Category: Stories
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MS-DOS paternity suit settled
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Andrew Orlowski
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An overlooked court case in Seattle has helped restore the reputation of the late computer pioneer Gary Kildall. Last week, a Judge dismissed a defamation law suit brought by Tim Paterson, who sold a computer operating system to Microsoft in 1980, against journalist and author Sir Harold Evans and his publisher Little Brown. The software…
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Why (almost) nobody wants a music tax
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Andrew Orlowski
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In Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow, set in WW2 London, a character called Slothrop begins to realize that everywhere he has sex, a V2 rocket subsequently lands on the same spot, obliterating the area. If you dig a little, you may notice something spookily similar with the idea of a Music Tax in the media. Back…
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Who killed Three Strikes for filesharing?
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Andrew Orlowski
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Rejoice! “Three strikes and you’re out” is dead in the UK. Music file sharers will no longer face the threat of seeing the household broadband connection severed. The plague that is currently endemic in France won’t be jumping the English Channel. Strangely, some people want to keep it alive. Stranger still – this includes the…
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Nokia: Our community is the best money can buy
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Andrew Orlowski
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Who says there’s no honesty in tech marketing? We beg to differ, and present Nokia product manager Janne Jalkanen as proof to the contrary. Speaking at a marketing website called Nokia “Conversations” (“Stories from around the neighborhood” – it says), Jalkanen gives a very frank overview of the grassroots enthusiasm for Nokia’s S60 platform. “Pretty…
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Google and the Mother of All Antitrust Battles
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Andrew Orlowski
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The US Senate today embarks on what could become years of antitrust investigations into Google by the IT, telecoms and media industries. The hearing today is just that – a piece of political showboating ordered by antitrust subcommittee chairman Herb Kohl. It’s not a formal investigation, let alone a lawsuit. Yet with the destiny of…
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Wired UK: Our readers design the cover
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Andrew Orlowski
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WiReD magazine is coming back to the UK. I set Reg readers the task of Photoshopping some covers here. You can see the results in a gallery here. Wonderful stuff.… Read More