Google probed for video violence

Italian prosecutors on Friday put two Google Italy representatives under investigation as part of an inquiry into how a video of teenagers harassing an autistic classmate surfaced on its Video site, a judicial source said. The two are being investigated for allegedly failing to check on the content of the video posted on the Internet search engine's Web site. The video, which sparked outrage in the country, showed four teenagers beating and poking fun at a 17-year old disabled boy in a classroom in the northern Italian city of Turin. ...more

BT charges users over its mistakes

British Telecom is to bill thousands of Internet users after discovering that it had been inadvertently providing them with truly free Internet access. Some of BT's telephone exchanges had failed to recognise the 0845 numbers used by subscribers to connect, and instead registered them as dialling a free 0800 number. Despite admitting that the whole affair has been due to its own mistakes, the telecom company still "needs to recoup the money", which is estimated to amount to around ?5 million. ...more

Online gaming addicts sent to rehab

Online gaming is becoming such a problem in Asia that so-called 'addicts' could soon be sent to rehab, reports Reuters. The government in South Korea has designed clinics to help wean gamers away from their PCs, after reports that the increasing popularity of online games is creating a new generation of addicts. Stories appearing in newspapers across Asia reveal that many gamers are going to extreme lengths to fund their gaming habit. ...more

Neocron game to inspire broadband subscription surge

Apparently the upcoming sci-fi 'massively multiplayer online role-playing game' Neocron will make everyone rush out to get broadband Internet connections! According to CDV, which is to publish the game, a massive 86 percent of those who are planning to purchase the MMORPG have stated that they were strongly considering ditching their old modems in favour of broadband Internet connections. Now, the implication is that the arrival of Neocron will be responsible for a surge in broadband subscriptions. 'If our forecasts are correct, the Neocron subscriber base could drive nationwide broadband subscription up by 10 per cent in one fell swoop,' stated Leo Zullo, Marketing Manager, CDV Software Entertainment. ...more

Adobe releases PDF fixes

Adobe has released updates for its PDF applications to address a pair of minor security flaws. The company discovered a buffer overflow vulnerability in Acrobat 6.x caused by a boundary error when distilling. ...more