A tepid version of strip poker for cell phones is set to debut in the United States, and while there's no nudity--on the screen, at least-- the game's distributor is preparing for complaints that it stretches the boundaries of good taste.

Pfaff said the company is readying itself for a storm of indecency complaints. The U.S. version has been "toned down" from the one now available in Europe, where the virtual models are nude, due to more conservative U.S. attitudes towards nudity.

The U.S. version is "about as racy as a lingerie ad," Pfaff said.

"Apparently Microsoft's resolved to leave no stone unpatented, starting out the New Year with patents for Paying Bills ('the consumer is in direct control of the amount to be paid and the payment date') and IM Invisibility ('users may not ever even know that they are viewing inaccurate presence information'). Coincidentally, IM invisibility was the subject of a quip made by MS blogger Robert Scoble a day before the patent was issued." The paying bills patent is a little more involved -- as it's more about " managing" how you pay your bills to avoid overdraft problems. Not sure that's really patentable, but it's not just for paying bills. The IM one is amusing, and you can bet Yahoo will have something to say about that, considering they already have selective IM invisibility enabled on their client (which is also the answer to Scoble's question).

Before the end of the year, the first U.S. biometric passport will be issued with a tiny computer chip and antenna embedded inside it. The chip will contain a digital image of the person's face, along with other information such as name, birth date and birthplace. The data on the chip can be picked up wirelessly using a radio signal.

The problem, security and privacy experts say, is that the technical standard chosen for the system leaves passport data unprotected.

'The U.S.-backed standard means that all the information on American passports can be read by anyone with an RFID reader, whether they are an identity thief, a terrorist trying to spot the Americans in a room or a government agent looking to vacuum up the identities of everyone at a political rally, gun show or mosque,' said Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington, D.C., legislative office.

Hasbrouck believes the new passports will enable 'undetectable tracking and the identification of travelers, as well as secret, remote collection of all the data needed to create perfect passport forgeries.'

The District Court of Munich has ordered Fujitsu Siemens Computers (Holding) BV to pay a copyright levy on new PCs.

VG Wort had filed a suit against Germany's largest PC maker, Fujitsu Siemens, seeking €30 (US$41) for each new computer sold in the country. The court agreed to a €12 copyright levy.

Germany is one of several European countries that, for decades, has been collecting special copyright levies on the sale of analog copying devices, such as blank audio and video cassettes. The levies are intended to compensate rights holders for lost royalties from private copying of music, images and moves.

Chief Executive Officer Bernd Bischoff called the copyright levy "a de facto tax on PCs," which has a negative impact on sales to consumers.

Terrorists have not engaged in a nationwide plot to annoy pilots with laser pointers, according to the FBI.

The FBI investigated 8 incidents over the past two weeks in which pilots reported seeing laser beams in their cockpits. The lasers appeared most often during takeoff and landing and were seen in Texas, Oregon, New Jersey and Ohio. As it turns out, the laser attacks were likely the result of accidents or just horseplay.

Ever vigilant, the FBI is now investigating a new laser incident after United Airlines pilots reported seeing a green light when taking off from Nashville International Airport. The pilots were able to complete the flight and landed unharmed here in Chicago.

British police said on Sunday they had arrested a man after a hoaxer posing as a government official e-mailed relatives of people missing since the Asian tsunami, saying their loved ones had been confirmed dead.

The hoaxer, claiming to be from the "Foreign Office Bureau" in Thailand, targeted people who had placed appeals for information about relatives and friends on the Web site of TV station Sky News.

"The British government would not use e-mail to convey news of the death of a loved one," police said. "Anyone receiving such an e-mail should treat it with utmost caution."

Sky News said it was "disgusted" at the abuse of the message board on its Web site and had contacted police as soon as it was alerted to the hoaxes.

The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California.

The state's Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act bans the installation of software that takes control of another computer.

It also requires companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware.

Consumers are able to seek up to $1,000 in damages if they think they have fallen victim to the intrusive software.

A recent survey by Earthlink and Webroot found that 90% of PCs are infested with the surreptitious software and that, on average, each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs.

A reader initially alerted PC World to an ad-laden Windows Media Audio file, titled "Alicia Keys Fallin' Songs In A Minor 4.wma." We then found two other WMA files and two Windows Media Video files that had been similarly modified.

Using a packet analysis tool called Etherpeek, we determined that each media file loaded a page served by a company called Overpeer (owned by Loudeye). That page set off a chain of events that led to the creation of several Internet Explorer windows, each containing a different ad or adware.

Morgenstern characterized Overpeer's actions as just deserts for people who illegally trade copyrighted works for free. "Remember, the people who receive something like (the ad-laden media files), in some cases, were on P-to-P, and they were trying to get illicit files," he says.

When we played the modified files, the License Acquisition dialog box showed a page containing ads and quickly spawned more IE windows, each containing a different ad.

Not only did we get bombarded with unwanted ads, but one of the ad windows in a video file tried to install adware onto our test PC surreptitiously, while another added items to our browser's Favorites list and attempted to change our home page. And a window from the original music file asked to download a file called lyrics.zip, which contained the installer for 180search Assistant, commonly categorized as an adware program.

It seems that the attack on torrent sites is continuing strong. This time Lokitorrent is being sued by the MPAA. Unlike Suprnova and most of the previous sites however, they aren't planning to just roll over and die. It will no doubt be a dificult fight, but they plan to stay up for the time being. Also, they are asking for donations to cover their legal expenses. So far they have raised $8,755 out of a needed $30,000.

Microsoft is hosting a discussion on Windows and Linux between its two top Linux consultants. Martin Taylor and Bill Hilf talk about the various OSS licenses, focus on the open source development model, competing implementations of administration tools, TCO, and risk assessment. Also available in offline formats, doc (which looks fine in OpenOffice.org) and wma as well.