Tories cut funding for library Internet access Canadian Press
The Conservative government is quietly cutting funding to hundreds of community groups and even hospitals that provide free Internet access to Canadians who might not otherwise have a chance to get online. Organizations that benefit from Industry Canada’s 16-year-old Community Access Program began receiving letters last week informing them that sites located within 25 kilometres of a public library would no longer be eligible for cash. Groups had been receiving between $4,000 and $5,000 a year to buy computers and other hardware, such as printers and wireless routers; to pay for technical support and skills training; and sometimes to pay for the connection bills. Organizations that have used the program include employment and youth drop-in centres, English-as-a-second-language programs, libraries, and seniors groups.

Exploring Ways to Build a Better Consumer Profile Wall Street Journal
Digital-marketing companies are rapidly moving to blend information about consumers’ Web-surfing behavior with reams of other personal data available offline, seeking to make it easier for online advertisers to reach their target audiences. Advertisers say the push could enhance their ability to target ads at specific types of consumers, but it is drawing scrutiny from Congress, federal regulators and privacy watchdogs, who are already concerned about the use of Web-surfing data. EXelate Media, a start-up that collects and sells Web data on consumers, is set to announce an alliance Monday with Nielsen, the big consumer-research firm. The two firms say that under the deal, eXelate will tie its data on more than 150 million Internet users to Nielsen’s database, which includes information on 115 million American households, to provide more-detailed profiles of consumers. “We can build [consumer] profiles from any building blocks,” says Meir Zohar, chief executive of eXelate, which has offices in New York and Israel. “Age, gender, purchase intent, interests, parents, bargain shoppers—you can assemble anything.”

Copyright Holders Drop Bid to Block Pirate Bay in Norway IDG News Service
Copyright holders have given up legal efforts to force Norwegian ISP Telenor to block file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, one of the parties to the case said on Friday. The copyright holders, led by Norway’s performing rights society TONO and by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry Norway (IFPI Norge) Norway have lost two rounds in the Norwegian court system, and have now decided against appealing the case to Norway’s supreme court, the organizations said. The goal was to see if it under Norwegian law is possible to order an ISP to block access to The Pirate Bay, and two clear court decisions have now said that is not the case, according to TONO. Spending more resources on the case would at this point be a waste, according to IFPI.

Readers don’t want to pay for news online Associated Press
Getting people to pay for news online at this point would be “like trying to force butterflies back into their cocoons,” a new consumer survey suggests. That was one of several bleak headlines in the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s annual assessment of the state of the news industry, released Sunday. The project’s report contained an extensive look at habits of the estimated six in 10 Americans who say they get at least some news online during a typical day. On average, each person spends three minutes and four seconds per visit to a news site. About 35 percent of online news consumers said they have a favorite site that they check each day. The others are essentially free agents, the project said. Even among those who have their favorites, only 19 percent said they would be willing to pay for news online — including those who already do. There’s little brand loyalty: 82 percent of people with preferred news sites said they’d look elsewhere if their favorites start demanding payment.

U.S. Army worried about Wikileaks in secret report CNet News
A leaked U.S. Army intelligence report, classified as secret, says the Wikileaks Web site poses a significant “operational security and information security” threat to military operations. Classified U.S. military information appearing on Wikileaks could “influence operations against the U.S. Army by a variety of domestic and foreign actors,” says the report, prepared in 2008 by the Army Counterintelligence Center and apparently disclosed in its entirety on Monday. The embarrassing twist: It was Wikileaks that published the 32-page document, but not before editor Julian Assange prepended a critique saying some details in the Army report were inaccurate and its recommendations flawed. One section of the original document says “criminal prosecution” of anyone leaking sensitive information could “deter others considering similar actions from using the Wikileaks.org Web site.” Another speculates that Wikileaks–which boasts that it is “uncensorable”–is “knowingly encouraging criminal activities,” including violation of national security laws regarding sedition and espionage.

US women to be stripped of 2004 Olympic relay gold Agence France-Presse
The US women’s 4×400m relay team will be stripped of their gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics after the suspension of Crystal Cox for doping, world athletics governing body IAAF confirmed. “This athlete recently accepted a 4-year period of ineligibility and disqualification of her results from 2001 after having admitted her involvement in the BALCO conspiracy,” the IAAF said in a statement. “She took part in the 4×400m US Relay team who won the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. According to the IAAF Competition Rules in effect in 2004, the US relay team results will be disqualified accordingly.” Second-placed Russia are set to receive gold ahead of Jamaica and Britain.

White House staffer dons Canadian jersey Big Pond
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs donned a Canadian ice hockey jersey, to settle a bet he lost when Canada beat the United States for Olympic gold. Gibbs entered into the wager with a counterpart in Ottawa, and was honour bound to appear on camera wearing the jersey after Canadian star Sidney Crosby potted the winning goal in overtime in an Olympic final thriller.

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