The Art Of A Legal Muxtape
Recently, The 463: Inside Tech Policy blog did a post on a new music service called Muxtape. Muxtape is undeniably cool. It brings us back to a time when creating a mix tape was a work of art we all practiced. As John Cusack proclaimed in High Fidelity: "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to [...]
The EU Needs to Give the Small Business Act Some Real Teeth
In order to keep the EU economy competitive, the European Commission is drafting a so-called “Small Business Act” – a set of policies that is supposed to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU grow. On Thursday, European Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen welcomed the “broad support” that his initiative received at an informal meeting of EU ministers in charge of competitiveness on April 16. At the meeting, Verheugen and Slovenian Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak reiterated once again that [...]
To all Europeans: Quaero is hiring!
Yahoo!News reports that “Quaero, a European consortium developing new search engine technologies, is ramping up recruitment of researchers. Although some of the consortium's research activities have already begun, the starting signal for much of the work came on March 11, when the European Commission said it had no objections to the French government giving Quaero €99 million (US$157 million) in state aid. Until that contribution, representing about half the project's budget, received approval, some labs were unable to recruit needed [...]
Silicon Valley start-up says corporate firewalls are “leaky sieves”
The New York Times writes that “[i]n the Internet age, the corporate firewall is a leaky sieve. That is the sobering conclusion, spelled out in technical detail, in a new report on what is actually happening on corporate computer networks. The research was done by Palo Alto Networks, a start-up in Silicon Valley, and some of the findings were presented by Nir Zuk, the company’s chief technology officer, at a panel last week at the RSA computer security conference in [...]
Britain to propose limiting EU regulatory burdens for small businesses
FT.com reports that “Britain will this week propose that companies employing fewer than 20 people should be exempt from future European Union regulations, in a drive to cut the burden on business of legislation agreed in Brussels. John Hutton, business secretary, will ask for the exemption to be written into the European Small Business Act, which is currently being drafted. The legislation aims to lift the weight of regulation on small companies. Mr Hutton argues that where an exemption is [...]
Microsoft calls for consumer-driven approach to protection of personal data
InfoWorld reports that “Microsoft has proposed a tiered approach to protecting the privacy of people targeted by online advertising, saying advertisers should get permission before using sensitive, personally identifiable information to deliver ads. […] Microsoft agrees with the FTC's decision to focus on an industry self-regulatory approach, but the company has also called for Congress to pass comprehensive consumer privacy legislation, noted Frank Torres, Microsoft's director of consumer affairs. ‘We're supporting what the FTC is proposing, but we also believe [...]