US votes to ban social networking sites

The US House of Representative has voted almost unanimously to ban social networking sites from schools and public libraries. The Deleting Online Predators bill was passed by 410 votes to 15 and forces taxpayer-funded bodies to block children's access to sites such as MySpace. Opponents of the bill claim that its definition of social networking sites is so vague that the law could be used willy-nilly by the administering body, the Federal Communications Commission, to restrict access to sites that were never meant to come under its remit. ...more

Delayed Vista and sluggish Blu-ray cast market shadow

The delayed release of Windows Vista and the sluggish rollout of Blu-ray and HD DVD are causing concern in the PC market , following significant falls in the share prices of Dell, HP and Apple, BusinessWeek reports. There is also the prospect of a price war coupled with a general economic slowdown. 'There's a softness in the market that's building,' Richard Shim, a senior research analyst at IDC, told BW. ...more

American Presidential e-lections

The American states of California and Arizona are to conduct the November Presidential Elections online. VoteHere.net and Compaq have joined forces to provide complete solutions to state sponsored online voting pilots. ...more

AOL puts ?10 premium on BT broadband

AOL broadband services will now cost ?10 more in areas where the company's own LLU service is not available. In these exchanges, AOL instead buys capacity from BT. The development will give extra weight to concerns that the advent of LLU-based broadband services could widen the UK digital divide. ...more

France to back off forcing open iTunes

French legislators appear to have reached a compromise that will allow Apple to maintain the exclusive link between iPods and iTunes Music Store downloads. Having previously threatened to force Apple and other digital music service operators to remove restrictions on which devices their downloads can be played, France's lower house, the Assembly, is ready to accept a Senate proposal that, the AP reports, will provide a loophole enabling operators to avoid having to license their DRM technologies. According to the report, a new regulatory authority will be given the power to resolve disputes by ordering companies to license their exclusive file formats to rivals, but only if the restrictions they impose are 'additional to, or independent of, those explicitly decided by the copyright holders'. ...more