ORG opens debate on UK privacy rules

The Open Rights Group has opened a wiki page for people who wish to contribute to the debate around changes to the UK Data Protection Act (DPA). This week the Department of Constitutional Affairs published a consultation paper on proposals to increase custodial penalties for breaches of the DPA in order provide an 'appropriate and effective level of deterrent for those who seek to profit from the illegal trade in personal information'. The ORG wiki invites answers and subsequent edits (since it is a wiki) to the five questions posed in the consultation paper: Do you agree that custodial penalties should be available to the court when sentencing those who wilfully abuse personal data?; Do you agree that custodial penalties will be an effective deterrent?; Do you agree that the custodial penalties are of the right length?; What do you suggest should be the maximum custodial penalty?; Do you agree that a guideline issued by the Sentencing Guidelines Council is necessary for this offence in England and Wales? Responses will be submitted to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, Baroness Ashton. ...more

3 claims first ever global mobile blogging service

3 has gotten the blogging bug, announcing what it claims is the first ever global mobile blogging service. The network's customers are granted a free website to which they can upload pictures and video clips, taken with their fancy new third-generation phones. A video clip costs 50p and a picture costs 25p to upload to the My Gallery service. ...more

US frenzy welcomes PlayStation 3 arrival

Thousands of US gamers lined up last night to be among the first to get their hands on the Sony PlayStation 3. The multimedia machine is seen as key to the future of the beleaguered electronics and media conglomerate. Several had queued for more than two days outside Sony's midtown Manhattan store and had improvised creature comforts from street junk. ...more

OpenXML opens for Java

Microsoft's Office OpenXML document formats are coming to Java, thanks to an open-source project on SourceFourge. Led by Julien Chable, the OpenXML4j project makes an API available for using OpenXML on Sun's Java platform. Previously, Java developers would have had to hook into Office OpenXML at a lower level using XML and ZIP libraries. ...more

NTL and BitTorrent debut UK's first 100Mbits broadband

Just two years ago, broadband providers were fighting over crumbs. The competition was in providing the lowest possible bandwidth that could still be described as broadband in order to offer cut-price services. How things have changed. ...more