We've already pointed to the backlash against the BSA for its activities, and now we're seeing how these kinds of crackdowns are doing exactly the opposite of what BSA/SIIA members would want: they're looking for open source alternatives. Following the ongoing "international crackdown" on software piracy, it appears that the Vietnamese government is the latest to start promoting open source alternatives.

After all, as Microsoft and others have long admitted, you're much better off if someone is using an unauthorized version of your software, than if they're using the competition (especially if that competition is free).

However, by putting such a big effort into cracking down on software piracy, all the industry has done is highlight why people are better off going with free alternatives.

Warner Music has bent beneath the force of the anti-DRM winds sweeping the globe. The label will now offer its complete catalog, DRM-free, through Amazon's new MP3 store.

The announcement means that EMI, Universal, and Warner now offer their catalogues in DRM-free digital formats, making Sony BMG (of rootkit fame) the lone holdout among the majors. Amazon now claims to offer for than 2.9 million songs in MP3 format from over 33,000 unique labels.

The entire movement to free music from DRM's shackles has had stunning success in 2007 after years in which such widespead moves to MP3 looked impossible. Could movies be next?

Despite a series of law enforcement and other attacks on illegal file-sharing this year the number of people using the anti-copyright BitTorrent tracker Pirate Bay has almost doubled.

TorrentFreak reports that Pirate Bay has leapt from about 4.3 million users at the end of 2006 to more than 8 million at the end of this year. The number of files being tracked for download has risen to 915,000 from 576,000.

The Swedish site has added several new servers, mostly from Dell and HP, over the course of the year. Pirate Bay admins reckon they have capacity to double the number of peers tracked without further upgrades.

The Swedish site has attracted floods of file-sharing refugees from TorrentSpy, Demonoid, OiNK, eDonkey and isoHunt, which have all been either shutdown or neutered by legal action this year.

Shares of Apple Inc. hit the $200 mark for the first time Wednesday, as investor confidence in the company continued rising near the end of what has been a strong year for the iPod and computer maker.

Apple released a refreshed line of iPods during the year, updating its flash-based Nano model to one that can play videos, and introducing a device called the iPod Touch which is much like an iPhone without cellular calling capabilities.

"Looks like their business is strong even though retail sales growth in general appears to be weaker than in prior years," Seyrafi said.

A popular software program called NATS, which powers the backend of about 35% of all adult paysites online today has reportedly been in a compromised status for several months while the company that owned and manages the software did little to nothing to correct the issue, according to information obtained by ICWT.

The number of records potentially compromised is not known, but is believed to be in the tens of thousands or perhaps even hundreds of thousands of accounts. The NATS system is deployed on an estimated 35% to 40% of all adult sites, so if someone purchased a membership to an adult site since October, 2007 - there is a good chance that they are potentially effected.

The information that was compromised appears to possibly include, with regard to those who bought memberships on adult sites appears to include name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, IP address, billing information and possibly other information provided or collected during signup.

TMM's John Albright is busy on GFY implying more legal action against people who speak out against him. This time, it appears he is threatening employees of his competition, MPA3.

One week ago Google Reader's team decided to begin showing your private data to all your GMail contacts. No need to opt-in, no way to opt-out. Complaints haven't been answered. Some users share their problems, including one family who says they won't be able to enjoy this Christmas because of this 'feature.' Will Google start doing this with all their products? You can check a summary of complaints in my journal here or browse the whole thread in Google Groups.

The website of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention (NBCP) crashed on Tuesday, just hours after its launch, as droves of people logged on to complain about corruption among officials.

An NBCP official, who did not want to be named, confirmed the breakdown had occurred.

"The number of visitors was very large and beyond our expectations," he said.

"The corruption problem in China is a fatal illness. Establishing more institutions will not solve the problem," one comment read.

From January 20, 2008 new content laws introduced by the Federal Government will force sites to verify the age of users before accessing content intended for mature audiences (MA15+ and R18+).

ACMA (The Australian Communications and Media Authority) claims that adults will not be affected by the new laws, yet user-generated and even chatrooms are required to be assessed for classification and powers are granted to ACMA to send 'take down' notices to offending sites.

Cryptome reports that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has remote administrative access to several of the most popular Windows PC firewalls, and that it has also taken control of a number of supposedly "secure" email services within the past few months.

It writes that the personal computer firewall software products from MacAfee, Symantec and Zone Alarm all "...facilitate Microsoft's NSA-controlled remote admin access via IP/TCP ports 1024 through 1030... without security flag."

"Certain privacy [and/or] full session SSL email hosting services have been purchased [or] changed operational control by NSA and affiliates within the past few months, through private intermediary entities."

The so-called "secure" email services implicated by Cryptome's report include Hushmail, Safe-mail.net, and Guardster.com.

Just a reminder that, if you're not using strong encryption, the NSA is probably reading your email, if not also everything that's on your system's hard drive.

A 17-year old died just hours after her health insurance company reversed its decision not to pay for a liver transplant that doctors said the girl needed.

Doctors at UCLA determined she needed a transplant and sent a letter to CIGNA Healthcare on Dec. 11. The Philadelphia-based health insurance company denied payment for the transplant.

On Thursday, about 150 teenagers and nurses protested outside CIGNA's office in Glendale. As the protesters rallied, the company reversed its decision and said it would approve the transplant.

Despite the reversal, CIGNA said in an e-mail statement before she died that there was a lack of medical evidence showing the procedure would work in Nataline's case.