Pirate Bay awaits court verdict

The Pirate Bay organisers could wait weeks to hear a verdict.

The trial of the creators of the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has ended.

Lawyers for both the prosecution and defence have delivered their closing arguments in the high-profile copyright trial in Sweden.

The four men - Frederik Neij, Carl Lundstom, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Warg - are accused of promoting copyright infringement via the hugely popular Pirate Bay website.

The judge in the case is not expected to deliver a verdict for several weeks.

In their final statement prosecutors called for a one-year prison sentence to be imposed on the four administrators of the site.

The Pirate Bay hosts thousands of links to so-called torrent files, which allow for movies, TV programmes and applications to be shared online.

No copyright material is stored directly on The Pirate Bay servers.

"I believe that the correct punishment should be one year in prison and that is what I am requesting that the district court hand down in this case," prosecutor Haakan Roswall told the court.

Lawyers acting to defend the four men spent their last day in court showing how BitTorrent works and calling for their clients to be acquitted.

They also challenged prosecution estimates of how much the administrators of the site have made from the site.

The four men have been charged with earning at least 1.2m kroner (

Child abuse image trade targeted

The coalition aims to stop those profiting from selling images of abuse

Profits made by peddlers of child sex abuse images are being targeted by a pan-European alliance.

The European Financial Coalition brings together payment firms, law enforcement agencies and child protection groups to disrupt commerce in the images.

By tracking cash made by sites selling abuse images, investigators hope to stop the trade and find abusers.

Backers include Mastercard, Visa, Paypal and UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

Funded by the European Commission, the coalition is intended to serve as a "stark warning" to those involved in the sale and distribution of child sex images.

"It is a reality that the rapid growth of the internet has opened up a market for images of child abuse," said EC vice president Jacques Barrot in a statement.

"The European Financial Coalition (EFC) will help identify and protect victims of this horrific crime by following the money trail that takes the police to the offender," he said.

By bringing together technology firms, payment providers and law enforcement agencies the EFC hopes to do a better job of finding out how money paid for images flows across electronic payment systems.

Advisory members to the EFC include the NGO Missing Children Europe, Allen and Overy, and ICMEC - the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

Jim Gamble, head of the UK's CEOP, said hard work by police and anti-child sex abuse groups was slowly pushing organised crime out of the trade in images.

The EFC, he said, would help tackle those who persist in profiting from images of child abuse by running subscription services and newsgroups.

"These are organised by networked paedophiles and driven by a deviant sexual interest in children, rather than by organised crime enterprises for profit," he said.

The cloud aids solo rowing bid

By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

The Flying Carrot is said to be the most advanced rowing boat ever made

A Briton aiming to be the first person to row solo around the world is making full use of technology in what has been described as one of the final frontiers of adventure.

The 18,000 mile journey, which set off from Tasmania in January, will take between 18-22 months to complete.

Thanks to the cloud, a whole host of web-based services means the world is able to keep up with Oliver Hicks.

"E-mail is my daily lifeline," Mr Hicks told BBC News.

"It is the highlight of my day where I really look forward to hearing from friends and family and from people following me. It helps break the grinding monotony of the day.

"It's a great source of comfort and support, especially in bad weather when I am making no headway," said Mr Hick from one of his three satellite phones in the middle of a stormy Tasmanian Sea where he said he had been going backwards for several days.

"I made absolutely no progress for three days so getting e-mail is just a huge boost. I got one from a friend in Colombia and for 10 minutes while I read her e-mail, I was transported there," he said.

"Slow and frustrating"

Since Mr Hicks set out on his lonesome adventure last month, he has been using a whole suite of Google Applications to map his journey aboard the affectionately named Flying Carrot, which bears the logo of his main sponsor Virgin.

As well as e-mail, he is also uploading pictures and video to the photo sharing site Picasa and YouTube though not without some challenges.

Mr Hicks says he hopes to row an average of 35 miles a day

"I spent a lot of time making a video update recently only to find it was going to take six hours to send a one minute video via the satellite phone," Mr Hicks revealed.

"Even surfing on the internet is slow and frustrating using the satellite link."

With a GPS tracker on the boat, people can follow Mr Hicks' progress via Google Earth. Friend Connect is being used to make communicating more social and Blogger for regular updates on his journey.

"I enjoy writing the blog, but some days its a chore and sometimes all I want to do is go to sleep," Mr Hicks admitted.

"It's fine when you have something interesting to say like the other day when I saw some killer whales."

Mr Hicks and his team are also using Google Analytics to measure online traffic and Google Moderator to field questions from the many hundreds of people following his adventure on the open seas.

"It seems we have taken on the role of connectivity between him and the rest of the world," said Google product manager Jonathan Rochelle.

"But Olly isn't doing anything that unusual. He is using tools anyone can use. "

"Explore"

The Flying Carrot has been described as the most technologically advanced rowing boat ever built. The structure is made out of Kevlar which is normally used in bullet proof jackets.

The on board equipment is state-of-the-art. Electrical power is stored in marine batteries which are charged from three sources, a wind generator, solar panels and a fuel cell.

Mr Hicks's journey will include some of the most dangerous seas on earth

On board, to help pass the time Mr Hicks has a laptop, a year's worth of music, three iPods, two PDA's, three satellite phones and some good old fashioned books.

Analysts say Mr Hicks' use of the cloud shows the different way it is sold to people.

"The concept of the cloud is being marketed much more aggressively in the enterprise space but to real people it's sold as a way to reach friends or others with similar interests," said Rebecca Wetterman, vice president of research at Nucleus Research.

And while expeditions like that of Mr Hicks puts the spotlight on cloud services and how ordinary people use them, Ms Wetterman said she believes that we will soon see this space shrink back.

"What we found in 2008 was an explosion of quantity not necessarily a lot of quality. Everyone was Facebooking and Twittering and blogging. It all added up to a lot of noise but in the future will see a focus on quality.

"At the moment there are too many touch points for people. There isn't a centralised way for me to touch my cloud and we can see that by the way I am updated on Facebook or on another application.

"Moving forward there will be one social application, not a bunch, and it will have more relevance providing me with content or information I truly want," she said.

"Inspire"

As well as putting technology through its paces, Mr Hicks is also hopes to raise awareness for a charity called Hope & Homes for Children which works in Central and Eastern Europe and Africa.

"What is fantastic is to see through all the e-mails and comments are the number of children from schools around the world watching what I am doing and following me," said Mr Hicks.

"I hope I will inspire young children to get out there and explore the world around them rather than sit inside and play computer games."

Mr Hicks is already the youngest person to row the Atlantic Ocean on his own, a feat he performed in 2005.

Green light for faster broadband

BT plans to plug some homes straight into the fibre-optic network

Regulator Ofcom ruled on Tuesday that it will present "no regulatory barriers" to the development of super-fast broadband infrastructure.

The ruling will allow BT to proceed with an investment of

UK video game firms call for help

Tax schemes that helped Slumdog Millionaire could aid game makers

The success of the UK's game developers is under threat, warns a report.

Without urgent help the UK risks slipping from being the third-biggest game making nation in the world to the fifth, it said.

Written by industry body Tiga, the report said UK market conditions put the sector at a "severe competitive disadvantage" to foreign rivals.

To prosper game makers need access to finance, well-trained staff and government-backed tax breaks, it said.

Cutting fees

Compiled by the independent game making body, the research questioned developers about what has held back their success in the past 12 months.

Of those questioned 41% said foreign governments subsidising their native game makers was the biggest brake on growth. 31% said taxes in the UK were the problem.

"The UK games development industry is competing with one hand tied behind its back," said Dr. Richard Wilson, head of Tiga, in a statement.

Canada, the US, France and South Korea were all getting tax breaks from government to help them prosper, he said.

Significantly, said the report, Canada recently overtook the UK in world rankings of top game-making nations and in 2009 South Korea looks poised to knock the UK into fifth place.

In response to a question about what the government could do to help game developers, 85% backed tax breaks, 77% wanted more liberal R&D tax concessions and 51% called for lower tax rates for businesses.

UK made games have proved popular around the world

Dr Wilson said the announcement of a 20% tax break in the 2009 budget for games production would be a "welcome start".

The report called for the creation of a scheme for developers similar to the Film Tax Relief programme that is known to have helped the UK movie industry prosper by making it easier to raise capital to back creative projects.

Without that fund, said the report, movies such as Slumdog Millionaire would not have been made and the UK film industry would be a fraction of the size it is now.

The report estimated that creating a scheme similar to Film Tax Relief programme for the games industry would cost only

YouTube selects online orchestra

Jim Moffat will join more than 90 others in the "YouTube Symphony Orchestra"

Video sharing website YouTube has announced the players in the symphony orchestra it recruited online.

Two UK-based winners will join musicians from 30 countries to participate in a three-day classical music summit in New York City.

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra will then perform at Carnegie Hall on 15 April under San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas.

All of the winners' videos have been posted on YouTube.

The effort began in December 2008, when YouTube solicited entries from musicians to submit their interpretations of a composition by Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun called Internet Symphony No 1, "Eroica".

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra channel on the site received some 13 million views since then.

A panel of members hailing from a number of world orchestras narrowed down the field of more than 3,000 entries from more than 200 countries.

The shortlist of 200 entrants was published on 14 February, and the YouTube community then voted for its favourites to play in the world's first online orchestra.

Comprising the orchestra are two musicians based in the UK: Owain Williams and Jim Moffat.

"I'm quite chuffed and very excited," said Mr Williams, who is a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music in London.

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Beijing Olympics theme composer Tan Dun hopes revolutionary methods of playing music will emerge when YouTube members perform his work.

Prison threat for Pirate Bay four

The Pirate Bay founders have denied the charges

Prosecutors in the trial against the four men who run the file-sharing site The Pirate Bay have called for a one-year prison sentence to be imposed.

Frederik Neij, Carl Lundstom, Peter Sunde and Gottfrid Warg are accused of promoting copyright infringement.

The Pirate Bay hosts thousands of links to so-called torrent files, which allow for movies, TV programmes and applications to be shared online.

No copyright material is stored directly on The Pirate Bay servers.

"I believe that the correct punishment should be one year in prison and that is what I am requesting that the district court hand down in this case," prosecutor Haakan Roswall told the court.

The four men, who deny the charge, have been charged with earning at least 1.2m kroner (104,000 euros) by facilitating copyright infringement.

The film, music and video games industries are seeking about 117m kronor (10.1m euros) in damages and interest for losses incurred from tens of millions of illegal downloads facilitated by the site.

Prosecutors will sum up in the case later on Monday, while the defence is scheduled to give its closing arguments on Tuesday. A decision in the case is expected to take a few more weeks.