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Sky Broadband's long-threatened move to automatically switch on its porn filter for new customers is finally happening.

What's more, the company has said it will also be contacting every existing broadband customer "over the coming months" to ask them to make a decision on whether or not to adopt the filter, dubbed Shield. If a user doesn't respond, the filter will automatically kick in—meaning that all Sky customers will ultimately have to make an active decision to ask to be allowed to access porn, or any other content Sky considers to be unsuitable for youngsters.

The company claims that the auto-on filter "ensures a safer Internet experience for millions of homes."

UPDATE: This post was updated after trading ended to reflect closing prices.

ORIGINAL Story:
Shares of companies producing firearms, body cams, and stun guns jumped significantly Friday in the wake of the murders of five Dallas law enforcement officers. The officers were killed during a Thursday night protest of police-officer involved shootings of civilians.

Shares of gunmakers often spike in the aftermath of high-profile shootings for several reasons, including the public's desire to enhance personal security and to beat possible gun-control measures that are always discussed in a tragedy's wake. Stocks in that sector spiked after the Orlando, Florida shootings last month. On the body cam front, financials in that sector also rocket after major police events as the market suspects more police departments will deploy the technology.

After nearly a year of radio silence, the infidelity hookup site Ashley Madison has finally released a statement about what's next for the company. Among other things, the company's new executive team admits that it used fembots to lure men into paying to join the site, which promised the men discreet affairs with willing women.

In fall 2015, Ashley Madison made headlines when a hacker or hackers known as Impact Team released massive data dumps from the company's source code, member databases, and then-CEO Noel Biderman's e-mail. The member database contained the names of 34 thousand people trying to have extra-marital affairs, and the revelations induced at least one man to commit suicide. In the wake of the data breach, a number of people have filed lawsuits against the company, and the company is currently under investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission.

Last year, as part of an investigation into the data dump, I published a series of articles at Gizmodo exposing how the company used female chatbots called "hosts" or "engagers" to trick men into paying for Ashley Madison's services. The scam was simple: when a man signed up for a free account, he almost immediately got a chat or private message from a "woman" whose profile showed a few sexy pictures. To reply to his new lady friend, the man had to pay for an account. In reality, that lady was a few lines of PHP code.

With so many important news stories fighting for our attention these days, it can be hard to get people to care about a simple gaming crowdfunding effort. But sometimes a crowdfunding publicity stunt breaks through the noise and turns into something you have to gawk at.

Richard Garriott selling vials of his blood for thousands of dollars is one of those stunts.

Yes, Lord British himself, the 55-year-old creator of the Ultima series and noted space tourist, is auctioning off samples of his actual blood to raise money for his new fantasy RPG, Shroud of the Avatar. The six reliquaries—which we'll note again are full of Richard Garriott's actual blood—are being marketed as limited-run art pieces, "made of bakelite, copper, nails, glass, and mirrored glass that can be hung on your wall."

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