Gradual copyright enforcement legislation, also known as three-strikes laws, don't curb piracy: That's the result of a new study that looked at the effectiveness of France's anti-piracy legislation, which fines and disconnects users after repeat warnings. Researchers found, according to Torrentfreak, that this simply results in users getting smarter about piracy, shifting from monitored file sharing networks to other sources for unlicensed downloads.

Talksport will no longer use Twitter as a medium to interact with fans on air unless the social network proves it is taking abuse on the site seriously, Talksport chief executive Scott Taunton has announced. Taunton has written a letter to Twitter following the racist abuse of Stan Collymore expressing anger at the lack of action from the social network to protect users from abuse.

The German information security ministry has warned the country's citizens that many of them have been caught up in a massive botnet. Around 16 million people's information - email addresses and passwords, mostly - was found to have been pilfered by the botnet, which presumably monitored the activities of its victims, and more than half of those email addresses ended in ".de", denoting German users.

According to research firm Nielsen, global advertising spend lifted 3.2% over the first three quarters of 2013. However in Europe it fell by 3.8%. Most of the growth was driven by the Asia-Pacific region, where advertising spend shot up 7% during the same period. "With signs of optimism spreading within the global economy and Asia Pacific's ad market gaining increased momentum, Nielsen will be watching to see if the global advertising market continues to pick up speed through the end of the year," said Nielsen.

Tony Gallagher is out after four years as Daily Telegraph editor as a major restructure of the business was announced today. The changes follow the appointment of US digital media expert Jason Seiken as editor in chief of Telegraph Media Group in October last year. The shake-up sees assistant editor (news) Chris Evans appointed "acting" editor, Monday to Friday, of the Daily Telegraph print edition.

Smartwatch specifications are starting to take the devices beyond being a wrist-based notification centre for a partnered smartphone and more towards being independent computers themselves. Tim Pool, a producer for Vice media who experiments with mobile technology in journalism, is particularly excited about the Omate TrueSmart and Neptune Pine, both currently available to pre-order having reached, and exceeded, their Kickstarter funding goals.

The UK's gambling regulator has asked the country's big internet service providers to warn their customers of the illegality of unlicensed gambling websites - and the ISPs have refused, arguing that it's up to the courts or Parliament to decide on such things. It's nice to see the ISPs push back against the censorship and policing role that many in the British government think they should maintain.

The 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer showed that after rallying last year from an all-time low of 22 per cent of respondents trusting the media to 47 per cent, trust has fallen back to 41 per cent. Of those who said their trust in the media was lower than it was a year ago, 60 per cent said their change of view was down to either immoral behaviour or a lack of regulation.

Target Corp. is warning its Canadian customers that a massive security breach at the retailer over the holiday season may have led to their personal information being stolen. An e-mail sent to some customers by the retailer Jan. 20 said it believes cross-border shoppers who went to U.S. Target stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 were affected.

BBC News is stepping up its efforts to reach new audiences on social media platforms after mobile and tablet viewing figures overtook desktop use for the first time in December.