File-sharing court battle

Record companies in the UK are taking action against five people accused of illegally sharing music online, the BBC reports.

The five - three men and two women - made a total of 8 906 songs available over the Internet, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said in its civil case.

More than 60 alleged file-sharers have settled out of court in the UK, paying up to lb6 500 each in compensation.

The BPI said it "cannot let illegal file-sharers off the hook".

Microsoft`s new Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) browser won`t pass a stringent standards test that rivals have embraced, reports CNET.

In its browser blog, Microsoft acknowledged IE7 would not pass the Web Standards Project`s Acid2 test, which examines a browser`s support for the World Wide Web Consortium recommendations including cascading style sheets (CSS), HTML4 and portable network graphics.

"We will not pass this test when IE7 ships," Chris Wilson, lead programme manager for the Web platform in IE7, wrote in the IE blog.

"We fully recognise that IE is behind the game today in CSS support. We`ve dug through the Acid2 test and analysed IE`s problems with the test in some great detail, and we`ve made sure the bugs and features are on our list. However, there are some fairly large and difficult features to implement and they will not all sort to the top of the stack in IE7."

20^th Century Fox has become the last major movie studio to pick sides in the high-stakes battle over what optical disc format will dominate high-definition content, saying it is going with Sony-backed Blu-ray over the rival HD DVD format, backed by Toshiba, reports Red Herring.

The next-generation discs are being developed in both formats to provide high-definition content that promises crisper visual and sound quality.

20^th Century Fox said Blu-ray provides a better content-protection system, a statement HD DVD proponents say is false.

Until 20^th Century Fox`s move, HD DVD had maintained an edge with movie studios, garnering support from Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios.

But now both formats appear to have an equal number of studio backers, with 20^th Century Fox joining Walt Disney and Sony Pictures in the Blu-ray camp.