UK to review copyright laws

Britain's intellectual property laws are to be reviewed to “make them fit for the Internet age," prime minister David Cameron revealed, states the BBC.

He said the law could be relaxed to allow greater use of copyright material without the owner's permission.

The announcement was welcomed by Internet campaigners who say it will boost small business. But any changes could be resisted by the music and film industries that have campaigned against copyright reform.

An ongoing computer attack has knocked Burma off the Internet, just days ahead of its first election in 20 years, reports the BBC.

The attack started in late October, but has grown in the last few days to overwhelm the nation's link to the Internet, said security firm Arbor Networks.

Reports from Burma say the disruption is ongoing. The attack, which is believed to have started on 25 October, comes ahead of closely-watched national elections on 7 November.

Virgin Media and BT traded blows over the roll-out of super-fast services at an event held to discuss the future of the UK's broadband network in London, writes V3.

Duncan Higgins, Virgin Media's head of broadband, argued that the majority of BT's £2.5 billion investment in new fibre is in areas where Virgin Media already has fibre installed.

"Where BT is building out its wholesale service, Virgin Media has already rolled out," he said. However, Liv Garfield, director of strategy, policy and portfolio at BT, insisted this is "untrue".

Firefox 4 for Android has emerged from the fat farm, and it's 60% less beefy, notes The Register.

On Thursday, Mozilla released a second Firefox 4 mobile beta for Android and Maemo, and the size of the Android install has dropped from 43MB to 17MB.

"There is still room for improvement and we'll continue to make the install size smaller," the open sourcers said in a blog post.