Google exec to tackle urgent threats

Larry Brilliant, who in February stepped down as leader of the search giant's Google.org philanthropic arm to become its chief philanthropy officer, is now leaving Google altogether to run a $100 million project to address several major global challenges, reports CNet.

Brilliant is president of a new organisation, the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, founded "to address urgent threats confronting humanity and the planet," the Skoll Foundation said yesterday.

The initial funding of $100 million will be used "to combat climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation, and Middle East conflict".

The European Commission has commenced legal proceedings against the UK government for alleged breaches of European Union (EU) data protection laws caused by controversial Internet advertising company Phorm, says Computing.co.uk.

In a video posted on her Web site, Viviane Reding, the EU's commissioner for information society and media, said Europeans must have the right to control how their personal information is used.

She said the commission would take action wherever EU member states failed to ensure new technologies, such as behavioural advertising, respected this right.

A university student in Florida was sentenced to 22 months in prison for his role in a bungled scheme to hack into his school's computer system and make hundreds of grade changes, reports The Register.

Christopher Jacquette, 29, of Tallahassee was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release for his part in the plot, which used key-loggers to access protected computers at Florida A & M University, according to federal prosecutors.

Along with cohorts Lawrence Secrease and Marcus Barrington, his caper reads like a modern-day episode of The Three Stooges.

French politicians have rejected a Bill which proposed people caught downloading music illegally three times should be cut off from the Internet, says the BBC.

The legislation, backed by president Nicolas Sarkozy, would have set a tough global precedent in cracking down on Internet piracy.

The music industry has been calling for stricter laws as revenues have fallen.