Media

Paris-based human rights group Reporters Without Borders is organizing a 24-hour online demonstration to protest Internet censorship. The group is urging people to connect to its Web site between 11 a.m. Central European Time on Tuesday Nov. 7 and the same time the following day. Each click will help to change the "Internet Black Holes" map the group is compiling. At that time Reporters Without Borders will publish the list of 13 countries whose governments censor and block online content that criticizes them. The list will undoubtedly include China, where journalists and dissidents have been jailed for their online writings. … Read more

A Danish court has ruled that an ISP in that country must block access to allofmp3.com, the Russian download site accused of pirating music, according to a story in the Register.

Allofmp3, which has denied violating the copyright law in Russia, has suffered several setbacks as much of the world attempts to isolate the site.

The Copehagen City court ruled that Tele2 must do all it can to prevent users from accessing allofmp3.com, according to the Register.

U.S. Trade representatives have been pressuring Russia to adopt copyright laws that are more in line with the West's. … Read more

No, I'm not talking about Cub Scout sleepover stories, although that awful "I am the viper, I vish to vipe your vindows" yarn could probably be spun into something hilarious about Windows Vista. Rather, Google Book Search has launched a Halloween-appropriate feature to give Googlers easy access to a few pieces of classic spooky literature like Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." You can find them all here.

Cool, yes. A good way to … Read more

Popular news aggregation Web site Digg is in acquisition talks with News Corp. and others, but no one seems willing to cough up the $150 million minimum Digg is asking, according to Techcrunch.

Instead, Digg is likely to close a $5 million or higher second round of financing later this year, possibly with current investor Greylock Partners, the blog posting predicts.

A sticking point in the negotiations is Digg's claim of 20 million unique monthly visitors, while comScore figures show the site with 1.3 million monthly U.S. visitors, according to Techcrunch. Digg allows users to post news … Read more

OK, maybe it was the translation we were reading, but slogging through "Beowulf"--all thousands upon thousands of lines of it--does not stand out as one of the more engaging experiences of my sophomore year of high school. Given my unfond memories of the ninth century epic poem, I'm not sure I'm game for an immersive version. Then again, hearing that Robert Zemeckis' upcoming digitally enhanced live-action "Beowulf" will premiere in REAL D and other large-format 3D theaters might be just what I need to rethink my resistance to the Geats and Grendel.

The … Read more

Yahoo will be projecting images for its time capsule project for three nights beginning Wednesday from the Indian pueblo Jemez in New Mexico. Yahoo had initially planned to show the projections on the Pyramid of the Sun in the Teotihuacan archaeological site in Mexico, but officials there denied the company permission, citing fears that it might damage the ruins.

The more than 15 hours of pictures, video, poems and stories chronicling "humanity across the globe" will be projected at night through Friday on the walls of the canyon at Jemez and beamed via digital laser light into space. … Read more

There's a Google Video for mobile devices, but not from Google. Independent developer Scott Robbin has created the unofficial version of Google Video for mobile phones. It lets people search, download and view content off Google Video directly from their mobile phones. All you need is a phone that has an XHTML-compliant browser and enough storage to hold large video files. It helps if the Internet connection is fast and if the phone has an application capable of playing AVI or MP4 files.

Robbin has also posted a video demonstration on YouTube. "I've got it running on … Read more

The National Football League is taking its ball and going home, in a Web sorta way. NFL.com will no longer be run by CBS Sportsline. It will be run in-house by the NFL.

Their press release says "The NFL will fully operate NFL.com, including the development of the technology, infrastructure and content. A re-launch of NFL.com is planned for next spring."

In short, the NFL now knows its games and stats and player information are valuable to fans and can become a major source of income. And it's one more sign of how vulnerable … Read more

Plans to produce Microsoft's video game "Halo" as a feature film, have stumbled with Universal and Fox.

The deal fell apart after both studios asked the movie's would-be producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh to "significantly reduce their deals," according to Ken Kamins, the representative for both producers, in an interview with Variety.

Microsoft concurred with Kamins characterization of the situation.

"We are disappointed that Universal wanted to significantly renegotiate the financial points of the deal. But the 'Halo' franchise is hugely popular and our goal remains the same--to find a partner that … Read more