Sony pressed Netflix for increased “geofiltering” control over its customers to prevent the practice, including restricting payment methods for the service to ways that would allow screening for customers living outside countries where Netflix had contractual rights.

"This is in effect another form of piracy—one semi-sanctioned by Netflix, since they are getting paid by subscribers in territories where Netflix does not have the rights to sell our content."

An exhaustive, five-year Senate investigation of the CIA’s secret interrogations of terrorism suspects renders a strikingly bleak verdict of a program launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, describing levels of brutality, dishonesty and seemingly arbitrary violence that at times brought even agency employees to moments of anguish.

At one point in 2002, CIA employees at a secret site in Thailand broke down emotionally after witnessing the harrowing treatment of Abu Zubaida, a high-profile facilitator for al-Qaeda.

Although the online store for games, films and TV shows seems to be back up and running once again, visitors to the site were brought to a halt on Sunday night with a message reading, "Page Not Found! It's not you. It's the Internet's fault."

The latest hack comes less than a week after Sony celebrated the 20th birthday of the PlayStation games console.

Many people's definition of "liberal" seems to be "say and do whatever you like, as long as I don't find it repulsive." Just as many people's definition of "freedom" is, in fact, "free to think and do only those things of which I approve."

Posting their own petition in the same place as the anti-GTA V one -- Change.org -- these petitioners declare: "Withdraw The Holy Bible -- this sickening book encourages readers to commit sexual violence and kill women."

According to the editors, governments have become more open about their efforts to control the internet by "rapidly adopting new laws that legitimize existing repression and effectively criminalize online dissent."

"The growing restrictions at the national level are changing the nature of the global internet, transforming it from a worldwide network into a fragmented mosaic, with both the rules and the accessible content varying from one country to another," it adds.

Kmart has become the second major retailer to pull controversial video game franchise Grand Theft Auto from its Australian stores.

Target said on Wednesday it would stop selling the game in response to customer complaints sparked by an online petition posted by three women identifying themselves as victims of violence in the sex industry.

“Games should not be treated any differently than books, music, television, or movies rated R18,” Knowles said. “Consumers, which include parents and caregivers, should be allowed to make informed decisions for themselves.”

“Unfortunately, the theft of these films – and their subsequent downloads – has been facilitated by web-hosting companies and, ultimately, ISPs who do have to step-up and take some responsibility.”

Weatherley doesn’t provide detail on precisely why web-hosts and ISPs should take responsibility for the work of malicious hackers (possibly state-sponsored) and all subsequent fall out from attacks. The theory is that “something” should be done, but precisely what remains elusive.

The attackers also posted archive files online containing at least 25 gigabytes of data from Sony’s network.

Sites hosting the data that were listed in the original Pastebin page were apparently subjected to a denial of service attack by someone attempting to stop the spread of the data. However, the files have now been shared through torrents.

The files include records of 401K contributions and wire transfers, payroll audits, health insurance claims and appeals—including names of employees who filed appeals on coverage decisions by Sony Pictures’ health insurer—and travel reimbursement claims.

For a start, the BBFC wants no activities that it classes as "life threatening." These include strangulation, fisting, and face-sitting, although it could be argued the latter would require a morbidly obese performer to be truly life-threatening.

Watersports, violent penetration with foreign objects, and abusive language are on the banned list, although the BBFC says that in the latter case it may not go hard on producers so long as the pornography is clearly roleplaying.

As part of its yearly crackdown, police in Sussex and Surrey are taking to Twitter to document the alcohol-related arrests they make on the road. Each snippet mentions where and when the motorist was pulled over, but also, more importantly, their name if they're eventually charged.

The idea, of course, is to deter people from driving under the influence, but, if they're caught and publicly shamed, it'll also discourage friends and family members from doing the same.