Technology latest news

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Craigslist is not liable for discriminatory housing ads posted on its Web site, a federal appeals court has ruled.

The decision is a victory for the Internet bulletin board where every month more than 30 million people post offers to buy, sell or rent goods and services, including housing, free of charge.

A group of Chicago lawyers sued the Web site in 2006 because some of its housing notices illegally discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion and ethnicity.

Various ads say “no minorities” or “no children.” Declaring such preferences violates the U.S. Fair Housing Act and would be illegal in a newspaper.

But a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals on Friday found that Craigslist www.craigslist.org) is not the publisher of these ads, as a newspaper would be.

Instead, the Web site is more like an intermediary carrying information from one person to another and, therefore, not liable for its content, the panel said in a ruling that upholds a lower court decision.

The attorneys “cannot sue the messenger just because the message reveals a third party's plan to engage in unlawful discrimination,” Judge Frank Easterbrook concluded.

He suggested the attorneys instead use Craigslist to find landlords with discriminatory ads, then forward their names to the state's attorney general for prosecution.

Craigslist spokeswoman Susan Best said she was pleased with the court's decision on the issue, which is percolating in other courts seeking to determine the responsibility that Internet sites assume for their content.

For example, Viacom Inc. has brought a $1 billion lawsuit against Google Inc. for the copyrighted content that appears on the search engine's YouTube site.

Roommates.com is another housing site facing a legal challenge for discriminatory ads.

As of Saturday, searches for housing listings on Craigslist were posted with this warning: “Stating a discriminatory preference in a housing post is illegal. Please flag discriminatory posts as prohibited.”

The San Francisco-based company is run by fewer than 30 people but offers classified ads and forums for more than 300 cities in the United States alone. In 2004, online auction site eBay bought 25 percent of the firm's equity.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

NEW YORK (Billboard) - With their digital download sites, a growing number of indie rock labels have begun to answer the prayers of fans who would love to hear long-out-of-print singles on their iPods or other mobile devices.

Merge Records became the latest to join the field with the recent launch of its online emporium, which, according to label president Mac McCaughan, features “high-quality MP3s and full FLAC (free lossless audio codec) files of recent, older and out-of-print titles, including all the early Merge singles, as well as the Superchunk 'Clambakes' series.” The store will also eventually host exclusive tracks, remixes and video content, in addition to the label's catalog.

Given the wealth of options available to indies that want to peddle their merchandise online, why would a label want to sink the time and money into developing its own store? Merge wouldn't divulge how much it cost to build its online store, but it did say that most of the expenses were upfront. And whatever profits it makes will go directly to the label and bands, Merge publicist Christina Rentz said. “There is no middleman taking fees, so we are the only ones who benefit.”

The ability to promote artists on label download sites is also key. Rentz said that through a “recommended artists” feature on the Merge site — similar to Amazon's — the label will promote lesser-known or older artists.

Such sites can also help foster a new ethic of digital-song ownership. After a song is purchased at Seattle label Sub Pop's download store, launched in fall 2007, “you can log on to your account page and download it as many times as you want,” director of technology and digital development Dean Hudson said. “We are also able to do things like automatically upgrade songs without any cost to the buyer once the song becomes available at a higher bit rate. And of course, all the songs are (digital-rights-management)-free.”

CHANGING BUYERS' HABITS

Perks like those aside, driving buyers to a single-label online store can be a challenge, especially if they are used to purchasing all their music from one, multilabel outlet, such as eMusic or iTunes. Def Jux, one of the first indie labels to start a download site, circumvents the problem by making its Web site and Web store one and the same.

Many other labels' digital stores are directly connected to their online physical stores as well, so that users can purchase T-shirts, CDs and MP3s all at once. “We are counting on our mail-order customers being our early adopters,” Rentz said. “Our goal is to make it a real one-stop shop.”

Most of those one-stop-shop customers aren't trying to replace long-lost discs from their high school years, however. In fact, label representatives say that new releases account for the bulk of their online sales.

“Our highest growth months have always been those with new releases,” Def Jux general manager Jesse Ferguson said. “They tend to bring the most new people to the site.”

Hudson noted a similar phenomenon: “People do dip into the catalog from time to time,” he said. “But in general, the newer stuff sells.”

And when the newer stuff does sell, it sells for pretty much the same price it would on iTunes. Merge will sell its tracks for 99 cents each; Def Jux's albums are $9.95 each, and Sub Pop's are $9.90. McCaughan said he chose the price structure for philosophical reasons: “Driving down the price of downloads will devalue the music.”

Reuters/Billboard

NEW YORK (Billboard) - The two latest bands to offer their new albums online for free are advancing divergent versions of the business model Radiohead introduced in fall 2007.

Where Nine Inch Nails' approach, like Radiohead's before it, draws fans in with free music and then offers additional music for purchase in more extravagant configurations, the Charlatans UK release doesn't seem connected to any such game plan.

From the start, Nine Inch Nails planned to put out some tracks for free and charge for others from its instrumental album “Ghosts I-IV.” NIN began giving away nine tracks on its own Web site March 2 and uploaded those same tracks onto Pirate Bay, where fans were encouraged to share the music. But fans were given other options, too: $5 for a digital version of all 36 tracks from the album via Amazon or nin.com, $10 for a double-CD, $75 for a deluxe edition or $300 for an ultra-deluxe edition that includes a vinyl version and Trent Reznor's autograph.

In the first week, the band says its release resulted in more than 781,000 transactions, including free and paid downloads and physical preorders. Though NIN didn't break out sales by format beyond that figure, the band does say that pre-orders sold out all 2,500 copies of the $300 limited-edition release. Sales through nin.com topped $1.6 million in the first week, and digital sales though Amazon on the first day of release totaled $1 million, according to the band's manager, Jim Guerinot.

Guerinot, for his part, insists that the free offerings weren't meant as a quid pro quo to get fans to buy the album. “The only strategy behind it was (Reznor's) notion for how he would do this as a fan and what would he want to see as a fan,” Guerinot says.

Still, in contrast with the NIN release, the Charlatans UK seem to be putting out their free album without a playbook. The band partnered with U.K. radio station XFM to deliver an MP3 version of “You Cross My Path,” which the band says was downloaded 60,000 times in the first week.

Frontman Tim Burgess speculates that fans attained additional copies through torrent sites. The Charlatans UK and XFM have no revenue-sharing plan for future releases; at this point, they're merely using each other for purposes of promotion. The band carried the cost of recording, while XFM handled the digital distribution for free.

The Charlatans UK will also put out “You Cross My Path” in CD, double-CD and vinyl versions May 12 through Cooking Vinyl. But even those releases came as an afterthought, says Burgess, who adds that the band expects to make money on touring and merchandise.

“If people get a chance to have our music,” he says, “they might be interested to come out and see us play live.”

NIN and the Charlatans UK decided to go free after leaving major labels, following the path carved when Radiohead released “In Rainbows” on a pay-what-you-want basis on its Web site last fall. NIN's contract with Interscope expired in October, and the Charlatans UK decided not to sign with Universal after that major bought and closed Sanctuary, which put out the band's last release, “Simpatico.”

But the free model may not work for developing bands, says Guerinot — who notes that NIN, like Radiohead, built its fan base in advance.

Reuters/Billboard

Red Hat has purchased Amentra, an IT consulting firm with open-source expertise, to sell its JBoss Java infrastructure to enterprises as the basis for SOAs (service-oriented architectures).

Amentra, a privately held systems integrator that specializes in SOA and business process management, will continue business as usual as an independent company owned by Red Hat. The specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Amentra's 140 employees will continue to work out of their current offices in Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Richmond, Virginia.

Amentra is a certified JBoss systems integrator that has a solid reputation among enterprises; ExxonMobil, Pfizer and Merck are among its clients. The company also has been recognized for its expertise in providing open-source and SOA services by research firm Gartner.

Red Hat said it's tapped Amentra to support what it calls its “Enterprise Acceleration” initiative, which is aimed at providing the JBoss open-source middleware in the enterprise for SOA and BPM deployments. When the plan– which includes sales and marketing support and new JBoss technology testing centers– was unveiled last month, Red Hat Middleware Business Vice President Craig Muzilla said Red Hat hopes that JBoss will play a major role in 50 percent of all enterprise software infrastructure deployments by 2015.

Red Hat purchased JBoss in April 2006 and, like its Linux OS, now has two versions of the software– a community “.org” version that is free for everyone to use and an enterprise version that has fees and maintenance tied to it. The company is hoping to use JBoss as a springboard to become successful beyond its enterprise Linux business and quiet critics who claim the company can't make a multi-product portfolio work.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's carefully controlled media may have remained largely silent on the unrest in Tibet, but a look at Chinese blogs reveals a vitriolic outpouring of anger and nationalism directed against Tibetans and the West.

China — which routinely censors its news to avoid stoking popular sentiment — has less of a stranglehold over what is posted online, and over 200 million enthusiastic Internet users.

On Saturday, a rash of angry blog posts appeared after China confirmed deaths in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and U.S. actor Richard Gere called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics should the authorities mishandle the protests.

“Westerners think they know all about China, telling us that this, that and the other is bad,” wrote one blogger, who listed historical reasons justifying Tibet's inclusion as part of China.

“Most foreigners have been brainwashed as far as this issue is concerned,” assented another user.

Other blogs were virulently nationalistic.

“If you behave well, we'll protect your culture and benefits,” said one blogger, addressing Tibetans in China.

“If you behave badly, we'll still take care of your culture … by putting it in a museum. I believe in the Han (Chinese) people!”

Many blamed the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, for inciting the riots.

“Simple monks, simple Tibetans, do they even know what is the driving force behind the push for independence?” said one blog.

The view was echoed by some residents in Beijing, due to host the Olympics in less than six months' time.

“I think that the Chinese government has to cut this cancer out. We can start with the Dalai Lama, and even though we don't have relations with the Dalai Lama, we should arrest those who are behind the riots,” said one man surnamed Song.

In striking contrast to the media blackout during the Tiananmen protests in 1989, China's flourishing online chatrooms, bulletin boards and Web logs means citizens have more opportunity to air their opinions publicly, even as censors rush to remove the offending comments mere hours later.

Some Web surfers expressed indignation at the muzzled mainland Chinese press, having only stumbled on reports of the riots while browsing international sites.

“The local papers haven't covered this. Luckily for us there is still online media,” said one.

China, which has ruled Tibet since 1950, maintains that the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan region has been traditionally part of the country for centuries, a view taught exclusively at Chinese schools.

Still, while most blog postings appeared to agree with Beijing's official stance, a rare few differed.

“I'm not some big Stalinist, and I don't share the view that Tibet is part of China. Every minority has the right to choose its own path of development,” said one blogger who claimed to have lived in Tibet for four years.

(Editing by Ben Blanchard)

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese companies plan to cut off the Internet connection of anyone who illegally downloads files in one of the world's toughest measures against online piracy, a report said Saturday.

Faced with mounting complaints from the music, movie and video-game industries, four associations representing Japan's Internet service providers have agreed to take drastic action, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

The newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, said service providers would send e-mails to people who repeatedly made illegal copies and terminate their connections if they did not stop.

The Internet companies will set up a panel next month involving groups representing copyright holders to draft the new guidelines, the report said.

Company and government officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the report Saturday.

The actions would be among the strictest in fighting online piracy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy late last year outlined similar measures to disconnect Internet users who flagrantly violated copyright laws.

But for the most part, illegal downloading is being addressed through litigation against individuals.

The music industry won a first-of-a-kind victory in a US court in October when a single mother in Minnesota was ordered to pay more than 220,000 dollars for sharing 24 songs online.

The Yomiuri Shimbun estimated that 1.75 million people in Japan use file-sharing software, mostly to swap illegal copies.

One Internet service provider considered two years ago a plan to disconnect people who swap illegal files but dropped the plan after the government said it may violate the right to privacy, the Yomiuri said.

The best-known Japanese file-sharing software is called Winny, which allows users to swap games, movies and music online. It was developed by Isamu Kaneko, a young research assistant at the prestigious University of Tokyo who has become an Internet icon.

But in 2006 he was fined 1.5 million yen (15,000 dollars), although he was spared jail.

CHICAGO - Craigslist should not be held liable for discriminatory housing ads posted on the popular Web site, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a win for San Francisco-based Craigslist, an online network of classified ads and forums on which more than 30 million notices are posted every month, according to the ruling.

It is also a triumph for Internet sites that depend on user-generated content and for foes of legal boundaries for the Web, experts said.

The ruling means “the soapbox is not liable for what the speaker has said,” said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that advocates for free speech online.

The lawsuit, filed by a consortium of Chicago attorneys in February 2006, accused Craigslist of violating federal housing laws by publishing more than 100 ads that excluded potential buyers or tenants on the basis of race, gender or religion.

Among the housing ads cited as objectionable by the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc. were ones that read “NO MINORITIES,” “Requirements: Clean Godly Christian Male” and “Only Muslims apply.”

Discriminatory ads would not be possible if Craigslist didn’t offer the forum, according to Friday’s ruling.

“That is not, however, a useful definition of cause,” the court said. “One might as well say that people who save money `cause’ bank robbery, because if there were no banks there could be no bank robberies.”

The decision upholds a November 2006 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. In dismissing the case, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ruled that Craigslist serves as an intermediary party, not a publisher. She also said the federal Communications Decency Act protects sites that allow users to post unedited messages and communicate freely in forums.

“We’re pleased the Court agreed that online service providers like Craigslist should not be held liable as `publishers’ of content submitted by their users, and view this outcome as a win for the general public’s ability to self-publish content (such as free classified ads) on the Internet,” Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said in a statement Friday.

The Chicago Lawyers’ Committee said in a statement the group would not give up trying to root out housing providers who discriminate.

“While we are of course disappointed with the overall outcome of the case, we are gratified that the Court emphasized in the final paragraph of its decision that landlords and other housing providers who post discriminatory advertisements remain fully liable under the federal fair housing laws,” the group said.

___

On the Net:

Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org

Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc.: http://www.clccrul.org

SEATTLE - A man once described as one of the world’s top e-mail spammers pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and failure to file a tax return.

Robert Alan Soloway, 29, was dubbed “the spam king” by prosecutors who said he used networks of compromised computers to send out millions upon millions of junk e-mails since 2003.

He was arrested last summer and charged in a 40-count indictment. He agreed to plead guilty to the three charges and the rest were dropped, including e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and numerous other counts of mail and wire fraud.

Prosecutors said Soloway made hundreds of thousands of dollars from his spamming business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp. When he’s sentenced in June, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman will determine how much restitution he must pay.

The government already seized at least four of his bank accounts, and Soloway has agreed to take a polygraph test as to his remaining assets.

He could face up to 20 years in prison.