' copyrighted music. "The evidence in this case is clear and irrefutable," Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president for business and legal affairs at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), claimed last week. "Napster knowingly and willfully set out to build a business based on copyright infringement on an unprecedented scale. Today's action brings us one step closer toward closure in this case by determining Napster's liability," the RIAA suggested.
The industry body application seeks an October 1st hearing on the summary judgment request, which could finally kill off the once wildly-popular Internet music exchange. Napster, for its part, says it is trying to recast itself as a subscription service that can guarantee copyright protections. Napster officials had no immediate comment on the RIAA action, which had been expected.
MS Appeal: Microsoft is appealing to the US Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that the software giant is an illegal monopoly which has harmed consumers and stifled competition. Microsoft sent the petition to the high court last week, two days before the case was to be sent to a new judge to decide what penalty the firm should face. In its appeal, Microsoft again takes up the question of whether District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson was biased against the company. It says his entire ruling should be thrown out because the appeals court found that he violated the judicial ethics code. Meanwhile, concerned about a possible backlash, federal and state antitrust officials are not planning to ask a court to block Windows XP, US government sources have said.
River's Of Cash: Irish education software company Riverdeep has posted a 1,100 per cent increase in sales for the quarter ending in June and says it has made a cash profit for the first time. Sales soared to $20.4 million compared to $1.7 million in the same period last year. Pre-tax losses for the period amounted to $6.82 million, compared to a loss of $7.2 million in the same period last year.
Peachy Keen: Anti-virus experts at McAfee Anti-Virus have discovered a new worm that hides in PDF files. The worm called "Peachy" has thus far affected only users of the full version of the Adobe Acrobat application. McAfee says this is the first known worm to use a PDF file infected with a VBS (visual basic script) payload virus that spreads the virus to other PC users.
Mapping Out The Future: A team of geologists are to digitise thousands of old Irish maps and surveys, more than 150 years after the first geological survey of Ireland began. The group from the Geological Survey of Ireland wants to scan its entire collection of maps and documents using digital scanning technology with the aim of creating an online public database.
Microsoft's Red Woes: The Code Red worm simply refuses to die. After weeks of urging the public to patch computers running its software to prevent infections, Microsoft found last Thursday that its own servers needed de-worming. Some servers that host Hotmail were found to be infected with one of the two Code Red worms. Meanwhile, South Korean e-security officials estimate over 43,000 Web servers there have been hit by Code Red II. The Korean Information Security Agency noted a steady rise in infections - up from an estimated 13,000 on Wednesday.
Porn's On The Rise: The popularity of online pornography continues unchecked, with figures released last week showing that around 3.8 million home users across Europe accessed adult sites in June, according to Internet monitoring company NetValue. The study found that Germans and Britons are most drawn to it and the worst offenders appear to be students who account for nearly a quarter of all visits to such sites.
Slaying The Digital Dragon: Police have arrested five people in what is understood be China's biggest yet Internet get-rich-quick scam, involving £28 million. Through a front company called Shenlong Shuma, or Digital Dragon, a group told people they could earn money by clicking on banner ads on the company's website if they first bought a membership card for £45. Amazingly people believed the Digital Dragons and at its height, Shenlong Shuma was shipping 10,000-30,000 cards daily in 30 provinces and cities.
Lycos Goes East: Internet portal provider Lycos Europe has launched a Russian version of its service claiming it is an inexpensive first foray into growing Eastern European Internet markets. Lycos had considered Russia, Poland, Greece and Turkey for investment.
Scoot's Loot: Online directories business Scoot.com is in talks to sell Loot, the free-ads newspaper it bought last year for £190 million, it said today. The group said it is in "discussions with interested parties" regarding the sale of Loot.