In today’s modern society, it seems like keeping tabs on coworkers, employees, roommates, family, and friends has gotten much easier than it was in the days of beauty shop and barber gossip. With current security and privacy issues in the United States like the Patriot Act, identity theft, and the heavier requirements at airports (like putting toothpaste into little plastic baggies), everybody has plenty of possibilities to lose their respect when someone invades their privacy. With promises from internet startup tapefailure like full-fledged habit monitoring, visitors’ site history tracking, and splendid color graphs, tables, and pie charts, private lives just got a whole lot more public.

With the simple insertion of their 10kb Javascript into any page that webmasters want to track,

“Tapefailure tracks your users and records both tapes of your users’ browsing and statistics about the users’ browsing session. All you have to do is log into your account and from there you have the ability to view the recorded tapes and statistics.”

While the site claims that that it “only records what occurs on your website; it records nothing outside the browser window or on other websites” as well as stating that tapefailure “does not record text, personal information, cookies, or internet history, or anything outside your website,” it seems as if there could be real problems if monetary greed infests the owners of the company.

With all that statistical information lying around about web user habits, there would always be a possibility of the company’s decision to sell the information to another party, unless the site owner that commissioned the recording had full control over the data and could delete it at will.

All in all, this easily implementable code looks like any other statistics collection group (like StatTraq, Sitemeter, or Google). The site stresses that the difference between tapefailure and other groups is that theirs collects data based “on what the user does, not who the user is or what they use.”

In case it is still unclear why this can be a bad thing, just like any other visitor-tracking tool for web sites, this one will probably keep profiles based on IP addresses, allowing the owners of tapefailure to build statistics of their own, like regional preferences and web surfing habits from certain age groups. Of course, this is nothing new, as Google, AOL, and several other companies have been collecting data like this for years. Somewhere, paranoia strikes the hearts of thousands.

Viacom came out guns blazing on Tuesday in their public battle with YouTube and its parent company, Google, by filing suit in federal court for copyright infringement. While they haven’t taken to street justice just yet, they are looking to hand YouTube a serious civil beat down. According to the complaint, Viacom is seeking some stiff penalties, including possible actual damages of at least one billion dollars (cue Dr. Evil laugh now). The mega company, which owns Paramount, Dreamworks and several cable stations, is evidently slightly miffed that its copyright protected content continues to pop up on YouTube, despite last month’s demand that over 100,000 pirated clips be removed from the site.

YouTube and Google aren’t just dropping trou and waiting to be spanked though. Google’s attorney claims that YouTube is protected by a safe harbor provision in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). The key will be whether YouTube knowingly profits on the posting of pirated content. If the case actual reaches a court, the resulting decision could determine whether a Web site is responsible for keeping pirated content off its pages without notice from the copyright holder.

In the meantime, it remains to be seen if other companies will follow Viacom into the legal arena. Will YouTube go the way of the dodo?

[Via cnet]

File this one strictly under the rumors heading, but it seems Microsoft is ready to acknowledge what the rest of the world already knows … the Zune is garbage. The big M is not giving up on the product though, and has plans to release a new version of the Zune this August. Gizmodo overheard this juicy tidbit today at the Game Developers Conference, and while it’s about as far from confirmed as you can get, it makes total sense. The Zune was practically DOA and was plagued by terrible reviews after its release. Recent accusations of cracked screens haven’t helped public perception of the product either.

Evidently, Microsoft is intent on creating space for their product in the portable device market, much like they have in the console world with the XBOX. Oh, and like the XBOX, the new Zune is going to play games. The first one was just practice folks, because Microsoft is in this for the long haul. Captain Obvious should be here for this one.

[Via Gizmodo]

Music executives gathered for the Digital Music Forum East conference on Tuesday in New York to whine, cry and collectively slap Apple CEO Steve Jobs for his recent comments on digital rights management (DRM). Jobs bent the music industry over and inflicted massive damage three weeks ago when he proclaimed Apple would support an end to DRM. Still sore, execs took the opportunity at the “State of the Digital Union” panel to publicly berate Jobs and label his comments “insincere.” Of course, none of the music bigwigs said they were going to pull their support for Apple, probably because iTunes makes them bundles of money.

The doom and gloom speak is not entirely without merit, as CD sales are down 23 percent from over the last six years. Still, blasting your biggest source of legal downloading income … not such a good idea. Right now, to consumers, iPod means music. What do you think will happen if there’s a rift between the music industry and Apple? Without iTunes, music revenues would probably drop faster than a drunk sorority girl’s panties and the execs would be left holding the bag. Battle lines are being drawn over DRM. Could music civil war be far behind?

[Via cnet]

In a typical imperialist Google move the company has released a premium version of its office suite of programs. They perform the basic functions used in office work including emailing, word processing, spreadsheet management and instant messaging.

The premium suite costs $50 dollars per worker per year as opposed to Microsoft Office which costs at least $500. A free version exists with advertisements and 2 gb of email storage instead of the 10 gb found in the premium version. The price as well as Google’s name strength gives this product set a fighting chance. The biggest possible drawback is the storage of company information on Google’s servers as opposed to servers privately owned by the company.

[Via USA Today]

In a somewhat shocking development — well shocking to me — XM and SIRIUS have decided to throw competition out the window and merge as a powerful satellite radio megaton robot. From the press release detailing the agreement:

XM Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: XMSR) and SIRIUS Satellite Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement, under which the companies will be combined in a tax-free, all-stock merger of equals with a combined enterprise value of approximately $13 billion, which includes net debt of approximately $1.6 billion.
Under the terms of the agreement, XM shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 4.6 shares of SIRIUS common stock for each share of XM they own. XM and SIRIUS shareholders will each own approximately 50 percent of the combined company.
Mel Karmazin, currently Chief Executive Officer of SIRIUS, will become Chief Executive Officer of the combined company and Gary Parsons, currently Chairman of XM, will become Chairman of the combined company. The new company’s board of directors will consist of 12 directors, including Messrs. Karmazin and Parsons, four independent members designated by each company, as well as one representative from each of General Motors and American Honda. Hugh Panero, the Chief Executive Officer of XM, will continue in his current role until the anticipated close of the merger.

Booyakasha. Another win for Howard Stern? I guess XM figured if you can’t beat em, join em.

Sitting somewhere between “What the flying motherf&%^er!!!” and “Bend over… just a little bit more…” comes word that Canadian copyright groups want to re-instate the ridiculous $75 levy that was placed on sold-in-Canada MP3 players a few years ago, but was repealed because, well, it’s bullshit to have it on them. Let me briefly explain: back in the 1980s, when cassettes were the tools of piracy, musicians (rightly) asked for a cut of sales of said cassettes. Ditto for blank CDs. After all, they might as well make a buck as a result of the illegal activities they know you’re going to do anyway. However, MP3 players are, at their hearts, hard drives or flash drives. Therefore, the same levy doesn’t apply, because their storage is integrated as part of the device, and isn’t really removable as CDs or tapes are from their respective players. Thus, the argument ensues.

The reason the levy for MP3 players is bullshit is simple: DRM. Because of the draconian measures many companies (okay, primarily Apple, but the rest are pretty bad) they’ve already got control of how you can play and move your virtual property. I can play my CD on any CD player, as many times as I want. Remove the DRM (and possible spyware – Sony) and I’d be glad to fork over the 99 cents. But right now, I hate iPods – long story – and I don’t want to be a part of the DRM movement until they get it right. If the levy is re-instated, expect a number of Canadians flocking to northern U.S. stores.

[via Canadaeast.com]

There’s a name at Microsoft that you’ve likely never heard of. His name is Bryan Lee, a corporate vice president in Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division. He came on board in 2000 to help create the Xbox. His latest project? The Zune. Therefore, it is with little surprise that we hear he’s stepping down from his post.

According to the Associated Press, the move is strictly for personal reasons, and “absolutely not” related to the fact that the Zune was as warmly-received as a sack of moldy oranges wrapped in barbed wire. I don’t know, call me pessimistic, but I think I hear Gunpei Yokoi turning in his grave. (too soon?)

[via Globe & Mail Technology]

I was at the National Bridal Show in Toronto this weekend, helping a friend with her photo business (she’s really good; she shot my wedding last April). At the end of my row in the convention hall, there was a company calling themselves “i-Cakes,” complete with mega-lit spinning sign. (Sorry I don’t have a photo; I was working in a booth, and didn’t think to have a camera.) Intrigued, I went over to their booth to take a peek. Sure enough, they were pushing themselves as “i-Cakes.” However, upon further perusal – and a good old-fashioned Googling – they are actually “Irresistable Cakes.” Yeah, that’s all the “i” stands for. No reference to the fashionable “i” thing, and certainly nothing that resembled the sign they displayed at the show.

There are two things that strike me about this whole thing. One is that they weren’t advertising themselves as “irresistible” with the “i” in real life. They’re only trying to gain business through the “i” caché. What’s more interesting – and perhaps more important – is how ubiquitous the letter “i” has become. Apple really hit on something major with that one vowel. In a completely unrelated industry, some people are still capitalizing on that same success. I think I’m going to try to start copyrighting things with the letter “o.” There are only four vowels left!*

*Y only sometimes counts.