PC gamers get Bill of Rights

A special Bill of Rights has been created in an attempt to secure all PC gamers' 10 most fundamental privileges, says The Register.

The Bill was created by desktop utility software developer Stardock and games designer Gas Powered Games. It's basically a list of the 10 "key elements that publishers need to adhere to in their games". The two firms believe the game industry has increasingly strayed away from these principles.

First on the list is the right to return games that don't work with the purchaser's computer for a full refund. Fair enough, states The Register, but shouldn't a PC gamer know their machine's specifications and then match these up to the system requirements listed on the game's box?

Google is introducing an open source Web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox, reports The BBC.

The browser is designed to be lightweight and fast, and to cope with the next generation of Web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia.

Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come.

Invented by American computer scientists during the 1970s, the Internet has been embraced around the globe, says CNet. During the network's first three decades, most Internet traffic flowed through the US. In many cases, data sent between two locations within a given country also passed through the US.

Engineers who help run the Internet said it would have been impossible for the US to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control.

And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the US, which may have intelligence, and conceivably military, consequences.