links for 2007-08-25

“A 21-year-old man from the western Sydney suburb of Prairiewood faces up to five years’ imprisonment after he was charged with uploading a pirated copy of The Simpsons Movie on the internet.”

The Australian Government’s “NetAlert” website and free internet content-filters for all Australian families is finally released. This addresses symptoms, not causes. Even the filters themselves don’t actually work!

A “corrupted blood” disease infecting World of Warcraft avatars is being used as a model of real-world behaviour in the case of a viral pandemic!

“A new study conducted by Nottingham Trent University …found one in 10 players who regularly played online games had started a physical relationship with a fellow gamer, and most had made good friends while playing. “

“Internet addiction’ doesn’t exist. It can’t, because it’s a logical impossibility … ‘Internet addiction’ researchers conceive of the internet as if it were a set of activities when, in fact, it’s a medium for communication.”

A combination of successful radio-based podcasts and newer TV-based ‘vodcasts’ have Australia’s national broadcaster serving over 5 million downloads per month.