Video game's user content spawns naughty Web 'Sporn'

By Mallory Simon
CNN

(CNN) -- When makers of one of the most anticipated video games of the year invited users to help design part of the game, the gamers jumped at the chance to create animated characters.

Users will have the option to incorporate other people's "Spore" designs or choose to block them all.

But some took it upon themselves to create something entirely different: a new kind of Internet porn.

It started when the makers of "Spore" released a Creature Creator program that allowed users to develop their own characters to drum up hype before the game's scheduled release in September.

The game, a joint venture from "Sims" creator Will Wright and Electronic Arts, allows users to create a unique creature and then control its evolution from a single cell into a complex cultural civilization.

Within 24 hours of the Creature Creator's release, gamers had gone creature-crazy, designing millions of critters that were all thrown into a database and shown on a YouTube channel for the public to see.

But scrolling through the database -- past the three-legged sea horse, past the seven-eyed wildebeest and the half-motorcycle-half-pig -- revealed something many users didn't expect. Buried among the more wholesome attempts were two-legged dancing testicles, a "giant breast monster" and a four-legged "phallic fornication machine," for starters.

Olympic official feels like 'fall guy' over Web ban

BEIJING, China (AP) -- An Olympic official said Thursday he felt like the "fall guy" after promising reporters at the games they would have uncensored Internet access, only to find that the Chinese had blocked certain Web sites.

Reporters were startled to find certain Web sites blocked at the Olympics Main Press Center in Beijing.

Kevan Gosper, the press commission head of the International Olympic Committee, also said he suspects the IOC leadership probably knew about the change.

Gosper said he was startled to find out earlier this week that Web sites for Amnesty International or others dealing with Tibet, the 1989 protests at Tiananmen Square or the spiritual group Falun Gong would be blocked to reporters at the Olympics Main Press Center in Beijing.

China's communist government routinely filters its citizens' access to the Internet. But for months Gosper, IOC President Jacques Rogge and others have publicly said Beijing agreed to unblock the Web during the games, and they touted the shift as a sign of the Olympics' liberalizing effect on China.

"I have to accept that I appear to be the fall guy and may be the fall guy," Gosper said in an interview with AP Television News.

Astronaut's son spending his fortune to fly

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- The world's next space tourist, a computer game wizard, said Wednesday he's spending the bulk of his fortune on his $30 million adventure this fall.

Computer-game wizard Richard Garriott says he's spending millions on his space adventure.

Richard Garriott will make history as the first child of an American astronaut to rocket into orbit, and his dad will keep in touch with him during his time in space.

Garriott is set to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the international space station Oct. 12. Speaking at a news conference in Houston on Wednesday, he said: "To be frank, this price tag is the majority of my wealth."

The 47-year-old Garriott said space flight was a goal he'd been working toward for much of his life. Poor eyesight ruined whatever shot he might have had at becoming a professional astronaut.

"But versus being crushed and giving up on that dream, that just set me on the path of saying, 'Oh, wait a minute, you can't tell me no,"' he said. "Literally, throughout my entire professional career, I've been investing in the privatization of space. ... so my father, he was not shocked at all to see me pursuing this."

Saturn moon has liquid on surface, NASA says

PASADENA, California (AP) -- At least one of many large, lake-like features on Saturn's moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, making it the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to have liquid on its surface, NASA said Wednesday.

An image of Titan's surface shows what scientists believe are bodies of liquid, shown in blue.

Scientists positively identified the presence of ethane, according to a statement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which manages the international Cassini spacecraft mission exploring Saturn, its rings and moons.

Liquid ethane is a component of crude oil.

Cassini has made more than 40 close flybys of Titan, a giant planet-sized satellite of the ringed world.

Scientists had theorized that Titan might have oceans of methane, ethane and other hydrocarbons, but Cassini found hundreds of dark, lake-like features instead, and it wasn't known at first whether they were liquid or dark, solid material, JPL's statement said. iReport.com: Share your images of Saturn

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid," Bob Brown, team leader of Cassini's visual and mapping instrument, said in the statement.

Google accused on privacy views

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Google created Street View to help people find where they are going

Google has been accused of "hypocrisy" over its stance on personal privacy.

In court documents defending a lawsuit brought against its Street View mapping tool it has asserted that "complete privacy doesn't exist."

But, points out the US National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) it responded to a Californian politician's concerns about its growth by saying that it "takes privacy very seriously".

"Google's hypocrisy is breathtaking," said Ken Boehm, chairman of the NLPC.

BY-BBC NEWS

Scrabulous game back on Facebook

Scrabulous is back on Facebook but the popular word game has a new name, new rules and circular tiles.

Developers suspended the game for users in US and Canada on Tuesday, after legal action by Hasbro, the makers of Scrabble.

But developers have resurrected it and called it Wordscraper, a change which may help them beat legal action.

Hasbro is suing the Calcutta-based founders of the game, claiming they are infringing its copyright and trademark.

Lost for words?

Scrabulous has been one of the most popular applications on Facebook, regularly racking up more than 500,000 users each day.

But its similarity to Scrabble had raised the hackles of Hasbro, the owner of Scrabble's North American rights.

It sued Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the Indian brothers behind the game, in federal court.

The tweaks to the game - which includes allowing users to design custom boards - may give the Scrabulous developers an advantage in any legal action.

"It's going to come down to the little things like squares and circles and double, triple and so on," said Ethan Horwitz, an intellectual property lawyer at King and Spalding in New York. "What they have done is taking a big step in the right direction, but I don't think it's a big enough step."

In a statement, Hasbro said "it will evaluate every situation individually and take actions as appropriate".

Fans have mounted a vigorous defence campaign since the joint owners of Scrabble, Mattel and Hasbro, announced their intention to sue the Facebook developers back in January.

Hasbro had asked Facebook to block access following the launch of its own official online version of Scrabble.

Facebook said the developers took the decision to suspend the game.
BY-BBC NEWS

NYPD invites citizen crime images

New Yorkers could soon be able to help fight crime by sending video or photo evidence directly to the city police department's computers.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said any mobile phone camera images of a crime scene would help an investigation.

Civil rights campaigners hope the new technology will also help expose incidents of police misconduct.

A recent video of a policeman shoving a cyclist to the ground in Times Square has had more than 1m views on YouTube.

The clip on the video-sharing website generated an online discussion about police brutality.

Commissioner Kelly said the new service would be available soon.

"It's a fact of life. Everybody has a camera in their telephones. When people can record an event taking place that helps us during an investigation," he was quoted as saying by Reuters new agency.

BY-BBC NEWS

The power of female blogging

By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

'Mommy blogs' are starting to attract lots of traffic

The message was loud. It was clear. It was simple.

"Take the money."

Spelling it out was Gina Garrubbo, executive vice president of BlogHer, which claims to be the biggest online community for women who blog.

Ms Garrubbo made her comments at Blogher's recent conference in a session that aired concerns mommy bloggers have about selling out by displaying adverts on their sites or testing out products.

"Everyday I talk to Fortune 500 companies and they care. They care about supporting you on your terms. It is your opportunity. Build the business. Write the rules," said Ms Garrubbo.

Changing landscape

Female blogging is a growing phenomenon.

In 12 months the BlogHer network has mushroomed from 180 bloggers to 2,200.

According to comScore Media Metrix, community based women's websites are now tied with political sites as the fastest growing category online.

Blogging is about giving women a voice and sense of community many said

"Today, women are not only the most powerful consumers in the world, we're also the power users of Web 2.0 and social media technologies," said Lisa Stone, BlogHer co-founder.

That willingness to harness the web has resulted in a community of 36 million women who write and read blogs, said Ms Garrubbo. And that gave them clout among advertisers.

"There are millions of dollars to be made," she said. "Online media is taking away from traditional media and blogging is a new medium just like mobile is a new medium. Mommy blogging is one of the biggest and most influential sectors."

BY-BBC NEWS