China's Baidu wins copyright case over music search

Global music labels have lost a lawsuit against China's biggest search engine, Baidu.com, which they accused of facilitating copyright infringement with its song download search service.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an industry group, called the ruling "disappointing" and said it is considering its next steps. In the lawsuit, brought in 2008 at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, record labels Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong and Warner Music Hong Kong accused Baidu of "deep linking" users to hundreds of thousands of illegal copies of songs hosted on other Web sites.

Global music labels have lost a lawsuit against China's biggest search engine, Baidu.com, which they accused of facilitating copyright infringement with its song download search service.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an industry group, called the ruling "disappointing" and said it is considering its next steps. In the lawsuit, brought in 2008 at the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, record labels Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong and Warner Music Hong Kong accused Baidu of "deep linking" users to hundreds of thousands of illegal copies of songs hosted on other Web sites.

Baidu is pleased with the court's decision and will continue to comply with local laws and regulations, a company representative said in an e-mail.

The Chinese court also ruled against the labels in a similar lawsuit against Sohu, a Chinese portal and search provider.

"The verdicts do not reflect the reality that these services have built their music search businesses on the basis of facilitating mass copyright infringement, to the detriment of artists, producers and all those involved in China's legitimate music market," an IFPI representative said in an e-mail.

Baidu's music search service is highly popular and Google, Baidu's main rival, has offered a competing service in China. The Google service is supported by ad revenue that the company splits with music labels and local partner Top100.cn.

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MaxiVista Turns Other PCs Into Multiple Monitors

If you have more than one computer, and you're looking for a way to share their screen real estate, you could put the unique program MaxiVista ($40, free usage-limited demo or 15-day trial) to good use. Available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, this program lets you turn a second PC or laptop into an extension of your main monitor, allowing you to treat their screens as if they were part of the same display. In that way, you can use both monitors as if they were one large one. Both PCs will have to be on the same network.

If you have more than one computer, and you're looking for a way to share their screen real estate, you could put the unique program MaxiVista ($40, free usage-limited demo or 15-day trial) to good use. Available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, this program lets you turn a second PC or laptop into an extension of your main monitor, allowing you to treat their screens as if they were part of the same display. In that way, you can use both monitors as if they were one large one. Both PCs will have to be on the same network.

If you're not already a multiple monitor aficionado, using more than one monitor can be disconcerting at first, and you'll probably lose sight of where your cursor is more than once. But after you get used to it, you'll appreciate all the extra screen real estate MaxiVista gives you. You can arrange the second monitor however you'd like, either as a vertical or horizontal extension of your main monitor.

MaxiVista does more than extend your monitor to a second PC. It also lets you mirror one PC's desktop onto another, so that one PC can watch what the other is doing.

Note that setting up MaxiVista can be rather complex, and so you should carefully follow the instructions. You'll have to tell the firewall on each PC to allow MaxiVista through. And you don't install the complete version of the program on each PC--you install the complete version only on the main computer, the one whose monitor is being extended. For the other computer, you install only a viewer program, which is created when you install the complete version of MaxiVista on one PC. You copy the viewer program to the second PC and install it from there. Also note that Windows Aero is disabled while MaxiVista is in use on Windows Vista and Windows 7 PCs. Aero gets turned back on after you stop using MaxiVista.

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Office 2010 free upgrade deal leaks to Web

Details of an impending free upgrade to Office 2010 leaked to the Web on Wednesday before Microsoft yanked a post on its partner community site.

The information, posted by Charles Van Heusen, a Texas-based Microsoft technology specialist, was still available in Google's search cache as of late Wednesday.

A company spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied the free upgrade offer, saying only that, "Microsoft has not disclosed an Office 2010 Technology Guarantee," and declining further comment.

As first reported by Ars Technica , Microsoft will kick off the "Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Program" on March 5 and run the free upgrade program through Sept. 30.

Customers who purchase an eligible copy of Office 2007 during that period will be allowed to download the corresponding edition of Office 2010 for free when the new suite launches in June. Users who want a DVD installation disc instead will have to pay a small shipping and handling fee for the Office 2010 media.

Buyers of Office Home and Student 2007 will receive a free copy of Office Home and Student 2010, while buyers of Office Standard 2007 will be eligible for a free copy of Office Home and Business 2010, a new edition in the Office lineup. Purchases of either Office Small Business 2007 or Office Professional 2007 will be eligible for a free copy of Office Professional 2010.

Microsoft typically runs upgrade promotions in the months leading up to a major product release to sustain sales when many customers know an updated edition is due out soon.

Last summer, Microsoft used the Windows 7 Upgrade Option to maintain sales of Vista. Customers who bought a copy of the soon-to-be-replaced operating system between June 26 and Oct. 22 were to receive free copies of Windows 7 when it launched. As with Wednesday's Office 2010 announcement, the Windows 7 Upgrade Option leaked before it was officially unveiled .

The company also offered similar deals for free upgrades from Office 2003 to Office 2007, and from Office 2004 for Mac to Office 2008 for Mac .

Details of an impending free upgrade to Office 2010 leaked to the Web on Wednesday before Microsoft yanked a post on its partner community site.

The information, posted by Charles Van Heusen, a Texas-based Microsoft technology specialist, was still available in Google's search cache as of late Wednesday.

A company spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied the free upgrade offer, saying only that, "Microsoft has not disclosed an Office 2010 Technology Guarantee," and declining further comment.

As first reported by Ars Technica , Microsoft will kick off the "Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Program" on March 5 and run the free upgrade program through Sept. 30.

Customers who purchase an eligible copy of Office 2007 during that period will be allowed to download the corresponding edition of Office 2010 for free when the new suite launches in June. Users who want a DVD installation disc instead will have to pay a small shipping and handling fee for the Office 2010 media.

Buyers of Office Home and Student 2007 will receive a free copy of Office Home and Student 2010, while buyers of Office Standard 2007 will be eligible for a free copy of Office Home and Business 2010, a new edition in the Office lineup. Purchases of either Office Small Business 2007 or Office Professional 2007 will be eligible for a free copy of Office Professional 2010.

Microsoft typically runs upgrade promotions in the months leading up to a major product release to sustain sales when many customers know an updated edition is due out soon.

Last summer, Microsoft used the Windows 7 Upgrade Option to maintain sales of Vista. Customers who bought a copy of the soon-to-be-replaced operating system between June 26 and Oct. 22 were to receive free copies of Windows 7 when it launched. As with Wednesday's Office 2010 announcement, the Windows 7 Upgrade Option leaked before it was officially unveiled .

The company also offered similar deals for free upgrades from Office 2003 to Office 2007, and from Office 2004 for Mac to Office 2008 for Mac .

Last month, Microsoft revealed prices for Office 2010, and confirmed that it would not sell less-expensive upgrade editions , as it has in the past. Some analysts have argued that Microsoft dumped upgrades to prevent business customers from using a loophole to avoid paying Microsoft's pricey software maintenance fees.

Office 2007 Home and Student currently sells for $105 at Amazon.com, $45 less than the planned $149 list price for Office Home and Student 2010.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld . Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .

Read more about enterprise applications in Computerworld's Enterprise Applications Knowledge Center.

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Facebook Homepage Redesign: A Feature Breakdown

Facebook, still the social network of choice by the young, started rolling out a new homepage design late Thursday focusing on the top menu and left column. Unlike previous overhauls that focused on visual appeal, the new Facebook changes are more about improving site navigation and placing useful information and links on one side of the Webpage. Facebook hasn't said when the new rollout will be complete or how many users have received the update so far, but Inside Facebook is reporting that just 80 million of Facebook's users have seen the changes to date. Details of the redesign have been posted on Facebook's blog.

Facebook, still the social network of choice by the young, started rolling out a new homepage design late Thursday focusing on the top menu and left column. Unlike previous overhauls that focused on visual appeal, the new Facebook changes are more about improving site navigation and placing useful information and links on one side of the Webpage. Facebook hasn't said when the new rollout will be complete or how many users have received the update so far, but Inside Facebook is reporting that just 80 million of Facebook's users have seen the changes to date. Details of the redesign have been posted on Facebook's blog.

Here's what's new:

Top Menu

The biggest change you're likely to notice is that the notifications icon, for when someone has written on your wall or sent you message, has been moved from the lower right corner to the left side of the top menu (click on the image to enlarge it).

The notifications icon has also been changed from a signpost to a globe, but Facebook says you will still see the familiar red pop-up bubble alerting you to new notifications.

To the left of the notifications icon are two other icons: one for messages (replacing the current 'Inbox' link) and one for the requests to join groups or authorized applications that used to appear in the right hand column. The search bar is now next to these three icons on the left side, and links to your profile, account menu (including privacy settings) and the log out button will remain on the top right side of your screen.

Top Left Hand Column

The left column is now populated by far more useful information than previous homepage designs, and each link opens to what Facebook calls a "dashboard" instead of a news stream. Dashboards are nothing new, and used to be found by clicking on the icons on the bottom left of the Facebook homepage for thinks like photos, groups, and bookmarked applications. (Click on image to enlarge.)

Event notifications have been moved to the left hand column, making alerts to upcoming birthdays, meetings, parties, and other important dates more prominent.

A modified chat link has also been added to the lower part of the left column that lets you known when the Facebook friends you chat with most often are online. To see a complete list of who's online you'll still have to click on the chat pop-up window in the lower right hand corner of the homepage.

Games and Apps

A little further down the left side of the new homepage are new dashboard links for games and applications. Facebook says the new links are supposed to make it easier for you to interact with Facebook applications as well as find new ones. These dashboards will detail your recent activity, highlight your friends' activity, and alert you when it's time to take an action like harvesting virtual crops in Farmville or taking care of your digital pets in Pet Society.

Facebook also says it has added new privacy controls to the applications dashboard, in case you don't want any of your gaming or other application activity appearing on your friends' dashboards. The social network is also working on a way to let you turn off notifications for specific games and applications, while leaving them on for others.

Will Users Gripe?

Facebook is well known for rolling out tweaks and visual changes to its homepage, and Facebook users are just as famous for voicing complaints about Facebook redesigns. It's too early to tell if this round of Facebook changes will create a backlash, but at the time of this writing there were almost 3700 mostly negative comments on the company's blog post detailing the new homepage design.

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