Bush calls for ban on Internet tax

US President George W. Bush has urged Congress to slap a permanent ban on the taxes consumers pay for high-speed Internet connections, reports Associated Press

Bush has set 2007 as a deadline for providing speedy Internet access to every American home, and has acknowledged that America is lagging in getting broadband available nationwide.

To encourage the spread of this technology, Bush says the users should not be taxed, and that the government should take steps to encourage the spread of competitive services.

The Washington Post says more than 17 million Americans have stopped downloading music from the Internet because of fears of copyright lawsuits, according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The report says a third of the former downloaders say they stopped because of the highly publicised lawsuits filed by the recording industry since last summer against more than 1000 users because many have led to settlements of thousands of dollars each.

The study does not distinguish between music downloaded illegally and songs bought through authorised sites such as iTunes. Seventeen percent of the current downloaders said they are using paid services, though not necessarily as their exclusive source of online music.

Lindows is moving into the digital audio and photo arena with two new desktop applications, according to a report by eWeek.

Lindows has released its Lsong application for playing and managing digital audio. It is available now for users of Linspire, the renamed Lindows operating system. Lindows changed its name earlier this month after a series of US and international trademark infringement lawsuits from Microsoft.

Also released in beta is Lphoto, an application for importing and organising photos, resizing and retouching them, and sharing them through e-mail or HTML-based photo albums.

Sun Microsystems and other Java software vendors plan to promote the official release of J2EE 1.4 today in San Francisco.

TechWeb says Sun, BEA Systems, IBM, Oracle, JBoss and several other companies will take part in panel discussions about the importance of J2EE 1.4 compatibility and the new technologies available in the spec.

Several companies also are expected to commit to releasing J2EE 1.4-compatible application servers by the end of the year. Oracle and Sun already have released application servers compatible with J2EE 1.4.

Apple Computer`s iPod has inspired a thriving aftermarket for obsessive owners who want to add features to their digital-music player, reports Reuters.

The report says iPod users can buy external speakers, winter jackets, and a variety of other accessories for their pricey MP3 players. Fan site iPodLounge lists 60 different protective cases, while other sites offer glow-in-the-dark silicone, stretchy neoprene, or luggage-worthy aluminium.

The report says for whitewater rafters, there`s the waterproof LiliPod hard-shell case and for snowboarders, Burton Snowboards offers winter jackets with iPod controls mounted on the sleeves. There are also products for the more adventurous to remove scratches from battered iPods.