To the unease of many in a country with a history of government spying through the era of the Gestapo and communist rule in East Germany, law enforcement authorities are using the suitcase bomb case to argue for measures that would significantly expand their ability to spy on the once-private realm of My Documents.

Now, along with several other European countries, Germany is seeking authority to plant secret Trojan viruses into the computers of suspects that could scan files, photos, diagrams and voice recordings, record every keystroke typed and possibly even turn on webcams and microphones in an attempt to gain knowledge of attacks before they happen.

Copy and burn firm, Slysoft reckons it has cracked the beefed-up copy protection on Blu-ray disks, BD+.

It reckons it has the routine cracked even though Sony reckons its protection will be good for ten years.

SlySoft boss, Giancarlo Bettini says he has wonders "when people will understand that the more restrictions, pressures and protection measures that are applied to limit the functionality of a thing, the fewer sales that will result, not more."

The Railway Technical Research Institute in Kokubunji, Tokyo, has developed a streetcar powered by a lithium battery that can recharge in under a minute.

Powered by the onboard battery, the vehicle runs at a maximum speed of 40 kph for 15 kilometers and is capable of converting 70 percent of its deceleration energy into electricity, which it sends back to the battery.

The streetcar powered by a lithium battery has been designed to be barrier-free and has a low floor. According to the institute, it uses about 10 percent less power than existing streetcars.

The NYTimes reports that Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, has studied Apple's financial statements and come to the conclusion that AT&T is paying Apple $18 a month, on average, for each iPhone sold by Apple and activated on AT&T's network - up to $432 over a two-year contract.

Last week Apple disclosed that 250,000 iPhones had been purchased but not registered with ATT that Apple thinks are being unlocked so Apple has now taken action to curb unauthorized resellers by limiting sales of the iPhone to two per customer and requiring that purchases must now be made with a credit or debit card - cash will not be accepted.

Researchers have developed a low-cost, low-power computer memory that could put terabyte-sized thumb drives in consumers' pockets within a few years.

Thanks to a new technique for manipulating charged copper particles at the molecular scale, researchers at Arizona State University say their memory is, bit-for-bit, one-tenth the cost of -- and 1,000 times as energy-efficient as -- flash memory, the predominant memory technology in iPhones and other mobile devices.

PMC memory stores information in a fundamentally different way from flash. Instead of storing bits as an electronic charge, the technology creates nanowires from copper atoms the size of a virus to record binary ones and zeros.

A Kent librarian wants an exorcist called in to sort out a haunted lavatory.

Gordon Jenns, 61, who has worked at Gravesend library for 14 years, says the ghost flushes the toilet when he thinks everyone's gone home.

"It's very off-putting. The first time it happened I thought someone had broken in the back door so I went with something very heavy in my hand to give them a warm welcome."

"I'm an ex-marine and not prone to hallucinations. I'm guessing the poor fellow only wants to relieve himself."

Nokia has just launched the Independent Artists Club (IAC), a Web site (http://web-iac.nokia-asia.com) where anyone can go to listen to and download free songs submitted by independent musicians.

Users of Nokia cell phones can download up to 10 tracks per month, while non-Nokia users who register at the site are limited to 5 downloads per month. Free streaming is unlimited for all visitors world-wide.

Mostly, the site is intended as a free and easy means for indie musicians to get their music heard beyond their local community. Currently, Nokia is administering the uploading process, but will allow self-uploads by December.

Wired has an interview with Robert Anderson, the guy who hacked into TorrentSpy's servers and handed over a bunch of internal TorrentSpy info to the MPAA. From the interview, it's quite clear that the MPAA knew that it was getting access to content that had not been legally obtained, but it still pushed Anderson for more such info (including asking him if he could obtain similar info about The Pirate Bay).

At the same time, however, we've noted that TorrentSpy is so aghast at the idea of spying on its own users, that it shut off US access to its site to protect its users from court-ordered spying. So, which organization comes across as more ethical here? The MPAA, who's actively trying to get confidential information from various torrent tracker sites? Or TorrentSpy, who's actively trying to protect the privacy of its users?

It turns out that Comcast is not only throttling BitTorrent, but Gnutella and, strangely, Lotus Notes are also suffering.

I was also able to interview a Comcast Internet executive who would only speak on background. He bobbed and weaved, sticking to his talking points, yet a few things were clear: he would not deny that the company was sending out TCP RST packets, but stated that if it were being done, it was at a "low level" where average users would not see it.

A Comcast engineer who spoke to the Tech Liberation Front's Tim Lee confirmed this, stating that "most users wouldn't even be able to detect the traffic-shaping activities they use without special equipment and training."

"Comcast (doesn't) throttle on a user-by-user basis rather than a protocol-by-protocol basis, (as the company is) concerned with the privacy implications of that approach." Thats right folks, Comcast will sell network wiretaps to the feds for $1,000 a pop, but won't calculate a user's total bandwidth per month for "privacy reasons."

Last month, word got out that an uncensored beta of the game leaked into various BitTorrent sites. The warez build allowed gamers with modded PS2s to play the entire AO-rated version of Manhunt 2, made before Take-Two toned down the violence to placate government censors.

"Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that a former employee of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has acknowledged his responsibility for the unauthorized online distribution of an unrated play-test version of Manhunt 2 submitted for the European PAL Playstation 2 computer entertainment system."

Manhunt 2 has effectively been banned from the UK after the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) refused twice to grant the game a UK rating - determining it "unacceptable" over the fine point that it "constantly encourages visceral killing."