DigitMemo.com

MPAA is trying to convince major ISPs to do content filtering. Now, merely wanting it is one thing, but the more important point is that “AT&T has agreed to start filtering content at some mysterious point in the future.”

It’s no secret that US content owners want the “middlemen” of the Internet economy to better police their networks and services for material that infringes copyright. The problem, from a legal perspective, is that ISPs like AT&T and Comcast and content hosts like YouTube have the explicit legal go-ahead not to do this; they operate in a tranquil Caribbean “safe harbor” that exempts them from the crushing responsibility to filter and analyze every bit of content passing through their control.

Click for more on AT&T to Help MPAA Filter the Internet? »

McAfee CEO David DeWalt says cyber-crime has become a US$105 billion business that now surpasses the value of the illegal drug trade worldwide.

Despite the increase in government compliance requirements and the proliferation of security tools, companies continue to underestimate the threat from phishing, data loss, and other cyber vulnerabilities, new McAfee CEO David DeWalt said Tuesday.

Click for more on Cybercrime Now Worth $105 Billion, Bypasses Drug Trade »

“Another milestone of online communications has been reached. The smiley turns 25, which is a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon.

:-)

Click for more on The Smiley Face Turns 25 :-) »

Sk0t, an ex-administrator of the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker, who uploaded the latest Star Wars movie got arrested, pleaded guilty to ‘conspiracy to commit copyright infringement’ and ‘criminal copyright infringement’ and got jail and home confinement. As part of his home confinement, he agreed to install some tracking software on his computer. The problem is He’s an Ubuntu Linux user and the government doesn’t have any tracking software for Linux. So he’s been told that he must use Windows for the term of his confinement.

Click for more on Pirate Banned from Using Linux »

Skype has clarified an earlier statement which appeared to blame Microsoft’s monthly patch for last week’s outage of the VoIP service. Skype had attributed the two-day crash of its service to a large number of Windows users logging on after rebooting their systems to install Microsoft’s monthly updates. 

Owing to a lack of additional information, the justification seemed to blame Microsoft. On Tuesday, however, Skype posted a full admission that sought to clear the software giant.

Click for more on Skype absolves Microsoft from outage blame »

A low-rent recidivist con man who targeted eBay customers was jailed for two years on Tuesday. Phillip Shortman, 20, from Cwmbran near Newport in south Wales, was sent to a young offenders’ institution following a conviction for ripping off consumers to the tune of £14,000 and breaching the terms of his probation. Shortman was given an eight-month suspended sentence in January after he was convicted of buying thousands of pounds in stolen fuel cards. He was also found guilty of another £45,000 eBay fraud in 2005, an offence that earned him a year in a detention centre.

This time around the married father-of-two ran bogus auctions for items including 2006 Ryder Cup tickets, a Sony camcorder, and hi-tech mobile phones. He also obtained goods including a £250 laptop and computer parts without payment. Shortman responded to requests for payment for the laptop by sending abusive emails to the seller.

Click for more on Serial eBay fraudster jailed for two years »

Yet another lawsuit here. John Stottlemire is the DVD Jon of coupon-clipping by remove the limitation from coupon.com, and it’s getting him in trouble. Ironically, his original motivation was to get a job at coupon.com.

The California man is on the working end of a federal copyright lawsuit after posting code and instructions that allow shoppers to circumvent copy protection on downloadable, printable coupons — the type used by General Foods, Colgate, Disney and others to sell everything from soap to breakfast cereal.

Click for more on Coupon Hacker Faces DMCA Lawsuit »

US authorities have sentenced a man to seven years in prison for buying stolen identities from cyber-criminals in other countries. More than $1m taken from cash machines, including one single withdrawal of $148,000. He also held over 4,500 illegal credit and debit card account numbers and Pins and that more than $300,000 was transferred overseas.

Jacob Vincent Green-Bressler was convicted of soliciting information including credit and debit card account numbers, Pins, expiration dates, passwords and social security numbers.

Click for more on US identity fraudster jailed for seven years — 4,500 cards stolen and over $1M taken »

Net phone firm Skype says its service is up and running again after three days of “unprecedented” disruption. And, it points the finger at Windows Update for a critical system crash that wiped out the VoIP service for two days.

In a statement posted on the company’s support page, the company claims: “The disruption was initiated by a massive restart of our user’s computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine software update.” This is presumably the Windows updates that were sent out on Patch Tuesday last week, which required the PC to be restarted.

Click for more on Skype issues apology for ‘outage’, blames Windows update »

A study has concluded that casual gaming is the most popular online entertainment activity, with streaming video and social networking following behind.

There are all sorts of things you can do online and if you have ever wondered what most people do online for entertainment, you are not alone. From reading sites BBC, to watching videos on sites like YouTube or visiting social networking sites like FaceBook, what entertainment activity is most popular online? You might be surprised by the answer.

Click for more on Report: Casual Gaming is Most Popular Online Entertainment Activity »