Cyber Bully Victims Hit With Depression

SAN FRANCISCO—School children bullied online face a high risk of being hit with real-world depression, according to a study released Tuesday by the US National Institutes of Health.

The "cyber bullying" findings deviated from studies of real-world bullying that indicated children who were bullies as well as being victims of the behavior were most likely to feel depressed, according to researchers.

"Notably, cyber victims reported higher depression than cyber bullies or bully-victims, which was not found in any other form of bullying," the study authors wrote in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"Unlike traditional bullying...cyber victims may not see or identify their harasser; as such, cyber victims may be more likely to feel isolated, dehumanized or helpless at the time of the attack."

While traditional bullying involves face-to-face abuse such as taunts or physical violence, cyber bullying comes in the form of hurtful gestures in online formats such as email, text messages, chat rooms, social networks.

The study data was gleaned from US school students grades six through 10.

Google Pitching Online Music Service To Labels--Billboard

SAN FRANCISCO, California, United States—Internet search powerhouse Google is trying to put together an online music service that would take on Apple's market-ruling iTunes, according to a report at Billboard.com.

Google is courting record labels for a service that would let people download songs in digital format or store music in the Internet "cloud" for streaming to online devices, according to unnamed sources cited by Billboard.

Google is reportedly proposing charging annual subscriptions of about $25 to let people store music online and then stream or download tunes to Internet-linked gadgets as desired, Billboard said.

Google is seeking to have the service include letting customers listen once to any song all the way through before limiting them to a 30-second sample of the song, according to Billboard.

The service would reportedly have aspects of Lala.com, an online music website bought by Apple in December and closed early this year.

Lala boasted a playlist of more than eight million tunes and hosted users' digital music collections on the Web, allowing access from varied locations in what it described as "music in the clouds."

Apple has not disclosed its plans for Lala but there has been speculation that it may adapt its technology to create a Web-hosted music subscription service of some kind.

Lala launched in 2006 as an online vision of a vintage San Francisco record store where people tipped each other off to artists, shopped for CDs, and traded used ones.

Nokia Is Discontinuing The Ovi Files Service

Dear Ovi Files user,
Nokia is discontinuing the Ovi Files service, effective October 1, 2010.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please make sure to uninstall the Ovi Files Connector installed on your personal computer. To do this, execute the standard Windows or Macintosh uninstall procedure that came with your computer. You will not lose any files as a result of this service discontinuation. Ovi Files simply creates an 'online mirror' of the files saved on your Windows PC or Mac, so your original files will remain intact. The files on your computer are always treated as the master version, even if some are selected as 'Anytime Files.'

You will still be able to share content between your phone and PC using another Nokia product, Nokia Ovi Suite. With Nokia Ovi Suite installed on your PC, you can do the following: sync your contacts and messages; transfer videos, photos, and music; back up your Nokia and update your device software. Please note that this is not a direct substitute for Ovi Files as Nokia Ovi Suite requires a wired connection between your PC and mobile device. For more information visit www.ovi.com/suite.

Again, we are sorry for the inconvenience and hope that you will continue to enjoy our most popular services:

Forge Partnerships, US Urges

Manila, Philippines — As the nuclear-powered USS George Washington (CVN 73) arrived in Manila on Saturday, the United States underscored the need for all countries to work together and forge partnerships, saying “misunderstanding” is now the biggest threat in the region.

At the same time, amid recent developments at the South China Sea, an American commander emphasized the right of every country to access international waters as he said that prior to USS GW’s coming to Manila after they left Singapore where the warship also made a similar visit, they “operated up and down the South China Sea.”

Capt. David Lausman, USS GW’s commanding officer, however, emphasized they were operating peacefully “in international waters.”

Lausman also said that with US State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton’s remarks made last month that the US had a “national interest” in seeing the territorial disputes over the South China Sea resolved through a "collaborative diplomatic process by all claimants,"

“First of all, all international waters are of prime interest to our country and I would say they're an interest of your country too. We have a very rich culture, in dependence to a very stable maritime environment that we all live on,” said Lausman.

He added the United States “has had a long commitment to the Western Pacific” and it’s no secret that its warships, USS Midway, the Independence, the Kitty Hawk, and now the George Washington have been permanently forward deployed with all of their families in Yukosoka, Japan.

“As such this is a very close area for us, we spend about a 180 days a year at sea so it makes very good sense that we operate in the areas close to our home port, again the South China Sea area, up and down the Pacific,” he added.

Amid all these, Lausman said the biggest security challenge in the region now “is that we all need to work together, we learn from each other, just like when you meet a new neighbor in your neighborhood. The more you know each other, the more relaxed you are, the more you understand, and there's no misunderstanding.”

Lausman said that it is due to lack of communications and misunderstandings that tensions can build. And this misunderstanding, he said, is now the biggest threat in the region.

“We all want to work together. The fact that all our countries have partnerships, because our main goal is to keep the entire Pacific stable and free of terrorists, free from stress, and we can do that by understanding each other,” said Lausman.

“Again, the waters are great, the international waters, they belong to nobody and yet they belong to everybody,” he further stated.

The US warship’s visit comes amid escalating tensions over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea as China recently adopted a harder line on its claims to the area and with the United States getting into the debate.

China, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia have their respective claims in South China Sea's more than 200 mostly-uninhabited small islands.

Last month, the USS Blue Ridge also made a port call to Manila. 30% Filipinos

Lausman told reporters who were given a tour of the warship, its visit also serves as a “homecoming” to its Filipino sailors, who comprise about 30 percent of the crewmembers.

“As you know from last year, about 30 percent of the crew have direct ties to the Philippines either through aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, great uncles, great grandmothers, etc. and this is really a homecoming of families and cultures, because they are waiting to come back to their homes as well,” Lausman said, noting that during their last port call in Manila in August, 2009, “there was a lot of unique family reunions” and there are some again this year.

When asked how he would rate the Filipinos sailors’ performance onboard, Lausman responded, “We are glad that we have Filipinos on the ship” as he pointed to a group of them on formation behind him during the press briefing.

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RIAA Calling For Forcing ISPs To Fight P2P

President of the Recording Industry Association of America Cary Sherman said recently they were looking forward to the law formalizing the “voluntary” cooperation between rights owners and service providers to tackle unauthorized file-sharing. Moreover, they want such cooperation to extend to advertisers, payment processors, and search engines.

Another day, another announcement from the RIAA, keeping telling and doing the things more disturbing than ever before. For example, recently the RIAA President Cary Sherman told the public at a Technology Policy Institute forum held in Aspen, Colorado that the DMCA is completely failing rights owners. He insists that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act needs to be revised and include another provision allowing Internet service providers and others to filter the web of copyrighted content.

Cary Sherman said that day that the DMCA was not working for content people. All the infringements can’t be monitored on the Internet, because it’s just not possible. The music industry isn’t able to search all the locations containing infringing material, like cyberlockers, as it appears new every second.

That is the exact reality of the new digital world, but the RIAA would prefer to make another attempt to break the Internet to satisfy its own economic demands rather than to give it a try and figure out how to adapt to the new reality. Everyone understands there’s no way to completely stop the unauthorized transfer of copyrighted content short of information packet inspection.

The RIAA President highlights that they are looking for a “voluntary” cooperation with broadband providers, and even advertisers, search engines, and payment processors. They believe such co-operation would help stop unauthorized file-sharing. The only thing, he believes, they lack now is the law that would encourage this kind of cooperation, though not mandate it.

In fact, the story of the RIAA’s partnership with ISPs is not a long one, if any. Two years ago the outfit claimed to switch from its strategy of fighting individual file-sharers to cooperation with service providers to filter copyrighted content and disconnect repeat infringers (in other words, implement voluntary “three-strikes” regime. So far no ISPs have chosen to cooperate with the RIAA, and you can guess why. So why can’t the RIAA?