p2pnet headline roundups: Feb 5, 2008
p2pnet headline roundups | Last of the day
Peer-to-peer lending online takes off – McClatchy Newspapers
When Walter Kond needed $25,000 to buy a shipment of home-theater seats for his company to resell, he didn’t go to the bank. He went online. Kond posted a loan request on Prosper.com and a few days later, more than 300 absolute strangers had pooled together the cash for a three-year loan at 13 percent interest. Welcome to the world of peer-to-peer lending – where anyone with Web access can be a banker and small business owners like Kond are finding a new way to raise cash. The industry is still in its infancy, but has been catching fire as major players enter the market. The UK’s Zopa – considered the grand-daddy of the niche – launched its U.S. operations in December, California-based Lending Club debuted on social networking giant Facebook in May, and billionaire Richard Branson re-launched Circle Lending as Virgin Money USA in October. “There is so little innovation in traditional consumer finance that anytime something new like this comes along, it’s a rarity and something to watch,” said George Hofheimer, chief research officer at Filene Research Institute in Wisconsin, which studies the lending sector. “This has a high probability of being what academics refer to as a ‘disruptive innovation.”‘
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OiNK Admin’s Bail Date Extended Until May – Wired
Oink Alan Ellis, former administer of the popular OiNK torrent tracker, was due to report to the authorities today for his bail date. However, his date has been extended to May 6, granting Ellis more time to mount a defense. This is not the first time the date has been extended; on December 7, authorities extended it from December 21 to February 4.
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Music industry sues Baidu – The Register
Three multinational record companies have filed copyright infringement claims in a Beijing court against China’s most popular internet search engine, Baidu.com Inc. Universal Music Ltd, Warner Music Hong Kong Ltd and Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Hong Kong) Ltd accuse Baidu of violating copyright by providing access to music files, according to an anti-piracy lobby group. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said in a statement yesterday that the music giants have asked the court to order Baidu to remove all links to tracks that they own the rights to. In addition, separate legal proceedings have been launched by the same three record firms alongside Gold Label Entertainment Ltd against Chinese media company Sohu.com Inc and its search engine, Sogou. Yahoo! China can also expect legal action, said the IFPI, after it refused to budge on a landmark ruling in December which confirmed that it had violated Chinese law by committing mass copyright infringement through music downloads.
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Facebook used to target Colombia’s FARC with global rally – Christian Science Monitor
Hundreds of thousands of Colombians are expected to march throughout the country and in major cities around the world Monday to protest against this nation’s oldest and most powerful rebel group. What began as a group of young people venting their rage at the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Facebook, an Internet social-networking site, has ballooned into an international event called “One Million Voices Against FARC.” “We expected the idea to resound with a lot of people but not so much and not so quickly,” says Oscar Morales, who started the Facebook group against the FARC, which now has 230,000 members. Organizers are expecting marches in 185 cities around the world.
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China may relax Internet curbs during the Olympics: official – Agency France-Presse
China is debating whether to relax control of the Internet during the Olympics, allowing access to banned websites such as the BBC, a spokeswoman for the organising committee said Tuesday. Plans to tear down the so-called Great Firewall of China were being debated and a decision was expected soon, said Wang Hui, head of media relations for the organising committee. “We are studying this now based on suggestions of some journalists and a study of the experiences of other countries, so during the Olympics there may be some changes,” she said. “This is one of the ways the Olympics may promote progress in China.”
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Oscars boss says show will go on – BBC
Academy Awards president Sid Ganis has said there is “no doubt” the Oscars ceremony will take place despite the threat posed by the writers’ strike. He said that “things are looking very, very good now” for the 24 February gala amid reports of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the dispute.
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[OT] Miss. Law Would Ban Serving Obese Diners – Associated Press
A state lawmaker wants to ban restaurants from serving food to obese customers â but please, don’t be offended. He says he never even expected his plan to become law. “I was trying to shed a little light on the number one problem in Mississippi,” said Republican Rep. John Read of Gautier, who acknowledges that at 5-foot-11 and 230 pounds, he’d probably have a tough time under his own bill. More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi are considered it obese, according to a 2007 study by the Trust for America’s Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention.
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