Hackers attack Dutch govt sites

Several Dutch government Web sites remained offline yesterday after an attack by hackers protesting unpopular policies of the right-wing cabinet, reports Associated Press.

The hackers used a denial-of-service attack to continually make fake requests for information from the sites, effectively shutting out legitimate users. According to a government spokesperson, no security sites had been breached with only public information sites being disabled.

The Dutch government has come under public criticism over planned spending cuts next year on healthcare and early retirement benefits. On Saturday, 200 000 staged a protest in Amsterdam.

The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) has denied classification to the violent Manhunt PC game, leading to its banning, reports SACM.

The game previously held an age restriction of Mature Accompanied 15+, but was revised by the OFLC after an appeal by a government official. The OFLC found the rating did not adequately safeguard against some of the more graphic representations of violence in the game.

The Sony Japanese music unit will no longer sell CDs with built-in copy protection, reports Associated Press.

These CDs only allowed consumers to copy their music once for free onto a PC. A charge would then be levied for any additional copies. If a PC cannot be connected to the Internet, the CD cannot be copied.

"Sony decided to stop making copy-protected CDs because its feels its anti-piracy message has been widely understood," says Yasushi Ide, spokesman for Sony Music Entertainment Japan.

The move does not apply to Sony`s joint international music venture with German media company Bertelsmann.