Tech 2.0 for Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Czech Republic is suspending the ratification of an international copyright treaty after street protests and attacks on government and political party websites. The Czech prime minister says the government needs to analyze the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The treaty still has to be approved by Parliament. The country signed the agreement just last month. A local group of hackers says it broke into the prime minister's party website and stole personal data of its members. Neighboring Poland also suspended the treaty's ratification last week after protests and a series of attacks on its government websites. The U.S., Japan and others say the treaty is needed to fight the global trade of counterfeited goods and pirated material.
Seattle tops a list of America's "techiest cities". Not too surprising for the home to Microsoft and Amazon. Readers of "Travel + Leisure" Magazine rated cities on the tech saviness of residents, and the reliability of wireless coverage. San Francisco, Austin, Portland, Oregon and Denver round out the top five.
More video streaming options are coming. Verizon says it will start a video streaming service later this year in cooperation with Redbox and its DVD rental kiosks. Verizon and Coinstar Inc., Redbox's parent, say the service will be national. In addition to competing with Netflix, that also apparently sets up a potential competition with Verizon's own cable-like FiOS service in some areas. The companies say the service is intended to give customers access to DVD and Blu-ray discs as well as streaming movies. They didn't give details or say how much it might cost.
