Dotcom himself made over $41 million just last year. Claiming he had done nothing wrong, his attorney’s argued for his release on bail from a New Zealand jail however; prosecutors in the case consider him a significant flight risk due to his great wealth.

In the meantime, several other employees have had warrants issued by the United States in connection with the alleged copyright infringements . Estonia’s Andrus Nomm, and Germany’s Sven Echternach have been taken into custody however, a third man, Julius Bencko of Slovakia, is still sought in connection with the crimes.

Dotcom maintains that his site is perfectly legal and that he has done nothing wrong. He also claims that he was compliant with the FBI’s request that he shut down the site. Still, the court denies bail due to the millionaire’s reportedly “shady past” and his significant financial resources.

According to an updated post on the Facebook blog:

“We announced Timeline in September and made it available to developers building apps on our platform. Since then, over a million people have signed up for the developer beta to access Timeline. The feedback we’ve received so far has been invaluable. Starting today, we are making Timeline more widely available as we measure speed and other types of performance. We’ll begin by making it available to people in New Zealand and then roll it out more broadly in the near future.”

As you read there, Facebook will make the timeline available in more areas soon. Currently there is no timetable on when it will be fulled rolled out.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Facebook timeline, here is the official description:

Timeline is wider than your old profile, and it’s a lot more visual. The first thing you’ll notice is the giant photo right at the top. This is your cover, and it’s completely up to you which of your photos you put here.

As you scroll down past your cover, you’ll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened in time. You choose what’s featured on your timeline. You can star your favorites to double their size or hide things altogether.

Are you looking forward to having the timeline? Tell us your thoughts below.

- I’m looking for someone
- I have information about someone

The tool can be accessed here. 

Google allows people to embed the tool on their own sites as such:

Get the code here. 

You can also add it as a Google Gadget. 

The company notes that all data entered will be available to the public, and will be viewable and usable by anyone. Also, Google does not review or verify the accuracy of the data.

At the time of this writing, Google is tracking about 4,900 records.

That’s not to say the search giant’s off the hook in every respect; from now on, it’s supposed to work more closely with Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff, and she gave the company a bit of a reprimand in a formal statement.

Shroff wrote, "It failed to tell people that it was collecting the open WiFi information and what it was going to use it for.  This was not good enough.  Google also breached our privacy law when it collected the content of people’s communications."

Still, the Privacy Commissioner later added, "I am pleased that Google has taken full responsibility for the mistakes it made here, and that it has improved its practices to prevent future privacy breaches.  This includes training their staff better, and checking new products carefully before they’re released."

Google should be more than satisfied with this outcome.  The New Zealand Privacy Commissioner’s ideas are indeed covered (and then some) by the company’s own promise to create stronger privacy controls.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff referred the matter to police in June, which seemed to put Google in a precarious position.  Logic dictated that Shroff wouldn’t call in law enforcement for no reason, after all.

But fortunately for the search giant, New Zealand police said in a statement today, "An investigation by Police has determined that there is no evidence to suggest a criminal offence has been committed."

Detective Senior Sergeant John van den Heuvel of the Police National Cyber Crime Centre just suggested, "Anyone using Wi-Fi needs to ensure they have appropriate security measures in place.  People should not underestimate the risk that information they broadcast might be accessed by others, either inadvertently or for more sinister purposes."

Now the ball is back in the privacy commissioner’s (figurative) court, and she hasn’t made clear whether her office will take further action or not.

We’ll be sure to report any other noteworthy developments that occur.

The launch brings a new e-commerce partnership to MySpace Music with iTunes providing the music downloads locally, a MySpace spokesperson tells WebProNews. She also shares the following stats for the US version of MySpace Music:

Source: Nielsen Netview / August 2009

- MySpace Music unique users have grown 169% since launch in September 2008 and 1472%, year-over-year

- MySpace Music has nearly tripled its unique users since launch

- People ages 12 and 17 are 2.3 times more likely than the average active internet user to visit MySpace Music

- People ages 18-24 are 2.2 times more likely than the average internet user to visit MySpace Music

Source: comScore Media Metrix / August 2009

- MySpace Music is the #1 site in time spent for the 18-34 demographic

- MySpace Music is #2 in total unique users

- MySpace Music has 18.95 million monthly unique users

"MySpace Music brings to Australia and New Zealand all of the functionality currently available to U.S. based users including an ever-growing catalogue of fully licensed major and indie artist audio tracks, user-friendly e-commerce solutions, personal music players and user and artist playlisting, in addition to creating monetization opportunities for all artists," the spokesperson says.

"Both Australia and New Zealand have always been rabid music markets for MySpace Ever since Jet launched our Secret Shows program in August 2006 we’ve seen our fans share their favorite playlists, take advantage of advance listening sessions and help up-and-coming local artists build a following both locally and globally via MySpace," says Rebekah Horne, Managing Director and SVP of International at MySpace. "In Australia alone, we have had exclusive album premieres from Cut Copy, Silverchair, The Presets and Guns n Roses and hosted 40 free and intimate Secret Shows with some of the greatest acts in the world, including Air, The Cure, Hilltop Hoods and Duffy. New Zealand too has had its share of some great Secret Shows with the likes of Fall Out Boy and Evermore."

The site launches with Toyota and KFC as its flagship sponsors. Users can purchase and download single songs and full albums through iTunes.

This counts as Google’s largest commercial deal yet in New Zealand or Australia.  It’s supposed to save New Zealand Post (which is a state-owned enterprise) in the neighborhood of $2 million over the course of three years.

Also, Postal Services CEO Peter Fenton said in a statement, "This will increase our ability to work collaboratively."  And he claimed, "Google Apps will help us retain our people and attract the next generation of talented graduates."

If all goes according to plan, then, Google will have achieved quite a lot while in a very public position.  So it’s possible that this development will lead to other businesses in the region adopting Google Apps.  Other postal entities (or entire cities) might follow suit, too.

Of course, Google will probably first have to spend at least a few days shooting down conspiracy theories about how it might now have access to people’s physical mail.

New Zealand is, in case you weren’t aware, where Peter Jackson filmed his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.  Hence the hobbit crack.  However, it wouldn’t be too surprising if a few people did put on costumes for the Street View cars, and in any event, at least a few spots used in the films should visible.

 

Other highlights (as listed by a Google Maps New Zealand page) include the Stone Store in Kerikeri, the Beehive in Wellington, and Cathedral Square in Christchurch.  So even non-Tolkien nuts will have plenty of interesting stuff to see.

Privacy advocates don’t have anything to fear, either, since Google’s license plate- and face-blurring technology has been put to use.

It’s interesting to see Google Street View head to New Zealand; the pictures probably won’t prove as useful to the average resident of Mountain View as images of, say, Mexico or Canada.  But whether legal complications or a leaning towards the picturesque is at work is anybody’s guess.

This debate should effectively immerse New Zealand’s most prominent politicians in the world of online video.  Prime Minister Helen Clark and John Key, her leading opponent, will have to face questions posed by New Zealand-based YouTube users.  What’s more, their debate will be broadcast live (on October 14th).

 

Users are being asked to submit creative clips lasting no more than 30 seconds.  Some combination of organizer screening and public voting will be used to select the winners.

Since this setup is obviously patterned after the old CNN/YouTube debates, it may act as a long-delayed sign of success.  It might even function as an escalation of the experiment, since a post on the Official Google Blog notes, "This marks the first time the head of a national government and a challenger will face YouTube video questions in an official live TV debate."

Regardless, it’s interesting to see YouTube strengthen its relationship with what might be considered a mature subject and audience.  And any Kiwis who were trying to avoid their national political scene have our sincere apologies.

Owen Thor Walker, 18, who used the alias "Akill" online, was ordered by the court to pay $10,000 in damages and turn over his computer related assets.

New Zealand police are impressed with the skills of Walker and are considering offering him a position fighting cybercrime.

Police found out last November after a yearlong investigation involving the FBI and authorities in the Netherlands that the "mastermind" they were trying to find was Walker, who was using a computer in his bedroom in the rural town of Whitianga.

Walker used a botnet to control more than a million computers around the globe. Software he created and sold to cyber criminals allowed them to steal users names and passwords along with credit card information. He did not take money from people’s accounts, but received $31,000 for the software he designed and sold to hackers.

The FBI estimated the financial losses from the hacking activities and damage to computer systems at over $20 million.

The crime received attention after one attack caused computers to crash at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.

In court, Walker, who has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, smiled as he listened to the prosecution talk about how international investigators considered his skills to be "amongst the most advanced " they had come across.

Judge Judith Potter called Walker a person with a bright future but who was unable to set boundaries for himself in relation to his "undoubted expertise" in computers.