NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 17 April
17-04-2009
by Emmet Cole
Bad day for The Pirate Bay | YouTube and Sony strike deal
Powervation Ltd has claimed the top award at the annual Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG)/Irish Times awards held in Silicon Valley, California. The University of Limerick spin-off company claimed the 2009 Innovation Award in recognition of the its 'exciting new technology development as well as its potential for significant commercial success on the global technology stage'. The ITLG is a collection of senior Irish-American technology executives committed to strengthening the ties between Silicon Valley and Ireland. Powervation manufactures an energy-efficient control mechanism -- originally developed at the Circuits and Systems Research Centre at the University of Limerick -- for the power supply to microprocessors used in computers and other devices. In 2007, the company secured EUR10 million in venture capital funding and opened an office in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley.
A bad day for The Pirate Bay, as fines of EUR2.7 million and jail sentences of one year were meted out to the four defendants after a long and controversial trial in Sweden. Peter Sunde (aka Brokep), Fredrik Neij (aka TiAMO), Gottfrid Svartholm (aka Anakata) and Carl Lundstrom received the fine for 'facilitating the free availability of copyrighted material without consent of the owners'. The music industry's original claim of EUR8 million was reduced after the court ruled that the plaintiffs -- Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures -- had failed to prove the full extent of their losses.
YouTube has reached a deal to post Sony Corp feature-length films and TV shows on the site, it was revealed on Thursday. The video-streaming giant also announced deals with 11 other partners including the Anime Network, Shout Factory, Telenext Media, Documentary Channel and First Look Studios. YouTube was purchased by Google for USD1.65 billion in 2006.
Astronomy Ireland's Easter Lecture will be presented by Irish NASA scientist Professor Denis O'Sullivan of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies. O'Sullivan is involved in NASA's Matroshka project, which uses a mannequin made from plastic, foam, and a real human skeleton, to monitor astronauts' exposure to space radiation. With Matroshka currently in orbit on board the International Space Station, O'Sullivan will use the lecture to provide details of the experiment.
AirSpeed Telcom, Work Area Recovery Systems (WARS) and Shannon Development have announced a range of high-capacity telecommunications services, business resilience and infrastructure developments aimed at companies in the west and mid-west of Ireland. Companies in both regions can now avail of high-speed telecommunications services of up to 155Mbps. Meanwhile, the Information Age Park in Ennis has been fitted with high capacity telecoms systems that are available to companies interested in utilising the WARS business continuity and disaster recovery service.
Northern Ireland's 2009 NISP CONNECT's awards have been launched. The awards are aimed at researchers and businesses in four categories: hitech, biotech, cleantech, and digital media & software. Interested companies are being asked to submit a two-page concept plan by 24 April. Successful companies will then move forward to a QuickPitch phase, involving a panel of industry and investment specialists. The STG25,000 awards are sponsored by the Bank of Ireland, Invest NI, QUB and the University of Ulster Business School. Information on how to register is available here.
Finally, Ashton Kutcher has beaten media giant CNN in a duel to see who could amass 1 million Twitter followers first. Kutcher (@aplusk on Twitter) had almost 2,000 followers more than CNN when he reached the 1 million mark in the early hours of Friday morning.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 