Digital Economy Act here to stay

The new secretary for culture, media and sport has announced the UK government has no plans to axe the Digital Economy Act, reports Computing.co.uk.

A spokesperson at the department confirmed to V3.co.uk: "The government has no intention of repealing the Digital Economy Act."

This is bad news for opponents of the Act, and represents an about-turn for the political parties that until recently were in opposition.

The Irish Republic has begun a piracy crackdown which could see customers cut off from the Net for a year, says the BBC.

The country's biggest Net firm Eircom has begun sending letters to those identified as illegal file-sharers.

It is the first nation to implement such a system. France also plans to introduce a similar policy.

Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which bought a $300 million stake in Facebook last year, is preparing to buy stakes in dozens of well-known Internet companies, reports Reuters.

Chief executive Yuri Milner told the Sunday Telegraph that DST had built up a war chest of more than $1 billion to fund the next stage of its investment strategy and said it was actively looking at companies in Asia, Australia and Britain.

The newspaper said Milner declined to name any of the investment targets but refused to rule out buying a stake in Twitter.

A second US man has been jailed over controversial denial-of-service attacks against the Church of Scientology two years ago, writes The Register.

Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, 20, of Grand Island, Nebraska, was jailed for a year and ordered to pay $20 000 in compensation to the Hubbardists at a sentencing hearing on Monday.

Mettenbrink had earlier pleaded guilty to taking part in attacks protesting Internet censorship by the church.