In another move that threatens the open and free internet, Dutch courts have ruled that the countries ISPs must block access to The Pirate Bay or face fines of 10,000 euros per day. That massive of a fine will likely prevent any dissenters of the ruling, however, there are always ways around the blockade as shown in the UK.

Court rulings demanding ISPs block access to The Pirate Bay are stacking up in countries and one has to ask themselves what are the effects of the blocks? In this case these blocks aren't really going to do anything as they can be bypassed pretty easily. However, the idea that the government can order censorship is the scarier prospect.

These rulings are the first attacks on the site. The Pirate Bay is no stranger to trouble with the law as many companies have sued them for copyright infringement along with governments seizing the servers. It has persevered, but it will probably get tougher to do so as more court rulings come in. I know one thing, if the US government tries to make this ruling, I will be in the masses that protest.

Fractal Design always has cool looking products and today's launch of the new Adjust 108 is no different. Fractal Design often uses metal in the products they design and, once again, today's launch is no different. The new Adjust 108 is a fan controller which can manage up to 6 different fans from one 5.25" bay.

The device has some other unique features that I have never seen on any other device. One of the coolest and most useful features is that it features a jumper to change the intensity of the LED. This is something that I have often wanted on many cases and other devices, so for it to finally be included on something is awesome.

The device can also give you more information in a glance than other devices through its use of dual-colored LEDs. If the LED below a fan slider is white, it means the fan is operating at a low RPM. If the LED is blue, then it means that the fan is operating at a high RPM. Of course, the device is clad in brushed aluminium to give it a clean, simplistic look.

It's a tough economy out there still, and it's hitting some companies harder than others. Nintendo, for the first time ever, posted a loss. Now Sony has reported its fiscal year 2012 results and the picture is bleak. Sony lost a record $5.55 billion as revenue fell 9.6% to $79.2 billion. This earns fiscal year 2012 the title of being Sony's worst year ever.

Sony is doing its best to remain strong through these tough times saying that the losses are mostly due to unforeseen circumstances. These unforeseen events would include a strong yen, an earthquake in Japan, and floods in Thailand. Not every sector of Sony lost money, but a few were hit extremely hard.

The company's Consumer Products & Services division is one of those that was hit hard. In 2011, they division posted a small profit, but this year sales were down 18.5% to $38.3 billion. This created a massive $2.8 billion loss for the company. None of this surprises shareholders, however, as Sony has posted difficult quarters during the year.

Let's talk some Call of Duty numbers, shall we? The first-person shooter launched its Elite service to mixed opinions, but it now sports over 10 million registered users, with two million of these paid-up premium subscribers.

As of March 31, COD has 40 million monthly active users, with players logging in a total of 1.6 billion hours of online gameplay in Modern Warfare 3 alone. These numbers were released alongside Activision's quarterly financial report. On top of this Elite news, there's also talk that the COD: Modern Warfare 3 sales have been quite a bit lower than the Black Ops at equivalent times in their respective life cycles.

But, Infinity Ward's Mark Rubin has told Eurogamer that the way people are buying COD is changing. MW3 has a shorter tale than its predecessors because sales of new COD launches are now more front-loaded than ever. He explains:

It looks like Toshiba is ready to unleash a new quad HD-capable TV in Japan, which is a little less filled up on specs than its top-of-the-line model, the 55X3 with its 4K resolution and glasses-free 3D technology that hit the US.

The new model keeps the same 4K technology, but switches to edge LED lighting instead of local dimming and completely dumps 3D, autostereoscopic or otherwise. Inside the TV, you'll find CEVO Duo image processing engine, which upconverts standard HDTV inputs to QFHD, as well as support for apps and USB hard drives for recording broadcasts.

This model is expected to ship in June for a not so bad 750,000 yen, or US$9,410. Much lower than the X3's opening price of 900,000 yen last December. 4K TV's are finally getting under that magical $10,000 mark, and I'm wanting one more and more.

BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM) yesterday hired two new senior executives, with one of them taking the post of marketing chief as RIM hopes to regain market share that they lost to Apple's iPhone, and the various handsets that rock Google's Android OS.

RIM only recently announces losses mounting $125 million, as they battle declining smartphone sales. Compared to Q4 2011 where the company made a hefty $934 million profit, a drop to $125 million in losses is a stark change. At that time, RIM had just announced a management shakeup where we saw 20-year veteran Jim Baisillie step down from the board, as well as the CTO and COO for global operations leaving.

Who's the new chief marketing officer? Frank Boulben, who CEO Thorsten Heins describes as a critically important decision. Boulben leaves his previous position at LightSquared, where he was the executive vice president for strategy and marketing, with that company also struggling since Sprint left their partnership with the company after US regulators killed off plans it had for a nationwide broadband network.

One can see the similarities between HP's metal unibody-based Envy Spectre XT ultrathin, to Apple's MacBook Air. Firstly, HP's Spectre XT is the new flagship model of HP's just-announced Envy ultrathin lineup, which was born from VoodooPC's Envy laptops, which launched in June of 2008.

The VoodooPC Envy was one of the first non-Apple ultrathins to arrive on the market mere months after the launch of the MacBook Air from Apple. While the Voodoo Envy didn't look that much like the MacBook Air, HP's line-up of ultrathin's have slowly been sliding into the MacBook Air's skin since release.

The latest release was enough for HP's vice president of industrial design, Stacy Wolff, to go on the defensive. He told Engadget:

Well, the government of the Netherlands have become the first European country to pass a net neutrality law. What this does is prevents internet service providers (ISPs) from traffic management except in the cases of congestion and network security, it also includes restrictions on ISPs performing deep packet inspection and other similar wiretapping techniques.

June 2011 was when the law was formed, where the Netherland's parliament passed a motion to stop mobile operators from blocking VoiP calls over their networks, with the bill only re cently passing the Dutch senate. The provisions in the law extend to anyone providing Internet access services, forbidding the use of traffic-shaping based on application usage, unless they hinder access for other users by causing congestion.

This means that equal types of traffic will be treated equally, with an example like video streaming services owned by a provider cannot have unrestricted access, where Hulu may be restricted. If a user chews up too much bandwidth, before the ISP can take any action, the user must be alerted so that they have the time to remedy the situation.

If you're looking out for a cheap tablet, you may want to wait a little while longer. Chinese device maker, Ainol, are prepping themselves to launch their Novo 7 Aurora II tablet in late-May. This is set to be the most ambitious offering from the company to-date, at a price point that makes cheap tablets like Amazon's Kindle Fire look expensive.

The Novo 7 Aurora II sports a dual-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, a five-point touchscreen with a resolution of 1024x600, 8GB of storage which is expandable by microSD up to 16GB, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as its operating system. The best bit? It's priced at just $190.

Ainol previously made headlines by unveiling the original Novo 7, which was a 7-inch tablet that also rocked Android 4.0, but was priced at just $120. Most reviews found that while it was cheap, the price just didn't make up for its sluggish performance from its MIPS-based processor.

Activision are already enjoying the (probably) comfortable seats in court with ex-Infinity Ward's Jason West and Vince Zampella over their dismissal from Infinity Ward back in 2009, but, a clause in a Memorandum of Understanding filed with the lost wages and royalties suit in 2010 could shake up the recently announced Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

According to Game Informer, Activision still holds the rights to the Call of Duty franchise, but any Call of Duty games set in "modern day (post-Vietnam), the near future or distant future" would be retained by Infinity Ward. Considering that the upcoming Black Ops 2 is based in 2025, Treyarch have put a fair amount of thought into their futuristic setting. One would think Activision would know this, too.

An intellectual property attorney has said that if West and Zampella win their suit, Activision could be forced to pull the game. Yes, not release it, period. But, we're most likely going to see a fair amount of $$$ enter the bank accounts of West and Zampella in damages if the court awards them so. But, there's always a but, remember. Clause 4(D) at the end of the memorandum specifically states that if Infinity Ward management, Ward and Zampella in this case, are no longer employed by Activision, then the terms of the memorandum are no longer in effect.