June

Music:
Fopps, Britain's largest independent music retailer, closes down due to pressure from downloads and supermarkets (30th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2115377,00.html

Music:
HMV announces a 73% slide in pre-tax profits to £21.6m in the year to April 28th (29th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2114558,00.html

Music:
The music industry attacks the decision by The Mail on Sunday to give Prince's new CD away in July (29th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2114557,00.html

Mobile Phones:
On the New York camp out for the launch of the iPhone (30th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2115349,00.html

Future technology:
Plans for robot cops ... (30th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2115271,00.html

Television:
BBC unveils its iplayer catch-up service, to launch on 27th July (28th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2113098,00.html

Mobile Phones:
An article on the current state of the mobile content market, including ringtones (28th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/mobile/article/0,,2112733,00.html

Internet: Research on social networking sites and their battle for users (28th June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6249520.stm and their class divide (25th June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6236628.stm Plus a story about the use of GPS in social networking sites (19th June):

Television: A defence of Public Service Broadcasting in the BBC's digital switchover (25th June): http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2110327,00.html

Internet/War: 'When computers attack', article on cybercwar by John Schwartz (24th June): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/weekinreview/24schwartz.html?ex=1184299200&en=e1123761662817d8&ei=5070

Security: A report on the latest techniques to overcome software piracy (22nd June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6227364.stm

Internet: A story about phishing sites and the attempts being made to stop them (21st June): http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,,2107951,00.html

Television: New research by Ofcom on the take-up of digital TV in the UK. 88% of homes now have digital access on their main set (20th June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6221758.stm

Video Games: Manhunt 2 becomes the first game to be banned in the UK for a decade (20th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2106836,00.html

Internet: Youtube to launch nine national sites and target every mobile phone (20th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2106921,00.html

Internet: Undercover police smash paedophile ring posting live abuse online (19th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2106177,00.html

Internet: China overtaking US for fast internet as Africa gets left behind (14th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2102517,00.html

Television: New Virgin TV channel to help it compete with Sky (12th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2100806,00.html

New technology: How Somalian pirates depend on GPS (12th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2100605,00.html

Internet: Japanese MP opens up an office in Second Life (11th June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6739857.stm

Television: On the problems of the digital switchover (11th June): http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2099762,00.html

Internet: On Iranian control of bloggers and censorship of the web (7th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2096662,00.html

Internet:
Youtube sued by UK premier League for hosting copyrighted football clips (7th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2097320,00.html


Future Technology:
On a new robot capable of carrying wounded soldiers (7th June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2097021,00.html



Internet:
On the development of voice technology in Second Life (7th June): http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/comment/0,,2097334,00.html



Internet:
On music social networking site Last.fm's CBS sale (4th June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2094857,00.html



Internet:
On the launch of Google 'Street View' and the privacy issues it has raised (3rd June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/humanrights/story/0,,2094311,00.html




Internet:
The Swedish virtual world Entropia Universe announces it is to open a virtual world in China able to handle 7m users at once (2nd June): http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2093757,00.html



Internet:
Google launches new software, 'Google Gears' to help people use its services even when they're not connected to the internet (in a challenge to Microsoft's desktop dominance) (1st June): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2092788,00.html




Music:
Personal data discovered in 'DRM-free' iTunes tracks (1st June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6711215.stm see also Bill Rosenblatt's essay (7th June): http://www.drmwatch.com/ocr/article.php/3682111 and his earlier discussions of developments in DRM (19th April): http://www.drmwatch.com/ocr/article.php/3672856 and (5th April): http://www.drmwatch.com/ocr/article.php/3669946




Internet:
Jacques-Alain Miller on Google, from Nouvel Observateur (April):

'Google serves a meta-function: that of knowing what there is to know. Our query is without syntax, minimal to the extreme; one click… and bingo! It is a cascade – the stark white of the query page is suddenly covered in words. The void flips into plenitude, concision to verbosity. Every hit a winner. Organising the Great Enormity, Google follows a totalitarian maxim: voracious and all-consuming. In the project to scan all the books, plunder all the archives – cinema, television, press, and beyond – the logical end of “Googleisation” is the universe: an omniscient gaze, traversing the world, lusting after every little last piece of information about everyone. It puts everything in its place, turning you into the sum of your clicks until the end of time.Is Google Big Brother? How can you not think so? Hence its need to make an axiom [“Don't be evil”] of its essential goodness. Is it wicked? What is certain is that it is stupid. Meaning evades Google, which is able to codify, but not to decode. It is the word in its brute materiality that it records. Finding the result that makes sense for you is therefore like looking for a needle in a haystack.Google would be intelligent if it could compute significations. But it can’t. Like a shorn Samson, Google will blindly churn out information until the end of time'.[trans. J. Miller & D. Miller]

9th May-End of May

Music/Internet:
EMI strikes deal with Youtube to allow its videos to be accessed (31st May): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6709209.stm

Music/Internet:
An article on how the music industry is targetting fan lyric sites as a fresh source of revenue (31st May): http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2091904,00.html

Music/Internet:
US TV network CBS buys the social networking music site Last.fm for £140m (31st May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2091608,00.html

Internet:
Jaron Lanier's essay on 'Digital Maoism', critiqueing claims of 'collective intelligence' (e.g. in Wikipedia) (30th May): http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier06/lanier06_index.html

Internet:
Online music retailer CD Wow! is fined £41m for illegally importing cut-price discs (30th May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2090883,00.html

Television:
An outcry over a Reality TV win-a-kidney competition (29th May): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6699847.stm The show was later revealed to be a hoax (2nd June): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6714063.stm See also a defence of Reality TV recently published by Sebastian Doggart (27th May): http://media.guardian.co.uk/bigbrother/story/0,,2088919,00.html

'Digital Divide':
Ofcom survey finds the 'digital divide' is closing (25th May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2087706,00.html

Television:
Australian Reality TV show Big Brother is criticised for deciding not to tell a contestant that their father had died (25th May): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6690289.stm

Security/Surveillance
Police force tests airborne spy camera (22nd May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2085190,00.html (not such a new idea, Judge Dredd in UK comic 2000AD had spy-in-the-sky cameras in the 1970s-80s!)

Mobile Phones/Internet:
Spinvox to let bloggers send posts from their mobile phones (21st May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2084198,00.html

Internet/Video games:
An article on how two more news companies (Sky news and 4 Radio) are setting up a media presence in Second Life (21st May): http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2084073,00.html

Internet:
An article on the development of a Chinese version of Myspace (20th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2083984,00.html

Internet:
On the web activity over the abduction of Madeleine McCann (19th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2083277,00.html

Internet:
BT becomes Britain's biggest broadband provider, passing Virgin (formerly NTL) (18th May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2082617,00.html

Internet/War:
Russia accused of unleashing cyberwar on Estonia (17th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2081512,00.html
Estonia says 1m computers used as part of an ongoing denial-of-service cyberwar against it (18th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2082584,00.html

Television:
Problems with 'old' media - ITV revenues and ratings continue to slide (18th May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2082464,00.html

Internet:
'Google takes search to next level' (18th May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2082459,00.html

Internet/Video games:
An interview with Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life (17th May): http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2081663,00.html

Internet:
An article on the take-off of Twitter (17th May): http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2080761,00.html

Music:
MPs back call to extend copyright to 70 years (17th May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2081245,00.html

Music/Internet:
Amazon set to launch a music download store (17th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2081290,00.html

Internet:
Tories remove 'sexiest female mp' thread from David Cameron's web forum (17th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2081268,00.html

Mobile Phones:
An article on the mobile entertainment revolution (15th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/mobile/article/0,,2079818,00.html

Internet/Print/War:
US Iraq veteran wins prize for best book based on a blog at the same time as the US military clamps down on military blogging (15th May): http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,2079660,00.html

Music/Internet:
Fans rally round Lily Allen after she posts blog entry complainig of feeling 'fat and ugly' (15th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2079713,00.html

Television/Internet:
The BBC is caught out in a documentary on Scientology when the Church videos the journalist's interview and posts footage of him losing his temper on Youtube before the documentary is screened - so new media are again being used against 'Big Media' power (14th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2078840,00.html see also (13th May): http://media.guardian.co.uk/bbc/story/0,,2078517,00.html

Television:
An article on problems with the BBC's new media strategy (14th May): http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2079046,00.html

Television:
An article on the future of TV - 'Anytime? Anywhere? Sooner than you think' (13th May): http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2078310,00.html

Internet/Crime:
A gambler who tried to sell his kidney in a chat room to pay off debts receives a suspended sentence (12th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/gambling/story/0,,2078157,00.html

Internet/Video games:
'Google may use games to analyse net users' (12th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2077901,00.html

Television:
An article on Virgin's problems in its war with Sky (10th May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2076131,00.html

Internet:
Gina Ford wins out of court settlement and apology over offensive web postings on mumsnet (10th May):http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2076038,00.html

Internet:
A new online 'encyclopedia of life' will catalogue all life on earth (10th May): http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,2076199,00.html

DVDs:
An article on our changing home-viewing habits (10th May): http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2075992,00.html

Security:
HBO exec wants to rename DRM 'digital enablement management' (1oth May): http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1156

Internet:
Paris Hilton asks fans to sign an online petition to commute her 45 day prison sentence (9th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2075305,00.html

Internet/Video games:
Second Life in virtual child sex scandal (9th May): http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2075340,00.html

Future Technology:
From April, a story about stacked chips improving computer processing speeds (12th April): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6548365.stm