Alphabet’s Google was fined 2 million euros ($2.2 million) by the Paris Commercial Court over abusive practices toward developers on its app store. From a report: The U.S. tech giant will also have to change seven clauses from its contracts dating back to years 2015 and 2016, that included a 30% commission on revenues generated by developers on the Google Play Store, according to a text of Monday’s ruling. Google, as well as Apple, were taken to court in 2018 by the French Ministry of Finance, for imposing a “significant imbalance in the rights and obligations” concerning app developers, including the right for Google to unilaterally modify or terminate the contracts.

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Source: Slashdot – Google Slapped With French Fine Over Abusive App Store Practices

Sony is set to launch a new video game subscription service this summer, seeking to drive sales of its PlayStation consoles and compete with a similar offering from Microsoft. CNBC: The company said Tuesday it will bundle its existing PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now services into one single subscription service called PlayStation Plus. The new PlayStation Plus will be available in June and comes in three tiers:

1. The basic package, PS Plus Essential, replaces the original PS Plus, which offers players two free games each month and access to online multiplayer. It costs $10 a month or $60 for an annual subscription.

2. A step above Essential is PS Plus Extra, which comes with all the same perks as Essential but includes a selection of 400 downloadable PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 titles. It’s priced at $15 monthly or $100 a year.

3. The most expensive package is PS Plus Premium. This one includes 340 more games than Extra, and lets players stream a selection of PS, PS2, PSP, PS3, PS4 and PS5 games over the internet. PS Plus Premium costs $18 a month or $120 each year.

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Source: Slashdot – Sony Launches New PlayStation Gaming Subscription Service

Almost $10 billion over the next decade will be pumped into helping Australia compete in cyber warfare with adversaries such as Russia and China in a major funding boost that will nearly double the size of the nation’s leading cyber security agency. From a report: In its centrepiece defence budget announcement, the government will make the largest single investment in the 75-year history of the Australian Signals Directorate, the country’s powerful and highly secretive electronic intelligence agency. The government said the funding increase — dramatically named Project REDSPICE (Resilience, Effects, Defence, Space, Intelligence, Cyber, and Enablers) — will significantly expand the ASD’s offensive cyber capabilities, as well as the agency’s ability to prevent hacking and other digital attacks.

The government intends to put national security at the centre of the upcoming election campaign, contrasting its latest announcements with reductions to defence spending during the Rudd-Gillard era. In his budget night speech Treasurer Josh Frydenberg described the $9.9 billion in spending over 10 years as the country’s “biggest ever investment in Australia’s cyber preparedness.” It comes on top of the government’s previously announced expansion in Australian Defence Force personnel and the purchase of new Chinook helicopters, Abrams tanks and combat engineering vehicles.

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Source: Slashdot – Australia Cyber Defence Bolstered by Billion via Project REDSPICE