Barney gets sued

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is protecting free speech on the Internet, by suing the company that produces the Barney and Friends children`s TV show, because it has allegedly harassed the creator of a parody Barney Web site with "baseless legal threats", says Computer World.

In the lawsuit, filed yesterday, the EFF asked the US District Court of the Southern District of New York to rule that Stuart Frankel`s online parody of Barney is protected as free speech.

Parody Web sites are clearly protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, said EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann. "It`s time for Barney to call off his lawyer armies and get back to entertaining children," he said.

According to Information Week, Google has agreed to release information relating to hate crime, pornography, and child pornography to Brazilian authorities "if their requests are reasonable and follow an appropriate legal process".

Brazilian authorities have been seeking information about certain abusive users on Google`s social networking site Orkut.

Since April, Google has responded to at least 15 criminal court orders and has retained user data in more than 70 others.

Microsoft has extended a helping hand to Mozilla in ensuring interoperability between Firefox and the upcoming Vista, says News.com.

Microsoft plans to open up an open source facility at its Washington headquarters to Mozilla software engineers, which will extend to aiding with Mozilla`s Thunderbird e-mail client as well.

Mike Beltzner, a phenomenologist for Mozilla, pointed out that it had already "been testing on Vista" with Firefox and Thunderbird.

Computer scientists in Scotland have developed software that can construct jokes, reports BBC News.

The program was developed for children who need to use computerised speech aids, as the team believes enabling non-speaking children to use puns and other jokes would help them to develop their language and communication skills.

Computer scientist Dr Annalu Waller, one of the project researchers at the University of Dundee, said: "Basically, the computer comes up with novel jokes - many of which are terrible."