The Librarian of Congress has declared that people who own devices like the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch can modify their gadgets to their desires, so long as the software being used is legally obtained. Apple and other vendors cannot litigate against buyers who jailbreak or modify the firmware on their machines. More »

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The United Kingdom Parliament is considering passing a bill called the Digital Economy Bill that will supposedly ban open wifi hot spots in the country. Although the main purpose of the bill is to put a stop to copyright infringement, many are questioning whether the open wifi ban is a practical measure. More »

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Back in 2006, a video was uploaded to Google Video that depicted several school kids harassing and bullying an autistic classmate. Hours later, the Italian police notified Google of this video, and the search-engine giant immediately took it down. Google then worked with the Italian police to find out who uploaded the video, and that person and several other classmates involved were sentenced to ten months of community service. The story, however, does not end there. More »

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In 2007, the RIAA accused Jammie Thomas-Rasset of illegally pirating 2,000 tracks of music; only 24 of these tracks were went after by the recording companies. After the first ruling, the courts ruled that Ms. Thomas would have to pay $2 million dollars for piracy. More »

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Two major announcements by graphics giant Nvidia signal a shift of focus.

First, Nvidia announced yesterday that it will be ceasing all development of new chipsets. It is mainly because of a licensing agreement with Intel. In previous Intel computers, the processor (CPU) was connected to a northbridge chip. The north bridge would communicated with the memory (RAM) and an integrated graphics processor. It was also connected to a southbridge via the front side bus (FSB) that communicated with all other parts like the graphics card, sound card, etc.

In new Core i5 and i7 based computers, the CPU took over the duty of the northbridge and the CPU communicates with the southbridge using a proprietary bus called the Digital Media Interface (DMI) bus. Previously, Nvidia had a license to make northbridge and southbridge chips that used the FSB. Now, Intel isn’t giving them a license for the new DMI. So, Nvidia can’t make chipsets for Core i5 and i7 computers. There is ongoing litigation regarding the DMI licensing problem, but it will most likely not end in Nvidia’s favor. More »

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