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Canada Aims to Unmask Rioters When Protests Go Awry November 05, 2012 The hacker group Anonymous has announced plans for worldwide protests against government surveillance for Monday, Guy Fawkes Day. Canada, however, has a plan of its own. It has imposed a ban on wearing masks during riots -- including, of course, Anonymous' famed Guy Fawkes masks. People will be allowed to wear masks during peaceful demonstrations, however.

Dotcom Suits Up for Another Round in File-Sharing Wars November 01, 2012 Alleged digital pirate and German Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom on Thursday announced plans for Mega, a service that would replace his shut down file-sharing website Megaupload. The new Mega -- besides dropping a few letters form the name of the service -- will reportedly avoid any dealings with the United States.

Aussie Man, Wrongly Linked to Criminal, Wins Case vs. Google November 01, 2012 A man in Melbourne, Australia, won a defamation case against Google over the search engine's image results. The plaintiff, Michael Trkulja, reportedly contacted Google in 2009 requesting that the site remove images linking him to former meth kingpin Tony Mokbel. Google used the innocent dissemination defense, arguing that it hadn't published the materials in question and was simply indexing information.

Chinese Company Rips Off iPad Mini and Its Tagline October 25, 2012 Goophone, a Chinese company best known for cloning Apple products, reportedly will release its iPad mini doppelganger in November. The "GooPad mini," which already appears on posters, will sell for $99, while Apple's iPad mini will cost $329 but won't be sold right away in China. Goophone has even taken the liberty of ripping off Apple's "Every inch an iPad" tagline: "Every inch a GooPad mini."

FOSS' Fight Against China's Free-as-in-Pirated Syndrome October 23, 2012 The tide of software piracy in China may be ebbing. With the clear support of the Chinese government, several software organizations and computer firms based in Europe and the U.S. are conducting events focusing on growing open source in China. The push toward China's active participation in the open source community signals a maturing of the country's computing infrastructure.

Kinder, Gentler, Perhaps More Annoying Copyright Alert System Coming Soon October 22, 2012 The Center for Copyright Information and major Internet service providers are preparing to roll out within weeks the Copyright Alert System, designed to cut down on online piracy. AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision volunteered to work with the CCI to develop a system of electronic messages to users suspected of illegally downloading digital entertainment content.

Pirate Bay Assumes Ethereal Form to Dodge Raids October 18, 2012 The Pirate Bay is ditching its servers and heading to the cloud in a move the popular file-sharing website says can help prevent raids by authorities. The site will no longer reside at a single physical location, the company said. It called the move to the cloud "getting rid of our earthly form" and "ascending into the next stage."

White House Lets Huawei Off the Hook October 18, 2012 A review of security risks posed by Chinese telecommunications companies, ordered by the White House, turned up no evidence that Huawei had spied on behalf of China. The 18-month investigation reportedly concluded that Huawei was risky for other reasons, such as being susceptible to hackers.

Be Not Afraid: Calculate Your Real Risk of a Software Audit October 06, 2012 The words "software audit" can strike fear into even the most unflappable business executive's heart. Just as the sight of a police cruiser on the freeway compels all but the most foolhardy to slow down immediately, for most organizations the mere possibility of a vendor audit prompts a flurry of anxious activity and more than a few sleepless nights.

Zuckerberg Tests Russian Waters October 02, 2012 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met Monday with Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev in Moscow. Russia is something of a "test case" for Zuckerberg and Facebook: a country that is commercially significant but nonetheless tightly regulates -- and censors -- its media. With more Internet users than Germany, Russia is the largest Web market in Europe.

Iran Relents to Pressure, Reopens Gmail Access October 01, 2012 The Iranian government is reportedly reopening access to Gmail agter taking flak for its decision to block Google's email service. Even members of parliament have complained about the Gmail block. A member of parliament was quoted in Iranian media saying that the minister of telecommunications would be summoned for questioning if the Gmail ban wasn't lifted.

Facebook, Twitter Poke Holes in China's Great Firewall September 28, 2012 Despite government-imposed bans, Facebook and Twitter have tens of millions of users in China. Facebook use in China has reportedly swelled to 63.5 million people, a roughly eightfold increase over the 7.9 million who used the site two years ago. Twitter, meanwhile, has nearly 36 million users in China.

Google, Acer and the Red-Headed Stepchild September 27, 2012 Android may not be as fully open as many FOSS fans would like it to be, but the fact remains that it's essentially the poster child for Linux's success in the mobile world. So it was with some dismay we looked on at the impromptu battle that sprang up recently between Google and Acer over Alibaba's Aliyun OS.

Microsoft Piracy Pleas Fall on Deaf Ears in China September 21, 2012 Microsoft has asked China to crack down on pirated Office software used by four major state-run companies. Speaking to a government panel last month, Microsoft named China National Petroleum Corp., China Post Group, China Railway Construction Corp. and Travelsky Technology as serial users of pirated software.

6-Strike Copyright Warning System: Can You Hear Us Now? September 13, 2012 A new chapter is beginning in the antipiracy wars: A so-called six-strike warning scheme will be put into action by the end of this year, said Jill Lesser of the Center for Copyright Information. The CCI was born as a result of widespread revulsion over the ham-handed tactics deployed in the 2000s by the RIAA and, to a lesser extent, the MPAA.

Google Tightens Shackles on Pirate Bay Search Results September 12, 2012 In a nod to the increasing pressure to root out online piracy, Google reportedly has expanded its list of censored phrases related to searches for the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay. Google has not entirely removed The Pirate Bay from its search results index, but it has nixed alternate Pirate Bay domains from appearing in autocomplete.

Microsoft Makes Staffing Push Into China September 06, 2012 Microsoft plans to hired an additional 1,000 employees in China over the next year, bringing the company's total in the country to 4,500, according to Reuters. The move is designed to tap into what Microsoft sees as an integral market for future growth. The company has struggled to gain ground in China's IT market, which is flooded with cheap software.

BitTorrent Sharers Beware: You Are Being Watched September 05, 2012 Swappers using the popular file-sharing protocol BitTorrent are spied on constantly by monitoring services, some of them seeking to identify media pirates, researchers at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom reported Tuesday. Monitoring is particularly intense for files that are currently popular among sharers.

Court Upholds Colossal Song-Sharing Penalty August 27, 2012 It is the end of an era. One of the last cases in which the Recording Industry Association of America sued an individual for illegal song sharing has reached the end of its road in a federal court in Massachusetts. There, the jury upheld a $675,000 damages award against Joel Tenenbaum following the directed guilty verdict in his 2009 trial and numerous appeals.

Apple's Television Vision August 18, 2012 Apple has been sizing up the world of television for a long time now with very hungry eyes. The company almost never reveals its plans out loud, of course, but if you test the PH level of the rumor pool, it's starting to look a lot like it did about six years ago, just before the first iPhone came along.