Apple ordered to pay $530m for iTunes patents

Apple has been ordered to pay more than $530m after a federal jury in Texas found its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by a patent licensing company called Smartflash.

Although Smartflash had been asking for $852m in damages, the verdict handed down on Tuesday night was still a blow to Apple.

The jury, which deliberated for eight hours, determined Apple had not only used Smartflash’s patents without permission, but did so wilfully.

The patents concerned digital rights management, data storage and payment systems.

Apple, which said it would appeal, said the outcome was another reason that reform was needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that do not make products themselves.

“Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no US presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented,” said Apple’s Kristin Huguet. “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating, and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system.”

Reddit and Blogger tighten up rules on pornography

Social networking and news site Reddit has said it will remove photos, videos and links with explicit content if the person in the image has not given permission for it to be posted.

Google, meanwhile, is going to ban most nude photos and video from publicly accessible sites on its Blogger service.

The crackdown marks a shift in attitude for two services that have traditionally been freewheeling forums.

The lax approach has opened the door for nude and sexually explicit photos and video to be posted on Reddit and Blogger, even if the subjects featured in the images intended them to remain private.

Until now, Reddit has had a hands-off approach to privacy, largely allowing its 160m users to police their own forums within certain guidelines such as no child pornography or spam.

The change comes about six months after hackers obtained nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities and posted them to social media sites including Reddit and Twitter.

Without specifically calling out Reddit or Twitter, Lawrence lashed out at the sites that permitted nude photos to be posted of her. She likened the unauthorised use of photos of her body as a “sex crime.”

INDEX

1 ISIS militant

2 Apple Watch

3 Ios Update

4 Microsoft Job Cut

5 Apple buying Beats

6 Iphone 6 bending

7 Cassete Boy vs Cameron

8 Internet taking jobs

9 Snapchat Ads

10 Google Tax

11 Google develops device for cancer

12 Vodafone joins EE with 4G

13 Video games are not making us more violent, study shows

14 Spotify CEO speaks out on Taylor Swift albums removal: 'I'm really frustrated'

15 Jennifer Lawrence: 'I will never get Twitter. The internet has scorned me'

16 Copywriting is dead? Don’t tell the journalists

17 YouTubers ads for Oreo banned for not making clear purpose of videos

18 What’s the right relationship between technology companies and journalism?

19 Digital journalists have great chance to develop much-needed transparency

20 Microsoft and Yahoo respond to European 'right to be forgotten' requests

21 The future of marketing depends on ideas, not tinkering with technology

22 Government must fund hyperlocal news, urges new report

23 Instagram now has 300m users sharing 70m photos and videos a day

24 More than 200 journalists in prison worldwide for third consecutive year

25 Yemeni reporter killed - the first journalistic fatality of 2015

26 Samsung pledges over $100m to make an open Internet of Things finally happen

27 The Sun's move away from topless page 3 models may entice new advertisers

28 Paris mayor: I'm suing Fox News over false report on Muslim 'no-go' zones

29 Charlie Hebdo launches app version featuring prophet Muhammed cover

30 David Beckham's TV ad for whisky cleared by advertising watchdog

31 The Sun’s Page 3 is surviving on nothing but a necklace and a wink

32 Sky profits rise 16% after strong UK customer growth

Sky profits rise 16% after strong UK customer growth

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/04/sky-profits-rise-uk-and-germany-pay-tv

Sky’s highest customer growth in the UK in nearly a decade helped the satellite broadcaster post a 16% rise in adjusted operating profit in its first results since its £5bn acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland.

The pay-TV company, which now has a customer base of nearly 25 million across Europe, reported first half adjusted operating profits of £675m in the six months to the end of December last year, ahead of forecasts of £644m.

Sky, which captured exclusive live rights to the Open golf for the first time on Tuesday and will table its bid for live Premier League football rights on Friday, added another 204,000 domestic customers in the final three months of 2014, its strongest growth in nine years.

Revenues were up 5% to £5.6bn for the six-month period. It said there had been a significant group wide reduction in churn – the proportion of customers leaving the business - was 9.2%, its lowest level for a decade.

The Sun’s Page 3 is surviving on nothing but a necklace and a wink

“I don’t think it’s immoral or indecent or anything,” said Rupert Murdoch of Page 3. “But show it to me in any other newspaper I own. Never in America, never in Australia. Never. Never. Never. It just would not be accepted.”

Even in the super soaraway Sun, he admitted to an interviewer from India Today, the daily parade of topless lovelies was “getting a bit old-fashioned. One day it will come out.”

That was in 1994. And this week, 45 years after the first flash of unadorned boob in the tabloid, 29 years after the Labour MP Clare Short attempted to ban the feature, 26 years after the launch editor said he regretted introducing it and an impressive 21 years after the proprietor himself admitted it was well past its time, the Sun at last set on Page 3.

David Beckham's TV ad for whisky cleared by advertising watchdog

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/28/david-beckhams-tv-ad-for-whisky-cleared-by-advertising-watchdog

David Beckham’s TV ad for whisky brand Haig Club has been cleared by the UK advertising watchdog, despite complaints that the former footballer’s endorsement promotes drinking among children.

The commercial, from Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie, features Beckham and a well-groomed group of trendy friends converging on what looks like a Highland estate to share a weekend and a tipple of scotch together.

As a global youth icon who spent most of his football career teetotal, Beckham’s appearance in the ad prompted a critical response from Alcohol Concern, which accused him of sending a “confusing message” about drinking to children.

I think that as David Beckham is now more of a celebrity the media should allow to him to take part in such adverts, also scotch whiskey is normally appeals to an older audience anyway 

Charlie Hebdo launches app version featuring prophet Muhammed cover

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/20/charlie-hebdo-app-apple-google-play

A new app for French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has been released for iOS, Android and Windows devices, letting readers worldwide get hold of a copy without queueing at newsagents.

The app is illustrated with the current cover, a cartoon of the prophet Muhammed, in a change from the norm for Apple’s notoriously censorious App Store which has previous banned satirical and controversial apps.

The launch of the app on Apple’s store comes after the firm put a Je Suis Charlie banner on its French homepage, a rare move for a company with a typically conservative web presence.

Shortly after the banner appeared, Apple reportedly fast-tracked an app called Je Suis Charlie through its approval process. The app let users find vigils for the magazine’s murdered staff happening near them, and show their support using social media.

Currently, only the most recent issue of the magazine is available, in both English and French editions. But the app also offers annual subscriptions starting at £69.99, alongside the individual issues for £2.29.