A Hitachi subsidiary has agreed to a $31m fine for its role in an industry-wide conspiracy to fix the prices of monitors sold to computer and handset manufacturers.

Hitachi becomes the fourth maker of LCD monitors to cop to price fixing charges. LG Display in December agreed to pay $400m to settle similar charges, while Sharp has coughed up $120m after also pleading guilty. Chunghwa Picture Tubes, meanwhile, has been ordered to pay $65m.

"Simply put, if a station plays a song, both the author and the performer should be paid," he continued. "These particular performances must have value to the stations or they wouldn't be playing them."

Corgan was testifying on behalf of the Performance Rights Act, which "would close a loophole in copyright law that allows music radio stations to earn billions every year without compensating the artists and musicians," according to a statement from the legislation's backers.

It is removing all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the PRS (Performing Rights Society).

Steve Porter, head of the PRS, said he was "outraged... shocked and disappointed" by YouTube's decision.

In a statement, Mr Porter said the move "punishes British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent".

The US and the UK are trying to refurbish the aging W76 warheads that tip Trident missiles to prolong their life and ensure they are safe and reliable but plans have been put on hold because US scientists have forgotten how to manufacture a mysterious but very hazardous component of the warhead codenamed Fogbank.

'This is like James Bond destroying his instructions as soon as he has read them,' says John Ainslie, the co-ordinator of the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, adding that 'perhaps the plans for making Fogbank were so secret that no copies were kept.'

Several exhibitors have complained their wares have been nicked by nimble hands this week, with A-Data getting particularly badly burned.

"We didn't expect someone could steal an SSD, especially since it's under a [glass] case", said a shocked Iwi Lin who told the INQ he discovered the thievery after the booth's display screens went blank.

It seems that just about every pitch these days is for "cloud computing", and the folks with the money are getting a little weary of it.

The plethora of storage businesses are a great example of what I am talking about; if you read closely, there are actually a variety of products and services being offered under that moniker among the participants. Thus, defining yourself as Storage-as-a-Service or "cloud storage" may just not be enough any more.

The stink of flatulence and rotten eggs could provide a surprising lift for men. Hydrogen sulphide causes erections in rats and may one day provide an alternative to Viagra for men.

Nitric oxide (NO) helps relax the walls of arteries that supply the penis, allowing extra blood to flow in. Viagra works by blocking an enzyme that destroys NO.

It's been nearly nine years since Lars Ulrich became one of the most vocal opponents of Napster and the generation of file-sharers it spawned.

However, the once vehemently anti-p2p Ulrich came out with a softened stance.

Now, just a few months later, Ulrich has admitted that following years of aggression against file-sharing, he has actually just tried it out for himself.

"I sat there myself and downloaded 'Death Magnetic' from the Internet just to try it," he said. "I was like, 'Wow, this is how it works.' I figured if there is anybody that has a right to download 'Death Magnetic' for free, it's me."

California Assemblyman Joel Anderson plans to introduce a bill to force Google Earth and similar services to blur images of so-called 'soft targets' like schools, hospitals, churches and government buildings to protect them from terrorists. 'All I'm trying to do is stop terrorists,' said Anderson. 'I don't want California to be helping map out future targets for terrorists.'

In early June of 2007, Susan Simon noticed odd things happening to her internet connection and traced the troubles to an outfit called Adzilla that turned out to be spying on everything she did online.

The purported class-action lawsuit seeks to put another spike in the heart of online marketers' dreams of total information awareness.