A while ago, the European Union said that to avoid gigantic lawsuits for making Windows Vista available, Microsoft would have to post the inner workings of it's operating system for the public. Microsoft claims that they did it, and hosts a 1,500 page document on their website. Unfortunately, the European Union doesn't think that it's enough. And so, they are giving Microsoft two choices. The first choice for Microsoft is to detail their documents a bit more thoroughly. Their second choice is to accept the $4 million USD a day fine.

Australian state Victoria has decided to ban access to YouTube from public schools. The state made this decision in an attempt to slow "cyberbullying". Cyberbullying is the simple act of bullying someone using the internet. The main YouTube clip that triggered this was a very controversial one. The clip was recorded by a group of people a mentally-challenged girl met over the internet. The group harassed her, made her perform sexual activities, peed on her, and then set her hair on fire, all with the intent of recording it on camera for YouTube. Victoria has approximately 1,600 schools withing it's borders.

RIAA launches website for music copyright violators to pay without going to court

People who are caught by the RIAA usually have to pay a substantial amount of money to record companies. And so, the RIAA has decided to make a little website dedicated to helping the average pirate through the process of getting caught. P2Plawsuits.com is dedicated to doing three things. The first thing they do is post a list of questions convicted pirates might ask, and proper answers to them. The second thing the RIAA posts on their website is options/details on how to reduce the convict's fine, and even settle out of court. The third thing that the RIAA does is link to a website detailing the advantages of downloading legal music, which also hosts a list of legitimate music downloading services.

It seems like sometimes you simply cannot get between a teenager and their iPod. Frank Burd, A 60 year old teacher in Germantown, Pennsylvania, confiscated one of his 14-year-old student's iPod's. The student, infuriated, came back with one of his 11th-grade friends, and proceeded to break Mr.Burd's neck in two places. Fortunately, Mr.Burd's condition is stable and improving. The two delinquents will be charged as adults in court.

Edit:
Some details have come to light that detail exactly why Mr. Burd took away the iPod. The ignorant freshman had decided to blast his music at maximum volume, for the sake of disrupting class. After several warnings, Mr.Burd took away the iPod with the intent to give it back to him after class. Upon the ending of class, Mr.Burd was assaulted by the freshman and his 11th-grade friend before he had the chance to give back the iPod. The rest of the story is as posted above...Mr.Burd's neck is broken in two places, the two delinquents will be charged as adults, and Mr.Burd's condition continues to improve.

With Microsoft receiving a hefty $1.5 billion fine the other day, MP3 patents are once again in the spotlight as a company in Texas is now trying to sue… well every company that makes MP3 players really. At the moment, Apple, SanDisk and Samsung are the three major names involved, but this case has the potential to draw more companies in - although it may seem quite ambitious as things stand. The company behind the lawsuits is known as Texas MP3 Technologies Ltd. which holds a patent which it claims covers the production an "MPEG portable sound reproducing system." The patent was issued in June, and now the company hopes to make money out of the MP3 player industry, which was worth approximately $6.1 billion last year.

Microsoft has been ordered to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent after losing a patent dispute regarding the MP3 audio technology used by Windows. The enormous fine comes after a verdict by a federal jury in San Diego ruled that the company should compensate for damages based on each Windows PC sold since May 2003. Microsoft claims that it licensed MP3 technology from Fraunhofer in a $16 million deal, and also claims that the patent may not cover overseas Windows sales, arguing they should be excluded from the damages. Alcatel-Lucent previously sued Dell and Gateway during 2003 in similar cases.

"Get rich, or die trying" - this time, there is no risk involved. The Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center, Alabama, in co-operation with the FBI, is looking for a lost hard drive, that went missing some time this week. The reward is set at a hefty $25 000 - the equation information = money literally applies in this case. The HDD was used as a backup disk for patients' information, and apparently, there were at least 500 000 medical records on the device. The reward is also being offered for the identification of anyone responsible for the loss of the Iomega external hard drive.

Anyone with information is asked to call the VA Medical Center at 933-8101, ext. 4401; the FBI at 326-6166; the VA OIG hot line at 1-800-488-8244; or the VA Medical Center Police at 933-8101, ext. 6444.

Ever since Apple introduced its iPhone, lawsuits against the product have going on. Happily for Apple, it has managed to reach an agreement with Cisco Systems. The networking company had held the iPhone name since 2000, and was a bit miffed at the new product - but it seems the two companies can share after all.

Late on Wednesday afternoon, Cisco and Apple officially announced an end to the feud over the trademark. That's right, iPhone-gate is over without a single shot being fired, no loss of life, and (oddly enough) both companies able to use the brand name.

The companies publicly stated a cessation of all litigation over the dispute in a joint statement, and promised to allow each enterprise to market its product worldwide. The financial terms for the agreement were not disclosed, but one can bet that it wasn't cheap for Apple. In what is likely a nod of favor to Cisco for dropping the suit, the statement also talked about a new partnership between the two firms, with Apple working to provide better integration with future Cisco products.

Senator Ted Stevens is working to pass senate bill 49. Senate bill 49's goal is to reduce the seduction and rape of children over the internet. It does this by making access to interactive websites illegal on a school/library network (or at least the ones that get federal internet subsidies). The theory behind this is that interactive sites can be used to seduce children into meeting sex offenders over the internet. Unfortunately, useful sites like Amazon, Wikipedia, and TechPowerUp are considered "interactive", meaning that they would be banned if this bill was passed.

Two recent deaths in New York City had a very interesting cause. A pedestrian was "listening to his iPod", and hence was not paying attention to important things that happen in the city, such as oncoming traffic. And so, senator Carl Kruger is proposing a ban of iPods and cell phones on the streets of New York. Of course, if the police of New York have a hard time enforcing J-walking laws, how will they enforce this law, if passed?

When 1.2 million tax dollars went missing from Alcona County, Michigan, county officials wasted no time in a full investigation. They quickly found that the treasurer, Thomas Katona, had done some suspicious overseas transactions. Even after the people at the bank warned Katona of the obvious Nigerain fraud, he still sent approximately 185,000 US dollars to overseas accounts in eight payments. It is unknown how much of that is the missing tax money. 56 year old Katona was treasurer for 13 years. He was charged for felony nine times, and has a bail set at 1 million dollars.

So everyone has been looking forward to a small MacBook Pro, but those who has ever seen the size of the 15 inch MacBook Pro mainboard, knows how small it is. Most of the space is taken up by the slot loading optical drive and battery. So what to do? Just place the optical drive on the bottom of the notebook and add a sensor which knows when you are turning the device upside down. This may sound very stupid, but it might not be as crazy as you think. If anyone can pull this off, it is Apple. I am sure all future Mac(sub)Book Pro owners will agree.

Whilst the Pirate Bay is planning to buy its own country in an attempt to avoid the lawsuits, isoHunt is in a spot of trouble at the moment. Being one of the largest Torrenting sites, isoHunt has often come under the spotlight for its controversial activity, and after a fresh lawsuit from the music industry the site's ISP has decided to shut down the website without warning. isoHunt expects to be back online tomorrow, either by sorting the issues with its current ISP or by finding a new one. Despite Torrenting generally being seen as illegal, sites such as this have frequently argued that they are committing no crime because they do not host the files and Torrenting does have legal uses, but that doesn't stop the lawsuits.

Apple finally unveiled their iPhone at Macworld. Too bad they forgot one critical step: getting it licensed through the FCC. And of course, any cell phone that isn't approved by the FCC is not allowed to be sold or distributed in the United States of America. Add this to the recent lawsuit from Cisco over the iPhone name, and chances are it will be a long time before Apple gets to sell it's iPhone to the general public.

Microsoft's license terms for the retail version of Vista, its latest operating system, have caused more confusion over what the user is allowed to do - this time regarding the number of processors. The terms of the agreement state that the OS can only be installed on a "single device," which is to be expected, however it continues to state that the software may only be used "on up to two processors on that device at one time." What this means for multi-core systems with more than two cores is unknown, but with gaming moving closer and closer to being dependent on more than one CPU, this may confuse gamers. The description of what a single processor means is a bit of a grey area because it could either be argued as an individual CPU unit or an individual core, so no doubt Microsoft will clear up the matter in the near future.

The German ratings board has refused to issue a rating for "Crackdown", the Xbox360 game that will come with a free Halo 3 beta invitation. Crackdown was probably banned in Germany for being too violent. A game without a rating in Germany isn't "illegal", however it cannot be sold to a minor, advertised, or displayed in a public store. All sales of the game have to be person-to-person. Two other Xbos360 games that have been deemed unrated in Germany are Gears of War and Dead Rising.

For those of you who don't know about the Apple stock option scandal: Steve Jobs, in 2001, was granted 7.5 million stock options without the proper authorization of the Apple board of directors. However, it has recently come to light that the scandal is much more serious than initially thought. Someone had falsified the documents that make Steve Jobs look like he had authorization for those stock options. The Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing whether or not to take action against Apple and/or any of the individuals involved, and whether or not Steve Jobs himself could be in trouble is unclear. Steve Jobs returned all the stock options before exercising them.

A batch of about NT$20 million (US$306,000) worth of DDR chips (from Hynix Semiconductor) was stolen yesterday in Taoyuan, Taiwan. The 20 boxes filled with DDR chips were robbed while in transit, with most of the chips being 400MHz frequency parts. This DDR chips were being delivered to distributors, though ownership of the chips is still unknown. A Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report cited sources as saying that three robbers staged an accident with the truck transporting the chips, and then subdued the driver using a machete and taser gun. The thieves were seen headed to the airport and the batch of chips are likely headed to China, the report said.

AMD today announced a significant legal victory in its ongoing antitrust suit against Intel Corporation. In an order effective yesterday, the Federal District Court in Delaware overruled Intel's objections and ordered it to produce documents and other evidence bearing upon Intel's exclusionary conduct outside of U.S. borders.

In a search for information relating to the murder case of Ryan Milner, Canadian authorities posted a clip of surveillance footage from the nightclub he was murdered just outside of onto YouTube. After over 34,000 views of the clip, police used the comments posted in response to the clip to help track down George Gallow for questioning. George Gallow then confessed to the murder. This is the first time that police have used YouTube as a tool for criminal investigation.

Various record companies have dumped their case against Patti Santangelo, who was accused of pirating and redistributing over 1000 songs. The music industry did so after Santangelo pleaded that she should not be responsible for her children's piracy. Santangelo's 20 year old daughter and 16 year old son have each confessed to the piracy of the contraband. The lead counsel says that it is still possible for record companies to sue the two children who actually did the pirating.

Contrary to reports, there really is no recall of the Wii Remote. A representative for Nintendo stated that Nintendo will be more then happy to replace Wii Remotes that are already broken, or Wii Remotes that users think are about to break, with Wii Remotes that have a wrist strap twice as thick. Nintendo is willing to replace Wii Remotes due to some users complaints of the wrist straps breaking, and Wii Remotes flying into television screens. Nintendo is not recalling the remotes because they have tested the remotes, and as long as they are used sensibly, there really is no issue. The guidelines released by Nintendo for proper Wii Remote usage...

• Always wear the wrist strap while playing.
• Keep a firm grip on the Wii Remote at all times.
• Make sure people and objects are out of the range of movement before play begins.
• Players should keep at least three feet/ one meter from their televisions and dry their hands if they become sweaty or wet for any other reason.
• Remember that the Wii Remote is responsive enough to detect minor movements - so excessive and forceful actions are not necessary. Therefore we recommend not to use excessively rapid, violent or wide swinging motions while using the Wii Remote during game play.

Update- All new Nintendo Wiis have controllers come with the new wrist strap. If you would like a controller with an updated wrist strap, please fill out the request form here.

The Greek organization IISA (Independent Information Security Authority) has fined Vodafone for wiretapping. The IISA is accusing Vodafone of tapping the conversations of around 100 people, including Greece's prime minister, cabinet, journalists and activists. This is not the first time Vodafone has been fined for wiretapping. The last time was during the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Vodafone claimed that it found the problems (illegal software), and cleaned them. Vodafone claims that the same illegal software is to blame for the current accusations, however the alleged wiretaps happened after all illegal software was removed from Vodafone's systems.

Nintendo set to recall "dangerous" Wii strapsNintendo claims that this isn't a recall because their straps are safe, but it certainly seems the best word to describe this. In an announcement earlier today, the company offered to replace 3.2 million Wii remote straps after a number of incidents leading to injuries and damage to property. It looks like you need to go here to fill in a form and then Nintendo will send you a replacement. Nintendo also announced this morning that it will be recalling 200,000 AC adaptors for the Japanese DS and DS Lite.

Any creative readers who believe they possibly just thought up the best idea ever can now search over 7 million US patents in the same way they search the web. Featuring scanned versions of the original patents, Google now lets users take a look and find if their idea already has a patent. This service can already be obtained via the US Patent and Trademark Office, however users may enjoy the more familiar face of Google. Admittedly this list of patents is not complete, so further research will be needed, but at least it will let you know if your idea definitely has been taken. Give it a try here