Australia comes clean on ACTA role IT News
The Australian Government has no intention of changing its domestic laws to harmonise with an international treaty on copyright, according to a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Questioned by iTnews on Australia’s role in the ACTA (Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), the DFAT spokesman said Australian negotiators are only participating in the talks in the hope that other parties to the agreement will meet existing Australian standards. Advocates such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Australia’s own Internet Industry Association (IIA) have long held fears that the ACTA will seek to introduce a global system of copyright protection that compels Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to take responsibility for the actions of their subscribers – to the extent of cutting them off after three warnings.

N.Y. Health Insurers To Offer Virtual Doc Visits Slashdot
Two insurance organizations in upstate New York said on Wednesday that they will offer their members and employers virtual physician visits beginning this summer, making New York the fourth state to provide these types of services. BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York, BlueShield of Northeastern New York and technology services provider American Well said the Online Care service will allow members to talk with physicians in real time through a private online chat network or through a voice-over-IP phone call. The service also offers video chat and instant messages. Members can sign on to the insurer’s Web sites and look for physicians who are available online in various specialty areas.

WhitePages.com halts ad networks over malware CNet News
WhitePages.com has stopped ad networks from delivering ads to its site after they were found to contain fake antivirus malware. “On Monday morning WhitePages received reports from users [about] malware in the form of a fake antivirus upsell program that we believe originated (against our terms) from a third-party advertising network serving ads on our website, in addition to other websites,” a WhitePages spokeswoman said in an e-mail late Tuesday. “We immediately suspended the networks in question at which time the reports from users subsided,” she wrote. “We are working diligently to prevent this from happening in the future.”

Ontario adds Internet safety to elementary curriculum Globe and Mail
Ontario is changing the school curriculum to include Internet safety lessons. The Liberal government has approved changes to the health and physical education curriculum for elementary schools to help children better protect themselves online. Next fall, there will be specific sections in the curriculum for grades 4 and 7 about Internet safety and the potential risks of online activities. Michelle Despault, a spokeswoman for Ontario Education Minister Leona Dombrowsky, says there will also be ‘age appropriate’ discussions about online dangers in Grades 1 through 8. The changes were announced the same day police forces across Ontario announced charges against 35 people for possession of child pornography. Five youths were among those charged.

Top flight club bans foreign language use The Local
Swedish top flight football club, Brommapojkarna (BP) have introduced a language policy requiring all players to speak Swedish to each other in order to be eligible for selection. “This is a non-issue,” BP chairperson Ola Danhard told The Local on Wednesday. As almost all of BP’s players are home grown talent – with 17 of the 23 first team players from its youth set up – Danhard argued that a language policy was little more than a formality. But Danhard did confirm that the club’s board had voted to establish a policy for the exclusive use of Swedish within the club, both in its changing rooms and on the pitch. “It is important for the collective that everyone in the team speaks the same language,” he said.

Facebook calls for ‘iconic games’ BBC
The world’s largest social network has thrown down the gauntlet to game developers to design an iconic social game like Mario or Halo for Facebook. Research suggests around three quarters of Facebook’s 400m users play social games on the site. The challenge came on the opening day of the Game Developers Conference.

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