Violent video game law scotched by US judge

A US judge has deemed that Michigan's attempts to ban retailers from selling violent video games to children is unconstitutional. The ruling is a success for trade groups representing US games publishers, which filed a lawsuit last year. Federal District Judge George Caram Steeh has ruled in favour of a lawsuit declaring that the law is unconstitutionally vague and limits First Amendment rights (regarding freedom of expression), reports The Washington Post. ...more

Google Desktop leaves beta

Google Desktop is now officially out of beta. The product aims to organise not only a user's web searches but will also index a range of files on the local hard disk including Word and Excel documents as well as stored email messages. It will also include chats via Chats from AOL 7+, AOL Instant Messenger 5+, and MSN Messenger. ...more

Firefox 1.1 delayed until June

The next point release of the open source browser Firefox is now dated for June. However the developers insist that the delay is 'normal' and has nothing to do with the recent movement of programmers to Google. According to Firefox's lead engineer Ben Goodger - in the news recently by taking a job with Google - the anticipated March release of version 1. ...more

Google defends inclusion of anti-semitic web site

Google has run into trouble with Jewish groups over an anti-semitic website appearing in its results. However, the search engine is refusing to remove the site from its listings. By typing 'jew' into Google the top ranked site that appears is 'Jew Watch', a site that claims to be 'Keeping a Close Watch on Jewish Communities & Organizations Worldwide'. ...more

Trojan harvests software keys for cracked copies

Yet another version of the Agobot worm is starting its rounds: Agobot-KN. The much copied threat - the code for which is widely available on hacker and virus-writing sites - now exists in hundreds of versions. One interesting twist in the latest version is that it attempts to steal the Windows Product ID and keys from several computer apps or games, such as Neverwinter Nights, Unreal Tournament (2003 and 2004) and various Medal of Honor games. ...more