In The News

“Netflix for Piracy” Popcorn Time Saved by Fans

Dave Lee March 19, 2014
Consumers can’t resist the lure of free entertainment. The film industry may want to shut down software development that provides easy sharing, but Popcorn Time may have the last laugh. The service that freely streams digital content as BitTorrent files, including movies, has been released as open-source software posted free online and already translated into 32 languages. “This means that anyone...

Jobs Across the Web

Nayan Chanda March 13, 2014
The tech industry is now changing the nature of outsourcing. Employees no longer must leave country or home, and companies can pay for the amount of labor they need. “Online portals linking a job seeker with a global employer is the latest iteration of an evolution of e-commerce involving products,” explains Nayan Chanda , YaleGlobal editor, in his column for Businessworld. “The next phase of the...

You Can Hunt for Flight 370

Lizzie Crocker March 12, 2014
A Malaysian Airlines jet with 239 persons on board vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. “Using high-resolution satellite images and the eyes of any human that’s willing to help, earth imagery company DigitalGlobe launched a campaign to scan the Gulf of Thailand for survivors,” reports Lizzie Crocker for the Daily Beast, about the company that provides imagery for Google Earth and Apple...

“Contagious” Wi-Fi Virus Created by Liverpool Researchers

Dave Lee March 3, 2014
A team of researchers have invented a wi-fi computer virus that spreads from network to network like the common cold – with the goal of inventing and integrating detection systems at wi-fi access points. “The virus, dubbed Chameleon, seeks out wi-fi access points – devices that transmit the wi-fi signal, found in many homes – that have not had their admin password changed,” Dave Lee reports for...

Linking to Free Web Content Is Legal, Says EU Court

February 17, 2014
Free online content can be freely linked by others and does not violate copyright law, so rules the European Court of Justice. A Swedish court requested the ruling after disputes between journalists and a web company that posted links to online news articles, reports BBC News. “The journalists argued in the original case that users of Retriever Sverige's website would not know that they had...

Microsoft Blames “System Error,” Denies Censoring Chinese Search Results

Dominic Rushe February 13, 2014
Internet users, hungry for instant but complete information, often type a search term and check out top offerings. Depending on a user’s expertise, discrepancies or missing data may or may not be apparent. “On Tuesday, campaigners at FreeWeibo, a tool that allows uncensored search of Chinese blogs, revealed that Bing returns radically different results in the US for English and simplified Chinese...

Turkey Approves Harsh New Internet Law

Joshua Hersh February 10, 2014
Turkey’s government has approved a law, which requires the president’s approval, imposing new regulations for the internet: “The law, which still requires final approval by the country's president, would permit the government to quickly shutter a website deemed inappropriate, and orders Internet companies to store traffic and other data for two years,” reports Joshua Hersh for the World Post...