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08 September, 2014

AFTER years of debate, and millions of dollars spent on fruitless court cases, it is clear that copyright legislation has not kept up with enormous changes brought by the internet. In describing us as “the worst pirates in the world” (another apocryphal claim), rights holders are conveniently ignoring the fact that Australians are willing to pay for quality content. It is rarely reported that Game of Thrones was Australia’s most popular, legally downloaded TV show or film in 2013, or that Australia is second only to the US on a per capita basis in digital consumer revenues.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/copyright-law-is-failing-to-keep-up-with-internet/story-e6frg9if-1227050705973

While major retailers including Myer have said the ability of offshore internet retailers to sell tax-free is a major threat to local players, Mr Gladstone said there was a competitive advantage in being based in Australia. “Offshore competition is tough, but they have a disadvantage with the cost of shipping, and people always prefer to buy locally — so if we can offer a comparable price, fast delivery and good customer service with cheap returns it will always be preferable,” he said.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/ebay-is-big-business-in-australia-with-the-millionaires-to-prove-it/story-e6frgakx-1227050741721

Where contemporary robot vacuum cleaners use everything from random motion to laser range finders and ultra sound to navigate, the Dyson builds a floor plan with its camera, knows where it is and where it hasn’t been and uses infra-red for collision avoidance.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/technology/no-hiding-with-dysons-eye-robot/story-e6frgakx-1227048581948

EPPB is a program that makes it possible for a user to download iCloud backups from Apple's iCloud servers onto a computer. Once there, the backups can be scoured for information including camera rolls, messages, email attachments and more. In essence, the app reverse-engineers Apple's "restore iOS backup" functionality, only instead of downloading the backed up data to a physical device, it downloads it to the cloud.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/how-i-hacked-my-own-icloud-account-for-just-200-20140907-10dr30.html

Enrolments in Year 12 information technology subjects have hit a 20-year low, with more and more girls turning their backs on the subject. Preliminary enrolment data shows 2493 students enrolled in unit 3 IT applications this year, with numbers slipping from their peak of 14,004 in 2000.

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/expertise/it-crowd-shrinking-as-vce-enrolments-plummet-20140907-10dizx.html

Bill Gates and his Big History Project free online course

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/magazine/so-bill-gates-has-this-idea-for-a-history-class.html?_r=0