Hollywood appeals against P2P

Hollywood studios and record companies have asked the US Supreme Court to overturn recent controversial court decisions that have kept file-swapping software legal, reports CNet.

The report says the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) are appealing against decisions they cite as the biggest setbacks for the entertainment industry. They are trying to counter the exchange of copyrighted materials over peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus.

The MPAA and the RIAA say that letting the lower court rulings stand will badly undermine the value of copyrighted work. They say the appeal decision will largely determine the significance of copyright in the digital era.

Intel has rescheduled the release date for Xeon processors supporting code-disabling technology used by Windows Service Pack 2 to counter some viruses.

Xeons supporting what Intel is calling Execution Disable Bit (EDB) technology were originally due for release in September, but are now expected only at the end of October, according to a report in The Register.

The report says although the updated Xeons were not delivered on schedule, Pentium 4 processors with EDB support did arrive. Like the P4s, the updated Xeons are based on the revised E-0 core.

IBM and rival Unisys have taken several steps to keep their mainframe server lines a vital part of computing, says CNet.

IBM recently announced that its zSeries mainframes can now run Java programs faster and share jobs among groups of IBM computers. IBM also added a pared-down, less expensive option for customers who want one mainframe to take over for another in the event of a crash. It also expanded its mainframe sales and technical support staff in China.

Unisys has recently introduced its new ClearPath Plus Dorado line of mainframes, which the company says boosts performance 50% over previous models. Unisys has also introduced a metered pricing arrangement that lets customers pay according to consumption and added Linux capabilities to match those of IBM`s.

Several sites including The Register are reporting that Apple is preparing to launch a colour screen iPod in time for Christmas.

The reports say rumour site Think Secret maintains that the 60GB device will be capable of displaying photos on its high-resolution colour screen and be able to show photo slideshows set to music and output its display onto a TV.

None of the sites were able to obtain comment from Apple.