Sony Corp is making available public domain books from Google Inc to users of its electronic book reader, Sony said on Wednesday, vastly increasing the amount of available content on the device.

In the latest round of a budding digital book battle with Amazon.com Inc, Sony said that more than a half a million classic titles will be free to users of the Reader, which allows consumers to read books and newspapers on a hand-held device.

That will boost the available titles in Sony’s eBook Store to more than 600,000, Sony said.

Sony sells two versions of its Reader, which competes directly with Amazon’s Kindle. Kindle users can access over 245,000 titles plus newspapers, magazines and blogs.

Apple said Thursday it will begin offering HD films for purchase and rental on iTunes.

Starting immediately, customers of the service will be able to buy the films for $19.99. HD rentals will be priced at $4.99. Beginning Thursday, preorders were available for “Twilight” (set for a March 21 release) and “Quantum of Solace” (March 24).

Among the titles available immediately are “Transporter 3″ and “Punisher: War Zone.”

Daily Record | Morris County NJ | AP Wire
A whistle-blower organization claims a secret list of Web sites that Australian authorities are proposing to ban includes such innocuous destinations as a dentist’s office.

Australia’s government denied that the list - published by renegade Web site Wikileaks.org - was the same as a blacklist run by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA. However, a manager at the dentist’s office said the ACMA had confirmed her site’s inclusion on the ban list.

Wikileaks’ publication of the list this week reignited a debate over whether a government proposal to impose an Internet filter for all Australians could have unintended consequences for innocent businesses.

The list in question is provided to the creators of Internet filtering software that people can opt to install on their computers. But Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has proposed mandating that Australian Internet service providers implement the list, which would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries. Several Internet providers are conducting trials of the filter through June.

The authority says the list largely contains the addresses of Web sites promoting child pornography and sexual violence, but it has refused to release its contents publicly.