Internet Business

TorrentFreak alerts us to an interesting case happening in Norway right now. Apparently, the most expensive movie ever produced in Norway was (shocking, I know) found on the internet soon after it was released. The filmmakers got very, very upset about this and "launched an investigation." After figuring out what they believed to be the IP address of the first uploader, they went to the police, who basically said they weren't interested in getting involved.

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We noted in the past how odd it was that AT&T blocked something like the place-shifting Sling Player from the iPhone, but allowed place-shifting streaming TV apps from partners like MLB.com.

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Reuters - China plans to crack down on the online gambling industry, including the banks and websites that support it, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its website.

This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com.
Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.

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AP - Hoping to boost revenue, MySpace Music has begun experimenting with audio advertisements that users must hear if they want to listen to music for free online.

Obviously, we've been covering various stories of content creators who are making use of new methods and new ideas to build a successful business model in a very changed world. We get lots of content creators contacting us about what they're doing -- but so many are doing cool things these days that just what they're doing is becoming less interesting than the details of how well they're working.

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The latest version of TweetDeck is out, and although it's a minor update it also introduces some useful changes worth noting.

Originally posted at The Download Blog

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Last week, in discussing its attempt to settle its lawsuit with Google over the Google book scanning project, the Authors Guild posted a rather interesting public letter, entitled To RIAA or Not to RIAA, That was the Question. In defending the settlement, it notes that it could have fought the lawsuit to the end, but that it might have lost.

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NewsFactor - The Chinese government has arrested three hackers who were running an online hacker-training business. The trio of hackers operated Black Hawk Safety Net, a company that collected nearly $1 million from more than 120,000 members.

NewsFactor - Barnes & Noble said Monday that its popular nook e-book reader is back in stock online and will be rolling out in the majority of the bookseller's U.S. stores this week. Customers also will be able to enjoy exclusive Valentine's Day-themed online content this month, the company said.

Last summer, due to a DDOS attack emanating from IP addresses connected to 4chan, AT&T temporarily blocked access to 4chan... without giving a full explanation for why. If you know 4chan, you know why this is a bad idea. It took very little time for the 4chan community to retaliate (and, as you know, no one "retaliates" like 4chan "retaliates"), and only a few days later, when AT&T explained what happened, did 4chan back off.

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The Mac version of the widely used browser plug-in should catch up to the Windows version soon. Also: an apology for mishandling a bug.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

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After an earlier report, the popular DVD-by-mail and video-streaming company now says it does not plan to stream full HD content to its users later this year.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

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PC World - Google plans to tweak Gmail to make it easier for its users to post and share status updates, in an attempt to inject the Web mail service with social-networking capabilities popularized by Twitter and Facebook, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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A whole bunch of you are sending in one of the first mainstream articles I've see on patents that gets almost (but not quite) everything right. The Economist has a wonderful piece that clearly explains why patents are hindering, rather than helping innovation. It notes the difference between innovation and invention -- and how patents quite often can hinder the former.

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Sources familiar with the company's plans tell CNET that Google is ready to integrate status updates into Gmail in Twitter-like style, with a stream of text and multimedia updates.

Originally posted at Relevant Results

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An exec at the gaming company hinted that its 'Madden NFL' franchise will launch a Facebook version, the first application we've seen of EA's Playfish acquisition to its existing game titles.

Originally posted at The Social

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Over the weekend, I finally got to watch the film Copyright Criminals (after having seen clips and a discussion about the film at the Fair Use Film Screening put on by Public Knowledge back in January). I have to admit, the film was pretty depressing.

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