The recording and motion picture industries' major trade groups announced that they have become corporate members of Internet2, the ultra high-speed private Internet used by the research and higher education community. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will "collaborate with the Internet2 community to consider innovative content distribution and digital rights management technologies, and to study emerging trends on high-performance networks to enable future business models." The groups have previously criticized Internet2, which is available at over 200 universities, for its allowance of lightning quick file-sharing by university students and others on the network via a program called i2hub. The RIAA has also taken the step of suing 33 Internet2 file-swappers for copyright infringement. "The movie industry is committed to working with the technology sector to find innovative new ways to deliver entertainment to consumers. The MPAA views this partnership with Internet2 as an important opportunity for collaboration as we seek to link new delivery models with content protection," said MPAA president Dan Glickman.
When enterprises begin treating AI budget as the line item they protect last when cutting elsewhere, the market has crossed a threshold that analysts rarely name explicitly. That is precisely where Europe now stands. A new forecast from IDC projects European AI spending will reach nearly $470 billion by 2030, expanding at a 35 percent CAGR over the next five years. European enterprises are allocating capital toward AI because the operational returns on cost efficiency, risk mitigation, and resilience are now demonstrable enough to justify sustained budget commitment. The strategic implication is significant: AI has moved from the innovation portfolio into core operational infrastructure. European AI Market Development Generative AI solutions, already embedded across enterprise deployments, are expected to account for more than 55 percent of the total market by the end of the forecast period. Software is both the largest technology segment, at 54.9 percent of total spending in 2026...