The tech industry is abuzz about SOPA and PIPA, a pair of anti-piracy bills. Here’s why they’re controversial, and how they would change the digital landscape if they became law. What is SOPA? SOPA is an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act. It’s a proposed bill that aims to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host pirated content. SOPA’s main targets are “rogue” overseas sites like torrent hub The Pirate Bay, which are a trove for illegal downloads of movies and other digital content. Content creators have battled against piracy for years — remember Napster? — but it’s hard for U.S. companies to take action against foreign sites. So SOPA’s goal is to cut off pirate sites’ oxygen by requiring U.S. search engines, advertising networks and other providers to withhold their services. That means sites like Google wouldn’t show flagged sites in their search results, and payment processors like eBay’s (EBAY, Fortune 500) PayPal couldn’t transmit funds to them. Both sides say they agree that protecting content is a worthy goal. But opponents say that the way SOPA is written effectively promotes censorship and is rife with the potential for unintended consequences. Silicon Valley woke up and took notice of the implications when SOPA was introduced in the House of Representatives in October. But its very similar counterpart, PIPA, flew under the radar and was approved by a Senate committee in May. PIPA is now pending before the full Senate and scheduled for a vote on January 24, though some senators are pushing for a delay. SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters – Jan. 17,...

  Microsoft has announced that Kinect for Windowswill be made available starting less than a month away, on February 1. The hardware and software will release in an array of countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Spain, at a suggested U.S. retail price point of$249. If you’re wondering, GameStop is selling a 4 GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle for only $50 more than the Windows Kinect, at $299. Kinect for Windows Available February 1 for $249 |...

Sure, Intel revealed a lot about its future ultrabook platforms at its press conference a few minutes ago, but its prototype Nikiski laptop was the star of the show. The laptop has a transparent touchpad that spans the length of the palmrest. It’s a clear piece of glass that does double duty as a touchpad for the Windows 7 laptop, but also transformers into a exterior touchscreen when the laptop is closed. Intel Nikiski laptop prototype with see-through touchpad hands-on pictures and video | The Verge Um…I...

So you got Spotify as soon as it came to the States. You’ve been jamming on those free tunes like it’s your job. Free Spotify has become a vital part of your everyday sanity-preservation strategy. Well you better get ready because there’s an end. You may not have been aware — I know I wasn’t — but “free unlimited Spotify” never really existed. What you experience as free unlimited Spotify is actually an automatic  6-month trial of Spotify Unlimited, except with ads. The real kicker? Spotify’s 6 month anniversary in the U.S. is rolling around next week. So this is a good time for a reminder. Your 6-Month Trial of Free Spotify May Be Ending Soon |...

Hover Over My Name and Unclick Subscribed Message – Facebook Rumour.  “With the new ‘FB timeline’ on its way this week for EVERYONE…please do both of us a favor: Hover over my name above. In a few seconds you’ll see a box that says ‘Subscribed.’ Hover over that, go to ‘Comments and Likes’ and unclick it. That will stop my posts and yours to me from showing up on the side bar for everyone to see, but MOST IMPORTANTLY IT LIMITS HACKERS from invading our profiles. If you repost this I will do the same for you. You’ll know I’ve acknowledged you because if you tell me that you’ve done it I”ll ‘like’ it. Thanks!” False. The the ticker only reports things you share with others. If people are seeing things about people they don’t know, it’s because THOSE people have their info set to public. I’m seeing people posting this everywhere.The “hacker” part clued me into this being an inaccurate rumor as most people don’t know what a hacker is. Truthfully, if you have a Facebook Developer account (something ANYONE can get..it takes 2 seconds…I even have one for funsies) you can have access to everyone’s info. If you don’t want your info out there, don’t put it on the internet....

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  In this day and age, it’s pretty much a given that you should be keeping your social networking lifesomewhat under control because schools and prospective employers might be looking at it. But that’s not all, banks and creditors seem to be creeping in that direction too, because why let a little free information go to waste? As it turns out, there are plenty of things that creditors might like to know about you that, legally, they can’t ask, things like your race, your marital status, and whether or not you’re receiving public assistance. Also, having deadbeat friends who are yapping on about their inability to afford weed on their completely public profile probably wouldn’t help your case either. At the moment, the ways in which your social media activity will affect your credit score are largely hazy and underutilized. There are, however, a few shining beacons of the terrifying insanity that may be on its way. Lenddo, for instance, is a Hong Kong-based micro-lender that asks for some unusual information: The credentials for your Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo, and Windows Live accounts. Upon handing these over, it seems like Lenddo assimilates them into your Lenddo account proper where your score will benefit or suffer based on how financially stable your Lenddo friends are. If they default, it’s going to affect you negatively. Think about it this way, you’re going to do a much better job at stratifying your friends into socioeconomic groups than Lenddo is. Who Your Facebook Friends Are Could Affect Your Credit Score |...