■ Copyrights
YouTube deletes 29,549 files
The popular video-sharing site YouTube deleted nearly 30,000 files after a Japanese entertainment group complained of copyright infringement. The Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers, found 29,549 video clips such as television shows, music videos and movies posted on YouTube's site without permission, an official from the group, Fumiyuki Asakura, said on Friday. The San Mateo, California-based company quickly complied with the request to remove the copyright materials, made on behalf of 23 Japanese TV stations and entertainment companies, Asakura said.
■ Investment
WorldCom payouts to start
Thousands of individual investors who lost money in the WorldCom collapse are set to receive up to US$150 million from a special compensation fund, US regulators said on Friday. The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that defrauded investors would start receiving compensation payouts from the fund immediately. The 2002 implosion of WorldCom marked the US' biggest corporate collapse. Investors in 110 countries made nearly 450,000 claims to the SEC-administered fund related to approximately 9.4 million transactions in WorldCom securities.
■ Banking
Watchdog tackles GE's Lake
Japan's financial watchdog has ordered GE Consumer Finance Ltd, a unit of General Electric Co, to temporarily suspend some operations, accusing the consumer lender of using inappropriate loan collection tactics. The Financial Services Agency on Friday ordered the company, which runs a personal loan business in Japan known as Lake, to halt all operations at its call centers in Tokyo and Osaka from Nov. 13 to Nov. 17. GE Consumer Finance has acknowledged that it called a customer at work twice in April, even though the customer asked not to receive such contacts after the first call. Calling a borrower at his or her workplace after a request not to do so is a violation of Japan's money-lending laws.
■ Automakers
Japanese eye Russia, Brazil
Nissan Motor Co and Suzuki Motor Corp are looking into jointly producing cars in Russia and Brazil, Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai reported yesterday. Nissan may produce cars for Suzuki in Brazil, where Nissan began production in 2001, as well as at its new plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, which will begin production in 2009, the paper said. Nissan and Suzuki officials were not available for comment yesterday. The reported plans follow an announcement in June that the two companies will mutually supply vehicles and share plants.
■ Reinsurance
Buffett assures Lloyds names
US investor Warren Buffett yesterday offered reassurance to thousands of Lloyds of London names over his company's deal to take on pre-1993 claims. In a deal announced on Friday, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, his investment company, will provide US$7 billion reinsurance cover to Equitas, the company set up to manage the liabilities of policies underwritten by 34,000 individual investors, or "names." Berkshire Hathaway unit National Indemnity Co will also take over the staff and managment of Equitas, set up after Lloyds faced a crisis following the loss of £8 billion (US$15 billion) between 1988 and 1992 after a series of natural disasters and massive asbestos claims.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”