Education officials said the final piece of the Scottish Schools Digital Network–an intranet connecting 800,000 students and teachers in the country–is ready to be implemented. Education Minister Peter Peacock said that the country has been building infrastructure for some time, including “a large-scale broadband network linking all 32 local councils and a content delivery network […]

Chinese search engine Baidu said it will appeal a ruling by a Beijing court that found the company guilty of copyright violations for providing access to sites that offer illegal music downloads. Baidu has a dedicated MP3 search feature that has been extremely popular, but with the search engine’s success has come criticism from record […]

The latest challenge to Google’s Print Library Project has come in the form of a lawsuit from the Authors Guild. Since Google announced its initiative to scan millions of books in several academic and public libraries and put those materials–or portions of them–online, the search engine has been roundly criticized by publishers and others who […]

The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) has called on Congress to pass federal legislation that would specify the conditions under which companies and government agencies would be required to notify consumers regarding breaches of data security. According to Greg Garcia, vice president of information security programs and policy at the ITAA, 17 states have […]

A new application developed at Pennsylvania State University at University Park puts P2P technology to use in academic pursuits. Funded in part by a $1.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, LionShare allows users to search for and access files on other users’ computers, similar to P2P applications that have opened the door […]

Following a Supreme Court defeat this summer, P2P service provider Grokster is reportedly considering being acquired by Mashboxx, a provider of legal downloads that is expected to start operating in the next few months. The Supreme Court’s decision opened the door to record studios’ suing Grokster and its codefendant Morpheus for damages from copyright violations […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is providing the initial funding for a new Center for Information Protection (CIP) at Iowa State University. Corporations, security vendors, and academic researchers will work together through the center to develop solutions to short-term security concerns. The center has already attracted 13 charter members, including Boeing, Cargill, Principal Financial Group, […]

A new report from security firm Symantec identifies voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology as potentially fertile ground for a wave of cybercrime, including a new variation on an old scam. Within the next 18 months, Symantec expects VoIP to become a “significant” channel for electronic mischief including audio spam, voice phishing, call hijacking, and […]

A new technology developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology could prove to be an effective tool in efforts to limit the use of digital cameras. As digital cameras–both still and video–have gotten smaller and have been incorporated into other devices such as cell phones, some users have started using cameras in inappropriate places, such […]

Unhappy with the pace at which consumer electronics firms and IT researchers are developing tools to protect digital content, the six major movie studios will launch a research lab to address their concerns. Called Motion Picture Laboratories, or MovieLabs, it will focus on technologies to protect content, with the expectation that such research can also […]