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Google will block U.K. users from watching music videos on its popular video-sharing site YouTube after negotiations with Britain's music royalty-collecting body broke down.

Google said it would begin blocking British users starting on Monday night local time.
[...]it said its hand was forced by PRS for Music, which it said is asking for royalties that would cause Google to lose money every time a video was played on YouTube.

PRS for Music, which collects money on behalf of writers and publishers worldwide, said it was outraged by Google's move.

"Google has told us they are taking this step because they wish to pay significantly less than at present to the writers of the music on which their service relies, despite the massive increase in YouTube viewing," the group said in a statement.

Many of the students said the technology their schools have received through Title II, Part D (Enhancing Education Through Technology, or EETT) grants has made learning fun.

"It keeps me awake," said Britta White, a 12th-grader at Burke County High School in Waynesboro, Ga., of using Promethean whiteboards in her AP calculus class.

White said that when her teacher asks the students to submit answers to math problems using student response systems, it forces her to pay attention throughout the entire class because her teacher knows if she hasn't responded to the question. And it's also an incentive for her to get the correct answer, White said, because her teacher immediately knows if she's gotten it wrong.

"Plus, writing on the board is really cool," she said. "When my teacher asks for volunteers, you want to be involved and write on the board."

Interactivity through technology is something that Kentrell Washington, a 12th-grader at Mitchell County High School in Camilla, Ga., said is necessary to help catch the interest of his classmates.

"When you increase technology to students, they get interested in class and learning," he said. "A lot of people need to be interactive--talk and do things--instead of just sitting down and reading and writing. They learn better that way."

He stresses that government funding for most basic classroom needs is not bad. Papatoetoe South School gets $846,000 from taxpayers each year - including a top-up of $373 per student because of its low decile 2 ranking.

Each classroom has four PCs and eight laptops, plus video gear, enabling children to hold video conferences with school pupils in England.

The difficult part, says Mr Barratt, is showing them the rest of the world outside their suburb. For instance, most of his students have never been to Queen St, so the school takes them there.

It also takes them to the beach and to the snow to enjoy cheap activities like tobogganing and to learn outdoor problem-solving skills.

The US government is once again considering a sweeping reform of the nation's patent system.

A Senate bill known as the Patent Reform Act of 2009 (PDF) would overhaul parts of the patent process, particularly the way in which damages and licensing costs for patent holders are calculated.

Congress attempted to pass a similar measure in 2007 to change the patent system and reduce the number of lawsuits filed in disputes.

The measure did not gain widespread traction, and was abandoned in 2008.

But it is of particular importance to the IT industry, where many firms claim that individuals and companies deliberately file vague or inaccurate patent suits in an attempt to make easy money.

The popular online hangout Facebook is revamping its home page and plans other changes so its millions of users can more easily choose the types of information they see.

Perhaps taking a cue from Twitter, the rising service for letting people express themselves in 140 characters or less and keep up with what celebrities have to say, Facebook said it will let users follow public figures like President Barack Obama and swimmer Michael Phelps, bands like U2 and even institutions like The New York Times.

Facebook's fan pages currently work as static destination sites for anything from bacon to Coca-Cola to Jane Austen. The social-networking site will eventually make them work more like profiles, which individuals can now continuously update by posting photos, links and other tidbits.

A 41-year-old man has appeared in the Hamilton District Court on a variety of charges after a woman complained she was assaulted in her home early on Saturday morning.

The man and woman met over the internet in November. They had had some phone and text contact.

They had planned to meet in person on Friday night for the first time, but the meeting fell through.
Police allege the man then went to the woman's home.

Detective Inspector Greg Nicholls is urging people to take care when meeting someone they know only over the internet.

He advises meeting in a public place such as a cafe or restaurant, and telling someone else where you are going and who you are meeting.

Trade Me is picking counterfeiting and spear phishing as the two online growth scams of 2009, and is calling for greater co-operation between compliance agencies to help put online scammers in jail.

Trade Me is expecting counterfeiting attempts to increase over 2009, with more counterfeiters trying to enlist foreign students to onsell their goods.

They believe the global economic recession will increase the economic motivation for people to attempt monetary gain via selling counterfeit goods.