A survey by PC World Business found that 44 percent of Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses do not have a software licensing policy, leaving them open to legal and security problems.

PC World Business surveyed 750 IT managers of businesses with up to 500 employees. It found that 58 percent of small businesses do not keep records of software or ensure that software licence certificates are readily available if requested by software publishers.

Despite these findings, 87 per cent of businesses believe that they comply will legal requirements.

All standard software packages are sold with a licence, which specifies how many copies can be used. Companies failing to comply with the terms of the licence, by using making or selling illegal copies, can be sued by software publishers for piracy, an offence which carries an unlimited fine or a prison sentence.

The research also found that 67 per cent of businesses buy new software licences every time they purchase a new computer, when it is more cost-effective and efficient to purchase company-wide software licences, which cover a set number of machines.

Struan Robertson, editor of OUT-LAW.COM and an IT lawyer with Pinsent Masons, said: “Most businesses would never think of themselves as software pirates, but software mismanagement amounts to the same thing in the eyes of the BSA.”

The survey found that only 59% of British Businesses are aware of the existence of the BSA (Business Software Alliance), a global organisation that regulates software licensing. The organisation offers a reward of up to £10,000 for information on software piracy.

Dixons is launching FreeTalk next week – its budget Internet phone service.

FreeTalk is similar to a service offered by VoIP company Vonage, which offers unlimited calls to landlines in the UK and Ireland for £9.99 a month. Dixons service, however, is cheaper at £6.99 a month, or £79.99 for a year. A phone adaptor enabling users to link their home phone to the broadband service will cost approximately £20.

Dixons will promote FreeTalk in its network of high street shops, with a major marketing drive when it is launched, possibly on Wednesday or Thursday.

The company may be hoping that FreeTalk will achieve the same success as its popular internet business Freeserve, which took the UK’s ISP sector by storm when it launched in 1997.

Dell and Oracle are strengthening their relationship through a bundling agreement and a grid project. The alliance was announced at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco.

Dell will provide PowerEdge servers, installed with Oracle’s database, Real Application Clusters or Fusion Middleware. Customers will be offered the alternative option of JD Edwards applications or Oracle E-Business Suite.

Support packages for up to three years will be offered at the time of purchase, providing access to dedicated support staff at Dell and Oracle.

Customers will initially contact Dell if they have a problem, but if the problem is in the software and beyond the Dell team, the call will be passed to specialists at Oracle. This will mean that customers will not have to ring back and explain the problem all over again.

Dell is also collaboration with Oracle, Microsoft and Cisco on Project MegaGrid, which aims to provide a cost-effective alternative to large expensive servers and mainframes.

Kevin Kettler, Dell’s chief technical officer expects these systems to dominate the market in five years time, because of the reliability that clustering provides. If a system fails, the grid will continue to operate while repairs or replacements are made. The systems will run Oracle Database 10g over Windows on PowerEdge servers.

Dell will be the initial point of contact for customer service and queries will be seamlessly passed to the company best suited to handle the call. The systems are already available and will be priced according to processor, memory and storage requirements.

Reporters Without Borders, the media watchdog, has released a handbook advising bloggers on how to protect themselves from recrimination and censors. It includes tips on how to set up a blog, publicise it and establish credibility. It also offers advice on writing blogs from countries with stringent media restrictions, including as Iran and China. The handbook was part-funded by the French government.

The booklet, called The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents, includes advice from key international bloggers, experts and writers, including US journalist Dan Gillmor and Canadian net censorship expert, Nart Villeneuve.

Blogs, or weblogs, are becoming increasingly popular as a medium for people to publish their own thoughts on the Internet, and are a vital source of communication in countries where mainstream media is restricted. However, they are increasingly being targeted by strict authorities.

The handbook discusses how to blog anonymously and how to identify the most suitable way to avoid censorship. It also offers help on developing ethical and journalistic values.

Iranian authorities have been censoring mainstream media for some time, but they have now started to clamp-down on bloggers. According to campaign groups, at least two dozen Iranian bloggers have been jailed. In June, Microsoft’s MSN Spaces site in China started to block blog entries which used words such as “freedom”, “democracy” and “demonstration”.

The blogger booklet can be downloaded from the Reporters Without Borders website in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Persian.

A survey by Computer People, the recruitment company, found that most office workers find computer jargon as difficult to understand as a foreign language. Three quarters of workers waste more than an hour a week deciphering technical terms such as jpeg, javascript and cookies.

Computer people, which questioned 1,500 workers, says effective technology professionals “understand the need to tailor their levels of jargon”.

The survey found that younger workers found computer language as difficult to understand as older workers.

The survey also highlighted other common computer-related problems. Just under two thirds of the workers surveyed had sent e-mails with large attachments which had blocked clients’ systems. Over one in four people did not understand the purpose of a firewall, and were tempted to turn it off. A quarter of those surveyed had to ask for technical help to download information.

Mr Fletcher, managing director of Computer People, said: “We’re finding that many clients are increasingly requiring professionals who have concise communication expertise as they recognise this improves company productivity in the long run.”

O2 and Argiva have launched a UK trial of technology that enables television to be viewed on mobile phones. The trial, with 400 people in Oxford, will test the technology that enables mobiles to receive direct TV signals.

People taking part in the trial will receive sixteen channels, including BBC One and Two, ITV 1 and 2, and Channel 4. TV is being promoted as the next phase of mobile entertainment – some shows are already available on Orange’s 3G network.

O2 and Arqiva have joined with Nokia and terrestrial and satellite broadcasters, for the six-month trial.

Although 3G networks can already be used to watch some TV channels, the Oxford trial will test more complicated technology, called DVB-H (digital video broadcasting – handheld). DVB-H is one of two formats or standards that global broadcasters and the mobile industry have been developing. It has been specifically designed for the broadcast of TV signals on mobiles and other handheld devices.

DVB-H enables mobiles, which have special requirements because of screen size and battery life, handle TV signals in real-time. It also allows broadcasters to send the same signals to multiple handsets.

People taking part in the Oxford trial will watch TV on the Nokia 7710 handset, a widescreen multimedia smartphone, which incorporates a receiver for TV signals. An on-screen guide will allow users to select programmes.

Mobile operators hope to start using mobile TV technology in time for next year’s football World Cup in Germany.

According to technology consultancy Strategy Analytics, there could be 51 million mobile-TV users by 2009, generating approximately $6.6bn (£3.5bn) in revenue.

Electronics company Sony is reducing staff headcount by 10,000 globally, as part of a restructuring programme. The job losses represent approximately 7% of the company’s workforce and will be completed by March 2008.

Approximately 40 percent of the jobs losses will be Japan, with the remaining 60 percent from its overseas operations. The company will also close or sell 11 of its 65 manufacturing plants.

Sony has been losing ground in key markets following the launch of rival products, such as Apple’s iPod. It has also been adversely affected by the move from traditional cathode-ray tube televisions to flat screens.

The company expects a group net loss of 10bn yen ($90 million) in the current fiscal year. Over the past five years, Sony shares have lost two thirds of their value. In Thursday’s trading, its share price fell 2.2%.

Sony is the world’s second-largest consumer electronics maker, behind Matsushita, and employs 151,400 workers in 80 countries across the world. The restructuring plan follows the appointment in March of UK-born Sir Howard Stringer as the group’s chief executive.

BT has revealed details of its new network division - BT Openreach - which will provide equal access to its phone network. Openreach will employ 30,000 people including 25,000 engineers and will come into operation in January 2006.

When it is established, Openreach will have assets of approximately £8bn and revenues of over £4bn. In order to keep it separate from the rest of BT, it will have its own HQ and brand identity.

BT Openreach chief, Steve Robertson, said in a statement: “The local BT network is one of the UK’s most important assets and my role is to ensure everyone has equal access to it.”

BT has created the new division as part of a regulatory settlement with Ofcom, under which the telecoms company agreed to “substantive structural, product and governance changes, affecting both its current and future networks”, in order to avoid the risk of being broken up.

Microsoft is preparing to incorporate Really Simple Syndication (RSS), a popular XML technology used in blogs, in the next edition of its Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Microsoft is putting RSS into Office 12, enabling Outlook users to subscribe to feeds that are then fed into their email in-box. Outlook will allow users to search and store feeds in folders, apply rules, and incorporate feeds into other Office applications.

The company is also using RSS in its SharePoint Portal. Document libraries and lists will get a corresponding RSS feed that users can subscribe to and receive as updates.

At the Professional Developers’ Conference (PDC) last week, Chris Caposella, vice president for Microsoft’s information worker product management group, said RSS would be transformed into a platform that embraces business applications.

Turning applications, including calendar and contacts, into RSS feeds will support Microsoft’s objective of integration between Office with back end servers and enabling more dynamic access to different types of data.

Microsoft’s RSS-enablement of its business applications supports the launch of Windows Vista in 2006, which will feature an RSS store to identify and store feeds.

Microsoft believes that putting an RSS store into the operating system will promote innovation by companies currently distributing RSS aggregators. The incorporation of RSS into Microsoft’s applications will enable aggregators to focus on value-added features, such as creating better search and watch lists.

British Midland and TAP Air Portugal are planning to allow passengers to use their mobile phones while they are in the air.

Both airlines will use base-station technology developed by OnAir, which is backed by Airbus and is a rival to Boeing-backed Connexion. OnAir uses Siemens’ pico-cell base-stations together with software from TriaGnoSys.

The companies plan to install the equipment in 2006, initially on only a couple of aircraft, and launch a trial late in the year. TAP Air Portugal will use OnAir on its single-aisle Airbus 321, and BMI on the Airbus 320.

BMI will target the service at business and leisure travellers from London’s Heathrow airport, travelling to European destinations including Manchester, Belfast, Edinburgh, Paris and Amsterdam. Travellers will be able to use all GSM and GPRS handsets, including Blackberry devices.

Passengers will only be able to use their phones from 10,000ft - they will still not be able to use wireless devices during take off and landing. Rates will be in line with current international roaming charges according to OnAir.

Start-up company Akimbi Systems, has revealed Slingshot – software that can take a snap shot of a server environment, store hardware and software configurations. It is claimed it can also automatically roll back the configurations to a pool of machines for testing with specific new applications.

The company claims that development costs can be reduced by up to 50 per cent by automating this stage in the application development cycle.

The software removes the need to manually configure servers and runs on top of virtual machine (VM) software from Microsoft and VMsoftware.

Slingshot works with application lifecycle management (ALM) testing tools from Mercury Interactive, IBM/Rational, Microsoft, Borland Software and Segue Software, by connecting with the Slingshot APIs via a SOAP interface.

At the VM level, Akimbi has ensured that multiple testing environments can run side by side in server pools, through its ability to redirect packets, create a hidden VM and also update routing tables to avoid problems like IP conflicts. Slingshot is based on a VM architecture Akimbi acquired from Ensism.

Akimbi is talking to software tool companies about possible partnership agreements. The company’s development work at the architecture level is expected to deter test tool vendors from trying to develop rival products.

The Authors Guild, a US writers’ group, together with writers Herbert Mitgang, Betty Miles and Daniel Hoffman, is suing Internet search engine Google, over its plans to digitise major library book collections. The plaintiffs claim the plan infringes author copyright and have filed a lawsuit seeking damages, class action status and an injunction against further infringements.

Google claims its plan to organise the world’s information and make it more universally accessible and useful, would benefit writers. It plans to invest $200m (£110m) into creating a digital archive of millions of books from the libraries of Stanford, Michigan and Harvard universities, and of the New York Public Library, by 2015. It is also digitising out-of-copyright books from the UK’s Oxford University.

Google has asked for more talks and has temporarily stopped scanning copyrighted texts until November to listen to concerns about the plan.

The law-suit against Google is part of a campaign by the action by the Authors Guild to stop third-parties abusing the rights of authors not simply with unauthorised distirbution, but also unauthorised storage of copyrighted works.

Although Google has said copyright holders who contact the company and ask for their books to be withheld from the project will be respected, the company has come under heavy fire for effectively treating copyright law as an opt-in process, rather than automatic right.

The Authors Guild complaint says: “(Authors), not Google, have the exclusive rights to… authorize such reproduction, distribution and display of their works”.

Google claims its project “directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing awareness of and sales of the books in the programme”.

However, Google have yet to comment on claims that it would seek to mainly use the content of copyrighted works to display its own AdSense for the benefits of its own advertisers.

NOTE: For personal commentary on this story, see Google Print fails to honour writers rights

At a meeting for investors and analysts, Vodafone said it is planning to expand through acquisitions in Asia Poland and France. It hopes to increase its near 20% stake in Poland’s Polkomtel and its 44% stake in France’s second-largest telecoms group SFR.

The group plans to continue to focus on turning around its struggling Japanese business and will look for opportunities in Asia.

The number of subscribers to Vodafone’s 3G service increased to 4.35 million in August, up one million from July. The company expects 10 million customers to be using 3G services by the end of the fiscal year to April.

Vodafone plans to attract customers in the run-up to the key Christmas trading season by offering 15 new types of 3G handsets. It also plans to launch a faster version of 3G - which allows users to download images and videos more quickly - in the first half of 2006.

Vodafone’s chief executive, Arun Sarin, said: “Frankly in the next six months, we can expect great competition from the Telefonicas in Spain and the T-Mobiles in Germany and DoCoMO and ‘au’ in Japan”.

According to the biannual Symantec Threat Report, malicious hackers are starting to target Voice over IP (Voip) systems. The report predicts that within 18 months, Voip will start to be used as a “significant” attack vector.

Callers can make significant cost savings by using Voip to make some of their calls via the net, instead of through old-fashioned phone lines. However the report says that routing phone calls via the net, opens a series of security risks including:

· audio spam that blocks voicemail boxes with spoken adverts
· voice phishing that aims to trick people into disclosing confidential details
· caller-ID spoofing which makes it appear that a fraudulent call comes from a legitimate number, such as a bank
· call hi-jacking that re-directs calls to criminals

The report suggests that Voip could result in the re-introduction of old hacking techniques, such as war-dialling - making large numbers of phone calls to find out which ones responded with a data tone.

The report highlights a number of other computer security threats that continue to be a problem such as stripped down worms, viruses and Trojans. Once installed, the programs contact a server and download new parts. This causes more damage to the computer hosting them or other machines on that network.

Bot herds - networks of compromised PCs under the control of a malicious hacker – are used to launch other types of attack.

Symantec researched identified an increase in denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which bombard target machines with so much data that they cannot cope. On average, 927 DoS attacks are being carried out every day.

To mark its entry into the mobile music sector, Orange is launching a new smartphone - the SPV C550.

The device runs Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, but Windows Mobile 5.0 is expected to be shortly available in a smartphone. It has already made its PDA debut in the O2 XDA Exec and Orange plans to launch a rival product, the SPV M5000, soon.

On the plus side, the C550 addresses a number of problems found in its predecessor, the C500. Some core specifications have been updated, helping to maintain Orange’s position as a leading UK Windows smart-phone provider.

The C550’s music functions are controlled by four buttons directly above the number pad marked back, pause/play, forward and a button identified with a musical note. The musical note button launches Orange’s Music Player, to download tunes from Orange’s online service. The setting can be changed so that this button launches Windows Media Player.

Above these four buttons are two softmenu keys, a back button and a Home key that takes you directly back to Orange’s Home screen.

Below the music button sits a number pad, which includes Start Call and End Call keys and a joystick for navigating.

On the left edge is a volume rocker, on the top infrared port and power button, and on the right edge a button for the built in camera. A new key, not found on the C500, is a key for Internet Explorer.

There are two connectors on the bottom edge - a mini USB slot to link to a PC for data synchronisation and a 2.5mm headphone jack.

LogicaCMG is acquiring French reseller Unilog for €930.3m(£630.6m) and will issue shares to pay for it.

Logica plans to buy 32.3% from “certain members of the management of Unilog and others for a total of €255.4m in cash and the issue of 19, 572, 703 new Consideration Shares.”

It hopes to acquire the remaining 67.7% by offering shareholders 73 euros in cash for each share. This represents an 11.5% premium on the share price.

The merger will create a combined company with 27,000 employees and a turnover of approximately 2bn euros in 2004. It will be placed fourth in France and in the leading ten IT service providers across Europe. The merger will create a platform whereby the combined group will be able to develop its business in Germany.

The merger is expected to create synergies of £19m for the year ending December 31 2007.

The contract is subject to approval by shareholders and the regulator. There will be an Extraordinary General Meeting 13 October and the shareholder offer is expected to close by year end.

Microsoft has announced changes to its licensing and maintenance scheme for larger customers, known as Software Assurance.

From March 2006, the benefits offered by Software Assurance will be extended. In addition to automatic upgrades and spread payments, Desktop Deployment Services will offer help, consultants and planning for upgrades.

Customers will receive Windows Vista Enterprise, which provides encryption and makes integrating different languages easier. Customers with over 30,000 licenses will receive “an additional number of training vouchers”.

Software assurance, or licensing 6.0, was introduced in 2002 and was updated last year. Sales increased significantly after its introduction, as companies renewed their old agreements rather than sign up to the three-year agreements. The service offered guaranteed upgrades during the life of the contract, although this was not seen as an advantage by many companies.

Protection and Privacy Commissioners at the 27th International Conference of Data, passed a declaration calling for the United Nations to prepare a legally binding instrument, clearly setting out in detail, the rights to data protection and privacy as enforceable human rights.

The declaration was adopted at the conference in Montreux, last week, with support from 40 countries. In the ‘Montreux Declaration’, the commissioners also call for governments to encourage the adoption of legislation that upholds recognised data protection principles. They ask for this to be extended to their mutual relations; and for the Council of Europe to invite non-member states of the organisation to ratify the Convention for the protection of individuals in respect of the automatic processing of personal data and its additional protocol.

International organisations have been asked to give a commitment to adhere to data protection rules; international non-governmental organisations have been asked to devise data protection standards; and hardware and software manufacturers have been asked to incorporate privacy-enhancing technologies into their products and systems.

Details of the nature of the legally-binding instrument to be adopted by the UN have not been clarified. According to Swiss data-protection commissioner Hanspeter Thür, it could be a text adopted by the UN in the same way as human-rights provisions.

Progress in the implementation of the objectives will be regularly monitored. The first assessment will be carried out at the 28th International Conference, due to take place in September 2006 in Argentina.

Opera Software has withdrawn advertising banners from the free version of its Opera browser software. The ad-free, full-featured version is available for download at www.opera.com

The free-browser was previously only available with an advertising banner. Users could have this removed for the payment of a licensing free, which also gave them premium support. Between one to three per cent of users purchased this licence, providing a revenue stream for Opera’s PC business. Other revenue streams, of approximately equal value were provided from search engines and the sale of ads. Opera will continue to sell premium support at the reduced rate of €24 per year.

Jon S. von Tetzchner, chief exec of Opera Software, said: “Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser”.

Opera expects the move to significantly increase its market share, thereby pulling in more revenues from search engines. This is expected to more than offset loss of income from licensing over the long term. Opera’s PC software business produces roughly half the income of its devices (set-top box and mobile) operation.

Opera’s browser provides additional features to those available on IE or Firefox. It lets users start from where their last browsing session ended or to save their entire session. It also includes security features to protect against phishing attacks.

According to NEC, O2’s technology partner, O2 will launch its i-mode service in the autumn. There is speculation that this could be as early as next week.

O2, the mobile phone network, announced it had licensed i-mode in November 2004, suggesting a launch in the second half of 2005 for the mobile Internet service’s introduction in the UK and Ireland.

NEC revealed that O2 will use its Mobile Internet Platform gateway as the foundation for the new service. I-mode is a key factor in O2’s strategy to increase its share of the mobile data market and to boost the average revenue it makes from each of its customers. The company currently makes over 25 percent of its revenue from data services.

O2’s i-mode service will operate alongside its O2 Active offering, on both 2.5G and 3G networks. i-mode handsets will be sourced from NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Siemens (now BenQ) and Motorola.