Free song download service Qtrax to get traffic from China’s Baidu.com in anti-piracy bid

May 13th, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO - Software piracy cost companies more than $50 billion last year, according to a study by the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group. The report released Tuesday said that worldwide losses totaled $53 billion, an 11-percent increase over the previous years.

July 21st, 2006 Yahoo for the first time is offering a popular song for sale unprotected by any anti-copying technology. It's a one-time deal with record label Epic that Yahoo mentioned as significant progress toward its goal of eventually selling all music downloads with no restrictions.

October 21st, 2009 Facebook to allow 10-cent Web song gifts from LalaLOS ANGELES — Facebook will soon allow friends to send each other 10-cent Web songs to stream online or 90-cent songs in the MP3 format that recipients can download as gifts from online retailer Lala. The offering will be available by Thursday afternoon, starting with a limited group of Facebook users and spreading gradually.

June 15th, 2009 Virgin Media and Universal launch music serviceLONDON — Virgin Media, the cable TV operator owned by entrepreneur Richard Branson, launched a new kind of music download subscription service Monday with Universal, the world's largest music company. The service, described by the companies as a world first, will allow Virgin Media's broadband customers in Britain to stream and download as many songs and albums as they like from Universal's catalog for a fee.

July 24th, 2009 China's Baidu.com says profit up 44.6 percentBEIJING — Baidu Inc., which operates China's leading Internet search engine, said Friday its quarterly profit rose 44.6 percent from a year earlier on strong growth in revenue and numbers of advertisers. Net income for the three months ending June 30 was 383.3 million yuan ($56.1 million), or 11.02 yuan ($1.61) per share, the Beijing-based company said.

December 27th, 2008 LONDON - Teen starlet Miley Cyrus' new version of Christmas classic 'Little drummer boy' has become an instant hit on the Internet. The song was edited out from the 'Hannah Montana' holiday special show.

December 30th, 2008 MOSCOW - More than 300 sailors are being kept hostage by Somali pirates, who have dealt a severe blow to busy shipping routes off the country, a Russian maritime news website said Wednesday. The editor of Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin said the pirates have seized some 50 vessels this year, including two yachts, and more than 25 Russian sailors, though some have been released.

October 21st, 2009 AP Sources: Google to unveil music searchLOS ANGELES — Google Inc. will launch music search pages next week and include ways for consumers to buy songs for download, according to people familiar with the matter.

August 14th, 2009 China trade ruling helps US, but piracy a problemLOS ANGELES — American companies counting on a favorable trade ruling against China to boost sales of CDs, DVDs, books and video games will need a crackdown on rampant piracy before they can reap big benefits. Chinese incomes are lower than in the United States, and the quality of pirated entertainment there is quite good, making legal goods a tougher sell.

August 12th, 2009 Judge bars sales of RealNetworks' DVD softwareSAN FRANCISCO — DVD copying software sold by RealNetworks Inc. appears to be an illegal pirating tool, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a legal battle that's been closely watched in Hollywood and elsewhere.

July 28th, 2009 Phone number for Tutone's 'Jenny' up for auctionPHILADELPHIA — It may be the most famous telephone number in popular culture, and it's for sale. The number from the Tommy Tutone hit song "Jenny" — 867-5309, with the Philadelphia area code 267 — is being auctioned off on eBay.

April 24th, 2009 Hollywood in showdown over DVD 'ripper' SAN FRANCISCO — Hollywood calls it "rent, rip and return" and contends it's one of the biggest technological threats to the movie industry's annual $20 billion DVD market — software that allows you to copy a film without paying for it. On Friday, industry lawyers urged a federal judge to bar RealNetworks Inc.

October 16th, 2008 Software vendors like us always looks for ways to easily and cheaply protect their software from getting stolen. Microsoft with billions of dollars of resources has done it with Windows Genuine Advantage program.

August 25th, 2009 UK says illegal downloaders may lose Web accessLONDON — People who repeatedly download copyright-protected films and music could have their Internet connection cut off under proposed laws the British government unveiled Tuesday to tackle illegal file-sharing. Treasury Minister Stephen Timms said that previous plans, which would only have restricted users' broadband speed, did not go far enough.

December 11th, 2008 We have had long discussions on computer security in the past. But a few days before, while cleaning up my e-mail inbox from a flood of spams and unwanted e-mails, I found the utmost necessity to take a look at a good e-mail antispam service that will help me to keep the inbox clean.