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| | | April 4, 2004
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Sunday, April 4, 2004 |
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Google oversteps its turf and gets a slap in the face
Internet search powerhouse Google announced the latest addition to its rapidly growing family of tools and services. Gmail, what the company itself calls the "Google approach to email," while still in limited, non-public beta testing, offers the immense 1000 megabytes (approximately 1 GB) of storage space, zooming past major competitors Yahoo!, with 6 free megabytes, and Hotmail, offering the modest 2 megabytes.
But Google appeared to be startled by the negative coverage Gmail received, the first for the company which has enjoyed almost nothing but amicable news and analyses. Privacy advocates were swift to cry foul saying that Google's contextual advertising technology, which the company will be using to pay for the mammoth space and free service, should not be applied to e-mail messages. Currently, Google plans to display targeted text-only advertisements pertaining to the content of e-mail messages. While the search giant says no human will ever read private correspondence, some warned this is going too far.
More from: AP (via InformationWeek) | CNET News.com 1 2 3 | Computerworld | InternetNews.com | NewsFactor | Reuters | The Washington Post 1 2
Microsoft settles with Sun for nearly $2 billion
Longtime rivals Microsoft and Sun Microsystems announced a far-reaching settlement of their outstanding litigations and announced a pact of cooperation between the two bitter rivals. According to the arrangements, Microsoft will pay $900 million to settle patent issues and $700 million to liquidate antitrust brawls with Sun. The companies will pay each other for using rival technologies. Microsoft will pay $350 million now, and Sun will pay Microsoft when it begins incorporating technology from the software giant.
Despite the deal, which observers said benefited both companies, Sun announced it will layoff 3,300 people, or roughly 9 percent of its workforce, in the wake of another dismal earnings report by the company, announcing bigger than expected loss.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 3 | eWeek 1 2 3 4 5 | InformationWeek | InternetNews.com 1 2 | NewsFactor | TechWeb | VNUNET.com | The Washington Post 1 2
Canada OKs song-swapping
A Canadian federal judge has ruled that sharing files over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks is legal in Canada. The ruling was made after the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) requested that a court grant its request to force Canadian ISPs identify 29 people who allegedly shared copyrighted music files over file-swapping networks.
But the judge offered the industry a serious setback that, at least for now, halted its efforts to track down and sue file-traders in the same fashion as its U.S. counterpart. In addition, the judge ruled that both transmitting and storing files in shared folders is legal in Canada, whether the content itself is illegally redistributed or not.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 | The Globe and Mail | NewsFactor | The Washington Post | VNUNET.com
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