NETWORK : Bytes

Basketball court case

America's National Basketball Association has taken Motorola and America Online to court alleging breach of copyright. The NBA is unhappy about real-time score services provided by both Motorola and AOL. Motorola earlier this year launched a paging service that enables customers to learn the scores of NBA games in progress. Soon after, AOL began a service that allows subscribers to follow games in real time. The NBA claims such services are tanamount to broadcasting the games without permission. Broadcasting rights earn the NBA millions of dollars each year. Both Motorola and AOL have argued that their services are protected by the First Amendment.

Charity begins at home

HouseWeb, which offers the opportunity to sell homes privately on the Internet, has announced an initiative to help homeless people. Until the end of February, 25 per cent of the cost of every private-house advertisement on HouseWeb site will be donated to Shelter, the National Campaign for Homeless People.

"We are delighted to be the beneficiaries of HouseWeb's innovative scheme," said John Trampleasure, Shelter's director of fund-raising. He added that funds are particularly crucial at this time of year when Shelter is co- ordinating winter relief projects to help people sleeping rough on the streets.

HouseWeb (http://www.houseweb. co.uk)