Thursday's Throw Back

Today's top tech tales...

1. Forget Wi-Fi, here comes UWB: ultrawideband, low-power wireless data networks offering as much as 400 megabits per second. The IEEE is meeting this week in Albuquerque to settle on a UWB standard, 802.15.3a. Intel and Motorola are battling over the standard, and that's holding things up. Intel says, "We don’t want to see a standards war, but it's conceivable that it will happen."
2. A new Senate copyright bill would put you in jail for up to three years for sharing pre-released movies. The Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act would make it a federal offense to offer any movie for download before its release, even if no copyright violation has occurred. You could also get five years for wielding a camcorder in a movie theater. The bill has the support of Jack Valenti, Dianne Feinstein, and Bo Derek.
3. Sharman Networks, distributors of Kazaa, is planning to sell a movie through its peer-to-peer network. The low-budget Bollywood thriller, Supari, will sell for $2.99. Sharman is also launching its first print ad campaign next week urging users to defend P2P file sharing.
4. MSNBC reports that AmberAlertsOnline.com, a site that claims to offer instant email alerts when a child is kidnapped, is actually run by an email marketing company. The site's privacy policy even states that they may sell your information to "email marketers." But who reads privacy policies? I hope you do.
5. No more anonymous love letters if a presidential commission has its way. The commission is pressuring the US Postal Service to implement a system that would track the identity of everyone who sends mail. The Postmaster General doesn't want to do it citing privacy concerns.
6. Philips has demonstrated 16x DVD burning in the lab. That's 10,000 RPM - very likely the physical limit for the media. An actual consumer product may be years off, though.
7. "Playlistism" is emerging on college campuses thanks to iTunes music sharing. According to Wired, students are shunning those with terrible taste in music. Your music says a lot about you, apparently. Now playing on iTunes: ���れ�よ�� from the album 女��二楽� by 女��二楽�.