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Issue no. 29, 2004 Published: Aug 27, 2004
Europe starts new Microsoft probe
FBI launches raids on P2P users
File-sharing software 'legal' says US court
US tops league of e-mail spammers
Japanese scientists build a better computer chip
Nanocrystals spark efficient LEDs
Virtual veins give nurses a hand

Europe starts new Microsoft probe
The European Commission has opened a probe into Microsoft's and Time Warner's plans to buy anti-piracy software manufacturer ContentGuard. It is concerned that the deal could give Microsoft too dominant a position within digital rights management. The Commission said it expects to reach a decision by 5 January next year. US giants Microsoft and Time Warner agreed in April to buy out most of Xerox's stake in ContentGuard. European regulators said the probe will involve a review of ContentGuard's integration into Microsoft's other product areas. Digital rights management or DRM technology makes it possible to prevent illegal copying of CDs, DVDs, computer games, software systems, and even sensitive electronic documents.
BBC News Aug 25, 2004	back to top

FBI launches raids on P2P users
The US government has begun a crackdown on users of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, seizing computer equipment in raids at five addresses and one internet service provider in three US states. 'Operation Digital Gridlock' has targeted the alleged illegal file sharing of copyrighted material over five Direct Connect P2P networks known as The Underground Network. Authorities say that, to join the group, prospective members had to offer between 1GB and 100GB of material for others to share. Federal agents have already executed six search warrants, seizing computer equipment thought to contain illegally copyrighted movies, games and music. US authorities say that $19bn is lost annually to US firms through the illegal reproduction and distribution of movies, software, games and music. The maximum penalty for criminal copyright infringement for a first-time offender is five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
VNUnet UK Aug 26, 2004	back to top

File-sharing software 'legal' says US court
A federal appeals court has upheld a controversial court decision that said file-sharing software programs are legal. Following the lead of a lower-court decision last year, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles said last Thursday that peer-to-peer software developers were not liable for any copyright infringement committed by people using their products, as long as they had no direct ability to stop the acts. The ruling means that companies that write and distribute peer-to-peer software cannot be shut down because of the actions of their customers. It did not say file-trading itself is legal, and lower courts in the US have said individual computer users are breaking the law when they trade copyrighted files without permission. But the ruling does lift the cloud of potential liability from defendants Grokster and StreamCast Networks, as well as from many of their rivals. The decision marks a substantial setback for the big record labels and movie studios, which have tried hard to win legal rulings that would clamp down on anarchic peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa or eDonkey.
Silicon.com Aug 20, 2004	back to top

US tops league of e-mail spammers
The US is the biggest spammer, despite efforts to combat unwanted e-mail. Almost 43 per cent of all unwanted e-mails originated from the US in the last month, said anti-virus firm Sophos. South Korea, the most broadband-connected country in the world, was next in line, firing out 15.42 per cent of all junk e-mails. The figures also showed that South Korea had tripled the amount of spam mails sent out from its networks since February. The third place was taken by China with 11.62 per cent of all spam.
BBC News Aug 24, 2004	back to top

Japanese scientists build a better computer chip
Japanese researchers at Toyota Central R&D Laboratories have developed a new technique for producing a high-quality computer chip with silicon carbide (SiC), which is much more resistant to extreme conditions than the silicon found in most of today's electronics. Devices built with silicon carbide would not require cooling and other protections that add size, weight and cost to traditional silicon electronics in equipment exposed to harsh environments. And because the material can be made with fewer flaws than ever before, more reliable and more complex electronics can be built with it The researchers discovered that they can build silicon carbide wafers by using a multiple-step process in which the crystal is grown in several stages. As a result, defects are minimised. Using the technique, the researchers were able to build near-perfect wafers of up to 7.5cm in diameter.
MSNBC / AP / Nature Aug 25, 2004	back to top

Nanocrystals spark efficient LEDs
Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory have found a way to make highly efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) from nanocrystals. The LEDs can be as small as a few nanometres in diameter. The nanoscale lights use very little power and can be made in different colours simply by varying the sizes of the nanocrystals. The microscopic LEDs could eventually be used in nanoscale optics, including light-based computer chips. Large numbers of the microscopic lights could also be used as ultra-high efficiency lights, including street lighting. Nanocrystals are easy to manufacture, durable, and are very efficient light emitters. The difficulty in using them as light sources is finding a way to electrically excite the crystals to kick off the light-emission process. The researchers' method uses a quantum well, or electron trap, to inject pairs of electrons and their charge opposite, holes, into the nanocrystals. Electrons and holes pair up, annihilate each other, and the resulting energy is released as photons.
Technology Research News Aug 25, 2004	back to top

Virtual veins give nurses a hand
A virtual reality hand, complete with vital veins, that 'feels' could help trainee nurses practise their jabs. The tactile 3D virtual reality system uses force feedback technology known as haptics. The system, developed by UK Haptics, could help in learning sensitive venopuncture skills on a variety of hand types. In conventional training techniques plastic mannequins are used with replaceable pads which carry the complex vein structures. But they give little idea of the pressure needed to puncture the skin, and are not too realistic. The 3D model could be adapted for nurses to experience different hand types before they are let loose on real people. Nurses sit in front of a PC wearing 3D goggles. A mirror in front of them lets them see the projected hand image in 3D too. The nurse has to stick the cannula, which they see as a syringe, into the hand. The system feeds back information about pressure, and blood appears to fill the syringe when the vein has been punctured.
BBC News Aug 20, 2004	back to top