Apple adds another 60 days free for MobileMe members


Apple has sent out another email detailing an additional free extension for members of the £59 per year MobileMe Service, this time 60 more days on top of the 30 already provided last month as an apology. A total of three months extra is very generous, and a sign that the company is not only looking to recruit new subscribers to the service from the world of Windows, but to ensure that those of us whose accounts date back to the days when it was called .Mac, and was for Mac users only, stay along for what has so far been a very bumpy ride.

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Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

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US court orders Viacom to be given all YouTube usernames, IP addresses and viewing histories


It’s been a week in which big business concerns have really shown their claws, what with Virgin Media colluding with the BPI in sending out letters to customers threatening them with disconnection (something Virgin now says was a “mistake”) and now Viacom getting some stupid judge in the US to order Google to disclose the viewing habits of everybody in the entire world who has ever watched a video on YouTube.

The common factor is boundless greed, of course, and both cases show the absolute contempt of the businesses involved for our privacy. Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the ruling a “set-back to privacy rights”. The viewing log to be handed over to Viacom will contain the log-in ID of users, their computer IP addresses (online identifiers) and video clip details. And although the legal battle is being fought in the US, the ruling will apply to YouTube users and their viewing habits all over the world.

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Friday, July 4th, 2008

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