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“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”

You may be forgiven for thinking that this is a quote from George orwell’s masterpiece of its time, 1984. Nope. Well actually yes - but it can also be heard reverberating through the corridoors of Whitehall. Gordon Brown (you know the guy, has a face even the Pope would punch - and is Prime Minister of the UK) and his Home Office mandarins are pushing through plans to create a database of ALL telephone and internet usage in the UK. The database will be used by the security services, the thought police and presumably any hacker, to delve into the private lives of everyone. To put it into perspective last year, nearly 60 billion text messages were sent in Britain, and 17.5million people accessed the internet via a mobile phone or Blackberry-type handheld device.

The plan will be presented in the Queen’s Speech in December. Written by the Government and presented by the Lady herself, the Queen’s Speech presents the legislative plan for the year ahead. In other words, this could become law in 2009.

“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain.”

Monte Cristo Games, an independent game company located in Paris, has announced that it has received €4.5 million (approx. $7 million USD) in funding from Arts Alliance, 360° Capital Partners and Innoven Partenaires. This new investment will be used to expand the development of CITIES XL™,

Monte Cristo’s upcoming next-generation city-building online game.

Created in Paris in 1995, Monte Cristo is a European leader in PC and console video game production. Through ongoing investments in teams and technology, they have acquired a solid experience in games development and publishing and have released over 30 titles. In 2005 Monte Cristo set up an office in Kiev, Ukraine.

Original Story Games Industry Biz

PR-inside are reporting that Gaia Online, the online community for teens, has secured $11m Series C funding from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). At a time when eMarketer is predicting the number of teen internet users visiting virtual worlds will jump from the reported 8.2 million users in 2007 to 20 million in 2011.

In January, Time Warner made a strategic investment in the Gaia economy which sees 100,000 transactions each day and Gaia’s forums have already exceeded a billion postings. Other investors in Gaia include: Benchmark Capital, RedPoint Ventures, DAG Ventures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Time Warner.

www.gaiaonline.com

CafePress, a major player in user-generated commerce, has announced the acquisition of Imagekind, the fastest-growing user-generated site offering high-quality fine framed art.

Since 1999 CafePress has changed the way people shop for user-generated products and has been working to refine and expand its offerings. Imagekind, known as the best-in-breed on-demand art provider, proved a perfect fit. The two companies share similar business models - providing customers with the opportunity to create, buy and sell their own unique merchandise.

The quote …

This acquisition, a logical step in further cementing CafePress’ leadership in user-generated commerce, adds a like-minded brand to the CafePress [Read more]

Tags: CafePress, Imagekind

The FeedRoom Inc., a provider of Web video solutions for media companies, corporations and government agencies, has announced the completion of a $12 million round of growth capital financing led by NewSpring Capital. Existing FeedRoom investors BEV Capital and Velocity Equity Partners participated significantly in the round as well. The FeedRoom will use the new capital to accelerate sales and the continued development of its fourth-generation video platform that is being released over the course of the year.