Wheres Your Web At?

he International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a body that represents the music industry, has demanded €1.6m (about £1.26m) from file-sharing website The Pirate Bay.

The demands relate to a court case that is being brought in Sweden against The Pirate Bay for alleged copyright infringement.

The site tells surfers all over the world where to download content including music, videos and software for free.

The content is often subject to copyright laws and many organisations have attempted, unsuccessfully, to prosecute The Pirate Bay.

The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde described the IFPI’s demands as “ridiculous” and said that he was confident the IFPI would not win.

“When we win the case, I’m sure that IFPI will not pay the damages that’s going to be awarded to us. And if they wanted to, chances are they might have gone bankrupt before,” Sunde wrote on his blog.

He also said that The Pirate Bay was actually making money for the music industry, not taking it away.

“Research on the area of file-sharing (especially music) shows that the economy thrives due to file-sharing. IFPI have decided not to quote any research for their claim. In a normal market environment they would actually have to pay us instead,” he wrote.

John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said in January that he was optimistic that the court case could see the site closed for good.

“The operators of The Pirate Bay have always been interested in making money, not music. The Pirate Bay has managed to make Sweden, normally the most law abiding of EU countries, look like a piracy haven with intellectual property laws on a par with Russia,” he said.

The case, which is not likely to start until the autumn of this year, has already seen The Pirate Bay accuse Swedish police of a smear campaign.

Last year, The Pirate Bay tried to take legal action of its own when an email leaked from a company called MediaDefender, who had allegedly been hired to put a stop to The Pirate Bay’s operations, suggested that some record labels had been trying to sabotage its network.

The Pirate Bay also attempted to buy a man-made island off the Essex coast from which to run its operations last year.

Manchester United took a giant stride towards the Champions League semi-finals with a clinical victory against AS Roma at the Stadio Olimpico.Cristiano Ronaldo headed home his 36th goal of the season from Paul Scholes’ cross six minutes before half-time.

Roma rallied, with Christian Panucci missing from close range and Edwin van der Sar saving brilliantly from Mirko Vucinic’s 61st-minute header.

But Rooney bundled home United’s crucial second five minutes later.

The result leaves United clear favourites to reach a likely semi-final showdown against Barcelona.

Sir Alex Ferguson made three changes from the side that won so emphatically against Aston Villa on Saturday - Van der Sar, Anderson and Ji-Sung Park replacing Tomasz Kuszczak, Ryan Giggs and Carlos Tevez.

Vucinic led the Roma attack in place of injured captain Francesco Totti, and he was a lively figure in a first 45 minutes that saw United relatively untroubled.

Panucci posed an early threat when he rose to meet David Pizarro’s corner but headed over the top.

The Storm botnet was responsible for 20 per cent of all spam email sent in the first quarter of 2008, according to research from MessageLabs.

The Storm botnet was responsible for 20 per cent of all spam email sent in the first quarter of 2008, according to research from MessageLabs.

(more…)

You can see all the action from this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix online at the ITV.com website.

The first practice session takes place at 0800GMT on Friday, followed by a second session at 1200GMT.

Qualifying is at 1200GMT on Saturday and coverage of the race will begin at 1230GMT on Sunday. All sessions will be streamed live on the site.

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton is in the lead of the championship at the moment but reigning World Champion Kimi Raikkonen is breathing down his neck having won the last race in Malaysia.

www.itv.com/f1

Robert Kubica took his and BMW Sauber’s first Formula One pole position with a stunning lap in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.The Pole beat favourite Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who had dominated Friday practice, by 0.027 seconds. (more…)

Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo is better than AC Milan’s world player of the year Kaka, according to Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster.

The 23-year-old scored against Roma on Tuesday to take his tally to 36 goals for the season, while Kaka’s form has dipped in Serie A.

“Ronaldo has already overtaken Kaka after (the Brazilian’s) recent slump,” said the German coach. (more…)

if you’ve tired of Facebook and are ready for the next revolution in social networking then maybe Farcebook is the site for you.

Billed as the social network for anti-social people, Farcebook parodies the world’s most popular social-networking site and is built on a whole heap of irony.
(more…)

The second day of the US Masters 2008 in Augusta, Georgia sees Brits Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter in good form.

The BBC Sport website is offering live text commentary and you can see video coverage between 2100 and 2230 on Friday night, available to surfers in the UK only.

You can also see live video from Amen Corner between 1545 and 2215 on the BBC Sport website on Friday.

Masters coverage will also be made available on the BBC iPlayer, available to watch for seven days after the tournament.

s it a fishing rod or a scantily clad woman? The internet is awash with speculation about what exactly is reflected in the sunglasses of the American vice president Dick Cheney.

The undated photo of a smiling Cheney appears on the White House website and it has been suggested that a naked woman is reflected in his sunglasses.
(more…)

A Saudi blogger has made an anti-Christianity video in a direct response to an equally controversial anti-Islamic video.

On Tuesday Web User reported on the decision by ISPs in Indonesia to block access to YouTube and MySpace because of a controversial anti-islamic video posted online.
(more…)