News Briefs

Microsoft caught Wiki-handed

Recently it was discovered that Microsoft wanted to pay a well known blogger, Rick Jelliffe, to edit articles on Wikipedia. He was specifically asked to correct articles that were incorrect on open-source document standards.

Originally, Microsoft tried flagging entries so that regular people would fix them. This did not work for the company, so they decided to have a third party make changes instead so that there was a better chance that they wouldn’t be undone again.

No money amount was ever agreed on between Microsoft and Jelliffe. The only thing that was agreed on was that his work wouldn’t be reviewed before it was added to Wikipedia.

In a blog posted Monday, Jelliffe described himself as a technical standards enthusiast.

The founder of Wikipedia released a statement saying that Microsoft should have instead written a document with their interpretation of the subject and posted a link to it on the Wikipedia website.



Anti-iTunes movement gains support in Europe

Consumer groups in Germany and France have joined a movement led by Norway to put pressure on Apple, Inc. to change iTunes so that it’s compatible with digital music players made by rival companies. Norway, Denmark, and Sweden claimed that Apple was violating their copyright laws with the iTunes software in 2006. According to sources in Norway, they are giving Apple until September to make changes to their software before they will bring legal action against them.



China wishes to cleanse the Internet

The chief of the Chinese Communist Party has vowed to cleanse the Internet according to the country’s state media.

Hu Jintao is making it well known that he wants to control the access of China’s 137 million people who use the Internet. Jinato mentioned no use of censorship to accomplish his goals. The country’s ruling party is specifically targeting people interested in “salacious pictures, bloodthirsty games and political scandal than Marxist lessons.”

Last year, China’s Internet population grew by about 26 million. The total number of Internet users is about 10 percent of the country’s total population. Jintao wishes to make the Internet profitable while still keeping a hold of the reigns.