News Briefs

Internet radio hits another holdup

Broadcasters who take advantage of the Internet to broadcast songs to the public hit another holdup this week. A panel of copyright judges threw out an appeal asking them to rethink a ruling that raised the amount of royalties that had to be paid to record labels and artists. This royalty hike may put many private broadcasters out of business. Several companies including National Public Radio, Yahoo Inc., and AOL were part of the task force fighting to having the ruling reconsidered. Many people involved with the Internet radio industry such as Live365 Inc. CEO N. Mark Lam fear that after the royalty hike goes into effect on May 15, there will no longer be an industry. The royalty change does not affect terrestrial radio stations since record labels see their broadcasting as a way to increase their sales.



Crematoriums considering larger cremators

Many crematoriums in the U.K. are thinking about upgrading their cremators to handle obese corpses. Normal coffins are about 20 inches in width, but an increasing number of 40-inch wide caskets are forcing families to find crematoriums that can handle them. Some city councils are paying the bill to buy larger cremators from the U.S., which also means that they are also experiencing an influx in the number of cremations being performed. Many people are worried that the obesity issue will put a lot of pressure on the country’s public services.



Wireless hijackers beware

A recent court case in London caused a man named Gregory Straszkiewicz to be fined £500. The reason? He was caught sitting in a car outside of someone else’s house using their Internet connection. A neighbor reported him to the police because he was acting suspiciously. The convicted man also had his wireless card confiscated. The court case is the first of its type in the UK and will most likely set a precedent for future, similar cases. Some people feel that Straszkiewicz was rightfully punished, but other experts feel that the owner of the wireless connection is to blame for not securing it. Despite whose fault it is, it is an eye-opener for many enterprising Internet users.