“Amazon.com introduced its widely anticipated digital music store on Tuesday with nearly 2.3 million songs, none of them protected against copying. The store, Amazon MP3, will allow shoppers to buy and download individual songs or entire albums…”

A fascinating looking documentary based on the creation and controversy surrounding the “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!” game which sought to critical engage with the Columbine shootings using a videogame format.

Bill Thompson: “Helping children to understand that they can make someone else suffer by swapping photos or commenting on video clips, and that a “harmless bit of fun” to one person could be agonising humiliation for someone else, is really important.”

” An attack on a Dunedin student that was filmed and posted on YouTube is the latest in an emerging phenomenon of cyber bullying, schools say. ” [Via Jean]

“It’s said the powerful write their own laws but, in New Zealand, now everyone can. Due to a new wiki launched by the New Zealand police, members of the public can now contribute to the drafting of the country’s new policing act.”

Short story: “Google controls your e-mail, your videos, your calendar, your searches… What if it controlled your life?” (Released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) [Related Interview]

“New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Monday his office has subpoenaed Facebook, accusing the social networking site of not keeping young users safe from sexual predators and not responding to user complaints.”

YouThanasia? Australia euthanasia advocates post a how-to for creating a suicide ‘peace pill’. [Courier Mail Story] [Via]

danah boyd outlines why she’s not heading directly into the academic job market. These points are well worth thinking about for those researchers looking to become part of academia …

“Federal Police commissioner will have the power to block and ban websites believed to be crime or terrorism related under an internet censorship amendment bill introduced into Parliament today by Helen Coonan, Communications Minister.”

“UK Schools are being given guidance urging them to take firm action against pupils who use mobile phones and the internet to bully other children and teachers.”

“An Australian software firm (2Clix), which was suing a broadband community website (Whirlpool) over unflattering comments published on its message board, has said it would drop its case.” [Via]

“YouTube is once again at the center of a political and cultural firestorm, as video of a University of Florida student being tasered at a Senator John Kerry speaking event is the must-see video of the moment.”

“A free tool that allows anyone to create a virtual world has been launched. Users of Metaplace, as it is known, can build 3D online worlds for PCs or even a mobile phone without any knowledge of complex computer languages.”

An online suite of editing tools embedded in YouTube (based on Abobe Premiere technology) letting users edit their YouTube clips entirely online!

“iPhone just might be the best thing that has ever happened to Google Maps -– it has made them popular like never before and has driven the usage substantially. This information comes courtesy of Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of …”

“Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes — a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis — as a horizontal “smiley face” in a computer message.”

“Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has slammed his record label and strongly encouraged fans to steal music.”

Includes an interview with the protest leader …

The walls come down and New York Times Select stops existing as a wall stopping full access to the New York Times archive and certain cool content. Why? They can make more money from online ads with all content accessible!

“Mozilla is launching a new effort to improve email and internet communications. We will increase our investment and focus on our current email client — Thunderbird — and on innovations in the email and communications areas.”

“:MySpace … says that after experimenting with technology over the last six months it can tailor ads to the personal information that its 110 million active users leave on their profile pages.”

Aranofsky’s commentary on The Fountain which the producer’s chose to leave off the DVD release (edited by Niko Tavernise, Antwrangler Films. It is 31.8 MB Mono mp3 file).

“Hot on the heels of Joss Whedon’s hugely popular “Buffy: Season Eight” series for Dark Horse Comics (consistently the publisher’s top-selling title since its launch last March) comes a Whedon-supervised “Angel: Season Six” funnybook series fo

“A sophisticated robotic face can express a wide range of expressions, and even transform itself to LOOK LIKE ANYONE. The WD-2 robot created by researchers at Tokyo University is a malleable face mask with rear projection…”