Britannica Comes Out Swinging at Nature - Lifestyle News - Designtechnica

Encyclopedia Britannica has quietly posted a twenty page rebuttal (PDF) on its corporate site which shreds a December 2005 study conducted by the science journal Nature. In this study, Nature claimed their research comparing Britannica and volunteer run online encyclopedia Wikipedia had found “that Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries" and that "the difference in accuracy was not particularly great".

ScienceDaily: Launch Of New Peer-to-peer Technology For Television

The new peer-to-peer Tribler system, based on open-source software, will be launched in the course of this workshop.
SNIU

Ajaxian » AjaxLaunch.com: An Ajax App Each Week

But ajaxWrite is just the start. We have a library of applications we have been working on to replace most of the standard PC software titles. Every week we will launch a new sophisticated program on Wednesday at 12:00 PST on http://www.ajaxLaunch.com. These programs will push the boundaries of what people believe is possible today with web-delivered software.

Sean Paul, Reggae King, Is Somewhat Hobbled, Not Humbled - New York Times

More likable than lovable, Sean Paul knows that if he wants fans to come next time, he'll have to keep making hits.
The industry could learn a thing or two there....

Wired News: Satellite Radio Rocks Cell Phones

Grass-roots software and web developers have found ways to tap into XM Satellite Radio Holdings' and Sirius Satellite Radio's websites to stream music channels onto Windows-powered smartphones and other devices. Most have given their work away for free to other fans since late last year -- running into conflict with the wireless business strategies of the satellite radio providers. "I'm not always near a PC, but I already have a cell phone," said David Bressler, who wrote a piece of software to listen to Sirius in his office, which blocks satellite radio signals.

Q&A: Laptopping with Francis Preve

As the Napster effect cascades outwards, laying waste to the traditional music industry, the one thing that does remain is live performance. A lot of musicians have turned to making their money through live performance.

Wired News: Kong Tests Download-to-Own Model

Universal Pictures has launched a new service that will sell digital downloads of movies such as King Kong along with a DVD copy, tapping into the online video market now dominated by Apple Computer's iTunes.
Too little, too late?  Maybe not for the movie industry, though.

Wired 14.04: You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired!

Unlike education acquired through textbooks, lectures, and classroom instruction, what takes place in massively multiplayer online games is what we call accidental learning. It's learning to be - a natural byproduct of adjusting to a new culture - as opposed to learning about.
Why research is a good thing in undergrad curricula.

Wired News: Apple: French Law Is 'Piracy'

"The French implementation of the EU Copyright Directive will result in state-sponsored piracy," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. "If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers."

Wired News: How France Is Saving Civilization

French lawmakers want to protect the consumer from one or two companies holding the keys to all of its culture, just as Microsoft holds the keys to today's desktop computers.
Just because it's interoperable doesn't mean that content isn't locked down in ways that control creative reuse.

Classical, Now Without the 300-Year Delay - New York Times

The current intention is for each orchestra to offer, on average, four concerts a season for digital downloading, and one of the four would also be released on CD. The project reflects a seismic shift in the way music is being discovered, distributed and heard.
Probably few of them are grooving to Chopin or Brahms, but the 1.4 million downloads of free Beethoven symphonies offered by BBC Radio 3 last June proved that audiences for classical music might be larger than anyone thought.
A prime attraction of download music stores is the potential purchaser's ability to listen to free excerpts before buying. In the rock arena, this practice has reportedly hurt sales in traditional retail outlets. But in the classical market, more concerned with sound quality, some labels are finding the opposite. "New releases on CD do better when there's also availability on digital music services."

With Broadband, the PC's Siren Call Is Tough to Resist - New York Times

By now that has shot up to 30½ hours — fully an hour a day. (It's a wonder that people still also have time to watch the vast quantity of television they do. When do they wash the floor? Practice piano? Do laundry?)

Wary of a New Web Idea That Rings Old - New York Times

"The current things people are doing with Google Maps are cute but they don't add value," said Peter Rip, managing director of Leapfrog Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif.
So, so incredibly wrongheaded.  I'm speechless.

Lawsuit filed to defend World of Warcraft online strategy guide from DMCA

By claiming that mere publication of a how-to book about its game infringes its copyright, Blizzard has interpreted its intellectual property rights in a way that would prohibit legitimate commentary that is protected by the First Amendment.

Slashdot | Germany Accepts Strict Piracy Law

Germans risk two years in prison if they illegally download films and music for private use under a new law agreed yesterday.
Bad news.

Slashdot | FCC Backs a Tiered Internet

FCC Chief Kevin Martin yesterday gave his support to AT&T and other telcos who want to be able to limit bandwidth to sites like Google, unless those sites pay extortion fees. Martin made it clear in a speech yesterday that he supports such a a "tiered" Internet.
Worse news.

Slashdot | How Palm's Treo Got Boost From BlackBerry Lawsuit

Palm ramped up its marketing campaign for its Treo smartphone while rival Research in Motion was embroiled in a patent fight, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Sad news.

Slashdot | Movie Theaters Aim for Live 3D Sports

Movie theater operators plan to be screening live 3D sports events by 2007 in a bid to lure sports fans away from their home theater systems and bolster sagging mid-week ticket sales.

Lawrence Lessig

It would be implemented to allow individuals to assert “fair use,” and unlock DRM’d content, with a tag to trace misuse.
DRM that tracks fair use.

egfeed: Hamachi - Secure Mediated Peer To Peer

With Hamachi you can organize two or more computers with an Internet connection into their own virtual network for direct secure communication.
SNIU

Furdlog » LATimes on the Pending Patenting Fight

But the tech industry and its allies face powerful opponents on Capitol Hill, led by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Like high-tech firms, drug makers rely on innovation and intellectual property to generate profits. But tech products frequently involve dozens, if not hundreds, of patented parts and processes. The tech world is a thicket of patents, and companies frequently find themselves on the receiving end of lawsuits by other inventors. Patents in the pharmaceutical world are more straightforward, and big drug makers typically are plaintiffs, not defendants, in patent suits.
This is changing with ANDAs and more aggressive big generic pharma like Israel's Teva and India's Dr. Reddy.

Furdlog » Music, Promotion and the Internet

All Arctic Monkeys did was post some demos on their website and make them available for free download. By the time the band members signed a deal with the English indie label Domino last year, their audience was already huge. ‘’Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not,” released in the UK in January, broke a record for first-week sales in Britain.

--Ari