The UK has been judged to be breaking EU employment law, for failing to ensure that workers have proper rest periods.

The case was brought by the European Commission in the European Court of Justice, after the UK was seen to be failing to enforce daily and weekly rest rules.

The rules involve a requirement to allow at least 11 hours before the end of one working day and the start of the next, plus 1 day with 11 hours at the weekend.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had issued guidelines that were accused of encouraging non-compliance because they did not force employers to allow for these rest periods.

AOL has sacked its chief technology officer and two other employees responsible for publishing user data online.

CTO Maureen Govern, whose department oversaw the data release, will leave the company immediately. The researcher and the manager overseeing the research have also apparently been dismissed.

While AOL claimed that no personally identifiable information was made available, researchers have found no problems with tracking down some of the individuals through the types of searches made by them.

While it raises the issue of privacy protection with regards to just how much personally identifiable information is being held by ISPs, at present consumers seek eager to live in ignorance on the matter.

After all, if any national government held all of this user behaviour data there would be an outcry over privacy - but the fact that billion-dollar international corporations hold it seems to suggest that while people use the data-collection products directly, then the trade-off is acceptable.

We await to see when internet users finally wake up to privacy issues.

Google this week announced that they would be showing Adwords advertisers how many clicks are not being charged to them.

The move is in response to growing unease among advertisers that anywhere between 10%-30% of their PPC spend is being wasted on fraudulent clicks - known as clickfraud.

Although the move by Google should be welcomed, advertisers have complained that it simply shows how many “invalid clicks” that Google is actually able to detect - without actually showing how the invalid clicks were determined.

Even more critically, advertisers are still complaining that it does nothing to show how much clickfraud is still getting through.

The issue of clickfraud is very serious for advertisers, not least because ISP’s such as Google that provide Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising benefit from clickfraud directly in terms of extra revenue generation.

Many advertisers therefore feel that PPC programs have a conflict of interest in terms of delivering fraud-free advertising.

Although the move is another step towards greater transparency on PPC issues, the overall complaint remains that ISPs that supply PPC programs are not being open enough on the issue of clickfraud to properly reassure advertisers.

However, Google has already stated that the more information they provide on their clickfraud detection, the more it can only help clickfraudsters develop more robust and less detectable programs.

In an attempt to be more transparent about clickfraud issues,

The MPAA has is in the process of being challenged over it’s aggressive legal threats.

Shawn Hogan was contacted by a lawyer for the MPAA last year, claiming that Shawn had illegally downloaded the film “Meet the Fockers” via BitTorrent.

The MPAA then demanded $2500 in damages.

Shawn denies the charge, and even claims that he already owned the DVD of “Meet the Fockers” anyway.

Most people threatened in this manner give in because the threat of legal action requires more expense than giving in and paying the claim for damages.

However, Shawn Hogan is the millionaire CEO of Digital Point Solutions, an independent ISP and popular provider of webmaster tools. He also owns one of the internet’s biggest webmaster forums.

Shawn has stated his intention to fight the MPAA action all the way.

No court date has yet been set, but is reported to go before a jury by next summer.

Hopefully then the extent of MPAA aggression and legal standing in pursuing alleged pirates will be exposed in court and lead to a complete revision of its bullying tactics.

Microsoft are expected to be slapped with a 2m euro/day fine by the European Commission.

It comes after a long and bitter legal dispute, in which Microsoft were ruled in 2004 to have abused their monopoly position.

Microsoft was ordered to provide code to help other companies develop compliant software for the Windows operating system.

However, the EC has repeatedly accused Microsoft of dragging their feet on the issue.

A decision is expected to be announced when the fine will apply.

Google’s infamous Google Books project was accused of copyright infringement by French publisher La Martiniere.

La Martiniere, which also owns Le Seuil, Delachaux, Niestle and Harry N Abrams, accuses Google of copying 100 of its titles without permission.

Google responded by stating the publisher had every right to opt-out of the project.

Which really underlines the arrogance of Google with regards to the Google Books project - a project that treats copyright as an opt-in process.

It’s not the first legal action we’ve seen, but hopefully we’ll see the legal issues raised settled in reasonable time - and Google told to understand that it cannot simply trample over intellectual property rights, just because Google thinks it is a good idea to.

The music industry in Europe has been accused of being short-sighted, after forcing broadband provider Tiscali to reduce access to online music on its file-sharing network.

At present, Tiscali has an agreement with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) to allow users to listen to tracks online but not download them.

The IFPI objected because Tiscali added a “search by artist” feature, that the IFPI decided breached the licence it had with Tiscali.

However, it should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the backward attitude of the music industry, which at present appears to view the digital age mostly as a piracy threat, rather than a marketing opportunity.

BitTorrent search engine TorrentSpy has accused the MPAA of hiring a hacker, in order to access confidential records from BitTorrent servers.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) - like it’s music counterpart, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) - has become recently aggressive in filing claims in what it claims are copyright violations.

However, sometimes they get it just plain wrong, with the RIAA famously issuing huge settlement claims against dead people and pensioners.

While the MPAA and RIAA have already targeted bit torrent networks previously, these recent allegations claim the battle has taken an additional ugly twist.

If TorrentSpy’s claims that the MPAA are employing illegal methods are proven true, it can only be damaging to the MPAA, and legitimate fights against copyright violations online.

SPECIAL REPORT

Social networking online is becoming an increasingly dominant dynamic in internet user behaviour.

Figures released by analyst group ComScore shows that social networking applications, such as MySpace and FaceBook have become some of the most active sites on the internet.

According to their statistics, the busiest websites in April 2006 were:

1. Yahoo!,
2. MySpace.com
3. MSN-Microsoft,
4. Time Warner Network,
5. eBay,
6. Google,
7. FaceBook.com,
8. Viacom Online,
9. Craigslist,
10. Comcast.

MySpace is a social networking portal, that allows users to sign-up and share information with each other.

FaceBook allows people to connect with others nearby by searching on the site.

Already Hitwise reports that MySpace drives as much as 8.2% of all traffic to Google, making it the single biggest provider of traffic to the search engine.

The Washington Post also reports that MySpace already has more internet traffic than Amazon, and is fast catching up on AOL.

Social networking has been a buzz-word of Web 2.0 - provide an interactive social enviroment for users and they will come and give.

But the big heache is monetisation. MySpace may have traffic between Amazon and AOL but certainly isn’t so profitable as either.

Internet resources cost, and at present, that user traffic simply costs.

Additionally, there are other dangers lurking around social networking applications.

For example, YouTube has taken the net by storm to become a major focus for video uploads.

Google Video was hotly tipped to take the online TV search market by storm, but an over-complicated interface and poor user experience means it’s little used in comparison.

YouTube simplifies all of that - but like all content sharing media networks, it has a problem with copyrighted material being uploaded to it.

That means YouTube is bound to already be on the radar of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPIAA), which has already tried to follow as aggressive a policy against copyright violations onlike as the goose-stepping morons of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The overall results can only mean that You Tube will face legal challenges and associated costs - and all from a Web 2.0 application that - typically - has no real profit model.

And the prevalent use of the sharing of copyrighted material can only remain a threat to social networking applications in general.

In the meantime, Web 2.0 has become a mini dotcom, with plenty of buzz, little in terms of business models, but plenty of expectations.

For the meantime social networking has become a proven source of internet usage. What it is yet to do is prove that this can be safely and responsibly turned in professional revenue models with longevity.

Convinced that the US government was hiding secret information on UFOs, London man Gary McKinnon hacked his way through US military computer systems over 2001-2002.

Now he faces extradition to the US, and possible internment at the infamous Guantanamo Bay concentration camp.

Although US diplomats claim they have offered assurances in a letter that this will not happen, the lawyer representing Gary McKinnon points out that the letter is unsigned and anonymous.

The big point of contention is whether he would be tried in a Federal court, and therefore offered normal democratic legal protection - or whether he would be tried in a military court under Military Order Number One, which means indefinite detention as and how the military sees fit.

While no one is condoning Gary McKinnon’s hacking activities, it remains a point of sore concern that the UK government is seen to be doing very little to protect UK citizens from institutional kidnapping, which is what Guantanamo Bay essentially represents.

The Beatles Apple Corps record company is taking Apple Computers to court.

The row is over the use of “Apple” as a trademark for the music business.

Both companies have been in conflict before, and the current action is over a claim of breach of argument made in the High Court in London in 1991.

Apple dispute timescale:

1968: Apple Corps founded by the Beatles
1976: Apple Computers founded
1981: Both companies agree to share the Apple trademark.
1989: Apple Computers seeks a court order to seek a less restrictive trademark agreement
1991: Agreement reached - details not disclosed
2001: Apple Computers releases the iPod
2003: Apple Computers releases iTunes
2004: The Beatles Apple Corps claims the 1991 agreement has been breached
2006: Proceedings to begin at Londons High Court to decide the issue.

It has been remarked that the 1991 agreement lacked necessary detail to apply to the modern digital age.

This could mean the court case could again take years to reach any conclusion, with both companies bound to contest their case strongly.

Yesterday, the French lower Parliament voted to force all music downloads in the country to be cross-compatible between different services and devices.

Today Apple responded angrily, calling the proposed law “state-sponsored piracy”.

However, they also bullishly suggested that sales of iPods - Apple’s key music playing hardware - would increase, as other people would likely make the device the choice of preference - even for illegal file playing.

The whole issue of contention in the French law is focused on Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems. These prevent different file formats from being played on unauthorised devices and copied.

For example, the Apple iTunes music download service is tailored to Apple music players such as the iPod. However, these music downloads cannot currently be played on other devices.

While the French move is certainly a bold one, it can only mean a fairer playing field between different download services.

Apple may also be right that they could see sales of iPods increase. After all, just as Apple’s DRM technology prevents their music being copied, it also prevents non-Apple users from being able to access their services.

A man has been awarded £10,000 in damages, after a woman posted repeated abuse and allegations against him on a Yahoo! message group.

The man in question was a member of the UK Independence party, and the allegations made against him varied from simple name-calling, to accusing him of sexual harrassment and indecency.

While the case showed that public abuse and allegations posted to the internet will be treated as defamation, it also highlights that defamation cases relating to the internet are rarely brought to court, as the material is usually removed.

However, what it doesn’t underline is the legal responsibilities of webmasters.

Something Platinax has learned from experience is that some companies can be very aggressive at calling “customer complaints” made in public as “defamation”, and be additionally aggressive in forcing the matter.

In such situations, webmasters have little option to choose between an expensive defamation suit, or else remove the material.

“These blogs reveal what actually goes on behind the glossy, PR-friendly corporate image put across by most forces, and threatens to actually inform the public as to what police officers do.”

That’s the statement of police blogger Bow Street Runner, who claims that recent blogging guidelines issued within the Metropolitan Police are intended to prevent the public learning the realities of police work.

The Bow Street Blogger continues:

We’re also the enemies of performance management, the Key Performance Indicators we’re under pressure to meet and the various other bureaucratic instruments implemented to monitor how police ‘perform’ (in spite of the fact that efforts are then made to meet such indicators purely for the sake of meeting them…), since these blogs show such things actually exist and that we are under pressure to meet them. Certain authorities would rather this not be common knowledge.

The issue of company blogs and staff blogging remains a difficult issue for some organisations - but it needs underlining that any company with good staff morale and good working practices shouldn’t have too much to fear, so long as confidential information isn’t posted online.

In the instance of the police blogs, it’s blown up into an issue where a public-funded body is seen to be trying to save face, rather than allow the public to have a direct insight into police working life.

Already World Weary Detective has announced it is closing down, citing the need to protect his family’s income than risk annoying management.

Other police bloggers such as Cough the Lot continue to run for the time-being, but it’s only a matter of time before the Met starts examining bloggers on a 1-to-1 basis.

In that regard, we can only give them our best wishes, and hope that any public funded body considers paying more attention to keeping its own employees happy, rather than trying to shut them up.

Just searching the internet, the Chicago Tribune claims to have uncovered a list of 2,653 CIA employees, and details of 24 secret CIA facilities.

While the information behind the claims has not been published, it highlights the freely available nature of information on the internet and the dangers it can bring to confidentiality.

It also highlights the difficulties large organisation have in adapting to the modern age of the internet.

It’s hard to appreciate sometimes how freely accessible some of information online is. And for organisations with a large internet presence such as the CIA - which has a series of news sites to promote US interests in various regions and languages - one can only guess they were especially stupid with their WHOIS registration information.

Cross-party support for a bill amendment in the House of Commons could see substantial increases of maximum sentences handed out to hackers.

The move could also see other attempts to damage or disable websites as carrying a stronger criminal penalty.

The amendment is being made to the Police and Justice Bill, after campaigning by Tom Harris, MP, and could see hacking a PC carry 10 years in jail.

While the bill has yet to be passed, it underlines that internet crime is being taken more seriously, not least because of the prospects of cyber crime for terrorism.

It’s also worth pointing out that major internet security companies deny that they ever employ illegal hackers, citing them as a liability to work with.

RIM, maker of the popular Blackberry PDA, has finally settled with NTP over patent violations for $650.

The move comes after the judge presiding on the case pushed for a settlement, to avoid being forced to shut down the Blackberry service - which could have adversely impacted many US governmental employees.

The case has been something of a drama in the technology world, and dragged on after an earlier settlement for $450 million fell apart.

We can only hope now that white collar workers around the world can now access their email with peace of peace, without having to worry about their service being terminated without notice.

Security companies in France and Denmark have warned that a flaw in how bluetooth operates in some Sony Ericsson mobile phones, could make them vulnerable to attacks.

While the flaw is rated as low risk, it continues a disturbing trend in mobile phone technology that leaves handsets and the software they use as vulnerable to attack.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has decided to extend its patent disputes and IP litigation protection to manufacturers and distributors of mobile devices running Windows.

This comes at a time when Windows and Linux are being touted as the future platforms in mobile computing.

While Blackberry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) holds a leading market share in the USA, the company is undergoing crippling legal action after being found in violation of patent protections.

RIM were forced to release a software patch this week, which attempts to circumvent use of patents already in its system, in order to avoid being entirely shut down by the US courts at the end of the month.

The mobile computing market is expected to be a key consumer platform for service provision in future, but the stories illustrate some of the vulnerabilities at present.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has warned that Google latest software release may be a serious threat to user privacy.

Google launched Google Desktop Search 3.0 this week, with an increased number of user features, such as data sharing.

While groups such as Gartner warned business against using Google Desktop when originally released, the US rights advocacy group the EFF is especially critical of the new features.

Privacy concerns are already an acute issue, and Search Engine Watch has already listed criticisms about the collection and use of data, not simply by Google, but also other major internet companies such as Yahoo! and Microsoft.

While there have already been privacy complaints about other Google services, these were recently intensified after it was revealed that the US government had sought data from all major search engines last year.

ISP’s such as Google can rightly point out that the more they know about users, the better they can target services to them.

However, the converse may also be true that the collection and data-mining of user behaviour has not seen progress in privacy protections, especially in line with the application of new technologies that make data sharing easier.

Google have assured users of their new Desktop Search service that data will only be stored on their servers for 30 days.

However, the issue of privacy protection online is becoming more and more of an issue. We’re likely to see a lot more on this story yet.

In its long-running battle with the European Union, Microsoft has announced plans to open up sections of the Windows operating system code - but it may not be enough to stop EU fines from taking effect.

Microsoft is challenged with having a monopoly position that is being abused, through prevention of third-parties from developing key software for Microsoft’s proprietary Windows software.

After appealing against a ruling that demanded Microsoft open up some of its code for third-party development, the EU then threatend the company with daily fines for dragging its feet.

However, the EU is yet to review the plans by Microsoft - and if seen to fail to comply with earlier rulings, the daily fines of £1.4 million a day could be enforced.

Meanwhile, Microsoft posted a 5% rise in quarterly profits, bringing them to £2.2 billion.