By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News Website, Silicon Valley

Giving up some rights means you still have protection under the law

Advocates of open source software have hailed a court ruling protecting its use even though it is given away free.

The US federal appeals court move overturned a lower court decision involving free software used in model trains that a hobbyist put online.

The court has now said conditions of an agreement called the Artistic Licence were enforceable under copyright law.

"For non-lawgeeks, this won't seem important but this is huge," said Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig.

" In non-technical terms, the Court has held that free licences set conditions on the use of copyrighted work. When you violate the condition, the licence disappears, meaning you're simply a copyright infringer.

"This is a very important victory."

With yet another G8 Summit kicking off. This time in Japan, most of us expect the usual range of heavy going topics about Climate Change , Development in Africa, International Trade Treaties.

However how many of you are aware that on the table this year are discussions about the protection of Intellectual Copyright?  Upon reading this I could not believe my eyes. The income from Copyright Material is pocket change when compared with other trade agreements and Issues before the G8 Summit.

Within this we are asking the question, have our media companies been afforded too much political power?

Picture with Courtesy of Wikipedia.org

The life of Windows XP has been extended twice before

Microsoft has given another lease of life to Windows XP only days before PC makers have to stop selling it.

Windows XP reaches its end of life on 30 June but Microsoft has now said it can continue being sold until June 2010 but only on cheap desktops.

The decision follows one made in April to extend the life of XP on low cost laptops until the same date.

It comes as Dell, HP and Lenovo exploit loopholes in Microsoft's licensing terms to keep putting XP on machines.

Only a quarter of the 2.4m affected have received help, the UN says

International donors meeting in Rangoon have pledged nearly $50m (£25m) in aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma more than three weeks ago.

The sum is a fraction of the $11bn Burma's military government is seeking to fund relief work.

Some donors said the money depended on foreign aid-workers being allowed into the Irrawaddy Delta disaster zone.

The head of the United Nations has said he hopes Burma's leaders will now face up to the scale of the problem.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that this could be a turning point for Myanmar to be more flexible, more practical, and face the reality as it is on the ground," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the BBC.

Burma's Prime Minister, Thein Sein, said more help would be welcome but only if it did not have political overtones.

At least 78,000 people have died as a result of the cyclone and more than 50,000 people are still missing.

The UN believes only a quarter of those needing aid - up to 2.4 million people - have received it.

There are fears that lakes created by the earthquake could burst. Enlarge Image

China's earthquake zone has been warned to prepare for heavy rains which could hamper further relief efforts.

There are concerns that construction of temporary shelters for five million homeless could be delayed, while water levels in dams and lakes remain high.

A 5.8 magnitude aftershock hit the area on Sunday, and was felt in Beijing, though there were no reports of damage.

State TV said one person was killed, several hundred were injured, and 70,000 homes were destroyed.

It was one of the strongest of about 8,000 aftershocks detected since the 7.9 quake on 12 May.

Over the years the Name Amnesty International has become synonymous within the reports of atrocities in many countries. However more recently we at R-Force have become more and more concerned about this organisations and it’s practices.

One things that freedom of speech in the United Kingdom brings us is the right to question any charitable organisation concerning facts about how it spends the money that is donated to it. However it appears that Amnesty International is not quite so transparent.

Because we keep a close watch on such organisations, we are on Amnesty International mailing list. So we where not surprised to see yet another flier from them, but we where very annoyed by the blatant spin of its content and its tasteless use of the loss of life in the Sichuan Provence to promote its latest campaign.

The people of Sichuan remain in shock after the disaster

The death toll from the earthquake in China's Sichuan province has increased to more than 51,000, with another 30,000 people missing.

Officials revised the figure as they made a renewed international appeal for 3.3m tents for survivors of the quake.

Three days of national mourning for victims of the 12 May disaster has now come to an end.

The Olympic torch relay has resumed, but organisers said the Sichuan leg would be delayed because of the quake.

The government has made headlines for data failures

Plans for a super-database containing the details of all phone calls and e-mails sent in the UK have been heavily criticised by experts.

The government is considering the changes as part of its ongoing fight against serious crime and terrorism.

Assistant Information Commissioner Jonathan Bamford has warned that the UK could be "sleepwalking into a surveillance society".

Others have questioned how such a database could be made secure.

Mr Hu called for a "final victory" of relief efforts

Almost five million people have been left homeless by Monday's devastating earthquake in China's south-western Sichuan Province, officials say.

They said the extent of the problem only became clear when communications were restored.

So far, 22,069 deaths have been confirmed and thousands remain missing. It is feared up to 50,000 may be dead.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, visiting the province, said rescue work was at its most crucial phase.

Premier Wen Jiabao said the quake was the most destructive and widespread since the People's Republic was founded in 1949.

The town of Yingxiu in Wenchuan County Enlarge Image

More than 50,000 people may have died in the earthquake that devastated parts of China on Monday, state media say.

The warning came after the government confirmed the death toll had risen to 19,500, as rescue efforts continue to search for thousands still trapped.

About 10 million people across Sichuan province have been directly affected by the 7.9 quake, state media said.

China is mobilising 30,000 extra troops to Sichuan to help the 50,000 already involved in rescue efforts.

China says it will accept foreign aid and has agreed to help from rescue teams from Japan and its rival Taiwan.

Pregnant mother Zhang Xiaoyan was pulled alive from the rubble

Nearly 15,000 people died in the devastating earthquake that hit China's Sichuan province, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

More than 25,000 are still trapped in the rubble two days after the 7.9 quake struck, causing landslides and razing homes, schools and whole villages.

China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was flying to the epicentre to see relief work, having met survivors elsewhere.

Troops have been mobilised and aid has been dropped to cut-off areas.

Sichuan's Vice-Governor Li Chengyun said incomplete figures suggested 14,463 people were dead, another 14,051 were missing, 25,788 were buried in the debris and 64,746 had been injured, Xinhua reports.

Officials reached the town of Yingxiu, in Wenchuan County, to find the devastation was worse than expected - out of the town's population of 10,000, only 2,300 have been found alive.