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Author's son: Mom slams e-book piracy but pirates songs

Hypocrisy, sadly, is not confined to politicians. It is not confined to any of those who tell us what to do, like priests, policemen, or leather-clad librarians.

Hypocrisy, you see, is one of humanity's most enduring and endearing traits.

I mention this, because of the cheery case of Norwegian author Anne B. Ragde. Ragde has written books for children. She has written crime novels. She has won awards.

And yet, like the rest of us pitiful, snarling humans, she may well speak out of several sides of her anatomy.

You see, I am indebted to Torrent Freak for telling … Read more

The 404 727: Where we're breaking snowballs (podcast)

It's the last full week of the 404 Podcast before we take off for the holidays, and Mark Licea comes in to help us out with the story rundown that includes the weekend box office with a spoiler-free review of "Black Swan," a "Tron"-inspired hotel room in Sweden, and this weekend's Gawker security breach.

Also, be sure to join us after the break when we open a present from a special listener and introduce a new host on the show!

The online Web publisher Gawker Media is the latest victim of a security compromise that exposed the passwords of over 200,000 users last weekend.

The tech news and gossip site told its readers about the security breach in a blog post that urges all registered users to change their log-ins and passwords, especially if they use the same password for multiple accounts online.

A group of hackers called Gnosis took credit for the hack and has made all 200,000 passwords available for download on The Pirate Bay. Their motivations are still unclear, but Gawker may have brought the attack on itself after a blog posted last week mocking the group's hacking skills.

Gawker says it's in the process of improving security to prevent further breaches, but who knows how long that will take. And in other very serious hacking news, be sure to change your e-mail passwords if you subscribed to the McDonalds e-mail list, because that got hacked, too.

U.K. designers Ben Rousseau and Ian Douglas-Jones of Extreme Design are the masterminds behind a "Tron"-inspired hotel room made entirely out of ice and snow.

Located in Jukkasjaviri, Sweden, the hotel rooms look like they're cut directly from the movie, replete with lighting technology built right into the ice to recreate the laser motifs. Rousseau and Douglas-Jones are both "massive fans" of the "Tron" movies, and drew much of their inspiration from the 3D update's unique nightclub scene involving Daft Punk, who also scored the film.

Go see "Black Swan" as soon as you can. The ballet-themed thriller is directed by Daren Aronofsky, who also masterminded "Pi," "Requiem for a Dream," and "The Wrestler," and stars Natalie Portman as a dancer slowly losing her mind from the pressures of her company and a lead role in an updated version of "Swan Lake." This episode is spoiler free, so check out the trailer and see it for yourself!

We're in the process of recording several holiday episodes that will air while we're on vacation, but we need your help for ideas! Shoot us an e-mail at the404(at)cnet(dot)com with your favorite 404 episodes from 2010 and any questions for the hosts.

They can be personal or work-related, or anything else you'd like to know about me, Jeff, or Wilson! We'll send our thanks on the air if we choose your question, but be sure to either write "Favorite 404 episode from 2010" or "Question for The 404" in the subject line to make sure it gets read. Thanks!

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Buzz Out Loud 1361: Celebrity zombies on Twitter (podcast)

Verizon's launching its LTE network on Sunday, the FCC is proposing a plan for Net neutrality tomorrow, and Google is about to take over the world EVEN MORE with its e-book venture (we're sure the EU is going to love that). Also, that deafening silence you hear on Twitter is the sound of a bunch of celebrities playing dead to raise money for AIDS. New meme: celebrity zombie impersonator accounts! Get yours today! --Molly

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Torrents ahoy!

The Pirate Bay is one of the most popular sites on the Internet for finding BitTorrent files. Music, movies, software, games, and other types of media are widely (and often illegally) shared in this file format. The Pirate Bay Search is a simple add-on for Chrome that lets users search The Pirate Bay quickly without having to enter the Web address.

The extension's interface is plain. The Pirate Bay Search appears as an icon to the right of Chrome's address bar, and clicking on it produces a small box with seven buttons representing the different types of media: … Read more

EFF to courts: Don't name alleged porn pirates

Accusing someone in a federal lawsuit of illegally downloading pornography is by itself so potentially embarrassing that it puts undue pressure on an accused person to settle, a watchdog group has told judges in Texas and West Virginia.

Several porn studios have alleged in copyright complaints in those states that thousands of people illegally shared adult films via peer-to-peer networks and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the best known advocates for tech companies and Internet users, has filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the defendants.

EFF has asked the courts hearing the cases to "block requests [by … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1359: There's a Turkish academic born every day (podcast)

Wikileaks uncovers a treasure trove of diplomatic dish that could disrupt not only the political but social fabric of the world. Online spending finally takes off (again), and Homeland Security confirms it's planning to systematically dismantle the structure of the Internet at the behest of private companies. So, that's awesome. Also, the zombie apocalypse is nigh, led by a phalanx of terrifyingly young mice. --Molly

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Pirate Bay appeal falls on deaf ears

In another blow to online file-sharing, a Swedish appeals court upheld on Friday the copyright convictions of three of the four founders of The Pirate Bay--perhaps the world's most well-known and notorious file-sharing Web site.

The court agreed with last year's ruling, which found Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundstrom guilty of helping Pirate Bay users break Sweden's copyright law. However, it revised the ruling to decrease the defendants' jail sentences and increase the amount they must pay in damages.

The lower court had sentenced the men to a year in prison and set damages at … Read more

Cost of suing file sharers could skyrocket soon

A setback in federal court last week appears to have prompted the law firm spearheading a litigation campaign against accused film pirates on behalf of independent movie studios to abandon a major part of its legal strategy, CNET has learned.

Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, the law firm representing makers of such pics as "Far Cry" and Oscar-winner "The Hurt Locker," has filed copyright complaints against thousands of people from across the country this year and sought to pursue those cases in federal court in Washington, D.C., near its base of operations. Among the obstacles facing … Read more

Did Jammie Thomas case backfire on file sharers?

Jammie Thomas-Rasset was supposed to lead the major labels into a trap.

Proponents of less restrictive copyright laws predicted that the decision by the four biggest record labels to drag a single mother of modest means into court for allegedly sharing music over the Web would lead them into a legal, political, and public relations killing field.

Since 2006, when Thomas-Rasset first refused to settle the copyright complaint brought against her by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the labels' trade group, her supporters said her case would illustrate how impossible it was to definitively prove who was sitting … Read more

Porn maker sues 7,098 alleged film pirates

In a move sure to outrage both file-traders on BitTorrent networks and legal watchdogs, a well-known pornographer has filed a federal copyright suit against 7,098 individuals.

Axel Braun Productions filed the complaint Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, alleging that the defendants illegally shared the adult film "Batman XXX: A Porn Parody." The film was written and directed by Axel Braun and distributed by Vivid Entertainment, one of the country's best known porn studios.

In an interview about the suit with Xbiz Newswire, a publication that follows the adult-film … Read more