Fight the power! The Internet has risen against SOPA and PIPA -- but what does it mean to us here in Britain? We discuss how anti-piracy could impact you, ponder what went wrong with Kodak, and get to grips with the Asus Transformer Prime.
We discuss our addiction to Wikipedia, thrown into sharp relief by the 24-hour protest blackout on Wednesday, lament the end of an era that is Kodak going under, and try to puzzle out exactly what the heck is going on with the Transformer Prime, the hotly anticipated Android tablet that's suffering all manner of bugs and delays.
We reveal the most popular stories on CNET UK this week, including news of the new Sony Xperia S and our review of new video-streaming service Netflix. We're also pretty chuffed with our videos of the hottest new gadgets, including our 90-second round-up of the tech to get excited about in 2012 -- and of course, our live video podcast from fabulous Las Vegas.
In Crave, Judgement Jimmy Wales decides which is the top tech of the week. Andy appeals on behalf of the LG 55EM9600, Luke provides references to Rocky IV and a bibliography for the Oculus netbook robot kit, and Rich finds a citation needed for the Motorola Defy+ JCB edition.
In the feature: SOPA is on the ropes, and it's all thanks to the Internet, uniting against ill-thought-out and draconian proposed new US laws. But this is only the end of the battle, and the war continues. The protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act was an unprecedented groundswell of public opinion, but should Internet giants be able to hold lawmakers to ransom at all? And we ask if any law can tackle piracy more effectively than simply making it easier and cheaper to access movies, music and more.
We'd hate to live in a world without movie mash-ups like this one, recreating Lionel Richie's Hello...
We answer your questions on the Transformer Prime and ultrabooks, ponder whether HTC or Samsung should buy RIM, offer our predictions for a Google Tablet, and boggle at the ridiculous Razer Project Fiona gaming tablet. Keep your questions, comments and other feedback coming in the comments or on our Facebook page.
Finally, podcast leg-end and king of the gadget geeks Rory Reid says goodbye for the last time. Sayonara, Rory: it's been real. But worry not, for the podcast isn't going anywhere -- so see you next week!
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callum586 20 January, 2012 19:08
i have a few questions 1. is this soa and pipa crap finsished and 2. its your fault this all started i dont want to sounds harsh but you shouldnof started letting people download things like linewire and imesh beacuse that is what has started all of this and know beacuse of this the people at megaupload have gone :L
anonymous 20 January, 2012 21:51
CNET is owned by CBS isn't it? Why did you guys distribute millions of copies of Limewire, Kazaa, bittorrent and others? You encouraged the illegal sharing of files while suing those that participated in the activities you directly aided and abetted in.
Now your parent company is trying to lobby congress to restrict our rights for their monetary gain and you post this statement of solidarity with the public?
Treacherous thieves, the lot of you.
nofanboysplzz 21 January, 2012 01:18
@anon,
CNET distributed this software as it is used for legitimate purposes, the end user takes the choice whether to use the application for legal or illegal purposes or not. The responsibility does not lie with the software distributor. I agree that CNET/CBS will have been/are aware that people use software for these purposes and as such should not take legal action against users as it shows poor moral judgement however every person who considers themself a decent human being should be responsible for their own action. You wouldnt punish Jaguar is somebody used their car to break the UK speed limit, you would punish the individual.
Marc Crane 21 January, 2012 01:49
Sorry, previous comments - but that's utter bobbins. P2P/Filesharing software may be used for the illegal download of pirated files, but it was created as a way of sharing large amounts of data across the web without huge bandwidth costs to servers. P2P software is used for the legal distribution of games/podcasts/movies and streaming. Blizzard use it to deliver games and patches, Hollywood studios to deliver content from their websites, Facebook and Twitter to deliver server updates - the list goes on. You might as well call Adobe a thief because people could use Dreamweaver to create a website that hosts pirated files.
So a software download site allows you to download (amongst a giant catalogue of other stuff) some P2P clients - this doesn't mean it encourages illegality or piracy, surely it's the users who choose to use this system to share pirated material where the blames lies.
I used to buy blank VHS tapes from Woolworths and record stuff off the telly - does that make Woolworths complicit or encouraging of my 'crime'? If so, then a jolly good job they went tits up then, hey? That's karma for you.
Oh, and while we're apportioning blame , I once bought some Maxell C90's and recorded the Chart Show off the Radio on 17 March 1991. Not only was my local Spar, therefore, single-handedly responsible for 'killing music', but we ended up with Hale & Pace's The Stonk as Number 1. Which is the far greater crime if you ask me.
nofanboysplzz 21 January, 2012 02:05
@marc, I totally agree.