Neowin.net

As previously mentioned, traffic on the Kazaa network is now back to normal after a brief fall due to the RIAA’s announcement on P2P. Now two companies are offering anonymous filesharing where no user ID is divulged.

Filetopia have been offering this facility for a while, and Monday saw the emergence of Blubster, who also offer anonymity to its users. These offer an alernative to Kazaa, but need to have as many users to offer the huge colection of files available on Kazaa, and from current usage trends people are sticking with the FastTrack network. A communications researcher from San Francisco has claimed that “If the recording industry succeeds in their goal of making large numbers of people feel unsafe in their file sharing, it's a safe bet that someone will come along to fill the sudden demand for an easy, safer way to use P2P”.

A user of a P2P network who has downloaded 200 songs in LA has told CNN that “I don't think that I trade in the volumes that they would be interested in. If they really went after me, I would pretty likely stop. I'm not making any money off of it.”. Another user who has disabled sharing due to the RIAA announcement has claimed that “I turned (the feature) off because they're on their witch hunt, and I think the witch hunt will die off and prove to be just that”.

News source: CNN.com

"Europe is under-exposed to the PC market and is therefore not benefitting to the same degree from the seasonal demand improvements," Woolf said. "If a higher exposure to the telecoms market has led Europe to underperform in May, then this increases the likelihood that STMicroelectronics could miss its second quarter revenue target."

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect STMicroelectronics to report revenue of $1.7 billion for the three months ended June 30. Some of the weakness in the European market could be offset in coming months by the region's strength in the automotive and industrial markets.

The entire chip market witnessed an unexpected upswing in May with the Semiconductor Industry Association reporting that its three-month moving average figures showed sales improved as the effects of SARS on the sector began to wane.

Actual May chip sales rose even more strongly as unit shipment surged at a double-digit rate. Worldwide sales increased to $12 billion, up 11% from $10.7 billion in the year-ago month. Sales increased from $41.2 billion in April.

"The revenue increased chiefly because of strong shipment of 12% month-over-month and 54% year-over-year," said Jay Kim, an analyst at Goodmorning Shinhan Securites, Tokyo, in a report. "Although the shipment growth of 54% year-over-year is lower than the previous months' 73% in March and 69% in April, strong pricing in recent weeks bodes well for the global DRAM outlook."

On a regional basis, sales in the Americas declined 7%, to $2.47 billion from $2.65 billion in May 2002, continuing a trend that has seen the region lose market share to Asia-Pacific, which grew 12%, to $4.65 billion from $4.16 billion. Japan recorded the strongest year-over-year sales increase in May, rising 26% to $2.93 billion from $2.33 billion in the year-ago month.