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President Obama acknowledged in an ABC interview Sunday that he has been exchanging letters with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani. Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he has communicated with Iran’s leaders in “indirect ways.” “Have you reached out personally to the new president?” Stephanopoulos asked. “I have,” Obama replied, “and– and he’s reached out to me. We haven’t spoken– directly. But–” 1 inShare 3 President Obama acknowledged in an ABC interview Sunday that he has been exchanging letters with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani. Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he has communicated with Iran’s leaders in “indirect ways.” “Have you...

No matter what one thinks of the homosexuality-affirming "It Gets Better" project, do we really want the president of the United States to be associated with radical sex columnist Dan Savage, the creator of this campaign? "It Gets Better" is the online video project that Chicago native Dan Savage created in which he seeks to end bullying by affirming homosexuality. Joining him in this effort are Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kathleen Sebelius, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton. Savage--the even more offensive doppelganger of our Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings--celebrates homosexuality in general and his own in particular. He has chosen...

Amid Recession, Some Save By Turning To Pre-Money Commerce: The turtleneck from designer Marc Jacobs costs hundreds of dollars at Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue. But at one Brooklyn bar, the charcoal-gray sweater was free for the taking - along with jeans, belts and shoes. The neighborhood watering hole called Sycamore will never be mistaken for a department store, but for some recession-battered consumers, it's serving a similar purpose. It's a chance to update their wardrobes and capture the adventure of shopping without having to open their wallets. "It's guilt-free shopping," said Shannon McDowell, a bartender and swapper. Friends...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Why would Democrats in Hawaii give money to a U.S. Senate candidate in Rhode Island? That question is creating a furor around Rhode Island Secretary of State Matt Brown, who is running for the Senate. At issue is whether his campaign engaged in "donation swapping," a practice experts say is a common and legally dubious means of skirting the federal limits on political contributions. Late last year, Brown received $25,000 from the state Democratic parties in Hawaii, Maine and Massachusetts. Shortly afterward, four of his top donors gave $30,000 to those parties. The donors had already given...

WASHINGTON - When the Supreme Court justices were growing up, swapping music meant exchanging vinyl records. And sharing a movie involved walking someone to the cinema. Today many of the latest hit songs and movies are a few mouse clicks away on the Internet, and those same justices are being asked to settle a multibillion-dollar dispute about how such items are shared. Entertainment companies want the court to let them sue the manufacturers of file-sharing software that allows computer users to download music and movies from each other's computers. The companies say such downloads violate copyright protections and amount to...

Lunch trades outlawed to protect kids with allergies ORMONDALE SCHOOL JOINS THOSE THAT HAVE APPLIED TIGHTER RULES By Kim Vo Mercury News In the underground economy of school lunches, third-grader Siobhan Rickert explained, the demands are straightforward: ``If you give me this cookie, I'll give you this pretzel.'' But no more. This month, Ormondale School in Portola Valley began cracking down on lunch swaps. No more trading mom's turkey sandwich for a peanut butter and jelly -- or exchanging chocolate chip cookies for, well, just about anything you want. Ormondale joins a smattering of Bay Area schools that have banned...

A professor at Tokyo University in Japan has been arrested and charged with copyright offences after developing a computer program that promises to let users share files with anonymity. Isamu Kaneko, a 33-year-old academic, wrote a file-sharing program called "Winny". This promises users the ability to share audio and video files through a network built on top of ordinary internet traffic, but without revealing network address of their computer to other users. Kaneko was arrested on suspicion of offering copyrighted material for download through the program himself. In Japan, violating copyright law can be punished with a maximum sentence of...

LOS ANGELES - As the recording industry prepares hundreds of copyright lawsuits against online music swappers, the makers of file-sharing software are fortifying their programs to try to mask users' identities. Some of the upgrades reroute Internet connections through so-called proxy servers that scrub away cybertracks. Others incorporate firewalls or encryption to thwart the sleuth firms that the recording industry employs. "Everyone is concerned about their privacy," said Michael Weiss, chief executive of StreamCast Networks. The upgrade to his Morpheus file-sharing software has been downloaded more than 300,000 times since its release last week. Music industry officials insist file-swappers can't...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Concert tickets, DVDs and even laptops will be used to encourage users of the online bazaar known as Kazaa to swap legal files instead of pirated movies and music. The Peer Points Manager program announced Monday will essentially be Internet file-sharing's version of frequent flyer miles. Kazaa users earn points for making legal files available to others over the Internet. The points can be redeemed for small prizes like computer games or for sweepstakes entries to win larger items. The program is being run by Altnet, a Kazaa partner trying to promote sharing of legal files...

Wednesday April 30, 3:06 AM Music Industry Sends Warning to Song Swappers By Sue Zeidler LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The record industry opened a new front in its war against online piracy on Tuesday by surprising hundreds of thousands of Internet song swappers with an instant message warning that they could be "easily" identified and face "legal penalties." About 200,000 users of the Grokster and Kazaa file-sharing services received the warning notice on Tuesday and at least one million will be getting the message within a week, according to music industry officials. The copyright infringement warnings, which were sent by...

In the strongest attempt yet to create a legitimate alternative to free music-trading sites, America Online will introduce a service today that lets users download and listen to a large catalog of songs. For $8.95 a month, users will be able to listen to a catalog of music, now at 250,000 songs and growing, on their computers. Moving songs to CD's or portable players will cost more. AOL is selling a version of a service from MusicNet, which is a consortium of RealNetworks; the BMG unit of Bertelsmann; EMI; and Warner Music, which like America Online is a unit of...

<p>LONDON -- The head of an Internet cafe chain pledged Wednesday to appeal a judge's ruling that the company broke copyright law by letting customers copy music from the Internet.</p> <p>Greek entrepreneur Stelio Haji-Ioannou said Tuesday's court decision against his easyInternetcafe chain had failed to consider that recordings for private and domestic use were exempt from Britain's 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.</p>

LOS ANGELES –– The owners of the KaZaA file-sharing network are suing the movie and recording industries, claiming that they don't understand the digital age and are monopolizing entertainment. Sharman Networks Ltd. filed its counterclaim Monday in response to a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by several recording labels and movie studios. That lawsuit accuses Sharman of providing free access to copyright music and films to millions of Internet users in the United States.

Hilary Rosen paces the creaking oak floor of the Oxford Union debate hall, eyeing the empty pews the way a Roman gladiator might have surveyed the Colosseum. Rosen is the chair of the Recording Industry Association of America, and in a few hours she'll be standing here in a black formal gown, getting ripped to pieces. Along with several other industry executives, she's charged with defending the proposition: "This house believes that the free-music mentality is a threat to the future of music." Of course, the students of "this house" believe nothing of the sort. "I myself have about 900...

<p>WASHINGTON -- As digital file sharing, webcasting and other new technologies proliferate, artists and industry officials meeting here said the music business is in jeopardy unless artists, record companies and consumers stop fighting and start compromising.</p> <p>"People are always looking for what side to be on, and there isn't just one side," said Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, which sponsored this week's policy summit.</p>