To the envy of geeks everywhere Australia’s most powerful computer has been officially launched in Canberra, ushering in a new era for scientific research. The supercomputer, jointly funded by the Australian National University, the CSIRO and the federal government, was officially launched by Science Minister Kim Carr at its new home today. The supercomputer will be operated by National Computational Infrastructure and director Lindsay Botten says the computer brings Australia’s capability into line with the top systems around the world
European Union regulators told the Oracle Corporation that its $7.4 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems might break antitrust rules even though the United States authorities have approved the deal. The European Commission, the European Union’s antitrust agency, issued a so-called statement of objections on Monday, Sun said in a regulatory filing. The commission said Oracle’s acquisition of Sun’s MySQL database software caused competition concerns
BBC plans to copy protect Freeview high definition (HD) data have been dealt a blow by regulator Ofcom. It has written to the BBC asking for more information about what the benefits would be for consumers. Initially it looked as if Ofcom would approve the plans but, during its two week consultation, it has received many responses opposing the plan
Record industry trying to fight ability of music fans to make private digital copies of physical CDs. The German Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe recently upheld provision 53 of that country’s copyright law against a legal challenge by the record industry whom have against the provision for allowing digital copying of CDs for private use
Plans to store information about every phone call, email and internet visit in the United Kingdom have in effect been abandoned by the Government. The Home Office confirmed the Big Brother
scheme had been delayed until after the election amid protests that it would be intrusive and open to abuse. Although ministers publicly insisted yesterday that they remained committed to the scheme, they have decided not to include the contentious measure in next week’s Queen’s Speech, the Government’s final legislative programme before the election
The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology’s biggest outstanding mysteries. Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 BC
Mobile phones are likely to be automatically barred from accessing premium ring tones, games and information services after the consumer watchdog threw its support behind the move. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has backed a proposal in which users would need to make a specific request to enable their phones to receive high-priced premium text and multimedia messages
Norwegian ISP Telenor doesn’t have to block access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, according to a ruling from the district court for Asker and Bæ?¶rum on Friday. The entertainment industry has been trying to get Telenor to block The Pirate Bay since February, when it sent a warning letter to the operator. But Telenor has maintained that there is no legal basis for any ISP to act in the interests of digital intellectual-property rights holders by blocking individual web sites, and now the district court has sided with that notion
The newly formed Australian Pirate Party came out swinging yesterday with a release criticising the international discussions currently being held in Korea to cement an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. These discussions had their roots back in 2006 when the US and Japan floated the idea of a new treaty to help build joint intellectual property rules to fight counterfeiting and piracy. June 2008 saw Australia included along with other countries
For the last decade or so, Internet service providers have been dealing with requests to block access to pornographic or copyright-infringing Web sites, or in China, ones that dare to criticise the government. Now a US House of Representatives bill is taking the unusual step of requiring Internet providers to block access to online financial scams that fraudulently invoke the Securities Investor Protection Corporation — or face fines and federal court injunctions. The House Financial Services Committee approved the legislation on Wednesday by a 41 to 28 vote
European Internet users accused of illicit file-sharing will not be disconnected on the whims of the entertainment industries. After an all night session European Union lawmakers agreed on a compromise text. Those accused will be entitled to a fair and impartial
procedure, which will include the right to be heard
The winner of this year’s Sydney Peace Prize, John Pilger, has labelled the Federal Government’s asylum-seeker policy illegal and immoral
Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, warned internet users today that the days of consequence-free
illegal filesharing are over as he unveiled the government’s plan for cracking down on online piracy. Mandelson, speaking at the government’s digital creative industries conference, C&binet, confirmed that the internet connections of persistent offenders could be blocked – but only as a last resort — from the summer of 2011. He added that a legislate and enforce
strategy was the only way to protect the intellectual property rights of content producers. The strategy, which will be officially set out in the government’s digital economy bill in late November, will involve a staged process of warning notifications with internet suspension as a last resort
A French court has convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France. Two branches of the group’s operations and several of its leaders in France have been fined. The case came after complaints from two women, one of whom said she was manipulated into paying more than 20,000 euros in the 1990s
The BBC is reportedly mulling over plans to come up with an international edition of its hugely popular iPlayer service, in a bid to allow global audience to catch up with some of its top shows, according to BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s profit-making arm. BBC Worldwide said that the move would help revamping its business model, and thereby help the corporation in raking in significant profits through its premium content
In a great blow for consumers everywhere, the prospect of 3-strikes for copyright infringers has returned with a vengeance, as both the EU Council and French Constitutional court pushed forward with their respective legislation. HADOPI is alive, and the EU has shredded requirements for judicial oversight
The Kindle International’s 3G connection may be free, but it comes with some serious restrictions. Upon trying to subscribe to various magazines and newspapers PC Pro were greeted with the news that Newspapers and magazines delivered outside the US will not include photos and other images
. This even applies to the UK-based newspapers Amazon has signed a deal with, including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail The and Independent. And that’s not the Kindle International’s only limitation. Amazon has also disabled its inbuilt web browser, returning the message that Due to local restrictions, web browsing is not available for all countries, when you try to access it
It’s the technology that brought us high-speed wireless and and now, one of Australia’s most significant scientific breakthroughs is set to fund future discoveries. A team of CSIRO researchers has been the toast of the industry after finding the key to fast wireless networks and making $205 million in the process. The technology has put the CSIRO well in the black for the first time in five years and now the peak science body wants to put back. It has injected $150 million from the proceeds of its wi-fi technology to the once-defunct science and industry endowment fund, originally established by parliament in 1926
Germany’s new Government coalition has spoken out against legislation that will allow alleged pirated to be disconnected from the Internet. The two parties, CDU and FDP, agree that such a law is not going to solve the piracy problem
. In the coalition agreement that’s currently drafted both parties have agreed not to allow Internet disconnections for alleged copyright infringement offences. The decision is huge blow to the lobbyists of the movie and music industries, but not really unexpected
The results of a new poll reveal the extent of opposition to Lord Mandelson’s proposals for tough sanctions against alleged file-sharers. The survey, commissioned by the Open Rights Group, shows that not only is the public in favour of due process, but a third would be much less likely to vote for political parties supporting these proposals
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