December

Music:
Warner agrees to make its music available for download on Amazon in the mp3 format without copy-protection (27th Dec): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7162280.stm


Cinema:
Apple and 20th century Fox are to announce a deal that will allow iTunes users to rent the studio’s films, purchasing a specified period to watch the downloaded film in (27th Dec): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7161609.stm


Internet:
The Queen becomes the first monarch to begin broadcasting films on her own Youtube site. She posts 18 films, including the first TV broadcast in 1957 (24th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/24/internet.youtube See also (23rd Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/23/youtube.monarchy


Internet:
Apple comes in for criticism after forcing a website dedicated to reporting on the company’s activities to close down. Thinksecret published news and rumours about their forthcoming products and had been locked in a two year legal battle over Apple’s claims it had published protected confidential information (22nd Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/22/internet.apple


Television:
Channel 4 is fined £1.5m by Ofcom for causing ‘serious consumer harm’ after viewers entered phone-in competitions they had no chance of winning (21st Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/21/tvfakery.channel4


Television:
BSkyB is hoping to persuade the government is should be able to keep its 17.9% stake in ITV after the Competition Commission recommended it should reduce its holding to less than 7.5% (21st Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/21/bskyb.television1


Video games:
UK gamers spent £1.52bn on games in 2007, up 25% on 2006 (with two weeks of sales still to be counted) (20th Dec): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7153474.stm


Internet:
Torrentspy, a website which facilitated the online exchange of music, TV and films without permission has lost a US copyright case brought by the Motion Picture Association of America (20th Dec): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7153323.stm


The Future:
A Swiss lab comes closer to building an artificial human brain on a supercomputer. Despite early derision at the project they have succeeded in building a computer simulation of the neocortical column of a two-week old rat that behaves exactly like its real-life counterpart (20th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/20/research.it


Television:
The BBC fears for its future funding in the digital age (19th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/19/bbc.ofcom


Internet:
Dating website Match.com hopes to attract new customers by becoming the first big matchmaker to partner with the social networking site Facebook. It is offering a "Little Black Book" application to Facebook users from next week, which helps them find potential partners. The move comes as analysts argue that free social networking sites pose a serious threat to subscription services such as Match. Some dating sites have already left the market as networking operations such as Facebook and MySpace have rapidly expanded their non-paying audiences. Other matchmakers have become more like networking sites by introducing chat functions and video clips. But dating sites also argue that the social networking phenomenon has helped them increase their overall audience by breaking down people's inhibitions about meeting online (19th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/19/facebook.socialnetworking


Security:
The Government admits a disc of data with details of every applicant for a driving theory test between September 2004 and April 2007 has been lost from a secure store in Iowa. The story also says that the letter the government sent out to apologise for the loss of child benefit data itself contained too much confidential information and some of them were liable to have gone astray! (18th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2229061,00.html


Internet:
A story about how the porn industry is suffering from the free porn available online, pirated pornography posted online and the postings of thousands of amateurs on sites such as Youporn (16th Dec): http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2228298,00.html


Internet:
A story about Hugh MacLeod, ‘Britain’s most successful Facebooker’, who gets 28 friend requests a day and the success of social networking in the UK (15th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/15/facebook.socialnetworking


Television:
ITV reports rising advertising revenues in the second half of 2007 (although that was up against a weak close to 2006) (14th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/14/itv.tvnews


Internet:
Google receives complaints from businesses over changes to how it ranks results (13th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/13/internet.google


Internet:
Microsoft buys UK online form Multimap in an attempt to compete with Google, whose Google Maps and Earth dominate the online mapping and location markets (13th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/13/microsoft.digitalmedia


Video Games:
The Playstation battles back against its rival, the Wii, outselling it in Japan for the first time (12th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/12/playstation.sony


Security:
After recent admissions about the loss of child benefit data now discs of Northern Ireland drivers data are lost in the post (12th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/Northern_Ireland/Story/0,,2225981,00.html


Internet:
Britain leads Europe in social networking, spending an average of 5.3 hours a month on networking sites (12th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/12/socialnetworking.facebook


Television:
An article on how high-definition close-ups are affecting television production and causing problems for a medium that used to be able to hide presenter blemishes or cardboard sets (12th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/12/television.digitaltvradio


Internet:
Concerns are raised over a flirty computer program that is being used to steal people’s identities from online chatrooms. The robot called Cyberlover is being used to gather information from people interacting with it (11th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/11/crime.internationalnews


Video Games:
Manhunt 2, criticised for its ‘casual sadism’, escapes a ban in the UK after the game’s creators, Rockstar Games, win an appeal against the British Board of Film Classification which banned it in June (11th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/11/games


Internet:
Online shopping in the UK hits a new record at 1.09pm on 10th December as shoppers spent £767, 500 over the internet in a single minute (11th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/11/internet.retail


Internet:
An article on the use of the internet by campaigning politicians in the US (10th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/10/politicsandthemedia


Internet:
An article on the legal issues raised by Second Life (10th Dec): http://media.guardian.co.uk/digitallaw/story/0,,2225125,00.html


Music:
An article on the music industry’s current approach to DRM (10th Dec): http://media.guardian.co.uk/digitallaw/story/0,,2225127,00.html


Internet:
An article on copyright law and the liability if ISPs (10th Dec): http://media.guardian.co.uk/digitallaw/story/0,,2225128,00.html


Internet:
An article on libel laws and websites such as blogs and forums (10th Dec): http://media.guardian.co.uk/digitallaw/story/0,,2225129,00.html


Print:
An article on the implications of digital books for the publishing industry (10th Dec): http://media.guardian.co.uk/digitallaw/story/0,,2225131,00.html


Internet:
A professor is banned from editing Wikipedia after using it for self-promotion, tampering with his own biography and manipulating computer science articles to inflate the importance of his own work (9th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/09/wikipedia.internet


Internet:
An article on how young people see email as ‘for old people’, preferring texting, messaging and social networking for their personal communication (6th Dec): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/06/digitalcommunication


Video Games:
The merger of the French media conglomerate Vivendi’s computer games business with its US-based rival Activision in a £9.2bn deal creates the world’s largest computer games company (3rd December): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/03/games