Much ado about nothing – or – why senior managers never worry about prosecution?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070628125923787

HP Pretexting Charges Dismissed

Thursday, June 28 2007 @ 12:59 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Businesses & Privacy

Charges against defendants in the Hewlett-Packard pretexting case have been dismissed.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Ray Cunningham dismissed all remaining charges during a hearing Thursday morning, at which defendants presented proof that they had completed community service they agreed to in March, a court clerk confirmed.

Former HP ethics officer Kevin Hunsaker and private investigators Ronald DeLia and Matthew DePante were charged last year with identity theft, wrongful use of computer data, fraudulent wire communications, and conspiracy to commit those crimes. The felony charges, brought by former California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, stemmed from HP's internal investigation into media leaks.

Source - InformationWeek

e-conomics? Milton Friedman used the example of a #2 pencil...

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070628/093207.shtml

The iPod Is Built Globally, But The Money Is Made In The US

from the world-music dept

Over at The New York Times, economist Hal Varian discusses a recent study that looked at the various countries involved in making an iPod. Not surprisingly, a large chunk of each iPod goes abroad, as companies in different countries are involved with its production, either as parts suppliers or manufacturers. The study is useful in showing the difficulty in measuring trade statistics, although the authors conclude that each iPod sold contributes $150 to the US trade deficit with China. Andy Kessler actually took up this exact issue a few years ago, examining the link between the iPod and the trade deficit. The key thing to realize is that while Apple receives a fairly modest cut of each iPod sold, it's by far the most profitable chunk. The money made by the various chip makers and assemblers commands the low margins that are typical for their industries. Thus, while you could blame Apple for causing so many dollars to leave the US, you have to figure in the company's exploding stock price post-iPod. When the iPod was launched in October, 2001, the company's market cap was less than a tenth of what it is now ($105 billion). So any contribution to the trade deficit that the company might be responsible for is more than compensated by the $90+ billion that it's added back to the US economy.

e-conomics? Does a well informed consumer need as much protection? (Are potential competitors ready to pounce?)

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/28/1542200&from=rss

Ban On Price Floors Abandoned, Internet Prices May Rise

Posted by kdawson on Thursday June 28, @04:44PM from the 96-year-old-precedent dept.

paro12 and i_like_spam informed us of a 5-4 decision by the US Supreme Court which abandons a 96-year-old ban on manufacturers and retailers setting price floors for products. The Slashdot community discussed the issue when the case was argued back in March. The ruling means that anti-competitive complaints based on price-fixing will have to be argued case-by-case and will be harder to prove. Discounts and discounters in all venues may be under pressure, with internet sales possibly the hardest hit.

"Importantly, this case points a dagger at the heart of the most consumer-friendly aspects of the Internet. The Internet has shifted power to the consumer in two ways. First, it allows consumers to search for and gather information in a cost-effective, efficient manner. Second, it provides a low-cost means of retailing, making it easy for discounters to offer products to the public. This combination squeezes excess profits and inefficiencies out of product prices. Retail price maintenance seeks to short circuit this extremely consumer friendly process. By setting minimum prices, manufacturers can build in excess margins for themselves and for their favored retailers -- prices that consumers have no choice but to pay."

An example?

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/29/0117223&from=rss

Bank on Your Cell Phone

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday June 29, @12:33AM from the little-big-business dept. The Almighty Buck Businesses Handhelds The Internet

AnonGirl writes "Big banks are launching mobile banks to 'keep customers and generate more payment revenue down the line.' Citibank is working on two pilots: one with Obopay, and the other for contact-less payments. AT&T phones will have Wachovia already installed in their phones by fourth quarter 2007. The downside: 'Even though banks are not charging for their service, carriers do charge for accessing data through their phone.'"

e-conomics. Just because it's interesting...

http://economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9414607

Pricing powder

Jun 28th 2007 From Economist.com

THE street price of cocaine varies hugely across the world. No surprise that it is cheapest in Colombia, the world's biggest producer of coca: at $2, a gram costs less than a Big Mac. Geography is an obvious price factor. The farther away a country from the main producers in South and Central America, and the more isolated it is, the higher the cost to traffick there. In far-flung New Zealand, a gram costs a wallet-busting $714.30. But there are some pricing anomalies. Although the street price in Japan is several times higher than in Israel, Germany and Britain, the wholesale price in the countries is similar, around $46.40. In Canada the wholesale price is 50% more than in America, but Canadians pay 40% less on the street. [Outrageous! Call your congressmen and demand they “DO SOMETHING!” Bob] It could be that policing is more zealous in some countries, or that there is less competition among suppliers.

Is this a good thing? I guess it depends on the restrictions they try to impose... (What will the Belgian newspapers demand?)

http://www.nzpa-online.co.nz/storyviewer.php?sid=1129

GLOBAL DIGITAL COPYRIGHT PROJECT ON SCHEDULE

Jun 27th 2007 9:01am

The World Association of Newspapers and a global coalition of publishing and media groups held a conference in London Tuesday to unveil the progress of the Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP), a new standard to allow on-line content providers to automatically communicate information to search engine operators and others on how their content can be used.

Launched in October last year and on schedule to be completed by the end of 2007, ACAP is designed to encourage owners of high quality content to make their work easily available online and also help avoid complex and costly legal disputes between content providers and search engines.

The future? The “next big thing?” Rich kid's toys?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C1895%2C2147447%2C00.asp

Five Ideas That Will Reinvent Modern Computing

ARTICLE DATE: 06.20.07 By Cade Metz and Jamie Bsales

What's in the works at the leading high-tech research labs? Some awfully cool stuff—to say the least. This spring, we checked in on five of our favorites—Bell Labs, HP Labs, IBM Research, Microsoft Research, and the granddaddy of them all: the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), the former Xerox facility that spawned Ethernet, laser printing , the GUI operating system, and so much more.

The future of publishing?

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/58083.html

The Next Chapter for eBooks

By Pam Baker TechNewsWorld 06/29/07 4:00 AM PT

It appears publishers have no favorites among the current spread of eBook formats. "It's true -- publishers do not have a favorite or a preference at this point," Steve Potash, CEO of Overdrive and president of the International Digital Publishing Forum, told TechNewsWorld. "The field is wide open, and Adobe is well-positioned to seize the market."

... Adobe's Approach

This week, Adobe Systems announced the release of Adobe Digital Editions 1.0, a new software application for acquiring, managing and reading eBooks, digital newspapers and other digital publications. It is available as a free download for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh Latest News about Macintosh systems.

... With native support for Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and XML-based publications, Adobe Digital Editions already works seamlessly with more than 150,000 commercially published titles. Using Adobe Digital Editions 1.0 readers will find that content automatically re-flows, adapting to different screen sizes, and support for Adobe Flash software promises to enhance digital publications through the integration of rich audio and video. [So, is that still a book? Bob]

So maybe it was “news” and Brazil loves free speech?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070627/191424.shtml

After Banning Entire Site, Brazilian Court Sides With YouTube; Tells Model To Pay Up

from the talk-about-an-about-face dept

Remember when a judge in Brazil banned the entire YouTube over a video of a famous Brazilian model having sex on the beach? Eventually, following quite an uproar, the judge rescinded the ban, but the case went on. Boing Boing is now reporting that the judge hasn't just sided with YouTube, but is ordering the model to pay Google and other video hosting companies as compensation for the lawsuit. Of course, when the ban first was making the news, the model had said that she wasn't so concerned about the video, but that it was her boyfriend in the video who didn't like it. Wonder which one of them will pay the fine?

Have I mentioned that I love lists like this? Always something new to discover – and occasionally something useful!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133119-page,10-c,sites/article.html

100 Blogs We Love

Here are our favorite stops in the blogosphere, covering everything from high tech to low comedy and all manner of pursuits in between.

By the Editors of PC World Monday, June 25, 2007 1:00 AM PDT