UK man convicted in first Web rage case

A man has been found guilty of the UK's first 'Web rage' attack, after tracking down and attacking a man who insulted him on the Internet. After an argument in chat room, including allegations of paedophilia, Paul Gibbons traced John Jones to his home in Essex where he turned up with a pickaxe handle and accompanied by another as-yet-unnamed man carrying a machete. Gibbons beat Jones, then cut him across his throat, narrowly missing his jugular vein. ...more

Optical disc production becomes a profitless business

Global prices of polycarbonate (PC) are at a high of US$3.5 per kilogram and are making production of optical discs almost profitless in spite of a significant increase in orders, Taiwanese makers in the industry pointed out. The Taiwanese makers originally expected the price level of PC to drop this quarter. ...more

High Court absolves ISPs for libelous Web postings

The High Court has absolved three UK ISPs of any liability for potentially libelous Web postings made by their customers. John Bunt was attempting to sue three individuals and their service providers - AOL, BT and Tiscali - for postings on a Usenet message board. Bunt's lawyers based their case on the basis of the 2001 Godfrey v Demon Internet ruling that determined that Demon was liable for posts on its own news server, although the post has been made by an unknown person via another ISP. ...more

US-CERT flags Acer laptop vulnerability

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) has warned users of Acer notebooks that a pre-installed ActiveX control could be used by hackers to take over vulnerable computers. According to the agency, if a hacker convinced a user to visit a specially crafted website using Internet Explorer they could subvert the system by running arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. The Acer LunchApp ActiveX control is provided by LunchApp. ...more

Councils bar camera phones

Two councils in Ireland, one north and one south of the border, have banned camera phones from local authority-owned facilities as fears grow that they could be used by paedophiles to take pictures of children. Coleraine Borough Council in the north banned the phones earlier this week, while Dublin City Council revealed yesterday that it had taken the decision to ban the phones after a number of its leisure centres had unilaterally acted to protect users' privacy. The UK's Institute of Sport and Recreation Management has published detailed guidelines on the 'Photographing of children in sports centres/swimming pools' (available in PDF). ...more