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Pirate Bay blocks did little to curb file-sharing

Despite court cases in the Netherlands and the U.K. forcing ISPs to place blocks on their systems to prevent customer access to The Pirate Bay, the blocks may ultimately prove futile, according to data seen by the BBC and others.

One major U.K. broadband provider said peer-to-peer traffic on its network returned to "just below normal" only a week after it was forced to block customers' access.

But in the days following the court decision in late April, traffic had reached record levels as a result of the increased media coverage. This backs up earlier claims … Read more

Orion capsule, built for deep space, gets to Florida

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The first space-bound Orion capsule, the centerpiece of NASA's post-shuttle push to break out of low Earth orbit for eventual manned flights to a variety of deep space targets, was officially unveiled at NASA's Florida spaceport today. The spacecraft will be outfitted for an unmanned test flight in 2014.

"As KSC celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, I can't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate than by having the very first Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle here at KSC," Robert Cabana, the center's director and a former shuttle … Read more

U.S. spy satellite heads into orbit after spectacular launch

A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket, the most powerful in the postshuttle U.S. inventory, boosted a top-secret National Reconnaissance Office spy satellite into space early Friday, after a spectacular morning launch from Cape Canaveral.

Running three hours late because of technical snags, the 232-foot-tall rocket, made up of three liquid-fueled common core boosters and a powerful upper stage, roared to life at 9:15 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) and quickly climbed away from launch complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Generating nearly two-and-a-half million pounds of thrust from three upgraded Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne RS-68A … Read more

U.K. piracy crackdown to kickstart 'three strikes' for copyright infringers

Ofcom, the U.K. communications regulator, published draft code today that would require ISPs to notify suspected pirates via "copyright infringement reports."

Such reports would tell the ISP customers that their Web activity is being monitored, inform them of ways to find legal online content, such as through paid services, and alert them that they could face legal action as a result of infringing copyright.

Today's draft code puts the U.K.'s Digital Economy Act, a law aimed at curbing piracy, into action via a three-strike system, or "graduated response."

Under Ofcom's draft code, … Read more

Secret military satellite heads into space

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite blasted off today, creating a dramatic sky show as it boosted its secret payload into orbit.

Running two days late because of work to fix an environmental control system duct, the 188-foot-tall Atlas 5 roared to life at 8:28 a.m. EDT and climbed away from launch complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, trailing a brilliant plume of flame from its Russian-designed RD-180 first-stage engine.

Without any strap-on solid-fuel boosters, the initial climb out appeared relatively sedate compared with more powerful variants … Read more

'Censorship creep': Pirate Bay block will affect one-third of U.K.

Censorship is a slippery slope. The United Kingdom: my home. Case in point.

Nearly five years ago, the U.K. flipped the Web censorship switch. Most U.K. residents didn't even notice. Designed by telecommunications giant British Telecom (BT), "Cleanfeed" was used to filter out child abuse imagery, and it did so with great success.

Users would not see a notice or a startling warning about the content they had inadvertently accessed or had tried to reach. The page just wouldn't load.

In 2007, Home Office minister Vernon Coaker ordered all U.K. ISPs to subscribe to Cleanfeed … Read more

Convert length measurements with Quick Conversion

We'll be frank: Quick Conversion is one of the ugliest programs we've seen. It's also fairly light on features. But if you're looking specifically for a program that can convert between both English and metric units of length, it can get the job done.

Quick Conversion's interface consists of a list of units of measurement: inches, feet, yards, fathoms, rods, furlongs, miles, and leagues, as well as millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, meters, decameters, hectometers, and kilometers. A drop-down menu lets you select the unit of measurement that you want to convert from and enter the number … Read more

European telcoms defend leaked proposal for U.N. Internet tax

European network providers that want the United Nations to consider a new Internet tax targeting Google, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix today defended their proposal, which was leaked earlier this week.

The idea of requiring content providers to pay fees based on usage is an "innovative" change to the way the Internet currently works and will create a more "fair" environment "where operators' revenues will not be disconnected from the investment needs made necessary by the rapid growth of Internet traffic," the providers said in a statement (PDF).

Last night, CNET reported that the European … Read more

U.N. could tax U.S.-based Web sites, leaked docs show

The United Nations is considering a new Internet tax targeting the largest Web content providers, including Google, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix, that could cripple their ability to reach users in developing nations.

The European proposal, offered for debate at a December meeting of a U.N. agency called the International Telecommunication Union, would amend an existing telecommunications treaty by imposing heavy costs on popular Web sites and their network providers for the privilege of serving non-U.S. users, according to newly leaked documents.

The documents (No. 1 No. 2) punctuate warnings that the Obama administration and Republican members of Congress … Read more

United Nations views Flame as cybersecurity opportunity

The United Nations has seized on the appearance of the Flame worm, which targeted computers in the Middle East, to argue that it should have more authority to deal with cybersecurity threats on the Internet.

Last week, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union circulated a statement about Flame saying the malware "reinforces the need for a coordinated response" that could come from "building a global coalition." It took credit for Flame's discovery, saying Kaspersky Lab identified it "following a technical analysis requested by the ITU." (See CNET's FAQ.)

ITU spokesman Paul Conneally … Read more