Stories by Loek Essers

French publishers want to charge Google for republishing articles

French publishers have relaunched a discussion about the republishing of headlines and the first paragraph of articles by Google and other search engines without compensating the provider of the content. Plans to craft a law that allows publishers to charge search engines are back on the table after the German cabinet gave its support last week to a draft law that aims to do precisely that, said the French National Magazine Publishers' Society (SEPM).

HP releases two beta versions of open-source webOS

Hewlett-Packard released two beta versions of its open source webOS on Friday: one for developers that runs on the Ubuntu Linux desktop, and one for the "OpenEmbedded" development environment, intended to help developers port webOS to new devices.

Pirate Bay co-founder arrested in Cambodia

Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has been arrested in Cambodia, Sweden's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. Sweden wants to extradite Warg from Cambodia because he is avoiding a prison sentence imposed by a Swedish court.

Amazon Appstore opens in Europe

Amazon launched its Appstore in Europe on Thursday, giving customers in the U.K, Germany, France, Italy and Spain access to its selection of Android apps.

German cabinet backs law that could allow news publishers to sue Google

The German cabinet gave its backing Wednesday to a draft law extending copyright protection to snippets of news articles republished by search engines, although proposals to make bloggers pay to quote articles they comment on have been dropped. Google said it was a bad day for the Internet in Germany.

Facebook gets privacy ultimatum from German consumer groups

Facebook must stop providing personal data to third-party app makers without getting users' explicit consent, the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV) said on Tuesday. If Facebook does not comply before next Monday, it could face legal action.

Samsung invests $976 million in ASML for tech to build smaller chips

Following Intel and contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Samsung Electronics will invest €779 million (US$976 million) in the Dutch chip manufacturing equipment maker ASML to further development of next-generation lithography technology that should enable faster and more power-efficient chips.

Arduino gets new remote management possibilities

Users of the Arduino open-source platform for home electronics do-it-yourselfers can now sign up for a communication service from the Spanish mobile phone provider Télefonica that lets them manage their projects remotely.

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