Peter Black's Freedom to Differ

Links for Friday 5 September

Some links from the past few days:

• Chief justice open to TV cameras in courtrooms (The Age) - "AUSTRALIA'S new top judge has indicated he is personally open to the idea of High Court decisions being televised as part of broader efforts to help the community understand the work of the nation's highest court.  Chief Justice Robert French, who was sworn in on Monday, told The Age in an interview that there was "a kind of evolution happening" in thinking about allowing cameras into courts."
• Is podcasting only for the young? (Ars Technica) - "Podcasting continues to grow at a rate that's faster than a snail's pace, but not by much. The Pew Internet and American Life project reports that almost one in five Internet users (19 percent) say they have saved a podcast for later listening. That's up from 12 percent in Pew's August 2006 survey.  But the latest study also concedes that "podcasting has yet to become a fixture in the everyday lives of Internet users, as very few Internet users download podcasts on a typical day." Just 3 percent do so, in fact. And there's a real generational divide here of which media trend watchers should take heed. After 30, podcasting download rates take a dip; after 50, they take a serious dive; after 65, forget it. "
• The Last Hurrah (Washington Post) - "[Brit] Hume traffics in wry humor and droll observation, a low-key style that belies the voracious interest he has always had in politics. But that appetite has faded, which is why the 32-year television veteran has just anchored his last convention."
• The Sarah Palin Selection: Why McCain's Inexperienced Running Mate Falls Short of Meeting the Implicit Constitutional Qualifications For Vice Presidents (FindLaw's Writ) - "Given the fact that the 2008 GOP standard-bearer John McCain is seventy-two years of age, his selection of an inexperienced Vice Presidential running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has again focused attention on the process and procedures for selecting vice presidents - or, to put it more bluntly, the utter lack of process or procedures in selecting the person who is a heartbeat away from the presidency. McCain, not unlike others before him, selected a less than fully vetted running mate for political reasons. That is surely a concern for voters to think over in the upcoming election - but it raises a systemic concern, too, for the long run ... While the Constitution does not expressly set forth qualifications for the vice-presidency, it strongly implies them --- and Palin falls short."
• Lewd Hudson makes waves on Facebook (Ninemsn) - "Hockeyroos captain Nikki Hudson has apologised for a sexually explicit joke she made about herself on Facebook after it made its way into the public domain."
• A New Battle Is Beginning in Branding for the Web (New York Times) - "Recently, a new front has opened in the Internet branding wars.  It lies beyond putting trademarks on new businesses, Web site addresses and online logos. Now, companies want to slap a brand on still vaguely defined products and services in the uncharted ephemera of cyberspace — the computing cloud, as it has come to be known."
• Google on Chrome EULA controversy: our bad, we'll change it (Ars Technica) - "Google's new web browser Chrome is fast, shiny, and requires users to sign their very lives over to Google before they can use it. Today's Internet outrage du jour has been Chrome's EULA, which appears to give Google a nonexclusive right to display and distribute every bit of content transmitted through the browser. Now, Google tells Ars that it's a mistake, the EULA will be corrected, and the correction will be retroactive."
• A City Tries to Stop a Woman from Linking to Its Website: Why Most Challenges to Links Will Not Succeed, and What the Rare Exceptions May Be (FindLaw's Writ) - "Sheboygan, Michigan resident Jennifer Reisinger alleges that after she created a link from her own website to the website of the city's police department, the City Attorney issued a "cease and desist" order commanding her to remove the link. Reisinger claims that the motive was retaliation: She had supported recalling Sheboygan Mayor Juan Perez, and alleges that Perez was behind the "cease and desist" order.  Reisinger eventually filed a federal lawsuit challenging the "cease and desist" order. Although the city has withdrawn its demand that she de-post her link, Reisinger seeks $250,000 in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages, and unspecified declaratory relief, alleging that city personnel violated her First Amendment rights.  In this column, I will discuss why I believe Reisinger will, and should, win her case. Generally, linking is fair game from a legal perspective - including linking to public and official websites. After all, linking is not much different from including a URL in an email, handout, or poster - and all of these are plainly forms of First-Amendment-protected expression.  "

Links for Tuesday 1 September

These intellectual property themed links are once again from the month of August:

• An IP Checklist for Bloggers (v.1.1) Colette Vogele's blog - Colette Vogele has come up with a one page IP checklist for bloggers.
• YouTube Praises Dismissal of Copyright Suit Against Veoh (Bits) - "A federal court in California late Wednesday threw out a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the IO Group, an adult entertainment company, against Internet video sharing site Veoh Networks, saying that Veoh was protected by the safe harbor provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA ... Google wasted no time in praising the decision. “It is great to see the Court confirm that the DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights,” Zahavah Levine, YouTube’s chief counsel, said in a statement."
• Professor Slams European Commission For Ignoring The Evidence On Copyright (Techdirt) - "We were pretty surprised a few weeks back when the European Commission endorsed a plan for copyright extension, despite ample evidence that retroactive copyright extension is a bad idea. Soon after that announcement, a group of European academics sent a letter warning that such extension would harm innovation. The academics keep piling on, as Professor Bernt Hugenholtz, the director of the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law (IViR) has sent an open letter to the Commission blasting them for ignoring all of the research showing that copyright extension is bad."
• Judge: Copyright Owners Must Consider 'Fair Use' Before Sending Takedown Notice (Wired) - "In the nation's first such ruling, a federal judge on Wednesday said copyright owners must consider "fair use" of their works before sending takedown notices to online video-sharing sites. The 10-page decision (.pdf) came a month after Universal Music told a San Jose, California federal judge that copyright owners need not consider the "fair use" doctrine before issuing takedown notices requiring online video-sharing sites to remove content."
• But What If A Takedown Notice Isn't Actually A DMCA Takedown? (Techdirt) - "We already covered the judge's ruling about how copyright holders need to consider fair use before sending a DMCA takedown notice, but there's another part of Universal's position in this case that has been widely ignored (even by the judge in the case), but which Ethan Ackerman wisely calls attention to: Universal claims that the takedown letter doesn't violate the DMCA because it wasn't actually a DMCA takedown.  Instead, they said it was just a friendly "request." This may seem like a silly assertion or, at best, a minor side point, but it could become quite important. The DMCA has some very specific conditions that those sending takedowns need to meet -- but there's nothing really stopping anyone from sending a request that isn't specifically a DMCA takedown notice. For copyright holders, this would remove some of the power of the takedown notice, as it wouldn't require the service provider to react, like a DMCA notice does. However, if rulings like this one stand, adding some amount of liability to copyright holders sending DMCA takedown notices, some may actually find it safer to send non-DMCA takedowns on the assumption (probably correct) that most service providers will treat them exactly the same as a DMCA takedown. In other words, would copyright holders "opt-out" of the DMCA terms in order to avoid that liability? It will be worth watching."
• Copyright exceptions only on just terms? (Inchoate) - "Though, sadly, I don’t get to as much constitutional law as I would like to these days (I don’t work here), I think some of the more recent High Court decisions suggest that the acquisition on just terms issue (as seen in The Castle) may not be a big issue. In particular, there are a couple of recent decisions that make clear that not every curtailment or restriction of a right is an acquisition of property within the meaning of section 51(xxxi)."
• YouTube user sues Google for his slice of the traffic (Ars Technica) - "Who would've thought that a few thousand daily views of online sketch videos could translate into fame and the web-based financial success that comes with it? Benjamin Ligeri, a disgruntled YouTube user, apparently did, because he's suing Google and various employees for not letting him into YouTube's revenue-sharing program."
• File Sharer Settles with RIAA for a Whopping $756 a Song (Wired) -"A Bronx woman is agreeing to pay the Recording Industry Association of America $6,050 to settle allegations she purloined eight tracks on the file sharing network Kazaa. That's $756.25 a song from artists (.pdf) DMX, Lenny Kravitz, Eagles, Sade, Ready For the World, Uncle Sam and Tamia ... The woman's attorney, Ray Beckerman, said Monday that Barker decided to settle. "The client makes the decision. I would have loved to litigate this," he said. "I think we had good defenses.""
• How Copyright Is Holding Back The Creative Class (Techdirt) - "While not enough people recognize it, the real purpose of copyright law is to provide an incentive for the creation of more content. The government felt that there was a market failure, where not enough "content" would be produced without a limited monopoly, and thus, copyright was born. However, that happened back in the day when creating content wasn't easy. You pretty much had to go through a professional process. These days, thanks to new technologies, creating content is exceptionally easy -- and thus, a big part of the very basis for copyright no longer makes sense. We're drowning in content -- and it's not because of the "incentive" of copyright. There are plenty of incentives for creating content these days and very few have anything to do with copyright."

Links for Sunday 31 August

For over a year I used to post to this blog Daily News Links, however I stopped as it was taking too much time to put it together each evening.  As part of my attempt to rejuvenate this blog I've decided to resurrect this feature in a slightly different form.  I plan to regularly post (although not necessarily daily) links and extracts to blogs and news stories that for one reason or another have captured my attention.  So here are some links for Sunday 31 August (which are actually a collection of links from the month of August):

• Google, 10 years in: big, friendly giant or a greedy Goliath? (The Guardian) - "Ten years ago next month, in an innocuous suburban garage, Page and Brin, two geeky students at Stanford University, founded a company called Google. They would go on to create what is regularly voted the world's top brand, earn accolades as the world's best employers and become billionaires many times over. They would also, say their critics, cut a swathe through the laws of copyright, threaten to devour media like a 'digital Murdoch' and harvest more of our secrets than any totalitarian government - smashing the core certainties of advertising executives, book publishers, newspaper owners, television moguls and civil libertarians."
• Online Advertising: The price of a 'free' online world (Microsoft Australia Government Affairs) - "So, while the Internet has truly democratised information and levelled the playing field of access, it has yet to liberate the one constant that has driven media services for the last century – the need to pay for it. More than ever, advertising is the fuel that is driving the information economy with the millions of Web sites, large and small, relying on advertising to pay their way. Unlike the traditional media, though, one of the true benefits of the online model is that consumers are now enjoying much more tailored and immediate experiences with greater relevance than offline media."
• The Future of Free Expression Part I and Part II (Balkinization) - In a two part post, Jack Balkin looks at the future of free expression: "In the Information Age, you would think, there would be no more important part of the Constitution than the First Amendment. After all, free speech guarantees should have a great deal to do with a knowledge economy, and a world in which wealth and power increasingly depend on information technology, intellectual property and control over information flows.  For some time now, I have been thinking about how our understandings of the First Amendment are likely to change in a digital age. Gradually, I have come to the conclusion that we face a transition of enormous irony. At the very moment that our economic and social lives are increasingly dominated by information technology and information flows, the First Amendment seems increasingly irrelevant to the key free speech battles of the future. Or, more precisely, the judge made doctrines that I teach in my First Amendment classes seem increasingly irrelevant."
• Malice in Wonderland (The Age) - "Ideas about privacy — and the need to protect it — have changed radically in recent years. While increasing numbers of people, especially the young, have been sharing their life experiences and personal details online, privacy commissioners and law reformers have been lobbying for more stringent laws to protect individual privacy ... But popular culture exerts pressure in the opposite direction, championing the "ordinary" person's access to fame — often achieved through intimate personal exposure."
• Web Censorship Is So Bad in Turkey That Blogs Are Shutting Themselves Down In Protest (TechCrunch) - "It doesn’t take much to get your Website banned in Turkey.  Pretty much any complaint to a lower court can get a Website blocked in the country. Websites including YouTube, DailyMotion, Alibaba, Slide.com, and some Wordpress blogs have all been banned, usually because of some purported slight to the Turkish government or Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. (The Youtube ban was the result of a sophomoric video claiming Ataturk was gay). The problem has gotten so bad that Turkish blogs are now banning themselves in protest."
• Government 2.0 (Mashable) - In a series of posts Mark Drapeau considers Government 2.0: Government 2.0: An Insider’s Perspective, Government 2.0: A Theory of Social Government and Government 2.0: Being Individually Empowerful.
• Commission on Presidential Debates Boldly Goes to Web 0.2, Launches a Dud (techPresident) - "I don't fault MySpace for this travesty so much as I fault the Commission, for lack of imagination and courage. Recall that at least the MySpace/MTV forums during the primaries included real-time feedback from viewers that the audience could see, and the candidates even saw the aggregated responses, in real time. Also recall that Google/YouTube and the City of New Orleans have been offering their services for a candidates forum on September 18, and surely something creative could have come of that. What they're offering us here is little more than live video streaming, which is like, so, year 2000."
• Blogging 2.0 Meme Doesn't Go Far Enough (/message) - "Duncan Riley is promulgating 'Blogging 2.0' to represent what I consider the erosion of social media by their historic communities under the inexorable rise of flow applications, like Twitter, Friendfeed, Socialmedian, and Feedly (to name only a few).  I think his description of what is happening is overly simplistic, and the appropriation` of the term 'Blogging 2.0' is a jingoistic attempt to leverage the "paradigm shift" magic of the 2.0 suffix."
• Businessweek article on Stephanie Meyer + using social networks to sell millions of books (The Utube Blog) - "So what happens when Web 2.0 hits the traditional book world?  Well, Stephanie Meyer, the 34 year old author of the absurdly popular Twilight vampire books (a kinds of a cool version of Harry Potter), has the answer.  You can sell millions of books.  Read this week’s Businessweek article.  All book publishers should be studying and copying this model."
• Essay: New Media in Old Bottles? (Balkinzation) - "I have posted on SSRN an essay entitled, "New Media in Old Bottles? Barron's Contextual First Amendment and Copyright in the Digital Age," which explores in more depth some of the themes that I have discussed in my posts. In the essay I begin with Jerome Barron's call, four decades ago, for access to media as a First Amendment right as a springboard for examining copyright and its role in shaping public discourse in the digital arena. I focus, in particular, on (1) incumbent mass media's untoward use of copyright as a vertical restraint to stifle the new media that provides platforms for peer speech; (2) copyright's continuing part in underwriting traditional media, which I argue is a salutary function that stands in some tension with the media's use of copyright to suppress new media competition; and (3) copyright's potential for enabling powerful new media, like Google, to threaten expressive diversity in the digital age in much the same way that incumbent media has overwhelmingly dominated public discourse in the print and broadcast era. The full abstract and essay can be found here."
• Macquarie University opens up access to its academics' research papers (Australian IT) - "MACQUARIE University has joined the small club of Australian institutions that require academics to make their research papers freely available over the Internet. In 2004 the Queensland University of Technology became the first Australian institution to usher in a mandatory open access policy. Charles Sturt University followed suit last January."
• Defamation and the Internet: How the Law Effectively Allows Bloggers to Take Risks Big Media Companies Can't, and How Companies Can Work to Level the Playing Field (FindLaw's Writ) - "Increasingly, print journalism is struggling, as advertising dollars move to the Internet, subscriptions decrease, and newspapers find themselves competing with their own websites – which offer much of the same content the print editions do, free of charge – as well as other websites and blogs. Ironically, too, one common way in which newspapers have responded to money pressures is to make cuts in newsroom staff – and thus to decrease their comparative advantage vis-à-vis bloggers when it comes to offering high-quality content. As a result, it is now quite easy to imagine a near-future world in which print newspapers do not exist at all. In this column, I’ll focus on one aspect of this important trend: the way in which it will likely alter the legal landscape regarding defamation and, in turn, affect free speech. "
•  Some Media Companies Choose to Profit From Pirated YouTube Clips (New York Times) - "After years of regarding pirated video on YouTube   as a threat,  some major media companies are having a change of heart, treating it instead as  an advertising opportunity ... So far, the money is minimal — ads appear on only a fraction of YouTube’s millions of videos — but the move suggests a possible thaw in the chilly standoff between the online video giant and media companies. Getting into the good graces of media entities is seen as critical to the future of YouTube, which has struggled to show appreciable revenue for video ads."
• Govt: Cyberbullying is a New Phenomenon, as is Social Networking (Wall Street Journal Law Blog) - "Cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon, as is social networking. It is, therefore, not surprising that there have been relatively few prosecutions in this area. . . . the statute does not threaten to criminalize widespread conduct. Because the government must show that defendant acted with the requisite criminal scienter, there is no risk of criminalizing innocent, let alone negligent behavior."

A few interesting links

A few interesting links from the last few days:

• At LawFont Kim Weatherall analyses today's High Court decision in  Copyright Agency Limited vs The State of NSW [2008] HCA 35.  Read her summary here.
• The Economist looks at e-hatred, arguing that "social networks and video-sharing sites don’t always bring people closer together".  Read it here.
• The EFF quite correctly argues that the MySpace suicide charges a threat to free speech.  Read it here.
• CNN explains the obvious with "Improper Web links can shock viewers".  Read it here.
• The IOC has now approved YouTube as an official global partner for any region not covered by a local exclusive deal.  Read it here (in Lost Remote).
• ReadWriteWeb looks at the future of blogging.  Read it here.
• The Guardian looks at privacy and politics in the UK in                      "When the personal becomes political: Double standards abound in the debate on privacy - and politicians should stop exploiting rivals' personal lives when it suits them".  Read it here.
• Somebody Think of the Children has an excellent collection of the Australian blogosphere's response to mandatory internet filtering.  Read it here.

I'm back ...

Alot has been happening to blog about, so expect a flurry of posts this evening ...

In the meantime, I've bookmarked 38 news articles on del.icio.us that may be of interest to some of you.  If you're looking for a tech news fix, visit my del.icio.us page here.

Blogging resumes

Although the frequency of blogging has been somewhat sporadic over the last ten days (thanks to a work retreat, a trip to Canberra and general end-of-year busyness), as of today I should be back blogging on an almost daily basis.

In the meantime, there are many interesting links that I've bookmarked on del.icio.us - visit my del.icio.us bookmarks here or see the Daily News Links in the right hand column of this blog.

In particular, consider reading:

• Study: 95 percent of all e-mail sent in 2007 was spam (CNET News.com)
• How secure are your online passwords? (The Guardian)
• Report: Cybercrime Stormed the Net in 2007 (Wired)
• Has The iPhone Jumped The Shark? (Information Week)
• Verizon hit with GPL copyright lawsuit over router software (Ars Technica)
• Congress' copyright reform: seize computers, boost penalties, spend money (Ars Technica)
• Wikipedia Sued For Nazi Sympathies (TechCrunch)
• Shocker: Politics Exist On Wikipedia (Techdirt)
• Wikipedia ban for disruptive professor (The Observer)
• Twitter is Banned in the United Arab Emirates (Mashable)
• Facebook Apps Hit 10k in Number: Are We Still Excited? (Read/WriteWeb)
• Facebook Is Always Watching You (Wired)
• Surprise, Surprise: Delicious Still Not Mainstream (Read/WriteWeb)

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours is available on my dedicated Daily News Links page here.

Alternatively, you can add me to your network on del.icio.us.

Daily News Links

A wrap of newsworthy stories and interesting links from the last 24-48 hours ...

Daily News Links (via del.icio.us)

On Monday I announced the end of my regular Daily News Links.  Having received some disappointed feedback from several sources, I have decided to use del.icio.us to serve a similar purpose.  When I come across a newsworthy or interesting link I will now add it to del.icio.us.  You can view the links I add here.  I know it's not quite the same, but hopefully it will be less time consuming for me while still being a valuable resource for those of you who are interested in what interests me.

Again, you can view my Daily News Links here.

Daily News Links

Given my teaching commitments this semester, I am going to have to stop posting detailed Daily News Links every day.  I will still try to blog daily, but I can no longer spend so much time each day reading so many news reports and collating them together in one post.  Thanks for understanding.

Daily News Links

• Australia's 500 athletes will be allowed to blog during the Beijing Olympics, following a radical change of heart by the IOC.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• While kids and young adults may be immersed in digital media, there are limits on what they want to know about the technology, according to new research. A massive study--jointly produced by MTV Networks and Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions--surveyed 18,000 kids ages 8-14 in 16 countries.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• The EFF has filed a lawsuit against the Universal Music Publishing Group after the company asked that a home video be removed due to copyright infringement. The video features an 18-month old Holden Lenz dancing to Prince's Let's Get Crazy and runs for a total of 29 seconds. Following Universal's complaint the video was removed by You Tube and remained offline until recently.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• The Rupert Murdoch-owned MySpace may choose unconventional hosts to lead its Town Hall discussions with 2008 candidates. Sources say Ivanka Trump is being courted to serve as one of the moderators for the dozen or so upcoming MySpace discussions to be held at college campuses across the country. Wendi Deng, wife of Murdoch, the founder and chief executive of News Corp., suggested the idea to Trump, believing the real estate mogul and occasional columnist for lad mag Stuff would be a great representative of the young, educated and upwardly mobile voting population.  Read more here (from WWD.com).
• US politicians have charged that P2P networks canpose a "national security threat" because they enablefederal employees to share sensitive or classified documentsaccidentally from their computers. The chairman of the HouseGovernment Reform Committee said he was considering new laws aimed at addressing the problem.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• For the first time, Internet video startup Joost has revealed its numbers: 1 million beta testers have signed up, despite the fact that the service remains invite only. So said Joost co-founder Niklas Zennström at a Skype press event in Tallinn, Estonia.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• The Nine Network has asked broadcast warhorse Ray Martin to anchor a new early news show as it seeks to restore its television ratings.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Kevin Martin, head of the US Federal Communications Commission, says an airwaves-leasing proposal by Google may make bidders in a government auction "less willing" to develop their networks. A potential Google bid reflects the search giant's aim to sell more advertising.  Read more here (from Bloomberg).
• µTorrent is a new BitTorrent client that works on your mobile phone.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• At a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee, the head of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said that his agency is working with Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo to create a database of image hashes that can pick out common child porn pics.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Answers.com has partnered with mtvU, the channel’s online college network, to incorporate AnswerTips on every single site in mtvU’s College Media Network.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• The prosecution in the case against Denis Kvasov, former owner of AllOfMP3.com, has just requested that a judge throw Kvasov in jail for three years and fine him 15 million rubles.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Nokia Corp. said Tuesday it had bought the US-based multimedia company Twango Inc. in order to help mobile phone users better organize wireless downloads and ease connections between handsets and desktop computers.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Facebook has brought on Gideon Yu, YouTube’s former finance chief, as its new CFO.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Facebook group formed to save Business 2.0 from closing attracts more than 1,700 members.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Advertisers are overcoming their reluctance to use social networking websites as viewing of user-generated video on the internet explodes.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Eyeing male audiences, Hearst Corp. now plans to buy Ugo Networks and its group of sites devoted to gaming, movies, and entertainment. Ugo's sites attract 28 million worldwide. Terms were not disclosed.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Pownce, the media-sharing, lifestreaming tool of sorts, has created a new public API. It’s set to have the public API ready and released by September.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Talk-show host and producer Oprah Winfrey earns an estimated $260 million a year, according to a list in TV Guide of the highest-paid television stars. Simon Cowell, of Fox's American Idol, places a distant second, with $45 million. CBS News anchor Katie Couric makes the top five.  Read more here (from Reuters).
• Chinese police and the FBI worked together to take down two Chinese piracy groups recently, which they credit with being in possession of counterfeit software valued at half a billion dollars.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Microsoft's Massive Inc. announced the incorporation of five new sports titles from Electronic Arts (EA) into its in-game advertising network--further strengthening the in-game ad value proposition in a booming US video game market.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Netflix Inc.'s profit grew in the second quarter even as the number of people subscribing to its online DVD rental service shrank for the first time in its 8-year history.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).

Daily News Links: Update

• A judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a lawsuit launched against a law firm for accessing content contained in the Internet Archive. Healthcare Advocates Inc. alleged that Harding Earley lawyers violated the DMCA and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by fetching protected pages using the "Wayback Machine," a search tool provided by Internet Archive. The judge concluded that "they did not 'pick the lock' and avoid or bypass the protective measure, because there was no lock to pick."  Read more here (from Law.com).
• A judge will decide this week whether to proceed with a lawsuit that claims Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole source code and trade secrets from people who hired him to work on another social-networking site, ConnectU. The plaintiffs want the court to shut down Facebook.  Read more here (from Information Week).
• A federal judge in Syracuse has cleared the way for lawyers in New York State to use pop-up ads on the Internet, but did not answer the bigger but more subtle issue of whether firms must label newsletters and e-mail messages to clients as advertising. The decision, issued Friday, said that statewide rule changes that took effect on Feb. 1 violated the free speech of lawyers.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• MySpace.com has found and deleted profiles of 29,000 convicted sex offenders, more than four times the initial 7,000 profiles they claimed in May. The numbers were discovered after MySpace turned over info detailing the offenders they had removed from the service. MySpace turned over the records after states filed a formal legal request.  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• The BBC’s upcoming iPlayer, an on-demand video service for the television network, has been petitioned by more than 10,000. The petition is requesting that Parliament stop the BBC from launching the iPlayer as it’s only available for Windows XP users.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• A majority of the members of the Federal Communications Commission told a House subcommittee that they support an "open access" requirement on one swath of airwaves that will be auctioned early next year.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Time Warner's AOL Internet unit has agreed to acquire Tacoda, a company that offers behavioral targeted ads.  Read more here (from ZDNet News).
• Musicians and record labels have attacked the UK government's decision not to take the advice of a committee of MPs and pursue a copyright term beyond 50 years.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• The sister of a man who was suspected of being a sexual predator and who killed himself as the cameras of Dateline NBC closed in on him, sued NBC Universal Inc. for $105 million Monday. Patricia Conradt's brother, Bill Conradt Jr., shot himself in November in a Dallas suburb as police knocked at his door and a camera crew for the newsmagazine waited in the street.  Read more here (from the Los Angeles Times).
• There are reports of a new Microsoft web analytics tool being in the works. It would compete directly with Google Analytics. There is no confirmation of these reports, as Microsoft has not made an official announcement regarding the project.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Combined surveys by Microsoft and MTV Networks reveal that technology is "an organic part" of youths' lives around the world.  Read more here (from ZDNet News).
• ParentCare lets the adults in charge of young'uns "run a check on their teen's activities" on MySpace.  Read more here (from Wired).
• After shutting down Jane magazine, rumors are rife that Conde Nast isn't done killing magazines in its stable. One insider claims: "Teen Vogue could be the next to fold. Their ad pages are down." But a rep for Conde Nast insists: "Not true. Teen Vogue makes money."  Read more here (from the New York Post).
• Verizon Wireless is the first wireless company to enable the recording of video and direct upload to YouTube.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• The Wall Street Journal's Office Network will begin installing video displays in the elevators of large office buildings. The expansion will bring the network, which was previously confined to lobbies, into competition with Gannett's Captivate Network, the elevator-based video network.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• DivX is improving its Stage6 YouTube clone by separating Stage6 into its own private company, with DivX focusing on its technology. Co-founder and Executive Chairman Jordan Greenhall is stepping down from his role as CEO to move forward with the Stage6 spin-off, which should be completed later on this year. The details of the terms have not yet been determined.  Read more here (from Mashable).

Daily News Links

• A study on students' susceptibility to phishing reveals that victims can be more readily fooled using personal information harvested from social networking sites, and men are suckers for women who phish.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Seven Network has attracted a billion dollars in advertising revenue for the financial year, official TV market share figures confirm.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Australian iPod prices are among the cheapest in the world, but they should be cheaper still given the Aussie dollar's strength.  Read more here (from The Age).
• A composer who claimed he was defamed by a review has lodged an appeal against a judgment that it was 'fair comment'.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Mig33, the mobile network, has reached a milestone at 6 million cell phone users, spanning 200 countries around the world. It’s recent move from Australia to the Valley highlights its preparations for launching mig33 in the states later on this year.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• More than 59 million people on average--or 37.3% of all active Internet users--visited newspaper Web sites during the second quarter, reports Nielsen//NetRatings for the Newspaper Association of America. Traffic was flat compared to the first quarter, but up 7.7% from the same period in 2006.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Online search companies Google, Yahoo, Ask.com and Microsoft are tightening their privacy policies in the face of mounting public, congressional and regulatory agency concern about the vast amounts of personal data they gather and store.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• The internet has become the new battleground for Australian Defence Force recruitment.  Read more here (from The Age).
• US video game sales rise 31% in June, fueled by stronger demand for gaming consoles from all three major industry players.  Read more here (from ZDNet News).
• New Dell and Lenovo notebooks include embedded wireless USB chips for connecting to peripherals.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Marketers will spend some $727 million on paid search and rich media ads on sports Web sites in the US next year--up almost 33% from this year, reports eMarketer. And while advertiser spending on the Beijing 2008 Olympics will fuel much of that bump, the upward trend is slated to continue, pushing sports site ad revenues to top $1 billion by 2011.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• A Belgian judge orders an ISP to implement Audible Magic filtering on its network; the ISP appeals, but the ruling is already being used to pressure others.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• The Bancrofts, Dow Jones' controlling shareholders, could decide whether to sell to Rupert Murdoch as early as this week.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Fuser is a new email aggregation service that brings all your email from various services into one place. Fuser supports MySpace and Facebook messages as well. The service is currently in private beta.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• If the merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio is approved, the combined company would offer new pricing plans to allow consumers to pay only for the stations they want, Sirius chief executive Mel Karmazin said.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Support is lacking for a plan by activist shareholders to force Vodafone to release cash from US company Verizon Wireless to investors.  Read more here (from Technology Guardian).
• MySpace is officially launching its service for Mexico, and is hosting a Secret Show performance featuring Latin alternative rock band Cafe Tacuba in Mexico City on July 31.  Read more here (from Mashable).

Daily News Links

• A special Higher Ed amendment introduced in the US Senate would force some US colleges to implement technological measures to block P2P and relay all infringement notices to students if the RIAA and MPAA says they deserve it.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Spanish police have arrested 16 people in a crackdown on a sophisticated internet bootlegging ring.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• A team of computer security consultants say they have found a flaw in the Apple iPhone that allows them to take control of the device.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Jaxtr, the VoIP service that’s integrated with various social networks, has reached 500,000 users worldwide.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Dell Australia says its new multi-coloured laptop line is just the first step in a plan to sell computers unique to each buyer.  Read more here (from The Age).
• Data due to be released by Ernst & Young and Dow Jones VentureOne today shows that investment in information services companies, including Web 2.0 startups, hit $979 million in the second quarter of 2007.  The figure is 52% up on the same period last year and the highest figure recorded since the 2001.  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• Purported advance copies of the final Harry Potter book posted on the Internet didn't stop the dead-tree edition from racking up US sales of some 8.3 million in the first 24 hours. The huge sales figure confirms the Scholastic title's place as the fastest-selling book ever.  Read more here (from Reuters).
• Google is testing a new homepage design in Taiwan and Hong Kong that takes advantage of faster broadband speeds in those markets, says Sergey Brin, co-founder. The site's new test design ditches Google's famously clean homepage look, adding rows of animated icons.  Read more here (from PC World).
• New laws will let law enforcement agencies track people via their mobiles secretly without court sanction, civil libertarians said.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Patients around the UK will soon be able to book a GP appointment through their TV set.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• PayPal is launching a contest to find the best integration of the payments service into a Facebook app.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Acer president Gianfranco Lanci became the first major PC manufacturer to openly attack Microsoft over the Windows Vista operating system.  Read more here (from PC World).  Meanwhile, Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, a metrics company reports.  Read more here (from PC World).
• A new patent filed by Microsoft discusses a system that would orchestrate malware examinations across the network in order to preemptively alert other clients to suspected attack vectors. It would also identify users for re-education.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
•  Tajikistan's parliament has approved legislation making it a criminal offence to publish false or offensive information on the internet. The bill must be signed off by President Emomali Rakhmon before becoming law.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• At a critical time for the Web video startup, Brightcove has lost one of its key public figures in Adam Gerber, who has decided to pursue other as-yet-unnamed interests.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• The collapse of SunRocket, an Internet telephone company that went out of business without warning, raises questions about what responsibility such companies have to their customers.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Three years ago, NBC announced with pride that Conan O'Brien would take over the Tonight Show in 2009. But now that the date is fast approaching, the net is beginning to panic: How do we anoint O'Brien but still keep Leno in the Peacock's nest? Aside from turning around NBC's primetime, the biggest challenge facing new co-chairmen Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff is how to keep Leno away from Fox or ABC.  Read more here (from Variety).
• Google is facing opposition to its DoubleClick deal in what could be a repeat of the way Washington punished Microsoft a decade ago.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Hewlett-Packard said it will buy Opsware for $1.6 billion in cash to bulk up HP’s data-center software line.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• AT&T has launched Video Share, which lets users share live video through their cell phones while on a voice call. This is the first AT&T application to use its new Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• San Francisco based social networking site Hi5 has raised $20 million in a new round of funding led by Mohr Davidow Ventures.  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• Loading a malicious web page can give hackers access to contact information, call history and SMS text messages stored on your gadget, a security company says.  Read more here (from Wired).
• Former assistant NSW police commissioner Clive Small has agreed to a confidential payout, which will include costs estimated at more than $1 million, after being defamed by Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• In an open letter to Dow Jones shareholders, MySpace founder Brad Greenspan outlines what he claims is a strategy that would push the company's stock price to the $100 level. He proposes the creation of a Dow Jones cable TV channel and a video Web site called WSJVideo.  Read more here (from MarketWatch).
  
• Hoping to win approval for their merger, the satellite radio companies XM and Sirius Radio have announced plans to let consumers choose the programs in their subscription package.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
•  Satellite-television broadcaster EchoStar Communications, estimating that its signals are pirated at two million residences across North America, has gone on the offensive by filing suit against a Southern California distributor of set-top boxes and others it accuses of masterminding such schemes. The suit, filed in federal district court in San Diego, accuses the defendants of selling equipment and software designed to circumvent the company's security systems.  Read more here (from the Wall Street Journal).
• A gaping security hole in Fox News's Web site revealed file directories and sensitive content.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The Economist is converting its annual lifestyle publication Intelligent Life into a quarterly magazine.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Lifetime Television has launched a new series of casual games in conjunction with Real Networks, while in a new study, 83% of participants expressed a willingness to view an ad to play a free game.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• Mr. Skin.com, a Web site that features Hollywood nude scenes, is getting a bump in visitors thanks to the movie Knocked Up.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• A new tool for teaching children how to program has come out of the computer science education research department at MIT, and is taking the Internet by storm, attracting budding programmers of all ages.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Computer and printer company Hewlett-Packard Co. said Monday it will buy data center automation software company Opsware Inc. for about $1.6 billion.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Industry executives say they have closed in on a solution as to how to make advertising a viable revenue source for podcasting.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Microsoft and Yahoo are the latest to announce limits on how long they will keep Web search data.  Read more here (from ZDNet News).
• Sports Illustrated has made a "substantial" investment in Takkle, the high school sports social networking site. Also investing is Henry Kravis' and Russell Carson's New York Investment Fund.  Read more here (from Media Post).
• The New York Times's subscription-only online service TimesSelect could be nearing its end. A growing chorus of people within the newspaper are said to be lobbying to shut down the service, which charges Web visitors to access columns from Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and others.  Read more here (from the New York Post).
  
• A Kashmiri activist is unhappy with rightwing bloggers who have dubbed him Islamic Rage Boy and turned him into an internet phenomenon.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• The federal Government may yet force Telstra to keep its regional CDMA mobile phone network open beyond the planned January shutdown.  Read more here (from Australian IT).

Daily News Links

• Chinese music website 5fad.com has filed a lawsuit against top Chinese search engine Baidu, saying Baidu posted links to sites that offer free downloads of music it owned. The website is demanding 100 million yuan ($13.2 million) in compensation and wants the service suspended.  Read more here (from Variety).
• People who use internet networking sites are being warned that they could be at risk of identity theft.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• The One Laptop Per Child initiative has reached new heights by delivering internet porn to third world children.  According to a report Thursday from the official News Agency of Nigeria, laptops in a primary school in Abuja “have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials.”  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• Twentieth Century Fox is on the edge of a publicity crisis, as a boycott on the studio's films expands to more US markets. Journalists are protesting Fox's practice of limiting online critics' access to screenings. Nowadays, says Dan Gire of the Chicago Daily Herald, "we're all online critics."  Read more here (from the Los Angeles Times).
• About 75% of African Internet traffic is routed through Britain, or even the United States, making it the least connected region in the world.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The Seven network has snuck home with another weekly ratings win, although the Nine Network continues to mount a keener ratings fight in the second half of the year.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• London has overtaken Toronto to become the biggest network on Facebook, the social networking site.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• A competitor to Google Book Search emerges as the Yahoo-backed Open Content Alliance launches an "open library" of its own.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• A hacker sabotaged the Thailand Information and Communications Technology Ministry's website yesterday, posting an image of a smiling Thaksin Shinawatra and messages critical of the government and Council for National Security (CNS). The attack on the website, at www.mict.go.th, came a day after an act aimed at curbing cyber crime took effect on Wednesday.  Read more here (from the Bangkok Post).
• ACMA will force Macquarie Media to sell its newly acquired interest in two metropolitan digital TV stations as part of its $1.3 billion acquisition of Southern Cross Broadcasting.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Thanks to the internet, the business of sex toys, games etc., has millions of educated and purposeful customers.  Read more here (from Wired).
• Telstra has opened a new frontier, effectively going to war with itself with the launch of its ambitious Big Pond TV on demand mobile phone service.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Ask.com has announced that it plans to roll out a tool on its search engine that will allow users to search without any aspect of their histories being retained by the server. The company also said that for those who don't use the new privacy preference tool, they will also anonymize search logs after 18 months.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Internet spammers launched a widespread attack on e-mail inboxes this month. But instead of trying to lure users into opening a corrupted attachment, they're concealing a computer virus in a link to an online greeting card.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Google has announced the acquisition of Clayton, Missouri based ImageAmerica, a company that builds high-resolution cameras for the collection of aerial imagery.  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• Microsoft is planning to ship its next major version of Windows--known internally as version "7"--within roughly three years.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• In the first ever on-air pitch for one of its advertisers, CNN Headline News talk show host Glenn Beck recently plugged one of his radio show sponsors -- Select Comfort mattresses. A Headline News spokesman notes that Beck's show is a "point-of-view" program and not a traditional newscast.  Read more here (from the Hollywood Reporter).
• Corporate blog use in America is way above that found in Europe and Asia, but companies everywhere frown on unauthorized employees writing about their companies on blogs and message boards.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• During Microsoft's July 19, 2007, earnings report, it was announced that sales of Zunes met their predicted goal of one million.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• In the US CBS is launching "CBS Eye-lert," which will be sent to viewers' cellphones by text message or e-mail to let them know if their favorite network shows will start on time or be delayed by sports overruns or breaking news. The service is a "game changer," says CBS exec George Schweitzer.  Read more here (from New York Daily News).
• Google announces its intentions to bid on the upcoming spectrum auction if the FCC embraces open access as part of its auction rules.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• MySpace has teamed up with Virgin Comics to launch Coalition Comix, a comic book platform for users to work with comic book creators to develop new characters and stories. Coalition Comix is set to go live for participation on August 2, 2007.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• European mobile networks may be urging Apple to add 3G support in the iPhone.  Read more here (from PC World).
• MySpace has quietly licensed a new series of original programming from Hollywood duo Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, according to a source.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• The Melbourne cartoonist Michael Leunig became "unhinged" by widespread claims his cartoons were anti-Semitic, according to his former boss, editor-in-chief of The Age Michael Gawenda.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• Four percent of American youths online have been asked to send a sexually explicit photo of themselves over the Internet, researchers say in a study.  Read more here (from CNN).
• Spectacular new layers of Google Earth showcase images from the last 40 years of NASA exploration and stunning views of our home planet at night from space. The update is part of an ongoing collaborative effort between Google Earth and NASA.  Read more here (from Wired).
• Fotolog and Google have signed a three-year search technology and services agreement with entails that Google will provide search and keyword ads for Fotolog. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Google will do better, but don't look for the company to dominate the market anytime soon, says the company's top exec.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The University of Kansas is taking a get-tough approach to file-sharing, telling students that they'll be permanently kicked off the residential network if they're caught in the act of copyright infringement.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• With only two months left before US government agencies must figure out how to deal with data breaches and data theft, federal bureaucrats are scrambling to meet the looming deadline. The deadline was created by a White House directive published this spring that gave all federal agencies until September 22 to figure out the wisest way, using their "best judgment," to come up with a plan to secure Americans' personal data and to alert them if it falls into the wrong hands.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).

Daily News Links

• The United States is seeking consultations with China over rules on music downloading and cinema rights that appear to discriminate against foreign sound recordings and films, a US trade official said Wednesday. Hollywood studios and US Internet music providers such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes store could be among the groups that suffer from "less favorable distribution opportunities" for imported films and foreign suppliers of music recordings in China, which the US cited in a World Trade Organization request earlier this week.  Read more here (from FoxNews).
• The Australian Refugee Review Tribunal has been slammed for relying on the website Wikipedia to reject a protection visa.  Read more here (from Australian IT).
• Chinese actress-turned-director Xu Jinglei has reportedly become the world's most widely read blogger.  Read more here (from The Age).
• Theseus, a German based project that is aiming to develop “the world’s most advanced multimedia search engine for the next-generation Internet.” will received a cash injection of $165 million from the German Government, under approval by the EU.  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• Committees in both the House and the Senate have announced plans to hold hearings this fall on the proposed merger of Google with online sales giant DoubleClick, but it's not all good news for competitors like Microsoft.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Facebook is announcing today that it has acquired Parakey, the startup created by Firefox co-founders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt. Parakey is an open source web OS that bridges the gap between the desktop and the web - it was yet to launch.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• JK Rowling has lambasted US newspapers that have published plot details from the final Harry Potter book.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• A report on Internet child-pornography offenders suggests that the proportion who molest children is very high.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• A recent study from Harvard University showed that the majority of teens and young adults on the Internet aren't reading the news, and many of them aren't going to find it on social networks.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• YouTube has launched a new “custom player” feature that allows users to customize embedded YouTube videos.  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• Despite their potential negative impact, using mobile devices helps increase productivity, CIOs say in a survey.  Read more here (from ZDNet News).
• Some six months after Nintendo's popular Wii, Sony's PlayStation 3 game console sales hit the one million mark in Japan.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The chance Yahoo will put itself up for sale has increased after the Web company lowered its revenue forecast, according to Stanford Group. Microsoft is a leading candidate to buy Yahoo, says analyst Clayton Moran. A Yahoo-Microsoft union "could be a significant challenger to Google."  Read more here (from Bloomberg).
  
• Film and television writers are especially concerned about securing adequate pay for work distributed over the Internet. Producers have proposed a study, arguing that it's early to establish pay rates because the digital technologies are so new. "We are responding to a changing business climate," said Carol Lombardini, the alliance's executive vice president.  Read more here (from the Los Angeles Times).
• Russia has said an article for a US journal by its foreign minister was so heavily edited it decided to pull it.  Read more here (from Media Guardian).
• Few companies can offer Wall Street a 28% gain in profit and a 58% increase in revenue and then have their stock prices drop. But that's exactly what happened to Google, which had repeatedly exceeded the quarterly targets set by financial analysts -- until now.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).
• Online video network PodTech, citing a shift in focus, let go of web video personality Irina Slutsky on Wednesday. Slutsky, who had been with PodTech for a year, had brought with her the web show Geek Entertainment TV, and had helped PodTech put on the red-carpet Vloggies awards event last year.  Read more here (from NewTeeVee).
• A first look at Searchles: a new web app that seeks to combine social networking with web search functionalities.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Legislation designed to overhaul the US patent system has been approved by the House Committee on the Judiciary.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Toshiba has recalled more Sony laptop computer batteries due to fire risk, rekindling concerns over the safety of Sony-made batteries.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• The Copyright Board of Canada has released its decision on a series of motions contesting the latest attempt by the Canadian Private Copyright Collective to apply the private copying levy to iPods and removable memory storage cards.  Read more here (from Michael Geist).
• Demand for the Vista Windows system and other products helps Microsoft to profits of $3.03bn, up 11% on last year.  Read more here (from BBC News).
• Broadcom Corp. and Verizon Wireless Inc. have reached a deal that will allow Verizon to continue importing and selling mobile handsets that are at the center of an ongoing legal battle between Broadcom and Qualcomm Inc.  Read more here (from PC World).
• A US Senate committee is expected to support legislation allowing regulators to enforce a nearly zero-tolerance policy on the broadcast of expletives. The bill would give the US Federal Communications Commission authority to make "a single word or image" indecent.  Read more here (from the Los Angeles Times).
• Games provider King.com and RealNetworks will announce that both companies have entered into an exclusive, multi-year partnership that will integrate gaming content across both companies gaming portals.  Read more here (from TechCrunch).
• Microsoft said it eked out a gain in net profit despite taking a $1 billion charge to pay for repairs to its Xbox 360 game consoles.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• As Wi-Fi solidifies its hold on the tech world, Sprint shores up its long-term plans for longer-range WiMax.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• MTV Networks' Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group plans to invest $100 million in the creation of casual gaming titles, sites and platforms. Among the gaming initiatives: myNOGGIN, a subscription service where preschoolers can play educational games and parents can track their progress.  Read more here (from TV Week).
• National Geographic is entering a partnership with Big Fish Games to distribute two of gaming company's most popular products online. Both games will be branded as part of a series that fits with National Geographic's mission to inspire people to care about the planet.  Read more here (from Information Week).
• Shoppers will be able to review and rate the merchandise sold on Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s Web site beginning on Thursday, as the retailer works to expand its online capabilities.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• Already on a tear lately, shares of International Business Machines Corp. got another bounce after the technology company reported a 12 percent jump in quarterly earnings and improved its outlook for the rest of the year.  Read more here (from the Washington Post).

Daily News Links

• Telstra has launched a new on-demand television service for its third generation mobile network that promises to ''fill the gaps'' in viewers' television watching habits.  Read more here (from The Australian).
• The MPAA's network neutrality filing to the FCC argues that, whatever happens, digital watermarking, deep packet inspection, acoustic fingerprinting, traffic shaping, and quality of service must all remain legal.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Mark Zuckerberg is squashing some rumors about a possible Facebook IPO.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• Yahoo has acquired a 35-50% stake in the Indian Internet advertising company, Tyroo Media. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.  Read more here (from Mashable).
• The Digital Media Association (DiMA) has criticized SoundExchange's attempt to shoehorn DRM into negotiations about copyright royalties and fees, arguing that such off-topic matters should be addressed separately, if at all.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Measure calls for the most sweeping changes to US patent system in decades, but its path forward could be jeopardized by lingering reservations from other sectors, including venture capitalists and biotech.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• eBay's quarterly earnings beat Wall Street estimates by 2 cents a share, as sales were up 30 percent from a year earlier.  Read more here (from the New York Times).
• British industry leaders have called for urgent government intervention over the failure to deal with escalating online crime.  Read more here (from Technology Guardian).
• MySpace plans to build and launch a new "create and share" writing tool in partnership with HarperCollins.  Teens and college kids on the site can write prose and then share it with friends on MySpace. People can then vote on the best writing.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Rumors that Apple is preparing a second-generation iPhone continue to circulate.  Read more here (from PC World).
• The Participatory Culture Foundation has finally put Democracy Player to rest and relaunched the software under a new name with some new features. Miro picks up where the old player left off by letting users aggregate nearly any video channels they can dream up and even search sites like YouTube and Revver on the desktop.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• Wal-Mart Inc. opened its campaign for the back-to-school PC sales season on Wednesday by unveiling a US$298 desktop from Everex that combines three of the most popular industry trends -- open-source software, a power-efficient processor, and a lack of "bloatware."  Read more here (from PC World).
• Worldwide PC shipments up 12%, fueled by growth in the US and Asia/Pacific regions.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• An executive from NVIDIA has lashed out at the gaming industry for promoting extremely expensive gaming PCs, which he says is scaring publishers away from supporting the latest graphics technologies.  Read more here (from Ars Technica).
• New Web applications--such as wikis, blogs, and podcasts--that foster increased collaboration and communication bring with them a number of new security challenges.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Large Webcasters and the music industry are butting heads over a compromise to heightened fees that would require Net radio operators to implement anti-streamripping technology.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Oracle is integrating one of its applications with Google's mapping service to help service providers locate customers more quickly.  Read more here (from PC World).
• Report says click fraud rate is up due to increased use of botnets to automate the clicking on ads.  Read more here (from CNET News.com).
• Verizon and Veoh have launched a channel on the Verizon Wireless V Cast service, featuring Veoh’s content on the mobile network.  Read more here (from Mashable).