If you’ve been following the case against popular file storage site Megaupload, youu probably already heard the news — over 50 million users could have their data deleted, if federal prosecutors have their way.

So far, seven men have been charged in the Megauload case, which is garnering worldwide attention. Here’s a quote from MSNBC reporter Joshua Freed:

The company says its millions of users stored their own data, including family photos and personal documents. They haven’t been able to see their data since the government raids earlier this month, but there has been hope would be able to get it back.”

Needless to say, 50 million people will be very upset this coming Thursday if their data gets erased.

Nintendo Network will include a lot of the features gamers are used to having from an online network, like multiple accounts and a personal interface.

Unlike Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which has been focused upon specific functionalities and concepts, we are aiming to establish a platform where various services available through the network for our consumers shall be connected via Nintendo Network service so that the company can make comprehensive proposals to consumers.” – Nintendo Company President Satoru Iwata

This comes, of course, before Nintendo has announced the official release date for the “Wii U”, Nintendo’s next generation gaming console. It’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo’s network can measure up to enhancements that Sony and Microsoft make to their online service before their next-generation consoles are released.

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While this is great news for the internet, don’t celebrate just yet. This bill keeps being re-introduced in different forms (remember the “PROTECT IP” act?), which means legislators may pass a version of SOPA in the future.

The main problem with these regulatory acts is that they often include vague language which could allow for censoring of lawful websites without much red tape. Could you imagine the internet without YouTube, or Vimeo, or WordPress?

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Sites such as “hiddenninjagames.com” and “cutearcade.com” are just two of the websites that could put your computer at risk. Last month, cutearcade.com infected over 12,600 computers (according to statistics posted by virus scanner Avast).

While your child plays a harmless-looking cartoon game, software from these sites is installed on your computer. This software could steal your personal information, delete your files and spy on your internet activity.

As always, the best defense against this type of attack is to have a current, updated version of your virus scanning software running at all times.

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SOPA has been referred to as the bill that could “kill the internet”, which is why it’s being so vehemently protested by both consumers and companies alike. The vague language in the bill could cause sites like Wikipedia to be censored or even taken offline permanently.

Users that navigate to Wikipedia on January 18th will be greeted with a black screen, with links where they can lawfully protest against SOPA to their legislators.

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Well, if you’re Pat Vaillacourt, you get over 10,000 URL addresses tattooed on your back and shoulders.

However, according to Pat, his goal isn’t simply to gain fame as a world record holder. For $35, you can add your site’s URL to Pat’s tattoo collage, and your site will also be featured on his personal website. Around 50% of the profits from this will be donated to help needy people in Haiti and Somalia.

Amazingly enough, Pat Vaillacourt isn’t satisfied with his current number of URL tattoos. His eventual goal is to have over 100,000 URLs tattooed all over his body.

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This was accomplished by a group of high-energy physicists at the SuperComputing 2011 conference in Seattle. Data was successfully transferred in two opposite directions, with a combined speed of 186 GB/s.

This means that 2,000,000 GB of data could be transferred per day. That’s the equivalent of moving 100,000 full Blu-Ray discs worth of data in 24 hours.

It should be noted that this record occurred in a “wide area network”, which isn’t actually the internet. Though wide area networks can encompass an entire city, they’re usually limited in their number of connections.

Even so, this new record is extremely impressive.

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On December 10, Amazon will be offering a discount for customers that use the mobile “Price Check” app at brick-and-mortar stores, send this information to Amazon, and then leave the store without purchasing anything. You guessed it – you obtain the discount by purchasing the item on Amazon’s online store instead.

There’s a possibility of a $5 discount per item, which can be used three times for a total discount of $15.

Well played, Amazon.

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Some people have reported that their Kindle Fire isn’t able to even recognize their wireless network. Others have said that the Kindle Fire can “see” their router, but can’t connect to the internet — even after they’ve entered their network security key.

Amazon has apparently said this is a “known issue” and that they’re working on addressing it. Patch 6.1 seems to have fixed the issue for some users, though others are still reporting having problems with wireless connectivity.

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On the surface, SOPA is apparently designed to help protect America’s intellectual and copyright properties from infringement from foreign entities. They even throw in foreign pharmaceutical companies that sell products that aren’t FDA approved.

However, look a bit closer at the text of H.R. 3261, and it’s clear that this bill’s passing could have serious consequences for how the internet functions. It gives the government an incredible amount of power to shut down websites that even vaguely fit the category of “infringement”. It would also potentially make streaming video illegal. So, next time you want to watch a livestream of a game, or share your game activity with your friends – yuou could essentially be guilty of copyright infringement.

It’ll be interesting to follow this bill’s journey through the legislative process. If it passes, we could be seeing a very different version of the internet in a few years.

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