Sydney’s Telegraph newspaper has lost out in court, to the tune of $480,000, to a group of people who wrote references for a guy being prosecuted for possessing child porn. They were a high-powered lot, including a former Supreme Court judge, but the fact that the comments left by readers on the story were taken as a significant part of the libel should send a collective shiver across the internet.

I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding is that as soon as a single person opens your web page in Australia you are “publishing” there, and could get sued there.

The latest Britblog roundup is now available on Mr Eugenides – a rather fine selection on what might be modestly described as a big news week.

Roundup No 123 is now over on Redemption Blues – with an added inside track on the EU negotiations, plus much, much more…

Still, putting your computer keyboard in the dishwasher does, as an idea, have a certain seductive charm.

That’s particularly if like me, you will not buy a kitchen implement unless it can be so treated – life is too short to wash dishes, and keyboards?

And it is changing fast:

* China is about to overtake the US in the total number of broadband connections (now 60 million to 56 million), and there are now about 300m people worldwide on fast connections. (And a lot of countries, of course, being left behind.)

* The Economist is putting ALL of its content free online from this week. (And I got an email addressing me as “a noted online commentator on environmental issues” suggesting I join a debate on air travel, which shows they are really working the internet, “viral”, marketing.)

* And you mightn’t have to turn your head sideways and squint a bit in an attempt to identify the letters in Captcha security – you can look at fluffy animals instead. (Since computers can’t distinguish between pictures of cats and dogs….)