Six of the UK’s biggest internet providers have agreed on a brand new plan to tackle music piracy online. BT, Virgin, Orange, Tiscali, BSkyB and Carphone Warehouse have signed up on a plan that will see hundreds of thousands of letters sent to users who were suspected of illegally sharing music.

But the music industry, who helped created a plan, wanted people to have their internet cut off for those who ignored the repeated warnings, but the providers were not prepared to do so.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has signed up, along with the BPI; with the six ISPs had signed a Memorandum of Understanding - which was drawn up by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Before the new deal, the BPI called for a "three-strikes" system, which will see the pirates terminated if three warnings went ignored.

However, many resisted the move. If Britain followed the new the "three-strikes" rules, it would follow France in implementing the system.

RUMOUR MILL: The blogs are rumouring that Apple could be releasing a brand red iPhone 3G model for the holidays.

The red coloured iPhone would be part of the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, a charitable organisation that donates money to fight AIDS in Africa. It will also join several Apple’s other (PRODUCT) RED items like iTunes gift cards, the 8GB iPod Nano and the 1GB iPod Shuffle.

As well, it would be an easier way to score an iPhone, while helping a good cause.

Image from MacBlogz.

Remember Joost? Joost was created by the founders of Skype; and has now made a joint venture in China, teaming up with a Hong Kong-based company and will show content sourced from many production companies around China, including the state-run television CCTV.

Read More over at The Journal >

MySpace users will now be able to connect to sites that support OpenID with their MySpace account, joining the already 120 million+ who currently have an OpenID in use. It will join Yahoo, Flickr, Blogger and AOL in using the new login standard.

OpenID’s way of logging in is you type in a special URL, depending on which of your accounts support OpenID. They usually are just blogs, or links to your profile - but some, like Yahoo, need you to type in their address and you login on their site.

MySpace will become a provider, giving accounts to users, and will allow them to access other OpenID-supported sites, like TECHGEEK.com.au and Twitterfeed, or known as "relaying parties". But, however, you will not be able to use your current OpenID to login to MySpace.

Did you know you can use your OpenID to comment on TECHGEEK.com.au. It is a much easier way to have your say. Log In now!

The San Francisco city mayor has managed to get the access codes to the hijacked city’s network after its network administrator locked out the administrators out and blocked access to much of the city’s information - including payrolls, booking records and police data.

Terry Childs, the perpetrator, was reportedly refused to surrender the codes to his bosses, but he had a change of heart and gave the codes to Mayor Gavin Newsom in a meeting arranged that also saw the police and district attorney not informed of the meeting ahead of time.

The codes given did not provide access to the system initially, but after a call to his attorney, the network was back and running normally. However, it does not mean he is freed just yet; with Childs’ attorney is expected to cite his cooperation during a court hearing to have his $5 million bid reduced.

Tourism Australia is now looking for a brand new web hosting company that will host, support and maintain the Australia.com website for two years. The website was created to promote Australia on the web.

The agency employs 250 employees in 15 offices, and is in charge of convincing tourists to come to Australia; and has been re-developing the website. The new tender will see the contract winner hosting, supporting (including security) and maintaining the new site.

Seven million unique visitors visit the site annually within its eight versions of the site for other languages, including English. Out of the visitors, 80 percent come from the United States, UK and Asia.

All we have to say is - good luck!

TechCrunch is reporting that search giant Google is close to acquiring social news aggregator Digg for around $200 million, with the companies are in "final negotiations" according to their sources.

It would most likely to be under its Google News property, but it could still fall through or another party would step in, like Microsoft - whom they have an advertising deal with and will be terminated if a sale to Google is a likely outcome.

It is one of the best known sites, competiting with Reddit and Slashdot, and has a loyal community. It launched in November 2004 by Kevin Rose and CEO Jay Adelson. Rose also hosts "Diggnation", a show based around news on Digg.

3 has unveiled a brand new plan that offers 6GB of mobile 3G data for just $39/month. The offer will, however, require you to get a 24 month contract with the telco. However, it does come with a USB dongle, so you can use the 3G network on your laptop.

While it beats the previous "king" from Vodafone, which had 5GB for $39, it does not have better coverage than its competitors, but less. And if you are ‘unlucky’ to go out of the area and roam into Telstra’s territory, also known as their GSM network, you will pay fees of $1.65/MB.

The Editor in chief of Engadget, owned by AOL, Ryan Block will step down from the top spot and will be launching a brand new site; with TechCrunch speculating that it may be called Devixe.

Taking over the ranks will be Josh Fruhlinger and Joshua Topolsky, with Fruhlinger taking over the entire AOL Tech Network, which includes TUAW, Switched, Download Squad and all of Engadget’s spinoffs. Topolsky will become the next editor in chief.

However, he says that he will not leave Engadget permanently, he will have a long-term advisory role at the blog.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has said that it has not initiated a formal review on eBay’s move to force sellers to offer PayPal as a payment method, even though there are complaints from a group which claims to be made up of disgruntled sellers.

Even though eBay has backed down from a policy of using PayPal exclusively, it has made it a permanent fixture on all auctions; even though it has allowed the use of other payment options.

The disgruntled eBay sellers’ group’s spokesperson has said that "eBay have been and continue to pursue through stealth the objective denied it by the ACCC," and has also written to the ACCC and other relevant authorities.

However, the Reserve Bank has said that it had just receive the letter and has not made any response to the letter.