Digital Journal

More than 400,000 unlicensed copies of articles from major US news websites were republished online between March and July this year, according to new research published this week by copyright tracking service Attributor. Attributor's Graduated Response Trial for News monitored 70,101 news articles during the period and discovered that in more than 400,000 cases 80 per cent of the original article had been illegally copied. In all, 44,906 websites were involved in republishing content, the...

Yahoo is all set to jump on to the content bandwagon. The Internet giant on Tuesday launched the Yahoo Contributor Network, hosting 400,000 freelance writers, photographers and videographers from Associated Content, a firm that it bought over in May. Yahoo said in a statement that the Yahoo! Contributor Network would give freelance content creators access to popular destinations such as Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Sports and the Yahoo! homepage. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said in the...

Astronomers, for the first time, believe they have witnessed the birth of a black hole. The black hole is believed to be a remnant of a supernova, 50 million light years from Earth, which was spotted by an amateur astronomer in 1979. NASA announced this on Monday. According to NASA researchers, although the information they have collected is consistent with the birth of a baby black hole, they cannot rule out other possibilities. "If our interpretation is correct, this is the nearest example...

Egyptologists have unearthed twelve ancient sphinx statues at Luxor. The sculptures were found at a newly discovered part of the Avenue of Sphinxes, an ancient road that leads from the temple at Karnak to the temple of the goddess Mut at Luxor. The discovery was made as part of excavation and restoration works at the site by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), according to Egypt's Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni. The statues of the mythical creatures, inscribed with the name of Pharaoh...

A journalist in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 50 lashes in public and two months in prison for reporting on a protest against power cuts. The sentence was handed down on October 26 to Fahd al-Jukhaidib, a correspondent for national daily Al-Jazira, by the General Court in Qubba in northern Saudi Arabia, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Al-Jukhaidib's article, describing the problems faced by Qubba residents as a result of frequent power cuts, was published on September 7, 2008. The...

The extraordinary biodiversity seen in the Amazon rainforest — one of the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth — may have evolved mainly due to the rise of the Andes. And it is older than earlier thought. An international team of scientists, including a leading evolutionary biologist from the Academy of Natural Sciences, says that the origin of rich biodiversity in the Amazon likely goes back more than 20 million years when the Andean mountains were rising. The findings of the study, which is...

The Indian Ministry of Tourism has announced a travel bonanza for att medal winners at the recent Commonwealth Games 2010. Though the ministry had announced its plans during the Games itself, the announcement came only on Thursday. The best of the packages is being offered by the Ministry in association with the state governments of Rajasthan and Karnataka, and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). This would be in the form of complimentary travel packages for the medal...

Hollywood and Bollywood, two of the largest film industries in the world, agreed to strengthen their cooperation Wednesday with the signing of a historic agreement. As part of the pact signed Wednesday, Hollywood and Bollywood have agreed to “develop and strengthen motion picture production, distribution, technology, content protection and commercial cooperation.” The two industries also supported the creation of a Los Angeles-India Film Council to encourage Indian film production in Los Angeles...

Egyptologists have discovered 19 objects not known earlier to belong to Pharoah Tutankhamun in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. These would now be duly sent back to Egypt. British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter, the man who is credited with having discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, had retained a few artefacts which were bequeathed to the museum after his death in 1939. These artefacts were quite small and at the time it was not known that they were from the tomb itself...

The clashes between Moroccan forces and rebels in the disputed region of Western Sahara has taken a toll on reportage. Morocco has been accused of increased hostility towards Spanish journalists trying to cover the conflict. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 10 Spanish journalists were on Monday prevented from reaching the city of Laayoune in the conflict zone. Their tickets on a Royal Air Maroc (the official carrier) flight from Casablanca were cancelled...