berniescb.com

Separately, The Pirate Bay’s site appeared down Friday afternoon at 1:15 p.m. PT, at least in many U.S. areas.

Peter Sunde-Kolmisoppi told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagblated that The Pirate Bay’s attorney sent a letter to both Google and the companies that are suspected of being behind the allegations and demanded that the Pirate Bay be returned to Google’s index. The Pirate Bay accused Google of censoring a competitor and of stifling free expression, the paper reported.

“Google received a (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) take-down request that erroneously listed Thepiratebay.org, and as a result, this URL was accidentally removed from the Google search index,” Google said in a statement. “We are now correcting the removal, and you can expect to see Thepiratebay.org back in Google search results this afternoon.”

The DMCA’s safe-harbor provision is designed to shield Internet service providers from being held liable for copyright infringement committed by users. But the provision has a certain set of requirements that ISPs must meet, and one of them includes promptly removing infringing material.

Indeed, the service can help people find pirated content, but so can a lot of search engines, including Google. The notion that the Pirate Bay would be pulled down because of a single copyright claim is sort of humorous.

If that’s all that was needed to have the site kicked off, it would have happened years ago. The music and film industries, as well as other copyright owners, have complained about The Pirate Bay for years.

Google didn’t provide any details about what caused the error but at this point it doesn’t seem to be some kind of orchestrated effort to bring down The Pirate Bay–at least on Google’s part. According to Google, it was just a goof.

The case is a bit ironic, in that it’s well-established that The Pirate Bay does not store any unauthorized copies of films, music, TV shows, or other content.

Update 3 p.m. PT: To include an updated comment from Google.

Later, Google updated it’s statement: “The removal appears to be an internal error and not part of a DMCA request.”

Google said on Friday that an error caused the search engine to remove The Pirate Bay from its search pages.

Merritt recommends that people use security suites that offer antivirus, firewall, and intrusion detection and prevention software, as well as keep their operating system and browsers updated.

I tried the tool when I was initially briefed on it a few months ago and was surveyed about my gender and age range; online assets (including credit card and bank account data, brokerage accounts, e-mail accounts, and social network accounts) and an estimated value of all that information; whether I use security software; how cautious I am when online; and how much I think my information is worth.

I use security software (and do my financial transactions mostly on a Mac at home), am fairly cautious while Web surfing, and didn’t put a high dollar figure on the value of my digital information. My security risk turned out to be 37 percent, or medium, and the black market worth of my online assets was calculated to be $11.29. Those figures didn’t change when I modified the gender, age, and estimated value of the data.

Symantec isn’t trying to scare consumers with the Norton Online Risk Calculator, but to raise awareness of the risks, said Marian Merritt, Internet safety advocate at Symantec.

A recent Microsoft Research report concludes that stolen data offered for sale in underground IRC channels is difficult to monetize because of all the–get this–con artists there.

It’s no secret that criminals are stealing credit card and bank account data and selling it underground. But most people would find it shocking to learn just how little their sensitive personal information costs.

It’s discomfiting to think a criminal could pay as little as $11 to get access to my sensitive personal data for identity fraud purposes, while I could end up spending lots of energy and time–years even–reporting the crime, trying to fix my credit rating, and getting my life back to normal.

“We still find consumers who think using just antivirus is sufficient,” she said.

Regardless of whether the underground revenue figures are overblown, the data is being harvested, sometimes in huge batches, during data breaches at large payment processors, and there is a market for it.

Symantec on Thursday is launching its Norton Online Risk Calculator, a tool that people can use to see how much their online information is worth on the black market. The tool also offers a risk rating based on demographics, online activity, and estimated value of online information.

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My top 3

Other distractions

I like Twitvite. The site first asks for your username. From there, you can decide where to have your Tweetup, set your date and time, and send it off to your Twitter followers. They can respond by clicking on the Twitvite link, letting you know if they can make it. It’s a neat tool.

Identica is more or less a Twitter clone with some extra features.

When Twitter is Down tells you what's going on–kinda.

FriendFeed is a fine alternative to Twitter.

If you’re really annoyed that Twitter is down, visit WhenTwitterIsDown. The site is simple: it sports a single phrase that describes what might be happening because of the outage. Read one, click on it, and read the next ideas. It’s a good way to waste your day. Some of the examples on the site are quite funny too.

As its name indicates, TweetLater lets you tweet later.

Other options

AddictingGames will keep you distracted.

You can also use TweetLater to schedule tweets to go live on your stream at a desired time. On Thursday, TweetLater shut down some of its features to help Twitter fend off the denial-of-service attack. That was a bummer. But it still came in handy for those who wanted to keep tweeting and not miss a moment when Twitter came back up.

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If you want a straight Twitter clone with some open-source flavor, Identica is for you. Found at Identi.ca, the site lets you input a message in 140 or fewer characters. You can see what the community is saying by sifting through the timeline. It’s a neat service, but there’s one problem: its community is small. You won’t find many friends on the site.

Twitter tanked Thursday. The outage, caused by a targeted denial-of-service attack, had ripple effects continuing into the evening. I wasn’t able to post a tweet with a link in it.

Why not play some games on AddictingGames? The site features thousands on online games with which you should be happy. From the helicopter game (a favorite of mine) to old classics like checkers and chess, the site has it all. I sometimes find myself spending hours on the site. It’s also where I spent some of my time Thursday when Twitter was down.

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And then, of course, there’s Facebook. You can always just chat with your friends on that social network, though it, too, is susceptible to similar outages (and was on Thursday). You can input status updates, chat with friends on its instant-messaging platform, share links, and check out photos. It’s a similar and, arguably, more robust offering than Twitter. It’s a great communication platform. It should solve all your troubles when Twitter is down.

Twitvite will help you organize a Tweetup.

If you’re looking to find the top activities to engage in when Twitter is down, I’ve listed my favorites.

If you’re looking to only communicate with your Twitter friends, it seems that a service like TweetLater is what you really need. TweetLater allows you to tweet until your heart is content even when Twitter is down. It populates your Twitter stream with all your TweetLater updates when Twitter goes back up.

Plurk has a unique layout.

1. Facebook: It’s huge. Its community is lively. And it has several tools we all care about.

2. FriendFeed: It’s like Twitter, but better.

Even better, why not get all your Twitter friends to meet up with you when you’re offline? Organizing a Tweetup is a great way to get people together. And there some tools that will help you do it.

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Facebook status updates present another Twitter alternative.

If you’ve decided that microblogging without Twitter just doesn’t fit the bill, you have some other options.

Chart an offline course

Tweetups.org helps you find Tweetups around town.

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FriendFeed is the first place to start when Twitter is down. Although it’s designed to track updates to all your social networks, it’s a fine communication platform itself. The site will let you chat it up about important topics, follow other friends’ many social-networking updates, and more. It’s an ideal alternative to Twitter.

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That said, it does provide a really neat timeline display and a unique way to spread your feelings. Instead of giving you full control over your message, it asks you to use one of several keywords, including love, like, wishes, hates, gives, and more. It’s not bad.

3. AddictingGames: AddictingGames lives up to its name. Definitely check it out.

But if you’re looking for something a little more Twitter-like, there are several options. You can try out Plurk. It’s a nice platform, but beware that there are very few users on the site. If people are updating their friends about their lives, they’re not doing it on Plurk.

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If you don’t want to organize your own Tweetup, but you still want to party, Tweetups.org is the site for you. It lists all the Tweetups that have been organized by its users. Right now, it has more than 6,300 members in 48 cities and five countries. There are several Tweetups scheduled for the next few months. If one is in your town, Tweetups.org is the place to find out.

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I was reminded of an era not long ago, when it was more newsworthy that Twitter was up. In an homage to those less-stable days, I thought I’d outline some of the better alternatives we can take advantage of during those moments Twitter isn’t cooperating.

The Motion Picture Association of America asked a federal court to rule that Isohunt was liable for copyright violations committed by its users, but the judge in the case was unconvinced. In his order, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson said the studios had yet to prove that the Isohunt’s users had broken U.S. law.

Ira Rothken, Isohunt's attorney

Most of these companies claim to do nothing more than help people locate files. One question often asked by readers is how is this different than what Google offers? One can find plenty of infringing content using the behemoth search engine.

Some of the cases that have gone against BitTorrent or file-sharing sites Sweden-based BitTorrent search engines, The Pirate Bay, was brought up on criminal misconduct charges and TorrentSpy’s case was decided on a discovery sanction. Some of the issues in the Usenet.com case closely resemble Isohunt and TorrentSpy’s, although the company is not a BitTorrent tracker or search engine.

Rothken is hoping to argue Isohunt’s case before a jury, something that no other BitTorrent sites have managed to do.

“Our view is that it would be difficult if not impossible,” Rothken said, “to be able to trace any direct infringement to the users of the Isohunt’s site in a manner that would hold Isohunt responsible for the infringing conduct. I think the judge’s order will hopefully demonstrate to the court that Isohunt, besides lacking knowledge of direct infringement, can’t possibly be held liable for users conduct, especially since any such conduct occurs after they leave the site.”

Lawyers for the MPAA, the trade group representing the six major Hollywood film studios, are trying to convince the judge that Isohunt encouraged and contributed to the infringing activity of users. Wilson gave the MPAA until Sept. 15 to file a brief that convinces him direct infringement at the site was committed by those in the U.S. Apparently, Wilson has questions about whether U.S. residents have pirated content using Isohunt.

“I believe the difference is that for one reason or another courts seem to place greater social importance on the Google search engine,” Rothken said. “Courts also tend to frown on search engines created to find specific file types like .torrent files. And other than that there is no difference (Isohunt and Google).”

A spokeswoman for the MPAA did not immediately have a response.

“United States copyright laws do not reach acts of infringement that take place entirely abroad,” Wilson, wrote in his order.

Usenet.com is a company that enabled users to access the Usenet network and it too lost on a discovery sanction.

“I believe there has not been a single case in U.S. law where there has been a decision on the merits of a Torrent search engine,” Rothken said. “We’re cautiously optimistic Judge Wilson will deny plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment and ultimately there will be a trial on the merits.”

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File-sharing sites haven’t had a great year, especially in court, but on Wednesday they received a smidgen of good news.

The significance of the judge’s order, at least from the point of view of Ira Rothken, Isohunt’s attorney, is that MPAA’s investigators have struggled to draw specific examples of infringement occurring in the U.S.

The company, which plans to sell an all-electric sedan in California next year, said on Tuesday that it has completed a series B round of $24 million in equity. The money will be used to bring its car to market and fund a joint venture to manufacture the car battery.

Correction to indicate the Paulson will only be an investor in Coda Automotive.

Joining Paulson as an investor and President Clinton’s former chief of staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty. Other investors include investment bank Piper Jaffray, energy investor Tom Steyer, former Edison International CEO John Bryson, and company executives.

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Coda Automotive)

Updated at 2:15 p.m. PT.

The Coda is a highway-capable sedan with a 100-mile range to be made in China.

Electric sedan maker Coda Automotive has attracted some well-connected people with its latest round of funding, including former Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson.

Although its corporate headquarters are in Santa Monica, Calif., Coda Automotive has partnered for both design and manufacturing of its planned car.

The chassis for the car will be manufactured by Chinese state-owned carmaker Hafei. While working for President George W. Bush, Paulson led talks on U.S.-Chinese economic relations and he is an advocate for conservation in the U.S. and China, according to Coda. The company’s flexible business model will also allow the company to get its product to market earlier than other electric-car makers, said Coda Automotive CEO Kevin Czinger in statement.

Considering TechCrunch50 is an event devoted to new Web start-ups, Facebook also had a pitch for the entrepreneurs behind them: employee Justin Osofsky then came onstage to talk about Facebook Connect and why start-ups ought to implement the universal log-in system. He cited the power of being able to share information on such a massive network, the advantages of not requiring a separate registration process, as well as the proven jumps in page views and traffic that some of the 15,000 sites currently using Facebook Connect have experienced.

At TechCrunch50, Facebook conveniently was able to make the dual announcement that it’s cash flow positive and just hit 300 million active users. There are 6 billion minutes spent on the site every day, Schroepfer explained, 1 billion chat messages sent, and 80 billion photos stored on the site (20 billion individual photos, each stored in four different formats).

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Some of the new prototypes, Agarwal explained, are photo tag searches, desktop notifications, and a way to filter news feed items to see which ones your friends have recently commented on.

Prototypes, which is sort of like Facebook’s version of Google Labs, had accidentally been unveiled in a company Twitter post earlier on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s difficult to predict just what Facebook engineers will come up with next,” Agarwal said of Prototypes, which has since been elucidated in a post on the company blog.

“The problem with this is, we (were) basically asking 200 million people to show up at the Web site at about exactly the same time,” Schroepfer said. “Most people would call this a denial of service attack. We called it a product launch.”

Within an hour of the site opening up the floodgates to vanity URLs this summer, 1 million had been reserved, Schroepfer explained. He reiterated that the company’s engineers were what kept it all afloat.

Facebook's Aditya Agarwal shows off its new Prototypes feature at TechCrunch50.

Many of Facebook’s hottest new features were created in late-night employee “hackathons,” Facebook Vice President of Engineering Mike Schroepfer told the audience. Its new iPhone app was created by a single engineer (someone from Facebook told me that this employee was actually a summer intern, which makes it even more impressive), its “Facebook Lite” low-bandwidth-friendly site option was created by three engineers, and the brand new status tagging feature was built in a hackathon.

Facebook engineering lead Aditya Agarwal unveiled a new offering called “Prototypes,” which makes internal projects on the site accessible as applications on its developer platform. “Some of them are going to be buggy,” Agarwal said. “Some of them are going to be super polished.”

SAN FRANCISCO–Facebook took the stage on Tuesday afternoon at the TechCrunch50 conference for a “Developer Garage” event, to highlight just how important its team of engineers is to the company–and to unveil a new feature to let users play around with what they’re up to.

But now it looks like Verizon is having a change of heart. The Street.com said its sources have cited several reasons why Verizon execs may be getting cold feet. For one, the Palm Pre has had modest sales compared to sales of competing devices such as Apple’s iPhone or Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices. According to story, Sprint has not sold more than a million Pre phones so far, which has spooked the Verizon execs.

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Palm representatives were unable to be reached, but they declined to comment in TheStreet.com story. And Verizon Wireless representatives declined to comment.

According to a report from TheStreet.com, Verizon Wireless execs are reconsidering whether to begin offering Palm’s touch screen smartphone in January as many have anticipated.

Palm Pre

Supporting the Pre would not only require Verizon to invest in more marketing to push the device, but it would also require the company put resources into supporting Palm’s WebOS operating system.

Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse said the device was exclusive to Sprint through 2009, which left many market watchers expecting a Verizon version to land sometime in January 2010. Hopes for a Verizon version of the Pre were bolstered recently when Palm’s new CEO Jon Rubinstein said he expects the device to be offered on other networks very soon.

Another issue is that Verizon supposedly wants its VCast application and download store to be featured on the phone. But this will compete directly with Palm’s own app store. Yet another reason why Verizon might be balking at a deal is that the company plans to put most of its marketing might behind new RIM BlackBerry devices and the Motorola Google Android devices that will be launched later this year.

The Pre was announced at CES in January amid much fanfare. And after months of anticipation, Palm launched the device in June exclusively on Sprint Nextel’s network. Shortly before the device was launched on Sprint’s network, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said it would offer the Pre on the Verizon Wireless network within six months.

If TheStreet.com story is true and Verizon does not sell the Pre, it will be a major blow to Palm, which needs to expand its sales channels for the device. The company has already announced a few other deals for the Pre. Bell Mobility in Canada and Telefonica’s O@ in the U.K. and Germany are also exclusive partners.

The Palm Pre may not be coming to Verizon Wireless after all.

Mozilla is looking for comment on the designs, which, the browser developer takes pains to note, are “for brainstorming/exploration” and aren’t final.

Mozilla has released mockups that show how Firefox 4.0 conceivably might look, and two words spring to my mind: Google Chrome.

Last week, Mozilla showed some mockups for the nearer-term Firefox 3.7 that eliminated the browser’s title bar, replacing it with two drop-down menu buttons on the right, just like Chrome has had since its September 2008 debut. The Firefox 4.0 mockups show two options, one similar to the 3.7 ideas, and the other taking another step in the Chrome direction.

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The Firefox 4.0 mockups also show a combination button to the right of the address bar that changes behavior depending on what the browser is up to. The button can be used to start loading a page whose address has been typed, to stop loading if it’s in the process of doing so, and to reload it if it’s finished loading.

Of the “more contentious Tabs-on-Top concept,” Mozilla says advantages include that it saves vertical space and removes visual complexity. On the flip side, it’s different, and moving user interface elements confuses people. Also on the negative side, the missing title bar means people see only a truncated Web page title in the tab.

An example of Chrome's latest interface.

Specifically, the second Firefox 4.0 mockup shows the browser tabs on top where once there was a window title bar. That’s the same approach that Google picked with Chrome, a view of which you can see below.

This Firefox 4.0 mockup shows a very Chrome-like interface.

For Firefox, putting tabs on top meshes conceptually with Electrolysis, aka Content Processes, an under-the-covers change that will make each tab a separate computing process. That carries potential performance, stability, and security advantages, but requires more memory.

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One of my favorite Web History features is Trends, which shows your top 10 queries, sites, and clicks over the past seven days, month, year, or all recorded. I had fun trying to figure out why I did almost three times more searching last April than I did the previous October, or why I’ve never searched at 2 a.m. A real shocker for me was that I search more often on Sundays than I do on Fridays. I would’ve never guessed that one.

To surf without being tracked, click the left pane’s Pause button. (Frankly, I’m inclined to sign off the account altogether.) When you’re ready to go back on the record, click Resume.

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To open your Web history, sign into your account, click My Account in the top-right corner of the main Google screen, and choose Web History under My products. The default view is All History. Your other view options include Web, Images, News, Videos, Maps, Blogs, and even the Sponsored Links you were served up, just in case you missed them the first time.

I was ready to find all sorts of embarrassing information about myself in the logs, but they were really kinda boring, which probably indicates their accuracy. I did find several entries that didn’t belong—obviously, someone borrowed my PC while I was logged into my Google account. To remove unwanted items in your history, click Remove items in the left pane, check the entry or entries you wish to excise, and click Remove.

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View a record of your online activities in Google Web History.

Google’s privacy policy offers a link to DoubleClick’s opt-out cookie, but the best solution is to disable cookies altogether. Doing so cripples many of the Web’s most useful features, in my book. So I’ll just keep my surfing semipublic and hope Google doesn’t suffer the security breach of all time.

It feels like I’ve been using Gmail for five or six years, but I found my Web history begins in January 2007, according to Google. The entries since that time are far from a complete log of all my searches and surfing; apparently, events are recorded only while you’re logged into your Google account.

Maybe I should have qualms about anybody keeping such close tabs on me, but the fact is, most or all of this information is tracked whether or not I sign up for the service, unless I use an anonymizing service or product. About a year ago, I described how to customize the history settings in Firefox and Internet Explorer, and all browsers let you wipe your Web history clean, but these settings don’t affect Google’s servers.

Get a view of your search history by hour, day, or month in Google Web History's Trends.

Privacy advocates aren’t pleased with Google Web History, which records the sites you visit, searches you make, images and videos you view, and even sites you haven’t been to but may like. When you create a Google account, the option to use Web History is checked by default. Opting out doesn’t mean Google doesn’t collect the information, just that you don’t have such easy access to it.

Virtual Balance Tracker displays balances and recurring payments.

If you’re one of those people trying to make sense of the markets, you might be happy to know that instead of jumping from site to site to get all your financial information, you can simply add some gadgets to your iGoogle home page. From currencies to commodities, iGoogle gadgets will satisfy any desire.

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Commodities Market If you’re looking to find a way to easily track the price of oil and natural gas, the Commodities Market gadget is for you. The gadget displays the major commodity indexes, including crude oil, natural gas, and even coffee. You’ll see the price fluctuate as market factors change throughout the day. It’s a great way to stay up on the commodity market.

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Dow Jones Chart Dow Jones Chart is the most accurate Dow Jones gadget in this roundup. Although some other gadgets list the Dow Jones’ level at any given time, the Dow Jones Chart is accurate to the minute. In other words, it provides the closest tally of what the market’s price is at any moment. It’s extremely useful for investors. Slight fluctuations in the market will be seen with this gadget. It’s worth checking out.

Track the price of gold with Live Gold.

Google Finance Portfolios Google Finance Portfolios gadget tells you how well your stocks are doing right on your iGoogle page.

Dow Jones Chart gives you real-time Dow Jones tallies.

Stock Charts lets you know how your favorite stocks are performing.

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My top 3

Company Overview displays a lot of great information.

Sector Summary will help you see how well all the economy's sectors performed.

Virtual Balance Tracker Virtual Balance Tracker allows you to input bills, stock accounts, checking accounts, and other financial balances to track it as the month goes on. You can set up recurring debits or credits or manually adjust it as the real balance changes. It’s not the easiest gadget to use, but it might come in handy for those who want to know where their money is without going to individual bank sites.

Latest Bulls will give you information on overseas markets.

2. Commodities Market: Who doesn’t want to know what the price of oil is today?

10 finance gadgets

Currency Converter Currency Converter does what you would expect: it converts currency based on up-to-date exchange rates. So, if you want to know how many euros are in a single dollar, you can do it. If you want to convert your dollars to yuan, you can do that too. It’s a simple gadget, but it comes in handy.

Stock Charts Stock Charts is an extremely handy gadget to have on your iGoogle page. Simply input a stock’s ticker symbol and the gadget will display how the stock’s share price has fluctuated over one month, three months, six months, or a year. Stock Charts won’t be enough to help you make a decision on a stock purchase, but thanks to its usability, it will come in handy when you’re making that decision.

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Stay up-to-date on commodities with Commodities Market.

Latest Bulls Latest Bulls features the world’s indexes to see how different markets around the world are performing. It lists the S&P 500, the FTSE 100, and Shanghai Exchange, among other markets. In the gadget, it only lists whether a respective item is up or down. When you click on one of those items, you’ll be brought to a page from Marcoaxis, giving you more detailed information on the market. Any advanced investor who dabbles in overseas markets should find this gadget quite useful.

Sector Summary Sector Summary is a simple gadget that sits in your iGoogle home page. It also displays how each sector of the economy, including technology stocks and industrial companies, performed the last time the market was open. It displays the sector and how much it was up or down on the day. If you want to dig a little deeper, you can click on any sector. You’ll be brought to Google Finance where you’ll find more information. It’s a great gadget for anyone trying to diversify.

The economy is in a major state of flux right now. Although unemployment is still on the rise, the stock market is on the rise too as of late.

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1. Company Overview: With so much great information, Company Overview is a great gadget.

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3. Google Finance Portfolios: Google Finance Portfolios provides easy access to your stocks.

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After Google Finance Portfolios is added to your iGoogle page, it displays your portfolio, including the net change for the day. It also features overall market performance. Any of those items can be hidden in the gadget. If you want more detail on a particular stock you own, you can click on it to be brought to its respective Google Finance page.

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Currency Converter helps you convert money.

Company Overview After you install Company Overview, you can input any company’s ticker symbol and see an overview of its operation. You can also get company news, see key financial ratios, check out its financial performance, and even see who the company’s key managers are. If you want to listen in on quarterly earnings calls, you can find all the information you need to join those calls in this gadget. Check it out.

Live Gold The Live Gold gadget provides real-time information on gold’s price at any moment. The gadget also features news about the gold market and a listing of other metals, including silver and platinum, if you want to check their price, as well.

Google Finance Portfolios provides your portfolio's performance.