Stories about: Napster

New legislation is putting pressure on US colleges and universities to do a better job combating illegal file-sharing -- and it's taking a toll on campus IT departments, according to research published this week.

A trade group representing hundreds of software vendors is considering a lawsuit against eBay for what it calls widespread sales of counterfeit software on the auction site.

LimeWire, a grizzled veteran of the peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing scene, remains the most popular software for exchanging music, video and software -- much of it pirated -- through the Internet, according to a study released Wednesday.

Dr Steve Hoover, the vice president of Xerox's Xerox Research Center Webster, was making a business case for reusable paper at Gartner's ITexpo conference in the US this week, demonstrating a technology that could allow one sheet of paper to be reused hundreds of times.

If there's one thing the digital revolution has taught us, it's that we shouldn't get too attached to anything. Technology has a way of seizing long-held ideas and entrenched industries and turning them upside-down.

The scientific field of biology has provided many useful metaphors, such as "virus" and "infection," for the study of malware. Many researchers have used biology and evolution science to create innovative defenses against malware, in many ways simulating the functions of biological immunity systems. I find that biological sciences and especially evolution provide some great insights into the behavior of malware, malware creators and malware defenses over longer periods of time. I also see a lot of parallels between the evolution of malware and the evolution of darknets (stealthy peer-to-peer, or P2P, networks).

Video is all over the Web, and no wonder. With the advent of superfast broadband connections running at over 5Mbit/sec., widescreen monitors that have finally replaced the boxy CRTs of the past and a plethora of fresh and funny content, there's a perfect storm for video to gain even more momentum.

At the Consumer Electronics Show this year it's clear that consumers are making choices that are driving industry changes, and nowhere is that more evident than in the digital-music business.

The Cool Stuff Holiday Gift Guide is back, with tips for the very best gifts to buy for the tech lovers in your life. This year, be the one whose gifts are the biggest hits.

The first-generation Zune media player that Microsoft released last year was a me-too product with a few nice touches. So the question with the new, second-generation Zune is whether Microsoft is ready to surpass its competition, most notably Apple and its iPods.

Looks like the Goo-goo-googlers are going to bid for a swath of the 700 MHz spectrum after all.