The US has a hardcore group of people who simply aren't interested in using the Internet. Around a third of US adults have rejected the Net, causing researchers to split them into two distinct groups.

"Resistors" - which make up 16 per cent of this hardcore group - have access to the Net either at home or work but chose not to use it. The second group - which makes up around 20 per cent of the US population - is described as "Unconnected," and doesn't have access to hand anywhere.

Emails and invitations sent to Hotmail from Gmail accounts do not bounce, but nor do they arrive in the recipient's Inbox - they vanish mysteriously into the aether. Joel Johnson writes in his Gizmodo weblog that invitations he sent to a Hotmail address bounced (this even received coverage from ZDNet). Search Engine Roundtable writes that several ISPs are blocking Gmail. It's already well-documented that Yahoo moves Gmail invites into the Bulk Mail folder. I've personally confirmed the Hotmail and Yahoo blocking.

San Francisco, CA and New York, NY - If the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gets its way, consumers will not be permitted to listen to digital radio broadcasts unless they use an industry-approved device.

This is only the latest chapter in a decades-long campaign by the RIAA to stop home recording of radio broadcasts. But as EFF and the Brennan Center point out in their comments, it is perfectly legal for people to make home recordings of radio broadcasts under current copyright laws.In essence, the RIAA is urging the FCC to override home recording rights guaranteed to the public by copyright law.

"The RIAA is trying to halt the development of next-generation digital technologies, like a Tivo for radio -- technologies that are perfectly legal under copyright law," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "This is about restricting personal home taping off the radio, something that Congress has said is legal and that millions of Americans have been doing for decades."

An unwanted email received yesterday illustrated some of the basic problems with an opt-in legislation in one country and an opt-out legislation in another.

"If there is a valid email address out there then this is legal for Quest Systems to send email to this until this specific email address does opt-out from getting future newsletters from Quest Systems."

"For any that get hostile towards or flame or send any shape or form of a threat to Quest Systems it will be that these will be proactively reported to the FBI." [He must be clairvoyant if he reports proactively.]

And therein lies the rub. When one country adopts one type of legislation but others another, and when folk like Mr Kurtz assume that because we have no country identifier in our email address we must be based in the USA, the fundamental problem of conflicting anti-spam legislation becomes very obvious.

It seems that Capitol Records has some sort of new copy protection system, that automatically, silently, installs "helpful" copy protection software on MacOS and Windows as soon as you insert the CD into default systems. I'm not sure exactly what it does yet, but I am sure regreting actually purchasing said media now... they don't deserve my money if they choose to pull stupid stunts like this. Installing software without your permission sounds like viral malware behaviour to me. I certainly hope the AV companies put signatures into their products for this crap.

They include some sort of uninstaller buried on there for Windows, but I see no such thing for MacOS.

The test with Velvet Revolver, a group made of alumni from Stone Temple Pilots, Guns N' Roses and others, was the largest yet for BMG. The test uses MediaMax copy protection from BMG partner SunnComm International. The label says it does plan a growing number of protected releases over the course of this year, but is still choosing which CDs will include the technology on a case-by-case basis.

As in earlier tests by BMG and SunnComm, the copy protection on the Velvet Revolver disc can be simply disabled by pushing the "Shift" key on a computer while the CD is loading, which blocks the SunnComm software from being installed. The companies say they have long been aware of the work-around but that they were not trying to create an unhackable protection.

However, the inability to move songs to Apple's popular digital music player, as well as to other devices that don't support Microsoft's Windows Media digital rights management services, is a serious shortcoming. Jacobs says SunnComm recognizes that--and that the company's next version will go beyond the Microsoft files and be able to create multiple kinds of digital files that will be compatible with the iPod.

Apparently, someone in London recently sent an urgent video tape via courier which duly arrived in the post room at said outpost of The Corporation. One of the operatives therein - noticing that the label was peeling off - decided to replace it with a new one. He removed the original and stuck it on the fridge, intending to copy the address after lunch.

The next morning, the sender of the tape was surprised to find this voice message (mp3) on his mobile. Enjoy.

In response to those readers who have requested, nay demanded, a transcript of the voice message, here it is:

"First saved message: message received yesterday at 9.20am."

"Hi Paul, this is Beth. We have an emergency. Apparently you gave the courier a six-foot fridge to be delivered to BBC Bristol instead of the tape we need in the studio today. Could you call me on 0117-xxx-xxxx as soon as you get this message? Bye."

Thieves snatched two computers from a Hong Kong trade fair, a particularly brazen act considering that the victims were security companies showing off the latest crime-stopping technology.

The thieves stole two laptop computers worth $2,500 from the Asia Securitex 2004 trade show on Wednesday, police spokeswoman Carrie So said.

"If you can't expect good security here, where can you expect it?" exhibitor Shinah Lunty was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post newspaper. Lunty told the newspaper that her mobile phone, worth $260, was also stolen.

Scientists have performed successful teleportation on atoms for the first time, the journal Nature reports.

What the teams at the University of Innsbruck and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist) did was teleport qubits from one atom to another with the help of a third auxiliary atom.

It relies on a strange behaviour that exists at the atomic scale known as "entanglement", whereby two particles can have related properties even when they are far apart. Einstein called it a "spooky action".

The landmark experiments are being viewed as a major advance in the quest to achieve ultra-fast computers, inside which teleportation could provide a form of invisible "quantum wiring".

Faced with a new set of lawsuits, prominent DVD and game copying software company 321 Studios may be nearing the end of its short and tumultuous life, Chief Executive Robert Moore said Wednesday.

Moore's company was sued by a trio of large video game companies on Tuesday. The companies contend that 321 Studios' recently released Games X Copy software violated copyright law. Previously, a San Francisco judge had ruled that 321's popular DVD X Copy was illegal, because it was able to circumvent copyright protection programs. The judge ordered it removed from the market.

The St. Louis company has been a standard-bearer for the idea of fair use of entertainment--essentially the idea that consumers should be able to make personal backup copies of products they have purchased, such as CDs, DVDs or video games.