Tuesday's Trumpeter

Watch out, here comes the early morning edition... The first US engineering college, Rensselaer Polytechnic, opens in Troy NY on this day in 1825. The soda fountain was patented in 1870. The UMW was founded in 1890. The first Emmy awards were in 1949. The first transcontinental commercial jet service (Los Angeles to New York for $301) took flight in 1959. We Are The World was recorded in 1985. Chemist Robert Boyle was born on this day in 1627.

1. The Bush Administration, the Christian Coalition, and the record and movie industry filed briefs yesterday with the US Supreme Court advocating that peer-to-peer file sharing networks like Grokster, and Morpheus should be liable for copyright infringement happening on their networks. Defenders of the right to swap have until the end of February to respond. The court is considering whether to overturn the 20 year old precedent in Sony vs Universal Pictures that made the VCR possible despite its potential for use in copyright infringement. At stake, not only the future of file sharing networks, but many consumer electronics devices like CD and DVD recorders, Tivo, and more. This will be one of the most important decisions from the Supremes all year.
2. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project , only 1 in 6 users can tell the difference between unbiased search results and paid advertisements on Internet search engines , yet 92 percent of Web searchers say they are confident about their searching abilities.
3. Google's been busy. The search engine is adding Internet search to TV shows. Google Video search transcripts from PBS, Fox News, C-SPAN, ABC, and the NBA on the same day they air. You'll get stills and the close caption transcript of the shows you find.
4. And the rumors that Google is working on a browser - they've registered gbrowser.com - are more credible now that they've hired the lead programmer for Firefox.
5. OK maybe he's a predator in business, but he's a real softy at home. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is donating $750 million to pay for child vaccination programs in developing countries. The donation, from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will go to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), which was launched in 2000.
6. Netflix Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit more than doubled, earning $4.8 million, or 8 cents per share, during the final three months of last year, compared with net income of $2.3 million, or 4 cents per share, this time last year. Enjoy it while you've got it, Reed, Amazon is breathing down your neck.

Listen in Tuesday morning at 6:45a Pacific for my weekly news commentary on KGO 810 AM in San Francisco.