Google makes concessions to Europe

In a move to assuage European publishers' concerns over book digitisation, Google said European books still listed as commercially available will not be included in its online registry of orphaned and out-of-print works, unless rights holders give their express authorisation, says CNet.

The search giant also said it will let two non-US representatives onto the eight-person board of the Books Rights Registry, which was set up to govern the proposed books settlement reached with US publishers and authors who sued Google in 2005. Plaintiffs alleged the company's digitising initiative amounted to "massive" copyright infringement.

Under the terms of the settlement, Google agreed to pay the authors and publishers $125 million. The company will also be responsible for selling access to copyrighted works in its repository. Most of the revenue from such access would go to the authors and publishers.

Staff members at shops owned by the Dixons Stores Group (DSG) have been caught insulting customers on a social networking site, says the BBC.

An unofficial group, set up on Facebook for staff of DSG, featured comments from existing and former staff of the electronics retailer.

The comments branded customers "stupid" and recounted unflattering shop floor conversations with them.

IT firms will find it harder to recruit from overseas after home secretary Alan Johnson announced immigration rules are to become tougher, says Computing.co.uk.

From next year, all jobs must be advertised to British workers in Jobcentre Plus for four weeks - up from two - before companies can seek to employ staff from outside Europe.

The minimum salary that will allow an individual to qualify as a skilled worker and be eligible to work in the UK will also rise from £17 000 to £20 000.

The Scottish Labour Party is calling for trains and buses to offer free WiFi, following the tradition of parties not in power of calling for impractical, but populist, measures, reports The Register.

The idea is to get people out of cars by improving public transport, and skips over the fact that public transport in Scotland is run by private companies that make their own decisions about Internet connectivity, not to mention the basic impossibility of providing backhaul for every bus in Scotland.

Not that these problems faze John Park, economy and skills spokesman for Scottish Labour, who is quoted by the BBC as saying: "This is a sensible measure that would be good for the economy and good for the environment."