Webware

EU court: Social networks can't be forced to monitor users

The European Union's highest court says social networks cannot be forced to monitor users just to stop piracy.

The European Court of Justice ruled today that forcing social networks to install monitoring systems just to see if people are illegally downloading copyrighted material creates a "complicated" and "costly" burden on the sites for little or no upside. The court was also concerned about the privacy of user data.

The court made a similar ruling in November, protecting the rights of Internet dervice providers, who argued that they shouldn't be forced to filter Web content for the sole purpose more

Originally posted at The Digital Home

Browser maker Opera acquires two mobile ad networks

Taking another step to diversify its revenue sources and extend into the mobile market, browser maker Opera Software said it's acquired two mobile ad companies, Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising.

The Norwegian company announced the deals today in conjuction with reporting fourth-quarter financial results. In that quarter, revenue rose to $10.4 million from $7.4 million the year earlier, while last year's loss of $97,000 swung to net income of $7.22 million.

The two companies Opera acquired offer demand-side ad networks, Mobile Theory focused on U.S. advertising and 4th Screen focused on Europe. more

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Microsoft advising users to apply latest critical security patches

Microsoft is urging Windows users to apply yesterday's security updates to patch critical holes affecting Internet Explorer and Media Player.

The critical IE update affects versions 7, 8, and 9, and could allow an attacker to remotely run code on a user's PC using a "specially crafted Web page," according to Microsoft. As such, someone who exploited the hole could grab the same rights as the local user, of special concern if the user has administrative rights.

The update brings Internet Explorer 9 up to version 9.0.5. The vulnerability also affects IE 6 but is rated more

Originally posted at Microsoft

Google Wallet fixes prepaid card security bug

Google has patched a hole in Google Wallet that could've allowed someone to access a user's funds simply by resetting the PIN and using a prepaid card.

The company said yesterday it has issued a fix that now prevents a prepaid card from being re-provisioned to another person. It has also restored the ability to issue new prepaid cards following a move on Monday to disable the use of such cards.

Osama Bedier, vice president of Google Wallet and Payments, said that he wasn't aware of any actual incidents of people abusing the prepaid cards or Wallet more

Originally posted at Security

Unity game engine embraces Google's Native Client

Startup Unity Technologies released version 3.5 of its video game engine that now includes support for Google's Native Client browser-boosting software.

Unity's software is a cross-platform tool that lets game programmers reach a wide range of devices--everything from iPhones to Windows to browsers. Cross-platform tools are only worth it if they reach a broad number of platforms, though, so it's important to expand, and the company has been working on Unity 3.5 for months.

Native Client is Google software built into Chrome that lets programmers run lightly modified C or C++ software directly in the more

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Advisory firm scolds Facebook for Zuckerberg control

Facebook is employing a dual-class stock structure when it goes public, and a corporate governance organization is not too happy about it.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), an organization that provides corporate governance services, has criticized the world's largest social network for planning to give CEO Mark Zuckerberg too much control following his company's IPO.

The Wall Street Journal, which obtained a copy of a report filed by the ISS, was first to report on the story.

According to papers Facebook filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month, Zuckerberg owns about 28 percent of the social more

Originally posted at The Digital Home

ICANN attracts 100 would-be Net domain operators

ICANN, the Internet overseer that's begun a process to expand Net domains dramatically beyond the likes of .com and .edu, said today 100 organizations have registered to get involved.

The expansion concerns generic top-level domains, or GTLDs. ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) spent years putting the new program together so the Internet could use Web and e-mail addresses ending in .paris, .canon, .hotel, and .eco.

As of Monday, 100 registrants successfully joined the program, but ICANN didn't say who they are or what GTLDs they're seeking to establish. Organizations have until March 29

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Coming in 2012: Firefox for Windows 8's Metro

Mozilla plans to release a concept version of Firefox for Windows 8's new Metro interface in the second quarter with alpha and beta versions to follow in the second half of 2012.

Mozilla announced the Firefox for Metro project in conjunction with its 2012 strategy documentation deluge.

Metro is a new user interface that replaces the Windows start button and menu with a grid of tiles. Those tiles launch software, but when they're on people's home screens they also can display anything from photos to message notifications. Deeper down, Metro comes with an entirely new set of more

Originally posted at Deep Tech

Microsoft online customer accounts hacked in India

Microsoft's online store in India was hacked on Sunday, resulting in the theft of usernames and passwords of the site's customers.

A Chinese group of hackers calling itself Evil Shadow Team took credit for the hack, posting screenshots of obscured usernames and passwords that it found unencrypted on the site, according to Reuters. The group touted the attack on its own blog (here's an English translation). posting a screenshot of the hacked Web site with the message: "Unsafe system will be baptized."

Microsoft has since taken down the hacked site and replaced it with a message telling more

Originally posted at Microsoft