Nearly half of all Britons have logged on to the net. The possibilities are almost unfathomably complex and varied, and the outcome stands to transform the face of the music industry. But Germany's media empire Bertelsmann AG and its new partner Napster face tough times ahead in their efforts to turn the outlaw music-swapping service into a legitimate business. The Diffuse Project is pleased to invite you to the first annual Diffuse conference. The conference will explore developments, and debate issues, relating to the harmonization of digital content, with specific reference to the Diffuse classification framework.
Attendance is free of charge.
Traditional search engines have access to only a fraction of 1 percent of what exists on the Web. To dig deeper into the Web, a new breed of search engine has cropped up that takes a different approach to Web page retrieval. Internet surfers were unable to access sites run by software giant Microsoft for the third successive day on Thursday. The FBI have been called in to investigate the latest attack. QuickLinks Links to news items about legal and regulatory aspects of Internet and the information society, particularly those relating to information content, and market and technology.