Queen and Duke to meet Obamas Press Association

The Queen will meet President Barack Obama and other G20 leaders as she hosts a reception in their honour on the eve of the major political summit. The Queen will hold talks with the American leader before taking her place at the Buckingham Palace event to welcome the politicians and heads of world organisations to the UK. The informal chat between the Queen, 82, and the president, 47, will be an opportunity for the pair to meet for the first time. They will be joined by their spouses the Duke of Edinburgh, 87, and Michelle Obama, 45, and it is thought discussions may take place over tea or coffee. The foursome will sit down for around 20 minutes in a room within the Queen’s private apartments without advisers, aides or Palace staff. During the Queen’s reign there have been 12 US presidents and she has met all of them except Lyndon B Johnson and the present US leader.

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Google offers China one million free songs The Telegraph

Chinese music-lovers will be offered more than one million songs for free after Google launched a free music download site in China this week in a bid to tackle the internet piracy menace in China. The site, which includes songs from major world record labels including Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI, will use advertising revenue to generate cash from the downloads. Internet music piracy is rampant in China with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimating that up to 99 per cent of all music downloads in China are illegal.

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Featured Artists Back U.K. Govt On Term Extension Billboard

The recently formed Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) has given its backing to the U.K. government’s decision to vote against the EU proposal on term extension for copyright in sound recordings. While other music industry bodies voiced their disapproval of the U.K. ‘no’ vote, the FAC has sided with the government. It voted against the proposal at the committee of permanent representatives (COREPER) in Brussels on Friday (March 27) because the “current text did not yet give sufficient benefit for performers,” according to a statement. Other countries also voted against; the Czech presidency confirmed it would continue to work on the proposal to prepare a second reading for possible agreement at later stage. [Big Surprise - Jon]

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Facebook’s Problem is the Management Technologizer

Facebook LogoShockwaves were felt throughout Silicon Valley when the social networking site announced that one of its star hires, CFO Gideon Yu, had been fired. Although Facebook claims that it is looking for someone with “public company experience,” (ludicrous because Yu held executive positions with Google (YouTube) and Yahoo), industry insiders say it was very much an inside job. See, Yu apparently did not care much for Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg — Facebook’s star Google hire — and increasingly was not seeing eye to eye with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to our friend and colleague Kara Swisher. That adds up to a lot of internal infighting, and not a need for a CFO with more experience. Reportedly, Yu left the company immediately after a meeting, symbolistic of Zuckerberg’s apparent “you’re with me or against me” mentality. But the way Facebook framed the departure is troubling. Facebook has made it no secret that it would like to go public, and the company is attempting to say leaving go of Yu was a step in that direction. That kind of logic is faulty. Zuckerberg needs to learn if he wants to take his company public that investors do not like turmoil. The revolving door of executives at Facebook will make investors uneasy, and reluctant to invest in the company.

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Swedish antipiracy law stirs up political waters CNet News

File swappers in Sweden, land of the world’s largest bittorrent sharing site, The Pirate Bay, are facing a tougher future. The so-called IPRED law, scheduled to go into effect Wednesday, will in some instances require Internet service providers to reveal subscribers’ Internet Protocol addresses to copyright holders–including the film, music, and game industries–that charge users with illegal file sharing. The Swedish law stipulates that property rights holders can take their grievances to a court, which will examine the evidence, including the extent of the file sharing, and decide whether the IP address will be released. The copyright holder then can send a warning letter to the ISP subscriber, and eventually file a civil case against the alleged pirate if the violation doesn’t stop. The law takes effect just as a copyright infringement case against The Pirate Bay draws to a conclusion. The verdict in that trial, due to be announced April 17, will not be affected by the new law, since only file sharing done after Wednesday will be taken into account. In response to the new law, however, The Pirate Bay site recently launched IPREDator, a new paid service that lets users download “more anonymously.” The service costs 5 euros a month.

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Once-Mighty SGI Sold to Rackable for $25 Million New York Times

A collective shudder rippled through Silicon Valley on Wednesday morning, as Rackable Systems announced its purchase of Silicon Graphics Inc. for just $25 million in cash. If you travel all the way back to 1997, SGI was pulling in close to $4 billion in revenue a year. The company produced some of the flashiest computers on the planet for handling tough graphics jobs. SGI was the next big thing in Silicon Valley, and people adored the company.

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Microsoft to offer bare-bones Windows Server 2008 through OEMs BetaNews

Despite the rapid growth of networking in the home, recent studies have informed Microsoft that a vast multitude of single-office businesses — on the “far left” side of the SMB scale — still work with either single PCs for their principal applications, or peer-to-peer networked clients. The company’s research has drawn the conclusion that this market may be best served by an “all-in-one solution” — one where business users simply buy the server and have it plugged in for them, and they don’t even install the operating system. For this reason, there’s no fancy plastic box for the newest SKU for Microsoft’s server OS announced this morning, called Windows Server 2008 Foundation. Instead, this very-basic rendition will come pre-installed on OEM and partner systems, the first of which are likely to premiere this month. Look for likely brand names such as HP, Dell, IBM, and Acer to top the list of manufacturers offering new, simple half-tower units at lower prices.

April, 2009

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