Operators of the social networking site MySpace are partnering with several organizations to help educate users of the site–many of whom are minors–and their parents about appropriate ways to protect kids online. MySpace has become wildly popular with the teen crowd and, as a result, with some online predators. Working with Seventeen magazine, the National […]

The U.S. Department of Commerce said it would renew its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for oversight of the naming system for the Internet. The current MOU will expire at the end of September, and international groups have called for responsibility of Internet names to be […]

Buoyed by a recent ruling from a court in Belgium, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) is leading the development of an automated system for coordinating content permissions with search engines. The Belgian court found that Google violates the rights of content producers when it indexes news stories and reposts parts of those stories on […]

A statement issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce indicates that the agency cannot account for 1,137 laptops that should be in its inventory of about 30,000. Of those that are missing–whether lost or stolen–249 reportedly contained personally identifiable information from the U.S. Census Bureau. The agency said that it has received no reports that […]

Administrators at San Jose State University (SJSU) have temporarily suspended a ban on Internet phone service Skype but said they would reinstitute the prohibition if concerns over network usage are not adequately addressed. A number of universities have blocked use of Skype because of language in the user agreement that appears to allow individuals not […]

Yale University announced plans to begin posting video of course lectures online. Yale’s effort is part of a larger movement in higher education toward open courseware, led in large part by an initiative started at MIT in 2001. For the OpenCourseWare project, MIT posts course materials online, including syllabi, reading lists, and other resources. Diana […]

The Intermission bar at the student union of the University of Westminster in London has implemented six touch-screen tables at the bar, allowing patrons to order drinks from a menu on the screen without leaving their tables. The system reportedly speeds up service and encourages drinkers to try new beverages, going beyond the usual pint […]

Following a complaint from the Association of American Publishers, Cornell University, working with the association, has developed a set of guidelines to help faculty avoid copyright violations when placing materials on electronic reserve. In the spring, the association sent a letter to Cornell expressing concern over what it saw as the common practice of failing […]

Video-sharing site YouTube and Warner Music Group have announced an agreement that allows YouTube to distribute content owned by Warner in exchange for a share of YouTube’s advertising revenue. YouTube is a site where video clips are available free, and many of these clips use copyrighted content from television, albums, or movies. Recently, Universal Music […]

In a legal filing responding to Blackboard’s patent infringement lawsuit, Desire2Learn alleges not only that Blackboard’s patent is invalid but also that senior Blackboard executives were aware of this when they filed the patent application in 1999. According to Desire2Learn, technology developed and marketed by the Instructional Management Systems (IMS) project in April 1998 represents […]