Swaziland-based online casino operator Piggs Peak has closed up shop to South African punters as it awaits clarification from the North Gauteng High Court on whether it can continue operating. Legalbrief reports that Piggs Peak has argued that its servers that manage the online gambling system are located in Swaziland and, as a result, it is not subject to SA law.

Microsoft has asked the US Supreme Court to reconsider a lower court's ruling that upheld rival i4i's patent related to text manipulation technology, notes an ITWeb report.

China has ordered its banks and other major companies to limit use of foreign computer security technology, setting up a possible trade clash with the US and Europe while adding to strains
over high-tech secrecy as some nations threaten to curtail BlackBerry services.

A federal judge has ruled that a man who says he's psychologically dependent and addicted to an online video game can proceed with some of his lawsuit against the game's South Korean
manufacturer.

A Boston University graduate student is appealing against a federal judgment that required him to pay $67 500 in damages for illegally downloading and sharing songs online, notes a report on the News24 site.

Police say a man set up a Facebook account using the name of a woman he had raped to try to persuade a woman to come back to him. According to a report on the IoL site, authorities say 23-year-old Travis Davis, of New Castle, Indiana, was arrested two weeks ago as he slept in a car outside his ex-girlfriend's home in the southwestern Pennsylvania town of Delmont.

The e-mail subject line reads 'Help!!!!' and the message tells a sad story of being robbed while abroad, and asks for money to be wired to settle hotel bills or to buy a plane ticket. SF Gate reports that because the message appears to come from a friend, some well-meaning recipients
send funds.

It looks like an unlikely place for the US Pentagon to be worried about, but a cramped room in a Stockholm suburb acts as a nerve centre for WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing Web site which has published thousands of secret documents on the war in Afghanistan and has promised to post many more.

Following a recent ruling by North Gauteng High Court Judge NB Tuchten, online gamblers can now be fined R10m or be jailed for 10 years, according to a report in The Citizen.