[JackSpratts]

(And these are just the members)

MSN Messenger Crawling With Mutant Worms

A new outbreak of MSN Messenger worms is starting to sicken user computers in Korea.

The worms feasting upon MSN Messenger are called Kelvir.a, Kelvir.b and Fatso-A, according to MSN and computer security firm Korea Trend Micro on Tuesday. Kelvir.a is being posted in the U.S., Korea, China, Australia, the U.K. and Sweden. Now the mutant Kelvir.b is wreaking havoc.

The worm spreads by sending itself to all the MSN/Windows Messenger contacts on the infected PC, and poses as messages like 'omg this is funny! http://XXXXX.home.att.net/cute.pif.' If users click on the address, their PC becomes instantly infected. Although the worm is labeled "medium-risk," it can lead to other problems like private information leaks.

Another virus, Fatso-A, can spread through MSN Messenger and through peer- to-peer (P2P) file sharing applications. Fatso insinuates itself by using eye- catching phrases like "Annoying crazy frog getting killed.pif", "Crazy frog gets killed by train!.pif", and "Fat Elvis! lol.pif."

Users are advised to make sure a file or URL being sent is safe before downloading it, and to activate vaccine programs before starting the files.

MSN messenger users with version 6.0 or lower should select Tools->Options- >Messages ->File Transfer, while version 7.0 users should click Tools- >Options-> File Transfer in order to activate the vaccine program.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...503080040.html


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Music Moguls Find Their Marks: Baba, Ma And File-Sharing Teen

The music recording industry wants people to understand that stealing music isn't nice.

So it sledgehammered its point home this winter on a tiny Bay City family that's just trying to get by.

Nothing like a big, knuckle-dragging lug pounding on a little guy to draw a little attention.

A federal lawsuit landed on the doorstep of a Polish-immigrant grandmother who paid the Internet bill for her 17-year-old granddaughter.

The single mom's head was spinning like a CD after she read the court papers demanding payment for 671 songs that her daughter had swapped on the Internet.

Mom worked out a settlement with the Recording Industry Association of America to use her daughter's college fund, senior class trip fund and a loan to pay $3,750 within 90 days, and to destroy the songs.

The family is out of hot water, but their finances are ruined because of an illegal activity that is common among teenagers and other music-lovers.

It's not like she was downloading 4,000 or more songs, like some of her friends.

Well, taking something and not paying for it is stealing. That's plain.

But in the case of music-swapping, not so simple.

The music industry was awfully slow in understanding and embracing the technology that allows people to copy and send music, movies, books - anything representing an idea - to anyone in the world with the push of a button.

Music file-swapping, as it is known, went on for years before the recording industry began to understand that each little file swap added up to a huge loss for the recording industry.

So the music moguls are lashing out - late and wrecklessly - to protect their turf.

They, and the musicians who write and make the music, deserve payment for each song.

But their swath of suits cutting across America since 2003 is as ham-handed as the clumsy efforts of teens and others groping for some free jam on the Internet.

File-sharers leave all kinds of "fingerprints" on the Internet. The music industry follows them, sues to get names from Internet service providers, and files the suits.

These lawsuits seem blind; computer-generated.

Surely the music industry didn't intend to slap around a Bay City baba - a grandma who doesn't own a computer and barely speaks English.

The image of the fabulously wealthy music industry taking every last cent from a single mom and daughter who just recently got their own apartment didn't help the music moguls' image much, either.

The message, though, is loud and clear:

Do not steal from the record companies. If you're caught, you will be very, very sorry.

Got that?

The recording industry also must face the music.

Using only computer-generated information to punish those who steal music is like shooting in the dark.

You may hit a target.

You may make your point.

And, sometimes, cruelly hurt some of your biggest fans.

Kind of makes us all want to run right out and buy a music CD.

Not.

http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/in...0351228570.xml


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U.S. Asked to Probe Music-Download Sites
Ted Bridis

The Federal Trade Commission is being asked to investigate Web sites that claim to offer legal music downloads for a low price but actually sell popular software that is available free elsewhere on the Internet and is commonly used to steal songs.

Such Web sites typically charge $30 to $40 and prominently advertise services as "100 percent legal." Some sites include smaller print warning that downloading songs without permission violates copyrights and encouraging customers to learn more about copyright law at the Library of Congress.

A Washington-based civil liberties group, the Center for Democracy and Technology, said it planned to file a formal complaint early Tuesday with the trade commission charging such Web sites with deceptive trade practices. The FTC has acted on previous complaints from the group, including one recent case over Internet spyware.

"They're fooling people into spending money to buy products that are competing with legitimate products," said Alan Davidson, an associate director for the group. "These are the people who are really polluting the marketplace."

Lawyers for one Web site, www.mp3downloadhq.com, wrote Monday in a letter that the company "genuinely regrets that anything it has done or failed to do has been interpreted ... as potentially confusing or misleading." The company, Active Publishing of Burbank, Calif., promised to remove the phrase "100 percent legal" from its Web site before Friday.

The Center for Democracy and Technology said its FTC complaint targets two sites, www.Mp3DownloadCity.com and www.MyMusicInc.com, which the group said did not respond to its requests for information. The sites did not respond to telephone and e-mail inquiries Monday from the Associated Press.

Davidson said his organization was still considering whether Active Publishing's response to its complaints was adequate.

Similar sites have sprouted all over the Internet.

"Do I think it's deceptive? Yes, I think it's a ripoff," said Todd Dugas of Boca Raton, Fla., who said he formerly ran one such Web site, www.mp3university.com, until he sold it to business partners in Canada. "I'm glad I'm not involved any more."

Dugas still controls the address for the mp3university.com Web site and said the site would be dismantled within days. Dugas said he was working on another site, musicrewards.com, to sell licensed music. "It's going to be completely legal," he said.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT


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Moore Says Nanoelectronics Face Tough Challenges
Michael Kanellos

Although many believe the future of the computing industry lies with building chips out of carbon nanotubes or other novel materials, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted it won't be easy to replace silicon.

"I will admit to being a skeptic to these things for replacing digital silicon," he told a gathering of reporters here Wednesday, where he also discussed artificial intelligence, Intel's future, and the early days of Silicon Valley. "We've got a cumulative couple of hundred billion dollars invested in R&D."

Although he retired several years ago, Moore will be a very visible figure during the next few months. This April 19 will mark the 40th anniversary of an article he wrote for Electronics Magazine that first sketched out the idea of Moore's Law. The observation, which predicts that engineers can double the number of transistors on a chip every 24 months, has been the fundamental principle of the computing industry and paved the way for making computers and cell phones that are cheaper, faster and more powerful.

"It was a chance to look at what happened up to that time," he said of the original article. "I didn't think it would be especially accurate."

While he says he isn't up on the latest technological nuances, his skepticism about novel materials replacing silicon derives from practicality. Modern day microprocessors contain hundreds of millions of transistors, and soon will have billions, and, to break even, manufacturers have to pop out millions of these complex devices. Although researchers have been able to produce individual nanotube transistors, the ability to mass produce hasn't been shown.

Still, continuing to produce chips on silicon has its problems too. Designers have been able to put more transistors on chips for decades by shrinking the size of the transistors, but they are now at the point where some structures inside chips are only a few atoms thick.

"Any material made of atoms has a fundamental limit," Moore said. The solution? Make the chips bigger. Carbon nanotubes, he added, won't be completely left out. They could be used to replace the metal interconnects between the transistors.

Re-reading the article 40 years later yielded some surprises, he admitted. For one thing, he noticed that he predicted home computers.

"I also talked about electronic watches. Unfortunately, Intel tried that once," he laughed, referring to the company's failed foray into wristwatches years ago.

Moore also made it clear that MIT Carver Mead dubbed the observation Moore's Law, a lofty label that took him about 20 years to get used to.

Among other topics he discussed:

• He gave his approval to Intel's approach to building platforms, rather than individual chips. "The recent reorganization of Intel is to an extent a reflection of how (incoming CEO) Paul Otellini wants to work in the future. I think it is a very appropriate change," he said. "Paul is different in that he is the first CEO of Intel that isn't a Ph.D or scientist, but he is more technical than I am at this stage in the game."

• William Shockley, who invented the transistor, helped foster the Silicon Valley by driving Moore, Intel co-founder Robert Noyce Eugene Kleiner and the rest of the "traitorous eight" up the wall at Shockley Semiconductor.

"He was a brilliant physicist, but he had very peculiar ideas about working with people," he said. "We got along reasonably well because I was a chemist so he didn't feel that he had to know everything I did."

The eight engineers went to the company's financial backers to take Shockley out of active management. At the last minute they refused. Kleiner's dad knew an investment banker named Arthur Rock, who helped form Fairchild Semiconductor.

"Fairchild was developing technology faster than it could be exploited," Moore recalled. They also were mired in a management mess, so Moore and Noyce went to found Intel while others went on to start other companies.

• Computers, as they are built now, will never think like humans. "Human intelligence in my view is something that is done in a dramatically different fashion than Von Neumann computers," he said. The brain processes "in a highly parallel and relatively sloppy" fashion, but well suited for its purpose.

• China is going to be a major fact of life for the United States. "The impact of China is just beginning to be felt. China is producing 10 times as many engineers as we are," he said. "Silicon Valley is still a great place to start a company, but it so expensive, especially the housing."

• Progress in the industry may also slow to the point where the number of transistors on a chip, which let designers increase performance and/or integrate new capabilities, double only every three to four years. Still, the industry has always blown past these barriers in the past.

He also noted that some of the analogies from Moore's Law are a bit farfetched. Once, he extrapolated that if the car industry followed the same rules of progress, cars would get 100,000 miles per gallon, travel at millions of miles per hour and be so cheap that it would cost less to buy a Rolls-Royce than park it downtown for a day.

But, as a friend pointed out, "it would only be a half-inch long and a quarter-inch high," Moore said.
http://news.com.com/Moore+says+nanoe...3-5607422.html


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On Technology

Skype's The Limit
Charles Arthur

If you want to have a big success in books, or movies, then the secret - as was noted in this paper last week - isn't to throw big marketing bucks at it. No, that's no guarantee of sales. What you need is word of mouth. The spread of the original peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network, Napster, began in a university but exploded as news spread about it via e-mail, instant messaging and web pages.

So too now with Skype, which is also a P2P system - but not for sharing files. It's a telephony application. It can be used to make calls for free over the internet, not just to other Skype users, but also (for a small per-second charge) to "fixed" phones and mobiles, anywhere in the world.

Skype's growth has been dramatic. From a standing start around August 2003, the company now has millions of users (it's had 81 million downloads, but many of those are duplicates or updates); at any time, more than a million users are online. It's growing exponentially, with thousands of people joining up each week. And the gadgets website Firebox recently started selling a "cyberphone" that uses Skype linked to a real handset that plugs into your computer.

There are many other "voice over internet protocol" (VoIP) companies around - Gossiptel, Vonage and Lingo to name a few, and BT also has an offering. But Skype has got a grip in Europe, and is spreading rapidly in the US through that "word of mouth" channel, for a couple of reasons: it's free to use, the message is encrypted, and it works. Whereas you may struggle to configure some of the other VoIP applications if you're behind a firewall (and you should always be, these days), Skype really is plug-and-play, in my experience. I've used it in offices over wireless connections, on routers connected to routers, and it handles them fine.

Plus, the company isn't sitting still; last week, as I was contemplating writing this piece, it announced a deal with Broadreach Networks, which provides Wi-Fi coverage at many locations around the UK (mostly in London), so Skype users will be able to use it to make calls at those hotspots. Skype also wants its product to run on handheld computers, and more than that, to run on mobile phones. In fact, there's already a version for Windows-based mobiles. A telephony application on a mobile phone? It sounds either obvious or mad. Except this is a telephony application that would dig into the mobile phone companies' business model, by letting people make calls using the data element of their connection, not the voice part. Long-distance calls would certainly be cheaper.

But the problem for the mobile phone companies, like the fixed-line ones, is that if they don't embrace Skype and its siblings, they might see their profits wiped out as more people use it. Some companies have adopted Skype completely for their outgoing phone calls, making thousands of pounds of savings in quite small offices. BT uses VoIP (though not Skype) internally, and is transforming its whole network to use it, in a scheme it calls "21CN" - for "21st Century Network". VoIP is where talking is going. It is an obvious outgrowth of the expanding bandwidth available on the internet. It works by digitising your voice and sending the digitised result over the internet as "packets" of separate data which are recombined at the receiving end - just like any sort of internet data, such as e- mails or web pages. The tricky thing with voice communications is that timing is very important; if a packet gets lost on the way, you notice the loss as a drop in sound quality.

Thus VoIP pretty much demands the bandwidth of at least a broadband connection, meaning packets have less chance to go astray at the sending or receiving end. Skype's P2P nature helps too; as well as the wider internet, it uses other Skype users' computers to help pass data along. So, the more people use Skype, the better (in theory) the connection quality should be.

And the weird economics of the internet, where data is only charged for when it's stored - it travels for nothing - means calls across the net are free. To that, Skype has, cleverly, added the SkypeOut service, by which a Skype user can call a real phone number. The call is routed mostly over the internet, and then out onto the telephone network at the nearest point to that caller. Thus SkypeOut calls are much cheaper than regular landline calls.

You might be wondering why Skype is free, and P2P, when so many other VoIP companies have done alright with a standard payment model (say, a monthly fee) and without the association with file-sharing. The answer seems to be that it's in the business DNA of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the two men who created the company. They set up KaZaA - once the world's most popular P2P file-sharing software. P2P just seems to be how they do things - because, just as with films and books, when it works, it really, really works.

People tired of KaZaA because, in order to pay its way, the company bundled adware with it. Users got sick of pop-up ads and dumped it. Zennström has sworn not to do that with Skype. "One of the things that we learned from past experience is that we should not rely on adverts," he said last year. "There is absolutely no adware in Skype. We rely on our users to spread messages."

I think the message is that Skype has that aura of an internet phenomenon just about to take off. OK, don't believe me. Listen instead to Peter Cochrane, formerly the head of research and development for BT. In a recent piece he noted how he's been using Skype, with a laptop and a headset, for all his calls recently. "My mobile phone bill has plummeted from $500 a month to less than $10 a month. I've purchased headsets for all of my children and colleagues."

The only disadvantage about Skype, and other VoIP systems, is that people on "real" phones can't call you back - yet. But in the UK, the telecoms regulator Ofcom last September allocated the number prefix "056" for VoIP numbers.

Remember when you first heard about mobile phones, or the internet? Did you think they were overhyped, or the gateway to something remarkable? My recommendation is that this is the same kind of phenomenon.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=618036


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AOL to Launch Net-Based Phone Service
Matthew Fordahl

In another sign that Internet telephony is headed for the mainstream, America Online Inc. said Tuesday that it plans to launch a Net-based phone service for some of its members within the month.

The AOL offering will compete with traditional telephone companies, cable firms and the dozens of up-and-coming firms that transmit calls over high-speed Internet connections rather than the traditional telephone network.

Customers will continue to use their traditional phones, but they will plug them into adapters connected to their broadband source rather than the jack provided by the telephone company. Calls are received and placed just like on the old telephone network.

Companies have been using Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, in the office for years. More recently, consumers have started to adopt the technology, signing up with cable companies and standalone companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. and 8x8 Inc. Even AT&T offers a VoIP service.

The biggest benefit for consumers has been low price - as little as $20 a month for unlimited national calls. More advanced features are also common. In fact, AOL's service is expected to work in combination with its popular instant-messaging technology, leveraging users' "buddy lists" so people can know when someone is available to talk.

"We can help mass-market adoption of VoIP," AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller said at a conference on Internet telephony. "We can utilize our national footprint. We can help the entire industry become well known."

Miller said the service would be targeted to specific markets initially with a wider rollout in the future. He did not indicate how much it will cost.

AOL, which grew explosively during the 90s with its easy-to-use dial-up service, has been struggling in recent years as subscribers flock to high-speed, always-on Internet connections. It's now offering services tailored specifically for broadband subscribers.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT


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Internet Telephony Ready for Plug-And-Play
Niclas Mika

Phone calls over the Internet -- free or at drastically lower rates -- are no longer the domain of the technically savvy, with companies starting to offer plug-and-play solutions.

When Chou En-Sung, technical director of Taiwanese firm Telewell Electronic, wants to call home from the CeBIT technology fair here, he connects a handset made by his firm to a laptop and places the call over the Internet.

"No fixed phone line necessary," he says.

Similar services, such as Skype, have attracted millions of users with the promise of free calls, but require a computer that is running, forcing users to take calls from their PC.

The next generation of devices that use the so-called voice over IP (VoIP) technology will be easier to use and work with cordless phones, but will be sold bundled with services by Internet providers or telecoms operators, manufacturers said.

Technology group Siemens is showing an inconspicuous white box at CeBIT that allows users to place calls with a traditional cordless phone as well as surfing the Internet wirelessly, all over one broadband connection.

French wireless technology firm Inventel has a similar product that comes with a handset, and is likewise sold only to operators that want to offer voice over IP services.

The idea is to offer the same convenience as traditional cordless phones, but services beyond wireless Internet access and phone calls, said Inventel marketing director Cedric Hutchings.

"Operators can push content to the phone, for example sell logos or ring tones, or allow users to search for a phone number in the directory," he said.

"People started to use voice over IP on economic grounds. You subscribe and make calls cheaper or for free, but sometimes at low quality. The next step is to offer the same experience as a high-quality cordless phone."

For Internet providers, VoIP offers new revenue possibilities, while it can be a first step for telecoms operators toward "triple play" services -- offering Internet, phone calls and television all over one broadband connection.

Several manufacturers have voice over IP boxes that act as a hub for an internal telephone system, geared at small companies.

Germany's snom launched a small box that works with special IP phones. Inside, a miniature computer handles outgoing and incoming calls and provides Internet access.

"Adopting voice over IP makes sense for a small company that builds its infrastructure from nothing, or for big corporations that want to quickly wire up a new office," said snom sales manager Oliver Wittig.

But even big organizations can benefit from making the switch.

The local government of Birkenfeld in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate switched in mid-2003.

"Government auditors always told us we're spending too much on maintenance of the telephone system," said Wolfgang Bohrer, who is responsible for the authority's infrastructure.

The costs were high because the old system required outside technicians to make changes, Bohrer said.

"The last time when 40 people moved offices, we saved 15,000 to 20,000 euros ($20,000-$27,000)."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7865051


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Calling P2P: Peer-to-Peer Networks Coming to a Phone Near You
Peggy Anne Salz

Napster, KaZaA, and Gnutella have fuelled consumers' passion for downloading and swapping MP3 music files—and BitTorrent and eDonkey are doing the same for video. Now, a handful of upstart vendors are poised to move peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing applications from the wired Internet to the wireless space to create an anywhere, anytime network for content creation and distribution.

Mobile phones, PDAs, and other devices are chock-full of features and computing power, and increases in storage capacity make these smart mobile devices the perfect platform for sharing content. "So, the question quite naturally arises whether peer-to-peer activities could be scaled down to mobile devices," observes Bob Emmerson, an independent telecoms consultant based in The Netherlands. "Previously, the computing power was in the central network switch. But, moving ahead, it will all be in the phone. And that's a shift that can either create or destroy value."

It still is too early to judge the impact of P2P on mobile content, but experience with P2P on the Internet speaks volumes. Estimates are that P2P networks Gnutella and KaZaA now make up a whopping 40% to 60% of Internet traffic.

KaZaA founders Swedish Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are also responsible for the phenomenally successful Skype, which brought free voice-over-the-Internet to the masses. Not surprisingly, the duo sees room to extend the reach of P2P into the mobile market, as demonstrated by its recent deal with Germany's global electronics giant Siemens to build its technology into cordless phones and VOIP phones. Extending P2P functionality to mobile phones, game consoles, and other portable consumer electronics devices is only a matter of time. File-sharing already figures into Skype's roadmap; its latest software includes a file transfer capability of up to 2GB.

It seems inevitable that P2P will show up on a slew of wired and wireless devices beginning in early 2005. But rather than resist the onslaught, media companies would be well-advised to rethink business models in order to leverage P2P, observes James Enck, a telecoms and IP analyst at Daiwa Securities SMBC Europe Ltd. in London. "If big media can get comfortable enough with the DRM aspects, the very large, kind of hip user base that Skype is providing with large data transfer functionality represents a potentially interesting marketing channel for content, either as promotion or as sales," Enck says. He points to Weedshare, a Seattle-based group of musicians and developers that allows consumers to download files via a P2P network. Consumers can pay for the content if they want—or allow content to expire if they aren't interested in owning it. They can also share it with friends and are rewarded for the viral promotion. Enck sees the possibility for large media companies to cash in on the "social marketing aspects of P2P." Viral marketing can also empower small content owners to play a huge role in the market. "It has the potential to fundamentally change the content distribution business."

While P2P technology in the consumer market has been overshadowed by illegal file-sharing, the business model in the enterprise space is much more attractive. Nimcat, a provider of embedded call processing software based in Canada, takes the intelligence usually found in the central switch and distributes it to the end-user telephone handsets. Its objective is to provide P2P telephony to small and mid-size businesses with fewer than 100 extensions at low-cost. Because the intelligence is in the phone there is nothing to configure and no directories to populate. Put simply, employees can basically buy a Nimcat-powered phone, plug it in the wall, and make calls to colleagues in the same building and across the branch offices. In addition, users benefit from 150 telephony features including voicemail, call transfer, and conference calling—all built into the phone.

While file-sharing may not be Nimcat's top priority at the moment, Marc Gingras, VP of product management and marketing, can imagine companies leveraging this technology to vastly improve content management within the enterprise. "You could share files and also access the rights to files in a peer-to-peer fashion," he says. "This could also fit in well with call center and billing applications where the company has to share content in a seamless fashion." The company's first devices will hit the market in the first quarter of 2005.

Creating the "borderless enterprise" is also the main focus of Popular Telephony, a telecommunications middleware company with offices in France and Israel. It seeks to embed its Peerio P2P technology into devices such as VOIP phones, allowing direct communication between Peerio-enabled devices without the need for call controlling servers, switches, proxies, or gatekeepers.

Although no application is formally in the works, Dmitry Goroshevsky, Popular Telephony founder and CEO, has document sharing on his radar. "Peerio is creating a uniform infrastructure for sharing, storing, and finding anything," he explains. "Since there are no servers in this technology, content distribution is secure and address distribution is secure." This approach, he says, saves enterprises the cost of running document file-sharing solutions within the enterprise. "The technology has a 100% delivery rate. If the file is stored in a Peerio-enabled network, it is stored in a redundant manner and will remain there until somebody deletes it."

While the details behind the Peerio technology are somewhat sketchy, Goroshevsky is clear about his belief in the potential of P2P. "Our technology can theoretically scale to four billion end-user devices." That sounds like a market that would interest most content providers and may help brighten P2P's tarnished image.
http://www.econtentmag.com/?ArticleID=7614


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Microsoft To Buy Groove Networks
Martin LaMonica

Microsoft on Thursday said it will acquire Groove Networks and make Groove's founder, Ray Ozzie, chief technology officer at the software giant.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Microsoft said it will incorporate Groove's "virtual office" collaboration software into its Office line of desktop productivity applications. Ozzie, the inventor of Lotus Notes and a collaboration guru, will report to Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect.

Microsoft was an investor in Groove, which has closely tied its collaboration software to Windows and other Microsoft products.
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+to+buy...l?tag=nefd.top


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DirecTV Launches Lawsuit Against Pirates

19 Canadians involved in case
Richard Blackwell

U.S. satellite company DirecTV Group Inc. has launched a suit in Ontario Superior Court against 19 Canadians the firm alleges sold equipment to illegally receive television signals.

The suit asks for an injunction to stop the alleged perpetrators from selling any devices, and for financial damages against them and five businesses they operate.

DirecTV beams television signals from satellites to viewers in the United States, but it is not licensed to operate in Canada, and doesn't hold Canadian copyright to any of the programming it distributes.

Still, in the past "black market" devices have been sold in Canada and the United States that can pick up DirectTV signals without paying. DirecTV changed its access cards last year to make it more difficult to steal its signal.

But there has also been a large "grey market," where Canadian viewers pick up the DirecTV signal by subscribing through a U.S. postal address. This lawsuit is aimed at the individuals and businesses who, the company alleges, have been helping Canadian viewers to get the signals on the grey market.

DirecTV said that in addition to filing the lawsuit, it "executed civil seizure orders" at nine locations in southern Ontario, and recovered "a significant volume of computer files and business records."

Most of the defendants in the case live in Waterloo or Kitchener, Ont., although there are others in Beamsville, Collingwood, Shakespeare, St. Catharines and Welland.

The suit alleges that the defendants used a network of companies and websites to give potential DirecTV customers fake U.S. addresses so they could set up accounts.

In addition to asking for an injunction to stop the activity, DirecTV is also asking for damages of $10-million, "for breaches of the Radiocommunication Act, fraud, conspiracy, conversion, unlawful interference with economic relations and unjust enrichment." It is also asking for $10-million in punitive damages.

The suit says the company is "entitled to an accounting and disgorgement of all revenues and profits made by the pirate defendants from the wrongful conversion of DirecTV's property."

In a statement, DirecTV executive vice-president Dan Fawcett said "we were able to detect the fraudulent activity, and through an extensive investigation we have identified those individuals, who we believe have engaged in various forms of piracy." Some of the defendants have a "long history of pirate activity," the firm said, "and several of them have been charged criminally in other signal theft cases."

A coalition of Canadian broadcasters and cable and satellite companies, known as the Coalition against Satellite Signal Theft, has been lobbying the federal government to beef up the Radiocommunication Act and increase penalties levied against those convicted of stealing signals.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...4/RSATELLITE04


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The Doctor Faces His Newest Adversary ... The Canadians
Jack Malvern

DOCTOR WHO has overcome Daleks and cybermen but his latest adversaries are villains even his imaginative creators could not have foreseen. The first episode of the BBC’s new series has been stolen by pirates and released on the internet.

The BBC reacted angrily yesterday to news that fans have been able to download copies of the first instalment of the series after a security breach.

The Doctor’s adventures, including clashes with monsters disguised as wheelie bins, can be found on p2p, or peer-to-peer, file-sharing networks.

The episode, featuring Christopher Eccleston as the eponymous timelord and Billie Piper as his assistant, shows the Doctor grappling with shape-shifting Autons. The plastic aliens, who resemble shop dummies, take over a London department store where Rose Tyler, Piper’s character, works. The Doctor rescues her, but blows up the shop in an attempt to stop the Autons from taking over the planet.

The aliens are foiled in their attempt to strangle the leather-jacketed hero when the Doctor produces his sonic screwdriver and instead pursue his friend Mickey by impersonating wheelie bins. The portable dustbins succeed and assume his identity. The BBC is investigating the leak, which it believes started in Canada. Its production partner, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), is thought to have given some episodes to a third party.

“It is a significant breach of copyright which is currently under investigation,” a BBC spokesman said. “We would urge viewers not to spoil their enjoyment and to wait for the finished version.”

CBC denied being the source of the leak. “CBC took all necessary and appropriate precautions to preserve confidentiality of the programme,” it said in a statement last night. “Our investigations to date indicate that CBC was not the source of the leak.”

The wheelie-bin terror is one of dozens of new monsters that the Doctor faces in the new series, which receives its first official broadcast on March 26.

The Autons, which featured in the original series, will be joined by Tree People and Moxx of Balhoon, a blue creature with a pot belly. Other creatures include Slitheens.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...517278,00.html


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The Future of File-Sharing Debated
Shawn Augsburger

On March 29, 2005, the Supreme Court of the U.S. will hear the case of MGM V. Grokster and StreamCast Networks, the makers of the P2P applications Grokster and Morpheus.

Napster offered free file sharing to millions of users until it was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America which represented record labels, music publishers and artists.

The case was dropped after Bertelsmann AG offered to team up with Napster and offer subscription-based music downloads, so that musicians would be paid for the music they made.

However, the issue of file-sharing was never completely settled, making way for various other court cases brought against other file-sharing programs. As computer technology becomes more complex, legal cases attempt to set precedent for future programs.

While most people have largely ignored every Internet piracy suit since the original Napster, this case could have much greater implications than simply the ability to offer file-sharing programs to Internet users.

Last year when the 9th Circuit Court found Grokster and Streamcast not liable for the piracy of their users, MGM and their allies decided to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, having exhausted all other legal means of fighting StreamCast Networks.

While the outcome of the case obviously affects the users of Grokster or Morpheus, the consequences of the case could be far-reaching if the makers of P2P applications are deemed liable.

Under current precedent from the landmark 1984 Supreme Court “Betamax decision” (Sony v. Universal Studios), makers of a tool that can be used to pirate copyrighted material cannot be held liable provided that their tool is capable of noninfringing uses.

Thanks to the Betamax decision, the manufacturers of VCRs, DVRs like Tivo, the iPod, or other multipurpose tools capable of reproducing copyrighted work cannot be sued.

In 1998, the RIAA attempted to stop the Diamond Rio, the first portable MP3 player, from being sold and the Betamax case was used as the precedent to defeat the ludicrous lawsuit.

If the RIAA had its way, everyone walking around UCI with iPods would be criminals!

While it may seem disturbing, MGM and its allies want the Betamax case overturned.

Not surprisingly, the list of organizations opposing MGM come from a broad political spectrum.

The American Conservative Union and the National Taxpayers Union have both submitted amicus briefs for StreamCast, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union.

When the ACLU and two conservative groups agree upon something, one has to think that opposing MGM is bipartisan.

Even some musical artists oppose MGM’s position, even though they oppose piracy.

One artist group, with members including Steve Winwood, Chuck D and Heart, have filed an amicus briefing in favor of Streamcast.

As the group notes, “Musicians are not universally united in opposition to peer-to-peer file sharing as the major record companies claim.”

The briefing by the musician group notes that “many musicians find peer-to-peer technology ... allows them to easily reach a worldwide online audience,” and that for “many musicians, the benefits of this ... strongly outweigh the risks of copyright infringement.”

Despite this position being supported by a minimum of the over 20 different musical artists who were willing to put their name on the briefing, there is no mention of the division among musical artists ever mentioned by the RIAA.

In their mythical world there is no dissention among musical artists on this issue.

In addition, technology companies across the the industry have pointed out the crippling effect that overturning the Betamax case would have upon their business.

While some effects are obvious such as competing P2P networks, many aren’t so controversial.

Intel, the leading maker of microprocessors for personal computers, added that personal computers themselves could have been threatened without the Betamax decision.

As Intel’s briefing notes, “Even the personal computer might not have developed.” Along with Intel, numerous other technology companies have contributed to Streamcast’s case, including SBC, Verizon, Sun Microsystems, MCI and AT&T.

If we are to look at the economic arguments for overturning Betamax one must look at the billions of dollars in losses in the multibillion-dollar technology sector that would result if this pivotal court decision overturned, a possible consequence that the content companies never mention.

One of the leading defenders of P2P networks and the Electronic Freedom Frontier asks, “When should the distributor of a multipurpose tool be held liable for the infringements that may be committed by end-users of the tool?”

Any set amount that a network must have to be legal, is wholly arbitrary.

While much of the content traded on P2P networks is illegal, much of the content is legal. For example, many Linux distributions rely upon the P2P application Bittorrent for Internet distribution.

As Fred von Lohmann, EFF’s senior intellectual property attorney, commented, “The copyright-law principles set out in the Sony Betamax case have served innovators, copyright industries and the public well for 20 years.” Hopefully, Lohmann, who is the legal counsel for Streamcast Networks, will succeed in this case.
http://horus.vcsa.uci.edu/article.php?id=3500


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High-Tech Leaders: U.S. Risks Losing Edge
Erica Werner

Leaders of high-tech companies said Tuesday the United States risks losing its competitive edge without significant new investments in education, research and development and the spread of broadband technology.

"The world is changing a little bit, and frankly there is a significant amount of concern that if we don't make some adjustments, follow the right public policies, do some things that are important, we could find ourselves very quickly losing the advantage we've had for so long," Rick White, president and chief executive of high-tech lobby TechNet, said at a press conference.

The Palo Alto, Calif., group represents about 200 high-tech leaders, including Microsoft, Intel Corp., Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard. TechNet made its annual lobbying trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with Cabinet members and congressional leaders.

White and other TechNet officials cited some troubling indications that the United States is falling behind in high-tech development:

-Some 7 percent of U.S. households have broadband access, compared with 30 percent in Korea, 20 percent in Japan and over 10 percent in France.

-U.S. investment in research and development has stayed flat for the last three decades, while it has grown significantly in competitors such as Brazil, India, China and Israel.

-Students in the United States are behind their counterparts in other countries in math and science, and some Asian countries are graduating five times as many engineers.

The officials announced formation of a CEO Education Task Force to try to come up with solutions.

They also called on Congress to increase basic research funding and make permanent a research and development tax credit; promote broadband development, in part by minimizing regulations; enact a U.S.-Central America- Dominican Republic free trade agreement; promote cybersecurity initiatives; and continue to take steps to reduce frivolous lawsuits.

TechNet leaders also pledged to continue their opposition to a proposed Financial Accounting Standards Board rule that would require companies to deduct the value of employee stock options from their profits. Requiring some big companies to expense the popular employee incentives could dramatically reduce their profits.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS


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Chinese Computer Firm-IBM Get Security OK
Eric Auchard

China's Lenovo Group Ltd. won clearance from a U.S. national security oversight committee to acquire IBM's personal computer business, the companies said on Wednesday, overcoming resistance from some U.S. lawmakers

An IBM executive said the high-level U.S. committee had given the deal its unanimous consent -- the final external approval needed -- putting the $1.25 billion PC sale on track to close in the second quarter as originally planned.

"We were able to get unanimous agreement from the members of the committee," Stephen Ward, the general manager of IBM's Personal Systems Division, said in a telephone interview.

Ward is to become chief executive of Lenovo, once the deal closes. Lenovo is headquartered in Beijing, but will move to an undisclosed site near IBM's headquarters in Armonk, New York.

The merger of the IBM PC business with China's biggest PC maker -- the first combination ever of a major U.S. company and a top Chinese one -- will create the world's third largest PC maker with roughly $12 billion in revenue and one strongly positioned in several fast-growing markets.

The deal had met unexpected resistance when some U.S. lawmakers began decrying the loss of a U.S.-based PC maker to China. In addition, some government officials, according to media reports, were concerned that Chinese nationals working for Lenovo in the United States might act as industrial spies.

Despite the review, approval of the deal had been widely anticipated on Wall Street. IBM shares rose 42 cents to $92.55 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Ward said terms of the approval are confidential, but that no compromises were required over the location of Lenovo facilities in sensitive research areas, nor were limits put on Lenovo's ability to sell PCs to U.S. agencies.

"I don't think we made any compromises at all," Ward told Reuters.

Rival PC makers such as Dell Inc. (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Hewlett-Packard Co. have been seeking to woo corporate PC customers away from IBM by citing the regulatory overhang as well as uncertainty over Lenovo's future PC product strategy.

Industry experts say that underlying the cross-border combination of the two companies is a belated recognition of the fact that most PCs -- including IBM's machines -- are already largely manufactured in the greater China region.

IBM plans to keep a 19 percent stake in Lenovo after the merger, allow Lenovo to use its PC brands for five years, and retain service, financing and support operations for PCs.

Final Regulatory Step

The go-ahead from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) was received on Tuesday, Ward said.

CFIUS, which is composed of 11 U.S. agencies and was created in 1998 to conduct security reviews of business deals, includes members of the U.S. departments of Treasury, State, Defense, Justice and Homeland Security.

"Everything that CFIUS asked of us was perfectly reasonable and the type of things that would be in a business plan," Ward said.

He said IBM PC staff working in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, area will be relocated to a single campus that is being sold by IBM to Lenovo and is located in the same industrial park. Separation from the rest of IBM is in line with plans to run Lenovo as a distinct company, Ward said.

Asked if IBM could retain U.S. military and other national security agencies as PC customers, Ward said there were no restrictions on the new Lenovo and it would be free to do business with U.S. government agencies. "We can do business with anyone we want to do business with," he said.

U.S. antitrust authorities in January cleared the deal, and Lenovo shareholders have also approved it.

What is left is largely internal planning and integrating steps to complete the merger.

"We are still looking at closing the transaction in the second quarter," IBM spokeswoman Carol Makovich said. "We are on track."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7853068


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MP3s too

Samsung Elec Unveils 7-Megapixel Camera Phone

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. unveiled the world's first mobile phone with a powerful 7-megapixel camera on Wednesday, providing a potential competitive threat to manufacturers of digital cameras.

Samsung has been stepping up development of increasingly sophisticated phones for high-end users looking to access games, music and movies on their handsets. It launched the world's first 5-megapixel phone in October.

But while top digital camera makers such as Japan's Canon Inc. and Sony Corp. are likely to see the model as a new threat, its popularity may depend on how much of an improvement the camera can deliver over existing units.

There is a growing consensus among consumers that 3 or 4 megapixels, the measure of how many million picture elements are captured in a digital snapshot, are enough for a decent shot.

Some of the best-selling digital cameras feature 4 or 5 megapixels.

The new phone, which also has an MP3 player and business card reader, would go on sale as early as the first half, though a price had yet to be set, Samsung said in a statement.

Samsung aims to sell 100 million mobile phones this year, up 16 percent from 86 million sold last year.

The SCH-V770 phone will make its international debut at CeBIT, the world's biggest tech and telecoms trade show, in Hanover, Germany on Thursday.

Shares in Samsung, Asia's most valuable technology company with a market value of $81 billion, ended down 0.4 percent at 500,000 won, versus a 0.85 percent rise in the broader market.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...sectio n=news


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German Tech Show Expects 500,000 Visitors
Matt Moore

Mirroring the rise in information technology spending, organizers of this year's CeBIT trade show are forecasting more visitors and exhibitors jostling for a sneak peek at the next wave of technology.

After several years of economic gloom, the world's largest tech fair opens Thursday, buoyed by the market potential of new technology combining telephones, computers and the Internet as well as companies saying they will spend more.

More than 510,000 visitors are expected at the weeklong event, which boasts 27 hangar-sized exhibit halls that showcase everything from Microsoft Corp.'s digital home to a 300-player tournament with popular games like "FIFA Soccer 2005" and "Warcraft 3" where the winner takes home euro150,000 (US$198,000).

CeBIT also is the chance to see how contemporary technology is changing the home of today into that of the future.

As technology applications move from desktop PCs and laptops to refrigerators, microwaves and even tennis shoes - witness the new Adidas-1 sneakers that boast a processor that does 5 million calculations a second - CeBIT 2005 will showcase how consumers can make the most of a digital lifestyle.

"At CeBIT itself there is an emphasis on the merging of IT and telecoms both in next-generation networks and in the mobile sector and that is always good for new, innovative development," said Paul Budde, an analyst from Australia.

He added that companies, including telecoms, phone makers and others will use the industry event to unveil new products.

Several exhibitors will focus on the blending of home computers with televisions to form, in part, digitally connected home entertainment systems that will let consumers record favorite TV shows on a hard drive, pull up detailed programming listings and manage a library of MP3s all in one set-top box the size of a VCR or DVD player, if not smaller.

Another key aspect is the convergence in the communications industry.

Sure to be of interest among gadget watchers and tech gurus is the prevalence of new Voice over Internet Protocol devices, which let users make telephone calls using the Internet, often at a vastly cheaper cost than with normal providers.

VoIP technology shifts calls away from wires and switches, instead using computers and broadband connections to convert sounds into data and transmit them via the Internet. In many cases, VoIP subscribers use conventional phones connected to a special box and a high-speed connection to make Internet calls.

Others are set to offer wireless mobile phones with Skype Technologies SA's software, including handset makers like Siemens AG and Motorola Corp.

The basic Skype program, offered as a free download over the Internet, allows people to use their computers as telephones to call others equipped with Skype software. Another version, called SkypeOut, lets Skype users call regular phones.

For the industry, several business executives plan to gather for a technology summit that will focus on how globalization and outsourcing is affecting markets.

The conference, featuring Stuart Cohen, chief executive of OSDL, Niklas Zennstroem, CEO and co-founder of Skype, and Viviane Reding, the commissioner for information society and media of the European Commission, will also look at how the emergence of India and China will affect technology growth.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...CTION=BUSINESS


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SAP, Intel To Cooperate On RFID

Software maker SAP and microchip maker Intel will work together to encourage companies to adopt radio frequency identification technology, the companies said Thursday.

The two companies said the collaboration would allow customers to integrate data collected from RFID chips, which are attached to objects to track them, either directly into Intel-based servers or through SAP's NetWeaver software platform.

In a statement at the CeBit electronics fair taking place here this week, they said the joint effort "aims to make RFID technology easier to use and help companies overcome the common hurdles they face in creating viable business cases for RFID implementations."

RFID technology is more than half a century old and offers the theoretical possibility of tracking all objects in existence by linking them into information systems, but high costs and technology integration problems have prevented mass adoption.

The technology is used by some large retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores and Metro, to make their supply chains more efficient.

SAP, the world's biggest maker of business software, has also been quietly campaigning on the political front to ward off opposition from groups concerned that RFID will make new methods of privacy invasion possible.
http://news.com.com/SAP%2C+Intel+to+...3-5608062.html


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T-Mobile to Sell High-Speed, Mini Mobile Laptop

German mobile phone service provider T-Mobile will start selling the Sidekick II miniature laptop computer to boost its mobile data revenue, the Deutsche Telekom unit said on Thursday.

The Sidekick, now sold exclusively by T-Mobile's U.S. arm, and a fashion item used by celebrities such as Paris Hilton, is about the size of a paperback book and features a full keyboard and a flip screen as well as regular mobile phone telephony.

Mobile phone companies are trying to lure users to access more data services over their networks to increase their sales and earnings, partly with new handsets that have bigger displays and keyboards to make mobile Internet browsing easier.

"We have noticed that there are three factors to stimulate users to use data services," said Chief Executive Rene Obermann at a news conference at this year's CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, Germany.

"First, more content and unlimited access to the Internet. Second, cheap rates. And third, we need a new generation of handsets," he added.

Apart from the Sidekick, T-Mobile will start selling the fourth generation of its MDA handheld computer, which is able to use third-generation (3G) mobile phone services, as well as the Wi-Fi wireless standard in the third quarter.

The Sidekick, made by Santa Monica, California-based company Danger, will be sold in Germany from June for 99.95 euros ($133.70), T-Mobile said.

The operator, which has said it wants to reduce the number of phone models it offers to cut costs, will also launch five new 3G phones over the course of the year: Nokia's 6680, SGH-Z130 and SGH-Z300, Sony Ericsson's Z800i and LG's U8200.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7864604


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Motorola to Unveil More Versatile Camera Phones
Deborah Cohen

Motorola Inc. is set on Thursday to unveil several new phones that it says make it easier for consumers to store, share and print pictures, betting that cameras in handsets are no longer just a clever gimmick.

The No. 2 maker of mobile phones behind Finland's Nokia is banking on technology to enhance consumers' experience with digital imaging, James Burke, its senior director of North American product operations, told Reuters.

"The vast majority of people using camera phones today are using them for snap-and-share," he said, adding that more than half the units Motorola shipped in the fourth quarter had cameras. "You could conclude...that imaging is here to stay."

Motorola expects consumers will want more traditional camera capabilities from their phones, and it hopes to win partnerships with companies such as those that make digital printers or the kiosks used in retail stores where consumers process and print photos, Burke said.

Motorola is set to announce a relationship with Avvenu, a California company that offers consumers remote access to digital images on a computer from a cell phone. Motorola's venture capital arm announced an investment of undisclosed size in Avvenu on Wednesday.

Analysts said the company's plans are line with the industry, as Nokia, Samsung and other big handset makers are all taking steps toward improving ease of use for technologies initially seen as novelties in handsets.

"People want to have the full range of use of their phone's capabilities," said John Jackson, a wireless analyst with market research firm Yankee Group. Motorola's plans will make "the phone more of a consumer appliance," he said.

One of the new Motorola camera phones, the SLVR V280, offers an array of imaging tools, such the ability to create photo albums and capture video at a price likely to run below $49, Burke said. It and the other phones are expected to go to market in the second half of the year.

New Features, 'Screen3' Technology

Two of the other new Motorola phones, designed for use in Europe, are debuting at a trade show this week in Germany. One, the V1150, includes a 2 megapixel camera, the ability to capture still and moving images, and enhanced storage. The other, the V1050, includes a 1.23 megapixel camera and two-way video calling, among other features.

Burke said Motorola is also trying to improve the screens on the handsets themselves. One of new camera phones, the V557, includes an application called SCREEN3. An alternative to a Web browser, it lets consumers customize the main screen on their phone with the types of services they most want, like sports scores or news headlines, he said.

"From the end user's point of view, you don't have to go anywhere," said Jessica Figueras, an analyst with London-based research firm Ovum, who has used the technology.

"The downside is that it's a proprietary technology," she said, noting that cellular service providers such as Cingular will be forced to invest in infrastructure.

Motorola, based in Schaumburg, Illinois, had also been set this week to release the first of several music-compatible phones developed to work with Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes technology, but it has since delayed the release.

A spokeswoman said that all parties were not yet prepared to go public.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7859443


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Consumer Data Stolen from Reed Elsevier
Jeffrey Goldfarb

Hackers have gained access to sensitive personal details of about 32,000 U.S. citizens on databases owned by publisher Reed Elsevier, fueling fears about identity theft and efforts to curb the sale of such information.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are investigating the breach, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Anglo-Dutch Reed Elsevier said a billing complaint by a customer of its Seisint unit in the past week led to the discovery that an identity and password had been misappropriated.

The information accessed included names, addresses, social security and driver's license numbers, but not credit histories, medical records or financial information.

Reed Elsevier said it is contacting the 32,000 people affected and offering them credit monitoring and other support to detect any identity theft.

"Law enforcement officials have asked us to keep all this information close, because they're hoping to catch up with some of these people," the spokeswoman said.

The problem of identity theft, in which criminals run up charges using stolen personal information, has cost companies and individuals billions of dollars, prompting new government legislation and widespread resolve to protect consumers.

In recent weeks, Seisint rival ChoicePoint, financial group Bank of America Corp. and discount store owner Retail Ventures Inc all have reported similar problems of stolen or lost customers' personal information.

A U.S. Senate committee has a scheduled hearing on identity theft for Thursday amid promises from lawmakers to enact new rules to protect data and limit companies from selling such information.

Seisint, based in Boca Raton, Florida, collects information from government agencies to build large databases.

A Seisint-created criminal information database called Matrix came under fire after it drew up a list of people with terrorist profiles, which then led to some arrests.

Many of the company's customers are law enforcement agencies and financial institutions.

"There are advantages to attacking those kinds of companies because the information is quite valuable," said Paul Beechey, an information technology security specialist who simulates hacker techniques for UK defense group QinetiQ.

"As the value of what you're trying to steal increases, so does the effort that the bad guys will put into it," he said.

Rival's Similar Situation

ChoicePoint Inc., which also sells personal data, said last month it experienced a wider theft of about 145,000 consumer profiles.

It is under investigation by U.S. authorities for the breach as well as for compliance with federal consumer information security laws.

Identity thieves set up roughly 50 fraudulent business accounts to gain access to ChoicePoint's data. Law enforcement officials said earlier this month they had found attempts were made to compromise the identities of about 750 consumers.

Reed Elsevier bought Seisint in July 2004 for $745 million and housed it inside its LexisNexis unit. It reaffirmed annual and longer-term financial targets in the wake of the theft.

"The financial implications are expected to be manageable within the context of LexisNexis's overall growth," the company said in a statement.

The company's shares in London were down 1.73 percent to 538 1/2 pence at 1444 GMT.

Though Seisint represents only about 1.5 percent of Reed Elsevier's revenues, analysts said the situation could have other detrimental affects.

"This will harm management's credibility and acquisition track record," analyst Gert Potvlieghe at brokerage Petercam wrote in a morning note to clients.

Seisint has weathered some controversy in recent years.

In December, Seisint founder Hank Asher sued ChoicePoint executives for $1.8 billion, accusing them of undermining him when he was trying to sell the business. ChoicePoint had previously sued Seisint.

Asher resigned from the board before the company was sold after a state investigation disclosed findings that he had piloted planes containing cocaine from Colombia to the United States in the early 1980s.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Seisint's Matrix technology, or Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, drew sharp criticism from privacy groups when it provided government officials the names of 120,000 people whose personal information supposedly fit the profile of a terrorist. (Additional reporting by Emma Thomasson and Theo Kolker in Amsterdam and Adam Pasick in London)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...sectio n=news


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Isreal

Court to Maariv: Cope with AllJobs site
Anat Roeh

Herzl Ozer, the outgoing general manager of Off-Tov and founder of the AllJobs Internet site, is allowed to continue to copy job opportunity notices from the classified ads of Maariv newspaper - and apparently from other newspapers, too. This was the ruling of Tel Aviv District Court Judge Yehuda Zaft, who rejected a petition by Maariv for an injunction against Ozer and his Web site. Zaft advised Maariv to consent to the dismissal of the NIS 1 million damages suit filed by the newspaper.

Zaft's ruling effectively paves the way for one commercial body to use the notices of job opportunities of another, without such use constituting information theft or copyright infringement.

In this particular case, there is no information theft because the information does not belong to Maariv, but rather to the advertisers, who are simply using the daily newspaper as a platform. The judge stated that the advertisers have an interest in their notices being published in other places apart from Maariv, and said the job-seeking public is similarly interested in "an accessible site that enables them to easily survey job offers."

As for Maariv's argument that people are liable to refrain from purchasing the newspaper and will instead surf Ozer's site, Zaft responded" "The Internet poses new challenges to businesses that relay information to the general public via old platforms. The public has an interest in promoting initiative ... The paper must find a way to exist alongside it."

AllJobs and Ozer were represented by attorneys Shmulik Cassouto and Ofer Larish of the Cassouto-Nof law firm.

AllJobs was created by Ozer together with Gadi Schwadron, Revital Hendler and Niv Ariel. The site provides surfers with "all the job offers in Israel from all the sources and from all company sites," for a monthly subscriber fee of NIS 29.90.

Following the launching of AllJobs, Maariv and Yedioth Ahronoth filed petitions for injunctions forbidding the site to copy notices from their classified ads sections. The newspapers claimed that AllJobs was a "parasitic enterprise feeding off the efforts of others."

Yedioth Ahronoth's petition was rejected as soon as it was filed, as it was not appended with a monetary suit.

Maariv claimed that in the past decade, it had invested NIS 174 million in publishing job opportunity supplements and marketing campaigns and another $1 million in launching its own Internet site.

"The petitioner," wrote Zaft, "is to be viewed as nothing more than an enterprise that offers an advertising platform in exchange for payment. The resources invested by the petition were aimed mainly at promoting the reputation of the platform and not at collecting the data included in the notices that were published."

Zaft noted that the chances of Maariv winning its suit were "doubtful" and advised the paper to withdraw the damages suit so that it could be rejected without the paper being ordered to pay filing fees, subject to the newspaper's right to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/548659.html


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Korea

Proposed Copyright Law Raises Dispute
Baik Sung-ho

It costs money to rent a comic book at a rental shop unless it is run by your family or relatives.

Popular comic books can be rented out an unlimited number of times, but, surprisingly, in Korea the authors of these comic books get no money no matter how many times their books are read by other people.

Until today, domestic copyright laws have not applied to rental shops and so the industry could avoid paying royalties to the creators.
However, after 18 years the government is trying to revise the copyright law, and governing party members on the National Assembly's culture and tourism committee began trying to draw up a revision bill on Feb. 16.

Legalizing a "rental copyright" has created a major dispute in the comic book industry, since the law would have a serious effect on it.
In the comic book publishing market, rental shops account for 60 percent of the buyers, but most of them are struggling. There are concerns that if the shops have to pay money to the authors, the whole rental market might collapse.

Cartoonists, however, take a different stance.

Won Su-yeon, the creator of the popular comic "Full House," said, "I understand the difficulties the rental shops go through. But we authors feel deprived, seeing the current rental industry."
Ms. Won said the new law means more "fairness" rather than "money." Most of the cartoonists hope that the revision of the law will see their copyrights recognized in the rental industry.
The publishers of comic books are confused, since even if the new copyright law is adopted, it is not clear how it can be applied. For one thing, there are many ways in which the shops can rent out books without leaving records, and thus avoid paying the cartoonists.

Kim Gu-hoe, marketing director of Daiwon CI, a comic book publisher, said, "The publishers may have to carry the burden of paying the author in the process of publishing. We respect the authors' rights, but a new law should be implemented slowly."

Lee Gwang-cheol, a member of the governing Uri Party, said, "Everyone sees the necessity of revising the law, but ‘how' and ‘when' to apply it is the question."

Ms. Lee said that establishing a system to count and supervise the number of rentals in shops is one method of collecting royalties that is under consideration.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/20050...091009101.html


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Settles with Industry

Bugs Music Gives Up Management Control
Kim Tong-hyung

Bugs Music, the country's largest online music provider, said yesterday that it plans to sell 60 percent of the company to local record companies to settle its lengthy copyright dispute with the music industry.

The online company declined to disclose the financial terms of sale or name the companies involved in the deal.

"We concluded that giving up our management control by selling more than half of the shares to recording companies is the only way for us to end the conflict with the local music industry and put the business back on track," said Bugs Music Chief Executive Park Sung-hoon.

"By taking over the majority shares and management rights, the recording companies agreed to cooperate in settling the copyright issue and provide Bugs Music more music content to carry," he said.

Park will step down from his position and Kim Kyung-nam, a senior official from industry lobby Korean Association of Phonogram Producers, is expected to be named as the interim chief executive.

Major record companies such as Yedang Entertainment Co. and Doremi Media Co., members of the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers and that were involved in past legal disputes with Bugs Music, are likely to be on the receiving end of the takeover. Officials from the association could not be reached for comment.

Bugs Music operates the online music streaming site www.bugs.co.kr, which has more than 16 million registered users and ranks fifth among all web sites here by number of visits. Bugs Music has been providing free music-streaming services since 2000, allowing subscribers to listen to music files but not download them.

The Korean Association of Phonogram Producers and 13 recording companies, including SM Entertainment Co. and YBM Seoul Records Inc., filed a lawsuit accusing Bugs Music of illegal reproduction of copyrighted music and demanded its services be blocked. In the end, Bugs Music was forced to delete 40,000 music files owned by the record companies from its database.

Bugs Music and the association had reached an agreement to end their conflict last year, with the music lobby accepting the Seoul District Court's meditation to receive 2.22 billion won ($1.9 million) to compensate for copyright infringement.

However, Bugs Music failed to reach an agreement with a number of record companies, including SM Entertainment, YBM Seoul Records and Yedang Entertainment. The companies went on with their lawsuits and Park was given an 18-month sentence suspended for three years after the first ruling last month.

With an Internet penetration rate that approaches 70 percent, the free distribution of online music has always been at the center of copyright disputes here. According to the Samsung Economic Research Institute, the digital music market grew to 190 billion won in 2003 to overtake the size of the offline market. With the government implementing stronger measures to protect copyrights, industry watchers are predicting an explosive increase for the digital music segment.

Last month, the government enforced a new law that bans individuals or companies from providing or sharing copyrighted music without the consent of the record companies, banning the trading of music files through peer-to-peer software, e-mail or weblogs. Under the new law, online music distributors such as Bugs Music and Soribada, the operator of the country's most popular peer-to-peer site www.soribada.com, have been forced to abandon their free-service model and are currently setting up new services that charge subscriber fees to cover royalties to the record companies.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/da...0503070016.asp


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National Geographic Wins Copyright Suit Over Articles, Photos on CD-Rom
Michael Bobelian

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has confirmed a lower court ruling dismissing copyright claims against National Geographic by interpreting the copyrights at issue within the context of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2001 Tasini ruling.

The opinion, Faulkner v. National Geographic Enterprises Inc., 04-0263, by Judge Ralph Winter, combined multiple cases in which freelance writers and photographers accused National Geographic of copyright infringement over its sale of a set of CD- roms containing the entire collection of magazines dating back to 1888.

The three-member panel, which included Judges Reena Raggi and Robert Katzmann, distinguished the National Geographic product from Tasini.

In Tasini, the Supreme Court held that articles appearing on popular search engines that separate the articles from their context are not a protected "revision" under copyright law. As a result, the Court held that publishers had violated the rights of freelance authors in presenting these articles individually, out of the collective group in which they originally appeared.

The Court also noted, Judge Winter said, that collections placed on microfilm and microfiche were permissible uses of the copyright granted to publishers because these collections preserved the context in which the articles first appeared, unlike electronic databases, which separate them.

National Geographic's compilation included characteristics resembling microfiche.

"The [CD-rom set] presents the underlying works to users in the same context as they were presented to the users in the original versions of the Magazine," wrote Winter.

One of the magazine's programs allowed users to search for individual articles but instead of seeing the articles in isolation, users saw the article placed within the issue. The entire magazine was scanned into the CD-rom, showing users page numbers, photos and advertisements exactly as they appeared in the original.

"In contrast," continued Winter, "the databases at issue in Tasini precluded readers from viewing the underlying works in their original context."

The panel also rejected the plaintiffs' request to apply offensive collateral estoppel on their behalf based on a favorable ruling from the 11th Circuit.

The 2nd Circuit panel held that the law underlying the other opinion had changed, making collateral estoppel inapplicable.

Under this doctrine, "a plaintiff may preclude a defendant from relitigating an issue the defendant has previously litigated and lost to another plaintiff," wrote Winter.

"Use of collateral estoppel," he said, "must be confined to situations where the matter raised in the second suit is identical in all respects with that decided in the first proceeding and where the controlling facts and applicable legal rules remain unchanged."

The panel held that after Tasini, the legal rules had indeed changed.

The plaintiffs were relying on an unrelated case from the 11th Circuit, which had ruled in favor of similarly situated plaintiffs suing National Geographic for copyright infringement over its CD-rom collection. That ruling was made prior to Tasini, Winter pointed out.

"In our view," the panel held, "the Tasini approach so substantially departs from the [11th Circuit opinion] that it represents an intervening change in law rendering application of collateral estoppel inappropriate."

Among the attorneys representing plaintiffs were Andrew Berger of Tannenbaum, Helpern, Syracuse & Hirschtritt and Stephen Weingrad of Weingrad & Weingrad.

Robert Sugarman of Weil, Gotshal Manges represented National Geographic.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1110310803826


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ILN News Letter

Federal CT Finds Traditional Knowledge Copyright Violation

A federal court has found a man liable of violating the copyright of a California tribe for recording a sacred ceremony and selling copies of the tape. The case began in the early 90s when Brown Tadd, an elder with the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of California, allowed Native artist Lorenzo Baca to videotape traditional Tuolumne/Me-Wuk dances performed at the Sonora Museum. Tadd soon passed away and several years later Baca sold the recordings, under the name "California Me-Wuk Songs." The plaintiff used California's common-law copyright law and a portion of a federal bootlegging law the bars people from recording musical events to win the case.
http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?act...rticle_id=6093


Infinity Will Stream Radio On Web

Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting plans to start streaming the programming of a dozen of its radio stations over the Internet starting March 14. The Internet move is intended in part as a response to the increased competition that radio broadcasters face from other media, including satellite radio.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1...668006,00.html


French Court Bars Publishing Software Vulnerabilities

A French court has issued a suspended fine to a security expert for publishing his findings of a number of vulnerabilities in the Viguard antivirus software published by Tegam International. The prosecution claimed that the engineer violated article 335.2 of the code of intellectual property and asked for a four-month jail term and a fine of 6,000 euros.
http://news.com.com/2100-7350_3-5606306.html


Canadian Security CO'S Express Concern Over Copyright Reform

A group of Canadian security firms have released a public letter also expressing concern over potential Canadian copyright reforms. The companies note the negative impact of the DMCA on security research and urge the government to avoid criminalizing technology.

Letter at
<http://cansecurityletter.notlong.com/>
Coverage at
<http://securityfearstorstar.notlong.com/>
http://securityfearsitworld.notlong.com/


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Labels Seek To Block Altnet Revenue-Share
John Borland

Record labels have asked an Australian court to block peer- to-peer company Altnet's ad-revenue-sharing program.

Altnet said earlier this week that it would share advertising dollars from Kazaa parent Sharman Networks with any record labels that agreed to sell music through its peer-to- peer networks. Record labels, which are suing Sharman Networks in Australia, are now asking a judge to block distribution of those advertising revenues.
http://news.com.com/2110-1027_3-5599005.html


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China

Officials, Entertainers Stage Events To Fight Piracy

About 100 Chinese music celebrities gathered at Beijing's Capital Stadium Saturday night standing on a huge CD-shape platform and singing for public support in the country's fight against rampant music piracy. The stadium was nearly full, and organizers said 150 million more watched on television. Pop stars sang their hit songs and occasionally urged their fans not to buy pirated products. Organized by the central government and associations in entertainment circles, the concert was just one of a series anti-piracy events going on in Beijing Saturday, aiming to show officials' and entertainers' determination to hit hard on piracy. Events included a forum, a Beijing anti-piracy declaration and a public destruction of pirated products.

"If Beijing fails to solve piracy soon, we will not deserve to host the Olympics in 2008," said Feng Xiaogang, a Chinese director who was recently named the country's proponent of copyright protection.

"This is not exaggerating," said Wang Ziqiang, spokesman of National Copyright Administration, or the state copyright watchdog." Rampant piracy harms people's creativity, and a nation without creativity is a nation without hope."

He said that despite repeated government crackdowns, intellectual property infringement is still rampant in China. "We don't know when the problem can not solved, but we do know China will take the challenge."

Yan Xiaohong, vice chief of the administration, said they had set "fewer complaints, more action" as the guideline for IPR protection in 2005. "China will absolutely fulfill its commitments to the world," he said.

In the morning, three truckloads of confiscated books, tapes, DVDs, CDs, and computer discs were dumped on a red carpet and publicly smashed to pieces. Copyright officials and people from entertainment circles were invited to destroy the pirated products. Last year copyright administrations across China confiscated about 85.05 million pirated products, 25 percent more than that in2003, and China's judicial authorities lowered the legal threshold to criminalise IPR violators. People who sell more than 5,000pirated CDs might end up seven years behind bars, authorities have said.

"Though the government and justice departments work hard to stamp out piracy, we cannot win the battle against IPR infringement without public support," Yan said, adding that the public's anti-piracy awareness needs to be raised. Audience of the concert corresponded what Yan had said." A copyrighted CD for 200 yuan, pirated one for 10 yuan, what will you buy?" -- someone on stage asked. "The pirated one," answered the thousands of people in the stadium.

"What I want to do is to repeatedly promote the use of copyrighted things," said Feng, adding that if all Chinese watch pirated movies, Chinese films are doomed to be barred from the world's market.

Yan said his administration is going to hold large-scale IPR knowledge promotion in middle schools across China early this summer.

2005 is a good chance for China to upgrade its IPR protection, he said. "We will take advantage of that to help the public to raise their anti-piracy awareness."
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/2...27_174806.html


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I’ll bet he does

Doyle Wants To Tax Internet Downloads
AP

Wisconsin residents would have to pay the state sales tax on goods they download from the Internet, including songs, books and movies, under Gov. Jim Doyle's budget, costing them an estimated $3.2 million over the next two years.

State Rep. Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, complained Monday that the move contradicted Doyle's pledge to balance the budget without raising taxes.

"The next time you download the latest song from U2 for 99 cents, the governor wants to charge you the sales tax," Jensen said in a release. "It's enough to give iPod users a case of 'vertigo,'" in reference to the group's hit song.

In his example, the sales tax would be about 5 cents.

The governor's budget proposal would make clear that Wisconsin can collect the sales tax for certain purchases, from movie and music downloads to electronic books and artwork.

The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated that would amount to $3.2 million in additional taxes on those purchases over the next two years.

Under current state law, most Internet downloads are not taxable, except for computer software and digital photos, according to Doyle's proposal.

But the state now collects sales tax from people who rent movies from a store or buy books from a bricks-and-mortar retailer in the state.

State officials have said the proposal would just level the playing field for those retailers.

Jensen opposes the idea.

"At the same time Governor Doyle is trying to brand Wisconsin as a high-tech haven, he is working overtime to impose high taxes on electronic commerce," Jensen said.

Neal Osten, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said buying an e-book online shouldn't be different from buying a book at a store as far as sales tax is concerned.

"If you are paying taxes in the real world, you should pay taxes downloading from the Internet," he said. "Consumers still owe the sales taxes. But the state is not going to go after the consumer."

Twenty-one states are participating in a streamlined sales and use tax agreement, which asks out-of-state retailers to voluntarily help the states collect sales taxes by providing them with the software to do this and compensation for collecting the taxes, he said.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress to allow states to require out-of-state sellers to collect their sales and use taxes.

Osten said the agreement will soon include Internet downloads as specific definitions are worked out.
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stor...=31226&ntpid=8


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Napster To Offer Free Music In Four Cities
Dinesh C. Sharma

Napster will offer free digital music at select cafes in four U.S. cities this month to promote its new portable subscription service, Napster To Go.

Napster To Go allows customers to move an unlimited number of tracks from Napster's catalog of 1 million songs to any compatible MP3 player, though the songs are playable only as long as the user keeps paying a monthly subscription fee of $14.95. The service was launched in February, as part of Napster's bid to take share away from Apple Comupter's iTunes, the market leader. The free offer will be available at venues in Austin, Texas; Los Angeles; New York; and Nashville, Tenn. The company said it will offer free music along with music players from iRiver, Creative and Dell.
http://news.com.com/Napster+to+offer...3-5603949.html


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Patent revoked

EU Court Decides In Favour Of India On Neem Patent Issue

An appellate authority in Europe has turned down an appeal by US company claiming a patent on 'Neem'.

The authority upheld the May 2000 order of the European Patent Office revoking patent granted earlier to a fungicide derived from Neem to US Trans National Corp W R Grace on a plea by EU Parliament's Green Party, India-based Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

RFSTE Director Vandana Shiva told UNI over phone from Munich, Germany, last night that the authority examined all the evidence and ruled that the patent related to the Indian medicinal tree and its traditional scientific knowledge.

The successful challenge was a result of years of campaigning and legal challenges against patents, she said adding ''We are very happy (with the authority's award).'' RFSTE had petitioned the EPO against the patent granted jointly to the US Department of Agriculture and the US TNC RFSTE had demanded invalidation of the patent among others on the ground that the fungicide qualities of the Neem and its use has been known in India for over 2000 years. The Neem derivatives were also used traditionally to make insect repellents, soaps, cosmetics and contraceptives.

The EPO had agreed that the patent amounted to bio-piracy and that the process for which the patent had been granted had been actually in use in India from time immemorial.

The US TNC had patented neem-based biopesticides, including Neemix for use on food crops. Neemix suppresses insect feeding behaviour and growth in more than 200 species of insects.

An Indian government challenge in the United States led to the revocation of a patent on another Indian plant, turmeric, the medicinal qualities of which have been known for centuries. That challenge was accepted as a result of India showing that the knowledge had been found in the Indian pharmacopoeia.
In the United States, prior existing knowledge to deny a patent was accepted in terms of publication in any journal, but not of knowledge known and available in oral or folk traditions.

This narrow view of prior knowledge have been responsible for any number of patents for processes and products derived from biological material, or their synthesis into purer crystalline forms.

In the United States, neem seeds and their potent insecticidal extract, azadirachtin, have been the subject of continuing biotech research and grant of patents.

The US funds and grants have been made available also for tissue culture of the azadirchtin, to obviate the need for extracting it from the Neem seeds, which are seasonal.

An US Company, AgriDyne had also received two US patents for bioprocessing of neem for bioinsecticidal products.

The first patent was for a refining process using Neem seeds extract that removes fungal contaminants, and was used in the manufacture of technical-grade azadirachtin, and in the production of AgriDyne's neem-based bioinsecticides. The second patent was for a method of producing stable insecticide formulations containing high concentrations of azadirachtin.
http://www.cricbuzz.com/livescore/lv...0dhp05&hc=&mt=


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Court Prohibits Linking to Circumvention Software

A German court has prohibited the German news site Heise to link in an online article to a site were circumvention software was made available. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) complaint that the news article provided information and a link that should be deemed illegal under the anti-circumvention provision of the German Copyright Law. I outlined this complaint in an earlier posting, in which I also mentioned some similarities with the Dutch ZoekMP3.nl case. In that case the linking to a "download site" was not deemed infringing, although a Norwegian court decided the opposite in the Napster.no case.

Now a court in Munich has decided that Heise may not link to a site where the circumvention software is actually made available. While IFPI's much broader demands, which would have made writing likewise articles impossible, were not met, this decision is still a bit troubling. Heise claims a success in this case, because it may still publish (and keep in its archives) articles on circumvention, but one of the essential architectural characteristics of the web is being cut through wit this decision: the hyperlink. You may read about circumvention software, but you may not actually know where to get it. Even if the provider of the link does not actually offer the software on its servers and any search engine will lead you to it. Heise may calim to have gotten a small part of the bigger evil, but it still looks pretty bad to me.
http://constitutionalcode.blogspot.c...inking-to.html


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Think Secret Tries To Get Apple Suit Tossed
Ina Fried

Lawyers for Think Secret publisher Nick Ciarelli are asking a judge to throw out an Apple Computer lawsuit that charges the Mac enthusiast site with violating trade secret law in reporting details about an unreleased audio device. In support of its motion to dismiss, Think Secret has filed statements from journalism professor Thomas Goldstein of the University of California at Berkeley and former San Jose Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor, discussing the First Amendment implications of the case.

The suit is separate from another action, in which Apple is suing the unnamed individuals that have leaked details on several products. In that case, Apple is suing only those that leaked the information, though it is trying to subpoena three sites, including Think Secret, in an effort to learn the leakers' identities. A judge has tentatively ruled on Apple's side in that case, though a final ruling has not been issued.
http://news.com.com/Think+Secret+tri...3-5603237.html


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Yahoo Readies iTunes Rival For Launch
Jim Hu

Web giant Yahoo is poised to launch a new digital store and music player, aiming to compete more directly with Apple Computer's successful iTunes service, according to sources familiar with the project.

As previously reported, Yahoo has been working on the project along with digital-music wholesaler MusicNet since before the $160 million purchase of rival music company Musicmatch. Sources familiar with Yahoo's plans said the new store and software had been scheduled to debut early this week but that the launch date was pushed back.

Representatives from Yahoo and MusicNet declined to comment for this story.

Yahoo's full-fledged entry into the digital-music retail business could help shift a market that has remained tilted strongly in Apple's favor. Yahoo has already built a large and loyal following for its streaming-music and video service, and could parlay that into music sales.

Indeed, the company's Launchcast radio services was the highest-rated Webcasting service online in January, according to ratings firm Arbitron and ComScore Media Metrix, attracting more than 2.2 million people that month.

However, Apple's dominance has been challenged by other giants, ranging from Sony to Microsoft, without substantially decreasing the iPod maker's market share. Last week, Apple said it had sold more than 300 million songs through its iTunes store since its launch.

"You have to look at how to create a linkage between a device and the online service," GartnerG2 analyst Mike McGuire said. "But given Yahoo's traffic and their very active communities, the potential (for success) is there."

Yahoo has begun to streamline its music and multimedia properties over the past few months, changing the name of its Launch site to Yahoo Music and consolidating its entertainment businesses in a Santa Monica, Calif., office near Hollywood.

The new MusicNet-powered music service will be integrated into Yahoo's existing infrastructure, possibly including features such as links to its popular instant-messaging program, sources said. MusicNet's technology allows companies to offer subscription services or per-song downloads, and is used by Virgin Digital, America Online and others.

Sources close to the company said the new service is likely to launch by the end of the month.
http://news.com.com/Yahoo+readies+iT...3-5603157.html


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Court Refuses Request To Freeze Assets Of Kazaa Directors
AP

A court refused Friday to grant a request by the Australian recording industry to force owners of the file- swapping giant Kazaa to disclose their assets pending a decision in a landmark music piracy case.

Australian recording labels are suing Kazaa's owners, accusing the company of contributing to widespread copyright infringements by letting Kazaa users download up to 3 billion files each month, freely exchanging songs, music and television programs without paying royalties.

The recording companies want Kazaa's owners declared liable for copyright breach and loss of earnings. If they are successful, a civil trial to set damages will likely proceed later this year.

Tony Bannon, a lawyer for the recording industry, asked the Federal Court of Australia on Friday to force Kazaa's owners to disclose their assets and to restrain them from selling or transferring those assets.

Bannon said he filed the claim after learning late last month that the chief executive of Altnet, one of the companies the recording industry claims is behind Kazaa, sold half of his multimillion dollar harborside Sydney mansion to his wife last September.

The executive, Kevin Bermeister, and his wife, Beverley, continue to live together in the house, Bannon alleged.

The recording industry also was concerned about reports that Kazaa chief executive Nikki Hemming sold a luxurious mansion to the company's accountant, John Meyers, last month.

The assets of Kazaa's directors ``appear to be disappearing out of the control of the respondents,'' he told the court.

Mary Still, a lawyer representing Sharman Networks Ltd., the company behind Kazaa, said the company and its directors have agreed not to dispose of their assets -- except for daily expenditures -- but were under ``no legal obligation'' to disclose them.

``That only comes about once they (the recording companies) have won these proceedings,'' Still said by telephone. But, she added: ``The record industry has never won this argument anywhere in the world.''

Members of the entertainment industry have already sued file-sharing services in the United States. Two federal courts in California have cleared Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. of liability, but the industry has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sharman is named in a similar suit pending in a lower court.

Analysts say the U.S. cases likely will not affect the Sydney trial, but all the cases share the principle that a software developer is not directly responsible for its users' activities -- just as Xerox cannot be blamed for copying done on its machines.

Kazaa already has one major court victory under its belt, with the Dutch Supreme Court ruling in December 2003 that the network's Netherlands division cannot be held liable for copyright infringement.

The Australian case resumes on March 22.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...l/11049117.htm


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RIAA Hit list

Lone Gungirl Takes Aim From The Grassy Roots
Jack Spratts

“Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it” says the sage of Connecticut, sly humorist Mark Twain. The same might be said of fake files clogging the storm drains of popular peers like KaZaA, Gnutella and WinMx. They seem to be everywhere at once and getting worse by the hour. Users step over, under and around them but can’t seem to slow or halt the surge, or even get a handle on how bad the situation is. Now shooting bytes instead of bullets a determined file-sharer nicknamed me here from the CricketMx forums has set her sights on this rumored industry practice and with the posting of the RIAA’s Hit List, fired a light at the incoming tsunamis of shams swamping legitimate content.

Detailing the process in a recent email this 37 year old nurse and mother of two teens from the Southeastern U.S. explains that after scanning Billboard Hot 100 tunes hosted by multi-users or “flooders,” she zeroes in on those with multiple copies of the same files, disguised with “different spellings, bitrates, and title arrangements” but who tellingly “never download.” me here says that some of these flooders have “3000 files shared, the max for WinMX, and lots of upload slots available only no uploads are going.” With this fresh list of users who have gigabytes of files but who somehow never seem to get any from anyone else on the network it becomes a relatively straight forward if time consuming matter to manually probe for bogus uploaders. Since clicking a bad file results in permanent loops of endless queuing - the absolute bane of file-shares everywhere - verification is a drawn-out process even with judicious use of spot-checking. For someone who “loves WinMX” and its extended worldwide community however, me here feels it’s worth the effort to protect the network, going so far as to call it “an obligation.”

Our lady of the starched whites has a pal and “partner in crime, ‘Quicksilver’ ” who alleges the content industry is using “ ‘custom software that manipulates the [WinMx] protocol. As a side effect of primary flooding, the chat rooms are suffering’ ” as well. On the lookout for volunteers to aid in network defense she observes, “This is really a group of ‘little people’ making the effort to fight the tactics of the RIAA.” As the ranks of phony file-seeders continue to expand it has some users beginning to describe it as the dreaded denial of service attack. The Hit List itself has grown to include many titles outside the Hot 100 and it seems clear the media companies’ questionable tactics are having at least some negative effects at the most widely used peer-to-peer platforms. On the other hand P2P use shows no signs of slowing and if for all the drama they only succeed in galvanizing casual file sharers to counteract the flooding - perhaps with flooding of their own - then the efforts of the international media conglomerates may be counterproductive, particularly if activists start doing whatever they can to insure the RIAA-led members are victims of their own clandestine machinations.

Until now, “leaving town” or finding another network has been the file-sharers’ preferred approach when dealing with fakes, and an abandoned or diminished network was a major score in the RIAA’s win column. Sticking around to start a “shoot out” with the copyright cops was never a serious consideration but if that changes it could turn up the heat in a war that even now refuses to cool.

If average users were to seriously swamp the networks with real files, or as the southern me here politely suggests, “Once you have gotten any of these artists…please share so that we can continue in the great Community” then legalities aside the ground may well shift in favor of the “little people,” with deep repercussions for the copyright cartels. Based on numbers alone it appears the odds overwhelmingly favor the file-sharers, ultimately reminding me of another old saw: “Nobody wins on the negotiating table what they lost on the battlefield.”















Until next week,

- js.














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Jack Spratt's Week In Review is published every Friday. Please submit letters, articles, and press releases in plain text English to jackspratts (at) lycos (dot) com. Include contact info. Submission deadlines are Wednesdays @ 1700 UTC.


"The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public." - Hugo Black