The Los Angeles Times reveals that, “

[t]he John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has a message for parents worried about their children's use of the Internet: Chill out. A new study to be released today found that most teenagers steer clear of dangerous sites and use the Web only for research or to communicate with friends.  It's just that, as usual, parents don't understand.  ‘One of the main things we found is that it is highly motivating for kids to learn from peers, whether it's the everyday social stuff or learning about new technology or making videos or doing creative writing,’ said Mizuko Ito, a UC Irvine researcher and the report's lead author.  ‘They're learning a lot of the basic social and technical skills they need to participate in contemporary society. If kids are excluded from participating, they're not learning to engage with media and technology in the way that their peers are.’”

Reuters reports that “Microsoft Corp on Thursday announced a new music subscription plan for owners of its Zune players, which would allow them to keep 10 tracks per month and add them to their permanent collection.  The Zune Pass subscription service currently gives consumers on-demand access to millions of tracks for $14.99 per month.  Effective Thursday, the software company's modified subscription plan would allow owners of Zune to keep 10 tracks per month, which has an estimated value of $10. The users can also add those tracks to their permanent collection.”

According to the Register, “[d]ealers and resellers can use a manufacturer's trademark as a domain name even when their sales are not authorised by the manufacturer, an arbitration panel has ruled.  Pressure gauge maker ITT failed in its claim for the domain name ITTbarton.com and 12 other domain names owned by a seller of ITT pressure gauges, Douglas Nicoll, and his company Differential Pressure Instruments.  ITT argued trademark infringement before an arbitration panel of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).”

Yahoo!Tech writes that, according to British telecoms regulator Ofcom, “[t]he top emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China will drive mobile services growth in the coming years.  ‘Together these countries account for 42 percent of the global population but only 14 percent or 120 billion pounds (142 billion euros, 177 billion dollars) of global communications industry revenue,’ Ofcom said in its International Communications Market 2008 report.  ‘As such they could well offer a significant growth opportunity for communications service operators in the future.’  China alone added more mobile phone subscribers in 2007 than Britain has in total, the regulator added.”

The Guardian has an article on new findings by a U.S. Congressional committee that “China is stealing sensitive information from American computer networks and stepping up its online espionage.  […]  A summary of the study, released in advance, alleges that networks and databases used by the US government and American defence contractors are regularly targeted by Chinese hackers. ‘China is stealing vast amounts of sensitive information from US computer networks,’ says Larry Wortzel, chairman of the commission set up by Congress in 2000 to investigate US-China issue.  The commission recommends that the US upgrade its intelligence and homeland security systems protecting computer networks. It quotes the Chinese military strategist, Wang Huacheng, as describing US dependence on space assets and information technology as its ‘soft ribs.’”