universe

Updated at 12:03 p.m. PDT: Just in time to welcome many students back from fall break, the Recording Industry Association of America on Thursday dispatched a new round of "prelitigation" letters to 19 U.S. universities from coast to coast, alleging that campus networks are being used to commit copyright infringement.

For those keeping score at home, this marks the ninth time the RIAA has launched such an initiative.

As usual, each of the 411 letters reveals that a student or employee of the school is about to be sued for copyright infringement. The letters also … Read more

Updated 12:30 p.m. PT

A coalition of major media and technology companies that notably does not include Google appears to be getting serious about copyright on the Internet.

A who's who of media companies--CBS, News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group, NBC Universal, Viacom, and Disney--as well as Microsoft and the News Corp.-owned MySpace, along with video-sharing sites Dailymotion and Veoh Networks released a set of guidelines Thursday designed to halt online piracy.

Notably absent from the list is Google, which unveiled filtering technology for its YouTube video-sharing site on Monday. Sources familiar with the coalition plan … Read more

The announcement has been made--read CNET News.com's full coverage here.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that an impressive cast of major media and technology companies plans to announce a high-profile list of joint guidelines for preserving copyright and fighting piracy online. Sources told The Journal that the companies involved include media moguls CBS Corp., NBC Universal, News Corp.'s Fox (and its MySpace social network), Viacom, and Disney, as well as tech icon Microsoft and French video-sharing site DailyMotion.

It's unclear whether these are the only parties involved in the deal. Inquiries to several of … Read more

If there's one thing you can be sure of about Jon "Neverdie" Jacobs, it's that he's always up to something crazy.

A couple of years ago, he became the first person to ever pay $100,000 for a virtual asset--a space station in Entropia Universe that he insists is profitable. More recently, he bought one of the valuable banking licenses in that virtual world, paying tens of thousands of dollars more for it.

Now, Jacobs' newest effort is a reality show that will focus on the finalists of the Massive Multiplayer Online World Championships. This, … Read more

The days of bringing a wad of wrinkly $5 bills to space are over. Finally, a form of currency built for space travellers by National Space Centre scientists is here.

According to this BBC News story, the Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination (Quid for short) are coins custom-built for purchasing goods and services in space. The currency was designed by the U.K.'s National Space Centre and the University of Leicester for foreign exchange service Travelex.

The rounded, disc-shaped coins look a bit like skipping stones. Thanks to being made from the same polymer as nonstick pans, they will not … Read more

The National Institute of Health has given a group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh a $426,000 grant to study the effectiveness of a watch for measuring stress.

The eWatch is a giant wristwatch that is both a sensor device and a computer.

It measures sounds, motion, ambient light and location of the environment, as well as the skin temperature, health status and activity level of the wearer.

The device was developed by Daniel Siewiorek, director of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, and Asim Smailagic, research professor … Read more

The Army has turned to a Honolulu company for Doppler radar and advanced algorithm technology to be able to detect and monitor multiple subjects based on their heart rate, even through walls.

This means that soldiers will be able to detect someone hiding in a room before the door is kicked in, the company claims, and medics will be able to remotely perform triage and diagnoses or monitor casualties right through their flack jackets. It may also have homeland security and interrogation applications by allowing personnel to screen and identify individuals who may merit the third degree based on a … Read more