WORLD
July 2, 2003 | From Associated Press
Iran is blocking access to Web sites containing pornographic material and dissent against the country's Islamic establishment, an official said Tuesday. More than 140 Web sites promoting dissent, dancing and sex have been blocked since the crackdown began last month, said Farhad Sepahram, a Telecommunications Ministry official.
BUSINESS
January 16, 2010 | By David Pierson
Zhang Shan never paid much attention to Internet censorship in China. The stylish art gallery clerk said it didn't really matter in her daily life. Then last year, she lost access to some of her favorite websites. First YouTube. Then Twitter. Then Facebook. It was her first memorable brush with the so-called Great Firewall of China -- one of many powerful mechanisms the Chinese government uses to block content deemed too sensitive for the eyes of its 384 million Internet users.
BUSINESS
April 21, 2004 | Joseph Menn, Times Staff Writer
A decade ago, in the World Wide Web's formative days, Gary Kremen registered "sex.com" with the company that keeps the rolls of the world's commercial domain names. One year later, a con man filched the rights, and Kremen set off on one of the Internet's longest-running legal battles. Now the lawsuit has been put to bed. VeriSign Inc. has agreed to settle Kremen's federal suit, the two sides said Tuesday. The Mountain View, Calif.
ENTERTAINMENT
January 22, 2010 | James Rainey
Almost every day, my in box fattens with e-mails from America's freelance writers -- adding their voices to those I quoted a couple of weeks ago about the devastating downturn in the writing market. In bemoaning the need for speed, the flight from quality and the persistent decrease in pay, it turns out writers have a lot in common with photographers. And graphic artists. And architects. And musicians. And, well, with just about anyone who sees his creative endeavors being commodified or who is exposed to low-cost foreign competition via the Internet.
BUSINESS
August 17, 2008 | David Colker, Times Staff Writer
When it comes to choosing broadband Internet providers, you can't always get what you want. But with certain limitations, you can get what you need. If you use the Internet regularly, chances are you already have broadband -- that is, a high-speed hookup, usually through your cable television provider or phone company. But are you getting it at the right speed and right price? There are more choices than ever, even though you typically have to go with a provider that serves your neighborhood.
BUSINESS
July 17, 2006 | From the Associated Press
Steve Mansfield operates his own Internet search engine from a place he calls a secret hide-out -- a small office surrounded by low-rent apartments on the outskirts of Lexington, Ky., a college town known for its horse farms. Mansfield conceived PreFound.com a few years ago on the premise that humans, from pretty much anywhere, can collectively provide better intelligence than a computer program developed out of Silicon Valley. Other start-ups, too, have had similar visions for "social search."
WORLD
October 20, 2005 | Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writer
As patient as fishermen, the young men toil day and night, trawling for replies to the e-mails they shoot to strangers half a world away. Most recipients hit delete, delete, delete, delete without ever opening the messages that urge them to claim the untold riches of a long-lost deceased second cousin, and the messages that offer millions of dollars to help smuggle loot stolen by a corrupt Nigerian official into a U.S. account.
MAGAZINE
February 25, 2007 | Shawn Hubler, Shawn Hubler is a senior writer for West.
In the summer of 2005, when she was 15 but not yet famous, Cory Kennedy went to a Blood Brothers concert at the El Rey Theatre. She remembers what she was wearing--black leg warmers, beat-up black Converse sneakers and a canary-yellow Lacoste mini-dress that she'd had to beg her mother to buy her. It was "back in the day," at the end of ninth grade, when she was still going by her full name, Cory Kennedy-Levin.
BUSINESS
April 22, 2009 | David Sarno
The Public Broadcasting Service turns 40 this year, and on Tuesday it gave itself a gift that just might make it feel young again. PBS' new video portal allows online viewers to stream an array of its best-known shows over the Web. The new site gathers more than 130 episodes of nearly 20 programs, including marquee fare such as "Frontline," "Nova" and "Masterpiece Theater." PBS says thousands of hours of programming should be available to users by the summer.
NATIONAL
November 22, 2007 | P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writer
For nearly a year, the families who live along Waterford Crystal Drive in this bedroom community northwest of St. Louis have kept the secret about the boy Megan Meier met last September on the social networking site MySpace. He called himself Josh Evans, and he and 13-year-old Megan struck up an online friendship that lasted several weeks. Then the boy abruptly turned on Megan and ended it. That night, Megan, who had previously battled depression, committed suicide.