Google and other companies have already made general calls for more transparency in the wake of the PRISM revelations, and it looks like Mountain View is now escalating those requests to a court challenge. As The Washington Post reports, Google is asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for some additional leeway with the government requests for data that it's able to disclose, and it's citing the First Amendment to make its case. In … [Read more...]

There aren't as many big bands and artists holding out on streaming or downloaded music as there used to be, but there's unquestionably still some noticeable omissions on today's most popular services. One of those gaps now looks set to be filled, though, as a tweet from the official Pink Floyd Twitter account has all but confirmed that the band's entire back catalog will soon be available to stream on Spotify. The catch is that it'll only be … [Read more...]

The issue of e-book prices, and alleged price fixing, has come up again and again in recent years, with the focus most recently shifting to a Manhattan courtroom where Apple is at the center of an antitrust trial. After revealing new details of the company's market share yesterday, Apple's Eddy Cue has today offered another piece of surprising news: that he and Steve Jobs once discussed a potential deal that would see Apple stay out of the ebook … [Read more...]

Google CEO Larry Page and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond made a general call for more transparency in their response to the PRISM revelations last week, and Drummond has gotten quite a bit more specific with that request today. In a post on the company's Public Policy blog, he says that he's sent a letter to offices of the Attorney General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation asking that Google be allowed to publish aggregate numbers of … [Read more...]

The National Film Board of Canada already has a few apps to its name, in addition to some other innovative internet-based efforts, and it's now branched out even further with a full-fledged filmmaking app. Now available for the iPad, McLaren's Workshop is a tribute of sorts to the work of animation pioneer Norman McLaren, known for the likes of Neighbours and Blinkity Blank. Not only does it let you watch 51 of McLaren's short films and 11 … [Read more...]