Yahoo charged with spyware fraud

Anti-spyware activist Ben Edelman has filed a class-action lawsuit against Yahoo, accusing the company of partnering with spyware purveyors to perpetrate syndication fraud against advertisers, reports eWeek.

Edelman also alleges Yahoo used its Overture pay-per-click advertising network to make money from registering URLs with slight variations on popular URLs to deliver ads to users who make typing errors.

Yahoo has declined comment on the lawsuit. However, it says in a statement that it will defend its position in the face of these and other accusations.

Warner Brothers has announced an agreement with former Hollywood enemy BitTorrent to become the first major studio to provide legal video content via the BitTorrent publishing platform, reports Pocket-lint.

The service will feature more than 200 Warner titles when it starts later this year. Warner is yet to announce pricing, but it is expected to be around the same price as a DVD.

However, Warner says the downloaded TV shows or feature films play only on the initial computer used to make the download and will not work on other PCs or DVD players.

Sony`s data compression technology is to become compatible with a number of rival formats, including Apple`s format of choice, AAC.

News.Com says Sony has fiercely held to its own Atrac system in the past, but by switching to a technology that supports AAC, Sony appears to be acknowledging Apple`s dominance in the digital music playing market.

Sony`s new management system will allow iPod users to use some of their music on a Sony Walkman, but only songs copied from CDs. Music downloaded from Apple`s iTunes music store is prevented from playing on non-Apple devices by Apple`s digital rights management technology.

Sony Electronics` new president and COO Stan Glasgow acknowledges that although the DVD format wars are far from over, he believes the Blu-Ray Disc format will emerge as the winner.

EE Times says Glasgow believes the higher capacity of Blu-Ray compared to HD-DVD will win over consumers.

Sony is betting heavily on the Blu-Ray format, planning to unveil a Blu-Ray Disc player in July, and incorporate Blu-Ray Disc optical drives into its long-awaited PlayStation 3 and Vaio PCs.

Glasgow concedes that Blu-Ray may take time to become successful because of the high initial prices for Blu-Ray products and possible component shortages that could limit product supplies.