Second Life bans gambling

(via net.wars) The official Second Life blog has announced that it will ban gambling from the popular virtual world. The new policy bans all games of chance through random-number generators that provide a payout in Linden dollars or any real life currency. This includes all sorts of casino games (such Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Sex offenders banned from MySpace

The idea that the Internet is filled with sexual predators has received a boost as MySpace has admitted to having found and removed 29,000 registered sex offenders on its site. The admission comes amongst attempts by North Carolina’s Attorney General to change the law so that social networking sites require Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Peer to Patent live

The amazing Peer to Patent system is now live. The system is the creation of New York Law School Professor Beth Noveck, and it is an extremely interesting system of involving the online community on the review of patent claims in pending patent applications. I believe this is an interesting Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

A digital bully den?

I’ve read an interesting article in The Independent by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, and while I don’t agree with it, I’ve been noticing an increase in cyber-scepticism and technophobic criticism against all things online. While some of the protestations can be classed as the typical grumbling against change from the Luddites, some Read more

Attack of the killer robots

The BBC Technology News and the Today programme have been talking today about the great robot debate. Experts, academics and other assorted folk will discuss tonight about the potential threats arising from increasing numbers of robots, a discussion organised by the Dana Centre and the Science Museum. While at first Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

BitTorrent and traffic shaping

One of the problems of moving house is getting new providers for all kinds of services. Choosing a new broadband provider is a worry, particularly if you were happy with your old ISP. Telewest (now Virgin Media) were pretty good in general, even despite the fact that they were too Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago

Trouble with jurisdiction

While listening to the excellent podcast Digital Planet from the BBC, I heard a horror story about the problems of regulating cyberspace. While just a couple of days ago I sounded rather optimistic about the prospects of regulating online environments, this story lays bare some of the real problems of Read more

By Andres Guadamuz, ago