p2pnet - rss feed: p2pnet last of the day, April 17, 2008
p2pnet headline roundups | Last of the day
Legal dispute could increase cost of digital TV - Associated Press
A small Pennsylvania company’s patent lawsuits could hamstring the government’s $1.5 billion effort to make the transition to digital television easier on consumers’ wallets. Rembrandt Inc. owns a patent on technology that it says is part of the digital television broadcasting standard used by the TV networks. Rembrandt is suing 14 companies, including Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal, CBS Corp. and News Corp.’s Fox Broadcasting for patent infringement and wants millions of dollars in royalties. The American Antitrust Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group, asked federal regulators last month to bar Rembrandt from enforcing its patent. Otherwise, Rembrandt’s suits could add “tens of millions” of dollars to the cost of digital TV, most of which will likely be passed on to consumers, the nonprofit said. “This is a massive tax that Rembrandt is trying to place on the transition to digital TV,” said David Balto, an antitrust attorney who co-wrote a petition the AAI submitted March 26 to the Federal Trade Commission.
Earth’s Hum Sounds More Mysterious Than Ever - LiveScience
Earth gives off a relentless hum of countless notes completely imperceptible to the human ear, like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony, but the origin of this sound remains a mystery. Now unexpected powerful tunes have been discovered in this hum. These new findings could shed light on the source of this enigma. The planet emanates a constant rumble far below the limits of human hearing, even when the ground isn’t shaking from an earthquake. (It does not cause the ringing in the ear linked with tinnitus.) This sound, first discovered a decade ago, is one that only scientific instruments — seismometers — can detect. Researchers call it Earth’s hum. Investigators suspect this murmur could originate from the churning ocean, or perhaps the roiling atmosphere. To find out more, scientists analyzed readings from an exceptionally quiet Earth-listening research station at the Black Forest Observatory in Germany, with supporting data from Japan and China.
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Ex-classmate challenges claim to Facebook name - Associated Press
The hard feelings between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and a former college classmate have boiled over into another legal dispute, this time over the popular online hangout’s trademark. In a petition filed Tuesday with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Aaron Greenspan is seeking to cancel Facebook’s legal claim to its name. Greenspan, 25, argues Zuckerberg, 23, had no right to trademark the Facebook name in 2005 because the term had been used generically for decades at Harvard University, where they first met. What’s more, Greenspan maintains he used the term “Face Book” as part of an online service called houseSYSTEM a few months before Zuckerberg unveiled his now-famous Web site in 2004.
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China summons CNN Beijing chief over commentator’s remarks - Associated Press
China rejected on Thursday CNN’s response to its demand for an apology over remarks made by commentator Jack Cafferty after the Foreign Ministry summoned the network’s bureau chief in Beijing the night before. The demand came amid increasing accusations in China against foreign media over allegedly biased coverage of violent anti-government protests in Tibet and across western part of the country last month. CNN has been singled out by the Chinese government and unknown activists who have phoned and e-mailed death threats to Western reporters. Most of the criticism of the Atlanta-based network concerns a photograph posted on its Web site weeks ago which cropped out Tibetans throwing stones at Chinese security forces.
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ACCC to probe eBay policies - Australian IT
Online auction house eBay Australia has applied for legal protection as it seeks to force members to use a payment gateway it owns for buying and selling goods. eBay Australia buyers will no longer be able to use direct deposits, personal cheques or money orders to purchase items on the website from June 17 From June 17, eBay plans to institute new payment arrangements that would do away with direct deposits, personal cheques or money orders to purchase items - all in the name of enhanced security. Instead, members will only be allowed to use the eBay-owned PayPal transaction system, or cash on delivery. The move, first announced on April 10, has drawn the ire of its members and, to add salt to the wound, eBay is using the local market to test the new rules before imposing them globally.
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Warning on Storage of Health Records - New York Times
In an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, two leading researchers warn that the entry of big companies like Microsoft and Google into the field of personal health records could drastically alter the practice of clinical research and raise new challenges to the privacy of patient records. The authors, Dr. Kenneth D. Mandl and Dr. Isaac S. Kohane, are longtime proponents of the benefits of electronic patient records to improve care and help individuals make smarter health decisions. But their concern, stated in the article published Wednesday and in an interview, is that the medical profession and policy makers have not begun to grapple with the implications of companies like Microsoft and Google becoming the hosts for vast stores of patient information.
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Court rules employees have right to electronic privacy - Globes Onlines
An employer may not look in an employee’s recycle bin either. The Nazareth District Labor Court has determined, in a landmark ruling, that an employer may not access his employees’ e-mail boxes without their explicit consent. Overturning a previous ruling by the Tel Aviv District Labor Court, Judge Chaim Armon said that an employer could not take such action on the basis of “implied consent” by the employee. The judge also ruled that an employer did not have the right to go through his employees’ recycle bins.
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Swedish study: drummers more intelligent - The Local
People with a knack for holding a steady beat score higher on intelligence tests, a new study has shown. Researchers say the study suggests a biological basis for intelligence related to the regularity of nerve cell activity in the brain. “We know that precision in nerve cell activity down to the millisecond is important for processing information and for processes related to learning,” Fredrik Ullén of the Karolinska Institute said in a statement.
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