The Vuze team has released version 4.5 of the popular BitTorrent client. With this latest release users can easily optimize their settings based on an elaborate speed test, which should increase download speeds in many cases. In addition, users can now transcode, transfer, and playback downloaded files on many of the most popular Android phones.
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After years of doing comparatively little to protect copyright, in recent months authorities in Bulgaria came down hard on file-sharing sites. While two of the country’s biggest BitTorrent sites continue to function, the previous owner of one – Zamunda.net – will face court this year charged with crimes against copyright. The authorities are hoping for Pirate Bay-style levels of punishment.
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Quora, the real-time question and answer service started by two former Facebook employees, will start being indexed by search engines tomorrow, a week after Facebook rolled out the first version of the similar service Facebook Questions.

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It has been revealed that Facebook has acquired 18 key patents and patent applications on social networking owned by Friendster, the pioneering social network. Friendster had been acquired by MOL Global, a Malaysian company.
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Microsoft developers planned "industry-leading" privacy features in Internet Explorer 8 that would have automatically blocked third-party tracking tools like beacons, but one feature was scaled back and another was dropped because they went against the interests of advertisers, the Wall Street Journal reported in its seven-part feature on Internet privacy today.
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Google Wave, the revolutionary product, platform and protocol for distributed, real time, app-augmented collaboration will no longer be actively developed and may be shuttered after the end of the year, Google announced this afternoon.
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