News Wrap: Napster, Coolio, Buffett, Ofcom

The record industry gave Napster 135,000 individual songs on Friday to filter out of its service within three working days.

Napster must today prove to a US court, major record labels and the world at large that it is managing to block songs from its service. However, given that an array of filter-evading tactics has already cropped up on the service, it seems unlikely that Napster will be able to comply.

As the song-swap system plans to launch a subscription-based service in conjunction with BMG this July, there seems no end in sight to the legal tussles.

Buffett says 'told you so' to dotcom investors

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway insurance and investment company has boomed as investors drop dotcom stock for the old economy firms championed by the multi-billionaire.

Buffett, whose firm reported a 114 per cent increase in profits, said of the dotcom bubble: "It was as if some virus, racing wildly among investment professionals as well as amateurs, induced hallucinations in which the values of stocks in certain sectors became de-coupled from the values of the businesses that underlay them."

Buffett did promise to invest in 'new' industries. He told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders: "We have embraced the 21st century by entering such cutting-edge industries as brick, carpet, insulation and paint. Try to control your excitement."

Coolio gets nine months, told to fix jail's computers

Teenage computer hacker 'Coolio' was jailed for nine months on Friday, with three months suspended, and told to help out with the jail's computers while he was inside.

The 18-year-old, whose real name is Dennis Moran, posted a pro-drugs message featuring Donald Duck onto an anti-drugs website run by the Los Angeles Police Department. He also hacked a security consultant's website and defaced military websites. He was also fined $15,000.

Birt tipped for Ofcom job

Former director-general of the BBC John Birt has been tipped as the future head of Ofcom, the communications watchdog due to absorb Oftel, the radio authority and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) in three years' time.

Other candidates include Oftel head David Edmonds, ITC chief Patricia Hodgson, deputy chairperson of the competition commission Denise Kingsmill, and Terry Burns, the chair of the National Lottery Commission.