George Hotz, who you may recall as the teenage hacker who originally unlocked the iPhone, has let loose a jailbreaking app for the iPhone 3GS code named purplera1n.

Holtz notes that he normally doesn't make tools for the general public and wouldn't rather wait for the iPhone dev team to do that.

John Biggs over at CrunchGear is among those who have already given already given purplera1n a go and declares the jailbreaking process "amazingly simple."

In shipping the software, Acer, Sony, and Lenovo have defied cease and desist letters from US software maker Solid Oak, which claims that Green Dam includes code pirated from its Cybersitter net-filtering tool.

"Not only does it block access to a wide range of web sites based on keywords and image processing, including porn, gaming, gay content, religious sites and political themes, it actively monitors individual computer behavior, such that a wide range of programs including word processing and email can be suddenly terminated if content algorithm detects inappropriate speech."

This is confirmed by Brian Milburn and Solid Oak. If you type certain words related to Falun Gong, for instance, Green Dam shuts down your notepad.

Taiwan consumer regulators have ordered Dell to honor an online pricing error that offered 19-inch LCD monitors for only NT$500 (US$15).

Dell has been ordered to make good on the erroneous price for customers who placed an order on one monitor and offer diminishing discounts on additional monitors ordered.

News reached the press today in Sweden - The Pirate Bay might get aquired by Global Gaming Factory X AB.

It's time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody.

I hope everybody will help out in that and realize that this is the best option for all. Don't worry - be happy!

Microsoft has been sticking to a strict "No comment" on rumors that a version of the upcoming Windows 7 operating system will be available on a USB memory stick.

Unlike the Vista and Windows XP Starter editions, the Windows 7 Starter will have the ability to run more than three concurrent applications on a PC, boosting the potential productivity of the netbook.

Piracy watchdog Nexicon has found the ultimate way to turn piracy into profit for the fresh copyright holders added to their clientele. They offer alleged file-sharers the chance to settle for $10 per downloaded song or an equal amount for a pirated movie. If you decide not to settle, they promise to bankrupt you in court.

The company has a history as a cigarette retailer but went on to hunt pirates after they were sued for selling smokes to minors and failing to report their sales to the tax office.

The emails sent out by Nexicon to alleged infringers contain veiled threats of legal action if they don't choose to settle within 10 days.

However, because of these low fees and the use of threatening language we cannot help mentioning the word 'extortion' once more.

To the best of our knowledge they don't even have a proper license to act as private investigators which is a felony in several US states and renders the 'evidence' they have in their spreadsheets useless.

Posner is a United States Court of Appeals judge in Chicago and legal scholar who was once considered a potential Supreme Court nominee.

He wants to "bar linking" to newspaper articles or any copyrighted material without the "copyright holder's consent." I am sorry Judge Posner, but I don't need to ask your permission to link to your blog post or to a newspaper article online. That is just the way the Web works. If newspapers don't like it, they don't need to be on the Web.

Where does Judge Posner think all of these newspaper sites get their readers? It is mostly through links, not direct traffic. Removing the links would obliterate the majority of the online readership for many newspapers.

Defunct American airport security lane service Clear said on Friday it may sell its sensitive customer data to a similar provider if it's authorized to do so by the US government.

The company adds that its customers' personally identifiable information could still be used by a similar provider, presumably if Clear's assets are sold later on.

Pioneering investigations have thrown the first scientific light on the highly unusual case of Brooke Greenberg, a child from Baltimore, Maryland, who is 16 years old, but whose size and development corresponds to that of an infant of 11 months.

Her brain, for example, is scarcely more mature than that of a newborn infant. Although she can recognise her mother and make gestures and noises to articulate her wishes, she can't talk.

Marx issued a strong statement against the "greedy actions of the major labels" after hearing about the $1.92 million Jammie Thomas-Rasset verdict.

In the wake of the RIAA win, the organization's legendarily poor public image somehow got even worse. Chicago Sun-Times music critic Jim DeRogatis called the Thomas-Rasset ruling "infamous as one of the most wrong-headed in the history of the American judicial system - not to mention that it will forever stand as the best evidence of the contempt of the old-school music industry toward the music lovers who once were its customers."