Last week, the French Parliament passed a new law requiring Internet service providers to cut off Internet access for persistent copyright offenders. Since the parliament voted in favor of the law, everyone — including the most fanatical critics — believed that it would easily pass through Senate and the National Assembly — but it didn’t. After a two hour discussion, the law was rejected by the National Assembly with 21 votes against and 15 votes in favour. According to early reports, the Socialist deputies changed their initial position and decided to vote against the law after witnessing the mass opposition from the French public
Top Google executives charged with building a local data centre for the search engine giant have postponed a visit to Australia until after the federal Government’s $15 billion national broadband network contract announcement. The delay comes as vendors involved in the discussions express concern as to the economic viability of building Google’s data centre. The search engine giant has been looking for more processing power and support for its local operations as it seeks to deliver web-based applications to enterprise and government customers
Since the government has finally declassified the program, the people who worked at Area 51 can now talk about A-12 OXCART, a Wicked Secret program to build an test a Mach 3 spyplane at Nevada’s Groom Lake. You may know it as the forerunner of the SR-71 Blackbird. The LA Times talks to survivors of the program — via Boing Boing
The federal Government has terminated the tender process for its national broadband network project and will instead look to partners to build a $43 billion fibre to the home network. A new company, National Broadband Network Corporation, will be created to build the network. It will be jointly owned by the Government and the private sector, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. Mr Rudd said not one of the private bidders for the NBN’s request for proposals met the government’s requirements. None of the bids offered value for money,
Mr Rudd said. The panel noted the rapid deterioration of the global economy had a significant impact on the process
A pet dog which was washed overboard and believed drowned has been found four months later — as a castaway on a remote Australian island. Sophie Tucker — named after the famous US entertainer — vanished as Jan and Dave Griffith sailed through stormy waters off Queensland last November. But unknown to her grieving owners, the plucky dog survived a long swim across shark-infested waters to an island. There she lived on a diet of baby goats until being found by visiting rangers. The Griffiths were amazed to hear of the discovery and have now been reunited with their pet
Papers unearthed by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders ensured that the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was seen as a whites only
victory. Many who fought Nazi Germany during World War II did so to defeat the vicious racism that left millions of Jews dead. Yet the BBC’s Document programme has seen evidence that black colonial soldiers — who made up around two-thirds of Free French forces — were deliberately removed from the unit that led the Allied advance into the French capital
It could take up to eight weeks for Sydney’s electricity supply to return to normal after the latest blackout, EnergyAustralia said over the weekend. About 50,000 homes and businesses in the northern part of the Sydney CBD, parts of Surry Hills and the Eastern Suburbs lost power on Saturday after a transformer tripped at 10.28am (AEDT). It is the second time large sections of the city have suffered power outages within the past week, with the first occurring during the Monday afternoon peak-hour. About 20 key CBD building managers have been asked to reduce their air conditioning and other non-essential electricity use
Fears that over 100 jobs from Western Australian Energy company Synergy would be outsourced to an Indian IT company were yesterday laid to rest. Western Australian Shadow Minister for Energy Kate Doust had said earlier this week that Synergy was negotiating with an Indian company with the goal of sending IT jobs abroad. Energy Minister Peter Collier said he would take the concerns to the company and yesterday announced a plan developed with Synergy to make sure no Western Australian jobs would be sent overseas as part of Synergy’s business transformation program to introduce new SAP-based customer care and billing systems
Italian police have found more than 100 immigrants, including 24 Afghan children, living in the sewer system beneath railway stations in Rome. The children range in age from 10 to 15 years and are now being looked after by the city’s social services. They were found when the railway police followed up reports of children living near the city’s stations. The police say they do not speak Italian and broke into the sewers by removing manhole covers. The charity Save the Children Italy says that more than 1,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Rome last year from various countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America
The CSIRO‘s legal win against Hewlett Packard over the use of its patented wireless technology could mean big bucks for the Australian science agency, says a patent attorney. The four-year lawsuit was brought by the CSIRO over the use of its Wi-Fi technology, which has been widely used as industry standard in computer products by major international corporations. The CSIRO was granted patent for its IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g Wi-Fi products in 1996, but since has been used extensively, regardless. The companies have agreed on an undisclosed settlement amount and Davies Collision Cave patent attorney, Neil Shoot, says it is highly likely there will be a similar outcome in the other litigation cases the CSIRO is involved in
A spate of burglaries in a Buckinghamshire village had already put residents on the alert for any suspicious vehicles. So when the Google Street View car trundled towards Broughton with a 360-degree camera on its roof, villagers sprang into action. Forming a human chain to stop it, they harangued the driver about the invasion of privacy
, adding that the images that Google planned to put online could be used by burglars. As police made their way to the stand-off, the Google car yielded to the villagers. For now, Broughton remains off the internet search engine’s mapping service
Australia’s competition watchdog tonight issued a strongly worded statement of concern that the proposed merger of mobile carriers Hutchison and Vodafone could lead to increased retail prices on mobile telephony and broadband services. In February the pair announced plans to merge in a joint venture dubbed VHA that would have around 6 million customers and combined revenues of approximately $4 billion for the 12 months ended 30 June 2008. The merger is subject to a shareholder vote and is the subject of a current ACCC inquiry
Sweden will allow gay couples to be legally married from next month. Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to recognise same-sex marriage, becoming the fifth country in Europe to do so. Sweden was one of the first countries to give gay couples legal partnership
rights, in the mid-1990s, and allowed them to adopt children from 2002. The new law lets homosexuals wed in either a civil or religious ceremony, though individual churches can opt out. The law was passed by 226 votes to 22 and will come into force on 1 May
Someone has put the Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy up for auction on eBay. Item number 180342524797 is described as the big mouth of Broadband and Communications in Australia — The uneducated idiot that plans to filter all internet content at an ISP level for end users. The rightful owner will have full use of Mr Conroy — As you see fit. (Although It is recommended only bringing him out for sexual pleasure at parties.) He has failed the Australian Government as Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. The asking price is around $8?000, or best offer. but send me your thoughts, No reasonable offer refused. He will be delivered via FedEX Courier Service to your doorstep where you can do with him as you wish. More Images are available via email on request — Including Nooooodes. Signed, K Rudd
A mystery electronic spy network apparently based in China has infiltrated hundreds of computers around the world and stolen files and documents, Canadian researchers have revealed. The network, dubbed GhostNet, appears to target embassies, media groups, NGOs, international organisations, government foreign ministries and the offices of the Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan exile movement. The researchers, based at Toronto University’s Munk Centre for International Studies, said their discovery had profound implications
The UK’s libel laws mean more and more web sites globally will be forced to respond to threats of litigation with the strategy of take it down, take it down quickly, take it down again
The American Civil Liberties Union is helping three teenage girls fight back against a Pennsylvania prosecutor who has threatened to charge the girls with felony child porn violations over digital photos they took of themselves. In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in Pennsylvania, ACLU lawyers accuse District Attorney George P Skumanick, Jr of violating the civil rights of the girls. The lawsuit says the threat to prosecute the minors is unprecedented and stands anti-child-pornography laws on their head
iiNet is steadfastly refusing to admit that any of its users engaged in illegal downloading, despite forensic evidence presented by movie studios that apparently shows the date and time of thousands of individual copyright infringements. In the Federal Court today, where iiNet is being sued in a landmark case by seven major movie studios and the Seven Network for allegedly permitting customers to download movies illegally, iiNet’s lawyers said they would clarify their position on the issue by next Wednesday
There was the Minister for Communications on the ABC’s Q & A answering questions about the blocking of internet filters and an ACMA blacklist
which has been leaked and published. Conroy explained reports of a Queensland dentist’s web site had been inadvertently put on the list because it had been hacked by a Russian mob
. At the very same time, hackers had attacked the government’s Classification Board web site. The site remained hacked for several hours before it went offline
An Ontario court has ordered the owners of the FreeDominion.ca to disclose all personal information on eight anonymous posters to the chat site. The required information includes email and IP addresses. The case arises from a lawsuit launched by Richard Warman, the anti-hate fighter, against the site and the posters. The court focused heavily on the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure, which contain a strong duty of disclosure on litigants
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