Ever feel up in the air about the Internet? Boeing understands: The aircraft giant has plans to put special telephone jacks on its airliners' armrests, so you can jump online with your laptop, check your e-mail and even watch television. Boeing said it expects to start installation at the end of 2001. The service would be available on flights over North America only, but the company said it hopes to make it transoceanic and international in due course. The project is called Connexion, and partnering with Boeing will be CNN, CNBC, Mitsubishi and Matsushita Avionics Systems Corp. The cost? About the same as cell phone service, Boeing said. Connexion would also be made available for private business aircraft, and it would rely on existing satellites and new antennae to be installed in its aircraft. But the company isn't forecasting yet how much in revenue the project will bring in. And they're still negotiating with the airlines and service suppliers.
LOS ANGELES - Add rap star Dr. Dre to the list of litigants against MP3 swappers Napster - and he's seeing and raising previous litigants one. Earlier this month, Metallica targeted not just Napster, but universities where Napster is used freely. Dr. Dre is targeting Napster and university students using Napster to download MP3s. Dr. Dre sued a week after demanding Napster remove his music from its service, a demand Napster rejected, saying it could remove individual users alone who are identified as copyright violators. And he's seeking damages of $100,000 per illegally copied work (close to $10 million), not far removed from the damages Metallica wants. "Napster devised and distributes software whose sole purpose is to permit (it) to profit by abetting and encouraging the pirating of the creative efforts of the world's most admired and successful musical artists," the suit reads. "I don't like people stealing my music," the rapper said in a statement from his offices April 27. But could Dr. Dre end up hoisted by his own petard? Dr. Dre himself is being sued for copyright infringement by LucasFilm, which contends he used its now-familiar THX music sounder (which precedes many films nowadays) to lead off his latest album, despite LucasFilm's earlier refusal when he asked permission.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
