Internetnews.com today asks if the approval of the Google DoubleClick merger means that “privacy is dead.” The publication points out that “[t]he Federal Trade Commission’s decision to approve Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick without conditions runs counter to the warnings of a host of privacy and consumer advocates, as well as members of Congress. […] There’s no doubt that the type of tracking done by online advertisers in general poses privacy concerns. But the Google-DoubleClick merger creates a uniquely large single lightning rod for privacy activists to get up in arms over. While the FTC’s decision is not the final hurdle left for the merger to overcome, it now seems certain that it will proceed with much less restriction than advocates and some legislators had hoped. ‘What Google [and the FTC are] claiming,’ said Jeff Chester, director of the the Center for Digital Democracy, ‘is that there are no specific privacy concerns intrinsic to the Google and DoubleClick merger, which frankly is absurd on the face of it when you’re merging the two number ones, for the search and online advertising industries, with a vast apparatus for data collection and targeting and profiling across the globe.’”
The Wall Street Journal reports that “[a] Beijing court has upheld a decision finding Yahoo China’s music delivery service in violation of Chinese copyright law. Yahoo China, 40% owned by Yahoo Inc. through its stake in China-based Alibaba Group, allowed users to play and download copyrighted music, in violation of Chinese copyright law, directly on its Web site. A spokeswoman for Yahoo said Alibaba controlled Yahoo China operations. A spokesman for Alibaba said it hadn’t yet seen a copy of the ruling so it couldn’t comment on specifics, but added that the company’s goal for Yahoo China ‘is to cooperate with the record labels to develop a licensed music service in China.’”
According to the New York Times, “[i]n a bid to consolidate its hold on live-music fans, the concert giant Live Nation said on Thursday that it would acquire the software and services to ramp up its ticket-selling operation, potentially positioning the company to compete directly with its longtime contractor, Ticketmaster. Live Nation’s entry into ticketing could shake up the hierarchy of the live entertainment business and alter how fans buy tickets for shows at locations ranging from small clubs to giant arenas. The shift comes as an array of music industry rivals have been jockeying to take a cut of ticket sales as other revenue sources, particularly CD sales, plunge.”
The International Herald Tribune writes that “Apple put to rest the last of a series of lawsuits it brought in a losing and costly effort to put a stop to Web leaks about its product plans. The suits raised questions about whether independent Web publishers should be accorded the same legal protections as traditional journalists. They were aimed at the gaggle of Apple enthusiasts who have made both a sport and a business out of pre-empting Steven Jobs’s big product announcements. Nicholas Ciarelli, who operated a Web site for Apple rumors called Think Secret, was sued by Apple for publishing trade secrets in January 2005. In a brief statement Thursday on his site, Ciarelli said that he had reached a settlement with Apple and that he would stop publishing Think Secret.”
According to the Register, “Russian authorities have identified the authors of the notorious Pinch malware creation toolkit. Arrests are expected to follow. Pinch is a Trojan creation toolkit that is reckoned to have been used by virus writers to infect tens of millions of PCs. The toolkit is sold in black market hacking forums. Script kiddies were able to order a customised version of the Trojan, as well as purchasing ‘technical support’ from the authors of the program. Russian hacker forums were flooded with ads for this ‘service.’”