• According to a survey, one-third of IT staff people abuse their access to snoop on people.

• A U.S. nuclear plant was offline for two days due to a problem triggered by software updates.

• Deutsche Telekom admitted to “severe and far-reaching” tracking of phone calls in pursuit of leaks of corporate information.

• The UK government has proposed a giant database of all phone calls and Internet accesses.

• A Senate report criticizes the Administration’s new $17B cybersecurity initiative.
• The judge in a high-profile copyright case reconsidered his prior ruling that merely making a song available constitutes copyright infringement.

• Confusing ballot designs still plague elections.

• Cyberattackers hacked an epilepsy group’s site to flash in a seizure-inducing way.

• Comcast is considering establishing a bandwidth cap and overage fees on residential Internet customers.

• The key economic force of our age isn’t globalization, but technological change, says David Brooks.

• “…I then ask the people who were born in Silicon Valley to leave their hands up. Generally, in a room or say 1,000 people, maybe ten or fifteen still have their hand up.”

• Adware (covertly installed ad-displaying software) is nearly a thing of the past.
• Some air marshals have been denied access to the flights they were supposed to protect, because their names match the no-fly list.
• The number of court-approved wiretaps rose 14% in 2007.
• A new law seeks to forestall genetic discrimination.

• Microsoft is giving law enforcement agencies a tool for extracting information from suspects’ PCs.

• Researchers found that 1.3% of web pages were altered in transit between the web server and the browser.
• The Russian government enacted onerous new restrictions on WiFi-enabled devices.
• Satellite TV provider Dish Network accused New Corp. of distributing counterfeit Dish Network access smartcards.

• Internet traffic is growing, but the rate of growth is slowing.
• Video games are a safe way for children to confront fear.

• The price of stolen data is plummeting because so much of it is for sale.

• A study reports that distributed denial of service attacks account for 1-3% of all Internet traffic.

• Tim Wu proposes an agenda for improving U.S. infotech policy.

• German privacy activists captured and published a politician’s fingerprint.

• Use the net? Don’t listen to songs? Warner Music Group still wants your money.

• Proposed municipal WiFi networks have not worked out as planned.

• A new study found a negative correlation between beer consumption and scientific productivity.

• An NY Times op-ed argues that parents should put secret spyware on their kids’ computers.

• Technology is eroding the Cuban government’s control over the flow of information.
• A Federal appeals court has agreed to hear a case challenging business model patents.

• Matt Blaze recounts the checkered history of the Clipper Chip.

• E.U. authorities fined Microsoft $1.3 billion for noncompliance with antitrust rulings.

• Gmail’s bot detection technology has been cracked.

• Famed cyberlawyer Larry Lessig has decided not to run for Congress.
• Tiny identifying dots left by computer printers may violate European privacy law.
• A Pakistani ISP accidentally knocked YouTube off the air for an hour.

• Should IP addresses be treated as personal information?

• The Microsoft/Yahoo deal may face antitrust scrutiny… from China.

• Visual reactions to the primary season include a striking map of the political blogosphere.

• A major author pirates his own books.

• The World of Warcraft virtual world now has more than ten million paid subscribers.
• The MPAA now says its famous, Congress-scaring estimate of movie piracy on college campuses was high by a factor of three.

• The latest organization to go in for online transparency? Al Qaeda.

• The expensive new Dutch transit card system turns out to be insecure.

• Productivity advocates, rejoice: Hasbro and Mattel have asked Facebook to remove Scrabulous, the popular Scrabble clone, from its inventory of third party offerings.
• Microsoft has patented a biometric workplace monitor.

• Amazon.com said Monday that it would pay €1,000 a day in fines, rather than comply with a court ruling upholding French limits on price discounts for books.

• DRM may help protect the cultural morrays of Australian native peoples.

• Some Congressmen and companies are questioning the FCC’s procedures and competence.

• The last of the major record companies announced it will sell MP3s.

• On the new 787 aircraft, passenger entertainment technologies will use the same digital network as critical flight control systems.

• American companies are selling surveillance technology to the Chinese government in advance of the summer Olympics.

• The movie industry is following the music industry’s failed DRM strategy.

• The best legal precedent on how the Fifth Amendment applies to encryption keys may be from the treason trial of Aaron Burr.

• People copy Christmas music, just like other music.

• “Magicians, chefs, and stand-up comics protect their creations without the law.”

• A WTO panel ruled that the U.S. online gambling ban violates trade agreements, and gave Antigua permission to violate U.S. copyrights.

• China may be refusing to show U.S. films, perhaps in retaliation for U.S. complaints about lax copyright enforcement.

• In the works: A semantic markup standard for knitting.
• The new Federal omnibus spending bill slashes planned increases in sci/tech research funding.
• Are libraries really being duped by Google?
• 47 percent of Americans have searched for information about themselves online.

• Academe is pouncing on facebook.

• Microsoft faces an antitrust suit in Europe over bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.

• The Internet, says Doris Lessing (a recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature), has “seduced a whole generation with its inanities.”

• A lawsuit accuses Verizon of distributing software in violation of its open-source license.
• Yale is offering some favorite courses online, for free.

• Why do people accept presidential candidates’ ignorance of technology?

• Facebook has retreated from Beacon, its controversial new advertising system.

• Verizon announced that it will open its network next year.

• A think tank is for sale to the highest bidder — on eBay.

• A Gartner analyst sees 2% of US citizens in virtual marriages by 2020.

• The last segment of Thomas Edison’s original direct current electrical grid is being shut off in New York.

• One technological advantage of authoritarianism: Subway cards that work in taxis.

• The One Laptop Per Child project launched its Give 1 Get 1 program.
• Google is offering summer internships in tech policy.

• Marc Andreesen says the writers’ strike will make Hollywood more like Silicon Valley.

• BD+, yet another unbreakable copy protection scheme, has been cracked.

• We distinguish digital things from real ones. Our grandchildren, says William Gibson, will find that quaint.

• Online political ads can end up in unintended places.

• The Democratic presidential debate is an occasion for data mining.

• A botnet appears to be sending spam emails urging votes for presidential candidate Ron Paul.

• Obama promises a net neutrality law if he is elected president.
• A real-world lawsuit was filed alleging theft of virtual item designs in Second Life.

• Facebook employees may be checking out, for non-business reasons, who views which profiles.

• Microsoft bought 1.6% of Facebook, in a deal that values Facebook at $15 billion.

• The botnet formed by the Storm worm seems to be counter-attacking researchers who try to analyze it.

• Comcast is still giving conflicting explanations of their partial blocking of BitTorent traffic.
• Apple says that about 20% of iPhone customers want to unlock the device from the AT&T network.

• In America, there are more World of Warcarft players than farmers.

• Commercial-skipping triggers interesting lawsuits.

• Radiohead offered its new album online in a name-your-own-price offer, but still many people downloaded it from P2P systems.

• An appeals court ruled that fantasy baseball leagues can operate without the permission of Major League Baseball.
• Investment money is flooding Silicon Valley again.

• Apple will reportedly drop the price of non-copy-protected iTunes songs to 99 cents, the same as copy-protected songs.

• Laws first designed to help the disabled could end up making video blogs illegal in California.
• The prices of Google search terms make a case for tort reform.

• A Russian firm is reportedly a major hub of cybercrime activities.

• Universal Music is reportedly preparing an interesting new music service: a portable player that comes with unlimited free music.