The Sidney Morning Herald writes that “China vowed on Sunday to improve the ‘grave situation’ of music piracy in the country, as it hosted the annual music industry event here to learn and exchange ideas with companies from around the world. China has been strongly criticised for its record on Internet piracy in recent years, and a report out this month by the international music trade body, the IFPI, said piracy was responsible for 99 per cent of the Chinese market. On Sunday, a delegation from the Ministry of Culture met a small group of reporters to explain their approach to the problem. ‘Web music is booming but we have a lot of issues of illegitimacy and piracy,’ said Zhang Xin Jian, deputy director-general of the ministry’s markets administration. ‘The illegal downloading and uploading of music on the internet has been very detrimental to artists, so we feel very sorry about that and it has drawn great attention from the Chinese government,’ he said. On piracy, he said, ‘I am not sure of the accuracy of 99 per cent but I still feel this is a very grave situation in China right now.’ He said the government would look to tighten administrative control on the internet and would prosecute those behind it.”
News Factor Network reports that “[c]aught in a fierce competitive market populated by BlackBerries, iPhones and other innovative devices, Palm announced this weekend that it will close most of its retail stores. The mobile-device maker said it will shutter seven of its eight retail stores in February, and will also shut down 26 Airport Wireless stores before the end of its fiscal third quarter. The Airport Wireless outlets operate as ‘stores within stores.’ In addition to its online store, Palm will still sell through stores run by telecommunications carriers.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Tony Blair [at the World Economic Forum in Davos] cautioned U.S. presidential candidates not to lock themselves into damaging protectionist or isolationist policies they could have a tough time walking away from once in office. […] ‘I understand all the protectionist pressures in the U.S.,’ Mr. Blair said. ‘On the other hand, I think it would be extremely unfortunate if people bolt themselves in positions that become difficult to extract themselves from, because the reality in the world is that we’re going to have to open up world trade, not close it down.’”
Net-Security.org today has a fascinating interview with Nitesh Dhanjani and Billy Rios, two well-known security researchers that have recently managed to infiltrate the phishing underground.
The Register reports that “[p]sychology researchers at Glasgow University say they have increased the accuracy of automated face recognition to 100 per cent.” As the publication points out, “[i]f the claims are true, this development will have far-reaching consequences for privacy and security in modern society.”