John Lovelock is a nice bloke. But don’t be taken in by his easygoing charm and ready smile − he’d like nothing better than to send you down for a nice long stretch at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

The director general of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) is a man on a mission to root out the corporate perpetrators of software piracy…

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The Business Software Alliance — a group representing the nation’s leading software manufacturers — says it will offer Texas residents cash rewards of up to $200,000 for qualifying software piracy reports starting May 1 through June 30.

From 2005 to now, Texas has accounted for more than 10 percent of the alliance’s leads — second only to California, which weighed in at 17.5 percent.

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What happens when you create the most downloaded file-sharing client only to sell it off a year later? Certainly not sit around and hope for the best. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, creators of the FastTrack network, would go on to develop the wildly popular P2P network better known as Skype.

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The personal details of 66,000 subscribers to a Japanese national newspaper have leaked online via file sharing software.

It is the latest in a long line of serious leaks in Japan, which have included sensitive military, police and medical records.

The newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun, has confirmed that names, addresses and phone numbers have all been leaked, but no financial information.

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Service to thousands of dial-up Internet users in Massachusetts was disrupted this week after a federal court ruled against a Quincy company in a lawsuit that could have broad impact on the cost of dial-up service.

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Anti-virus firms at Infosec say they expect Vista and IE7 to change nothing for the industry. Microsoft used its presence at the show to laud the security features they’ve been busy building in the the upcoming software.In particular, Microsoft was eager to talk about how Vista will finally jettison the need to run Windows as an administrator most of the time.

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Steve Ballmer is blaming software pirates for the premium pricing Microsoft charges on products like Office and Windows. But he speculated that the advent of web-based services could see a lowering of Microsoft’s charges.

The rise of subscription-based pricing - a charging mechanism favored by a crop of start-ups and software as services (SaaS) companies in Silicon Valley - could help squeeze out the opportunity for pirates to rip off software, Ballmer said.

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Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to “kill” internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive “like wolves,” according to documents filed in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals.

The allegations, filed in a Washington state court, represent the latest salvos in a showdown triggered by Google’s July hiring of former Microsoft executive Kai Fu-Lee to oversee a research and development centre that Google plans to open in China. Lee started at Google the day after he resigned from Microsoft.

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In sharp contrast to recent events in the USA with the proposed legislation known as DMCA 2.0 (coupled with Unanimous disapproval) Canadian artists and labels have taken the exact opposite rout and created the Canadian Music Creators Coalition.

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University and college campuses were the genesis of mainstream online music distribution. The rampant pace of information exchange was the catalyst for P2P networking and helped turn Napster into the success it was back in 1999-2000.

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Azureus, the ever popular Open Source BitTorrent client, is due to announce the addition of a “content layer” to the software at OnHollywood 2006.

OnHollywood sells itself as “where cutting edge technology from the backstreets of Silicon Valley meets Hollywood’s digital media revolution.” It is a two and a half day event that provides, “an open environment where top digital entertainment and media entrepreneurs meet the big-time studio, telco and consumer electrics executives.”

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Is eBay is going into near competition with the people who made it rich, its online sellers?
It’s launched a aunched a new fixed-price shopping service, justifying it with by claiming it’s aimed at, “people who find online auctions too time-consuming, too nerve-racking or just plain frustrating,” says the San Jose Mercury News.
All of the above would certainly apply to eBay, together with other superlatives.

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A Microsoft lawyer has told Europe’s Court of First Instance consumers benefited from Microsoft’s improved Windows, and competition in the audiovisual software industry was thriving, “contrary to the Commission’s predictions that rival media player providers would become extinct,” says Reuters.
But, “Microsoft ended a rival’s reign as the leading media player maker by bundling its own program with Windows and could do the same to others if its appeal of a landmark antitrust ruling is granted, the European Commission and its supporters warned Tuesday,” says the Associated Press.

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Two web sites popular with Canadian youngsters have been named in a murder tragedy.
Police in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, have asked Nexopia.com to take down items after two people, one of them, a 12-year-old girl, were accused of murdering a family of three in Medicine Hat.
“Are you stalking me? cuz that would be super” and “WelcomeToMyTragicEnd” were posted on Nexopia.com by the girl, says the story.

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The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has joined the steadily growing crowd that’s had enough of the Big Four Organized Music cartels’ vicious and bizarre sue ‘em all marketing scheme.
In its latest phk-up, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), owned by Warner Music, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal and EMI, subpoenaed a Georgia family which A) doesn’t own a computer and B) isn’t even online.

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