The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

Endless summer of DSL discounts
Companies that provide high-speed Internet access over telephone lines are raising the stakes in their battle with cable rivals, turning summer into a season of discounts for many first-time broadband customers. Verizon Communications, SBC Communications and EarthLink have been offering limited rates of $29.95 a month for first-time digital subscriber line (DSL) subscribers, while BellSouth is going even lower to $24.95. In addition, SBC is allowing some existing DSL customers to lower its standard rates of $39.99 to $49.99 a month to the promotional $29.95 rate for a year, according to a customer service representative.
http://news.com.com/2100-1034_3-1023...g=fd_lede2_hed

SCO takes Linux case to Japan
After rattling the technology industry in North America, SCO Group is taking its show on the road this week. A company spokesman confirmed Monday that CEO Darl McBride and other executives were en route to Japan, where they will spend the week explaining the SCO's high-stakes legal battle against Linux to leaders of information technology companies. The Lindon, Utah-based company stunned the tech world earlier this year when it sued IBM, claiming Big Blue violated contracts governing the use of the underlying code for the Unix operating system, which SCO controls and licenses to most big tech firms. SCO claimed that source code underneath the open-source Linux operating system -- of which IBM has been a major supporter -- includes major segments copied from Unix. It eventually revoked IBM's license to use Unix and upped its legal claim to $3 billion.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-1023580.html?tag=fd_top

Microsoft antitrust case takes Linux twist
The Massachusetts attorney general's office is investigating whether Microsoft tried to squash Linux in violation of the consent decree settling the company's landmark antitrust case. Massachusetts, the only state still pursuing antitrust charges against the software maker, said in a court filing that it "is looking at several issues related to potential enforcement of the decree." These include whether Microsoft has retaliated against an unspecified computer maker for promoting Linux and has signed unlawfully restrictive agreements with Internet service providers. The Redmond, Wash., software giant has targeted Linux, an open-source operating system, as a significant challenger to the status of its own proprietary software. A Microsoft representative denied the allegations. "Microsoft's compliance is being closely monitored, and the consent decree is being closely enforced," spokesman Jim Desler said on Monday.
http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-1023497.html?tag=fd_top

Trade group to back P2P efforts
Peer-to-peer companies are jumping on the trade group bandwagon this summer, hoping to counteract entertainment industry efforts to stifle them. Grokster President Wayne Rosso said Monday that he's planning to help launch a trade group in September that will try to convince Congress that peer-to-peer companies can be legitimate ventures. Rosso said the group would work to tell its side of the story and counteract claims by the record industry, which has sought to characterize peer-to-peer networks as havens of piracy and porn. "We're going to join the debate," he said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-1023545.html?tag=fd_top

Start-up streamlines e-mail encryption
A Palo Alto, Calif., start-up has its sights set on making sure that more people encrypt their e-mail. Voltage Security's e-mail encryption system is a slight twist on the current practice of using a combination of security codes -- one publicly available and one privately stored--to encrypt and decrypt messages. Using Voltage's approach, the so-called public key is derived from the sender's e-mail address, eliminating one step in the process, according to the company. "You don't have to go through the process of obtaining a security credential or certificate," said Voltage CEO Sathvik Krishnamurthy. Although the same security level can be reached using existing public key authentication systems, Voltage executives say the simplicity of their software could draw businesses that are interested in more secure e-mail but have been daunted by the work required to put such a system in place.
http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-1023457.html?tag=fd_top

Piracy and peer-to-peer
To thwart peer-to-peer pirates, the Recording Industry Association of America is wielding the clunky but mighty club of the federal court system. The RIAA recently won a court order forcing Verizon Communications to divulge the identity of a Kazaa user suspected of copyright infringement and now says that soon it will sue hundreds of alleged P2P infringers. Ian Clarke and the merry band of programmers who are creating Freenet are taking a different approach: They're betting that technology, not the law, holds the key to the future. They believe that Freenet, a radically decentralized network of file-sharing nodes tied together with strong encryption, will make it possible to share any kind of file with impunity -- and offer superior anonymity in the process. It might even work.
http://news.com.com/2010-1027_3-1023...ml?tag=fd_nc_1

Are Games Good?
Videogames are a hotly debated topic among parents and psychologists. But despite all the noise over the effects that gaming has on behavior, Steve Jones, senior research fellow at Pew Internet & American Life Project, says he has found very little data on the various behaviors of the game players themselves. Jones and his fellow researchers conducted a study of gaming among college students in 2002, the results of which have just been released. Among their findings: 65 percent of students regularly or occasionally play videogames, and more feel good about that than bad. The study surveyed 1,162 college students from 27 colleges and universities across the country and observed how college students interacted with computers at 10 Chicago-area educational institutions.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/934628.asp

The burning question: To rip or not to rip
What's the difference between ripping software and shoplifting? None. Yet millions of us twist the arguments and kid ourselves we are not hardened criminals. Call me prejudiced, but from what I know, I'd say you could well be a criminal. If you're computer-literate enough to be reading this, there's a strong chance you will know how to copy expensive design software from your friends, or download alien-shooting games from the net without paying. And if you know how to, then the chances are you've done it. Am I wrong? Don't worry, I won't tell.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3049966.stm

Virus warning: 'Look at these smutty snaps of Julia Roberts'
Users hoping for a sneaky peek at some candid shots of Hollywood star Julia Roberts in compromising positions are facing disappointment - the email attachment turns out to be a computer virus. Curious smut-seekers are in danger of infecting their machines with the mass-mailing worm MyLife.M, which purports to be a screensaver featuring the Notting Hill star. However, the virus is still carrying a low level warning from most anti-virus vendors and appears to be doing very little damage currently, perhaps because of the lack of originality in terms of infection methods.
http://www.silicon.com/news/500013-500001/1/5023.html

The Organizational Model for Open Source
Programmers contribute to free software and open source projects for many reasons — some for the fun of it, some to improve their skills, others for a paycheck. Many people have wondered why these people give their work away. The truth is that many projects have incorporated in order to protect themselves from individual liability. Since the Free Software Foundation was founded in 1985, a number of new nonprofit foundations have formed, often around specific technologies, to serve the interests of programmers. HBS professor Siobhán O'Mahony discusses her research on foundations formed around three projects: Debian, a complete non-commercial distribution of Linux; the GNU Object Model Environment (GNOME), which is a graphical user interface for Linux-based operating systems; and Apache, a public domain open source Web server.
http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu/p...2&t=technology

Nanotechnology Group to Address Safety Concerns
The NanoBusiness Alliance, a trade group for businesses at work on nanotechnology, plans to announce a new task force today to address health and environmental concerns that could be associated with microscopic nano-scale products. "We haven't seen anything yet that really scared anyone," said Mark Modzelewski, executive director of the group. But, Mr. Modzelewski said, many members of the group had decided, in light of growing speculation about potential dangers posed by nanotechnology, that they wanted a forum for sharing research and developing better public explanations of the issues. Eventually, he said, the group might commission studies at independent institutions like Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology and develop standards for the production or disposal of nanotech products.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/07/bu...partne r=CNET

Bluetooth Hits The Streets
So far, the most interesting use for Bluetooth wireless technology to catch on among consumers has been the wireless hands-free headset for mobile phones. But the potential the technology holds is so much greater than that. The folks at the Bluetooth Special Interest Group are hoping to spread the religion of Bluetooth much further in the coming months, and the place they've chosen to focus on next is in the car. It's the next logical step, says Mike McCamon, the industry group's executive director. "70% of all mobile-phone calls are taken inside the vehicle, so I'd think the most natural place for these car kits would be in your automobile," he says.
http://www.forbes.com/home/2003/07/0...artner=newscom

Security unease as government buys software
Sitting at his laptop computer in a hotel near Toronto one day last October, Gregory Gabrenya was alarmed by what he discovered in the sales-support database of his new employer, Platform Software: the names of more than 30 employees of the United States National Security Agency. The security agency, one of many federal supercomputer users that rely on Platform's software, typically keeps the identities of its employees under tight wraps. Gabrenya, who had just joined Platform as a salesman, found the names on a list of potential customer contacts for Platform's sales team. The discovery crystallized his growing concern that the company was perhaps too lax about the national security needs of its United States government customers, in the military, intelligence and research.
http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-1023414.html?tag=cd_mh

Motorola puts nanotubes in screens
Motorola is researching a new type of large flat-panel display that the company says has the potential to be cheaper than plasma or liquid-crystal display screens. The new screen technology uses carbon nanotubes, which are long, thin strands of specialized carbon molecules. The material is popular with researchers who are investigating its use in everything from optic cabling to antibacteria coatings. The screen, dubbed a "nano emissive display" or NED, is being developed by Motorola Labs, the research arm of the electronics giant. "The technology enables manufacturers to design large flat-panel displays that exceed the image quality characteristics of plasma and LCD screens at a lower cost," according to a statement from the lab.
http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-1023408.html?tag=cd_mh

Web vandals' contest leaves faint trace
Unknown attackers downed the largest recorder of Web site defacements on Sunday, the same day that vandals had been thought to be planning an online graffiti contest. The attack left the security site Zone-H.org mostly inaccessible until late Sunday and the effects of the contest largely in dispute. While some 500 Internet addresses corresponding to defaced Web sites were submitted to Zone-H.org, the intermittent accessibility of the site meant that hundreds, if not thousands, more may have not been recorded. "We'll likely know over the next 36 hours," Roberto Preatoni, founder and editor of Zone-H, wrote Sunday during an Internet chat with CNET News.com. Word of the contest spread quickly late last week after news reports and security company Internet Security Systems publicized the event.
http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-1023295.html?tag=cd_mh

Report criticizes Net wine sale bans
Lifting state laws banning the sale of wine on the Internet could mean savings of up to 21 percent for consumers, particularly if they buy higher-priced varieties, U.S. regulators said Thursday. The report by the Federal Trade Commission concluded that the laws crimp competition and cost wine drinkers money. The wine report is part of a broad FTC review of state regulations that also considers whether they are thwarting online competition. "By allowing interstate direct shipping, states would give consumers the opportunity to save money on their wine purchases, and would let consumers choose from a much greater variety of wines," the FTC said in its report.
http://news.com.com/2100-1019_3-1023251.html?tag=cd_mh

Sharman can't squeeze antitrust claim
Sharman Networks, the company behind the popular Kazaa file-swapping software, cannot pursue a suit accusing record labels and movie studios of antitrust violations, a federal judge has ruled. In the ruling, dated July 2, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson dismissed Sharman's argument that major entertainment companies have colluded to drive potential online rivals out of business, saying the company lacks any standing to make such a claim. Sharman does not provide movies and music online but rather distributes software that allows individuals to swap digital files, the judge said. "Sharman is neither a competitor nor customer in the restrained market, and because its industry is incidental, and not integral, to the alleged anticompetitive scheme," Wilson wrote in the ruling. The entertainment industry last year dragged Sharman into the same kind of legal battle that enveloped and humbled Napster.
http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-1023420.html?tag=cd_mh

Artists Just Wanna Be Free
A new show in town should appeal to art lovers, pranksters and culture jammers alike. Illegal Art, which opened last week at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Artists Gallery, showcases a variety of works that push the restrictions of current trademark and copyright laws. The exhibit is intended to illustrate the limits that such laws impose on artists' freedom of expression, said Carrie McLaren, editor of Stay Free! magazine and the show's organizer. "(The show) is our own little act of civil disobedience," Kembrew McLeod, artist and University of Iowa professor, said at a panel discussion here Thursday night. McLeod holds a patent on the phrase "freedom of expression," and it's framed for the exhibit. McLeod started a magazine called Freedom of Expression.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59501,00.html

Last.fm: Music to Listeners' Ears
In this age of locked-down radio playlists, in which the same songs are played over and over, discovering new music is harder than ever. But a new online radio station out of London is attempting to tackle the problem by automatically tailoring the music it plays to individual listeners' tastes. Last.fm is a streaming radio station with a built-in collaborative filter that attempts to learn its listeners' likes and dislikes. Based on data gathered, the station delivers a personalized radio stream to each of its listeners. Collaborative filtering is a widely used profiling technique found in systems such as Amazon.com's "personalized recommendation" system and the auto-record feature in TiVo's digital video recorders.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59522,00.html

California Ponders Privacy Laws
Consumer and privacy advocates have gathered nearly enough signatures to put one of the nation's toughest financial privacy laws on the ballot next year in California. The California Financial Privacy Act (PDF), which needs a majority vote to pass, would require financial institutions to receive permission from their customers before sharing their sensitive financial information with other companies, affiliates and even other divisions of the same company. That requirement, known as "opt in," is one that the initiative's backers have been unable to pass through the state legislature. The law also would allow California's attorney general and local district attorneys to sue companies to stop illegal information sharing and would double monetary penalties if that sharing leads to identity theft.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,59529,00.html

Bury That CO2, Cool the Globe
Rocks deep below the North Sea or the Ohio River in the United States could become burial grounds for global warming despite opposition from environmentalists who fear a leaky, short-sighted fix. Governments and companies around the world are studying ways to pump greenhouse gases -- created by power stations, oil platforms or steel mills -- into deep, porous rocks where they might be trapped for millions of years and curb a rise in temperatures. The United States signed a charter last week with the European Union's executive Commission and 12 countries including Russia, China, Japan, Canada and Brazil to research the technology in a Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum. But some environmentalists say the idea is costly and like trying to sweep one of the planet's greatest problems under the carpet.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,59540,00.html

Game Sparks Bad Behavior Online
Jeremy Chase admits to shaking down his enemies. His website advertises extortion, hits and prostitution for a hefty fee. Chase is a mob leader -- but only in the virtual world. He is one of hundreds of players who found the path of lawlessness and deviance too irresistible when The Sims Online challenged them to "Be Somebody ... else." The popular commercial game, where thousands of people interact electronically, is turning into a petri dish of antisocial behavior. And that's raising questions about whether limits on conduct should be set in such emerging virtual worlds, even if they are huge adult playpens. "Games give people the opportunity to either do something they've never had the ability to do before or allow them to do the stuff they are too afraid to do in real life," said Chase, an unemployed, self-described computer geek who lives in Sacramento, California.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59539,00.html

Fifth delay puts pressure on Mars rover launch
Time is running out for NASA's second Mars rover to launch after a battery problem caused the mission to be delayed for a fifth time on Sunday. A malfunction with a battery cell in the flight termination system aboard the Delta II rocket carrying the rover caused Sunday's launch to be scrapped. The battery will now be replaced and launch has been rescheduled to either 0235GMT or 0318GMT on Tuesday. NASA has set a deadline of 15 July for the rover to launch or face a postponement of more than a year. Mars and Earth will not be in such close alignment again until November 2004. The agency is also studying the possibility of extending the launch deadline by a couple of days.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993912

Who's Watching You Surf?
Privacy watchdog groups and members of Congress are making grim guesses about how often the FBI peeks into records of U.S. citizens' Internet activity and phone calls. But because the Department of Justice has blocked much of the content of its reports, the watchdogs can't get enough information to draw conclusions. The Justice Department does release the number of surveillance orders approved by a closed court established in 1978 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The FISA court, which has jurisdiction over noncitizen criminal suspects, is composed of 11 federal district judges who rotate duties every seven years. According to the FISA court's own records, spying orders approved by the secret court jumped 30 percent between 2001 and 2002. However, federal and state court orders approving surveillance dropped by 6 percent, say recently released government reports.
http://pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,111451,00.asp

High speed hits the right notes
When thieves broke into her home and stole her lovingly collated music collection – 3,000 CDs and numerous vinyl records – Heidi Heinz was devastated. The collection seemed irreplaceable. Ms Heinz's music tastes are wide ranging, encompassing jazz, R&B, soul, rap, hip hop, blues and house, everything from Billie Holiday to Pink. But when the robbery took place eight years ago, she decided not to start buying the same CDs all over again. The solution to her problem was broadband, which has enabled Ms Heinz to recover her music library. Now, she can download up to 50 albums a week from the internet, in a massive effort to replace her lost collection. Until seven months ago, Ms Heinz used a dial-up internet, then she transferred to broadband. She had been looking at moving to broadband as she had become interested in music-downloading websites and her dial-up connection was too slow to make the practice viable.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/article.../07072003e.php

Small firms battle Internet file-sharing
Next time you try to download the latest pop tunes over the Internet, don't be surprised if you get a message chewing you out as a thief. Chances are, the digital reprimand would be the work of Randy Saaf or Marc Morgenstern, whose small companies belong to a budding cottage industry devoted to thwarting file-sharing and other Internet piracy. Sowers of decoy files and digital detectives, these agents of entertainment and software companies tend to work stealthily, at their clients' behest. Morgenstern, president of Overpeer, said his year-old, 15-employee company in New York fools would-be pirates some 300 million times a month by flooding file-sharing networks with decoys, mostly masquerading as popular songs.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne...s/6248871.htm=

File Swappers to RIAA: Download This!
The Recording Industry Association of America's announcement on June 25 that it will start tracking down and suing users of file-sharing programs has yet to spook people, say developers of these applications. "Forget about it, dude -- even genocidal litigation can't stop file sharers," said Wayne Rosso, president of Grokster, one of several systems that allow users to upload and download files -- many of which are unauthorized MP3 copies of songs published by the RIAA's member companies. Rosso said file-trading activity among Grokster users has increased by 10 percent in the past few days. Morpheus, another file-trading program, has seen similar growth. Maybe MP3 downloaders are interpreting the recording industry's threat -- an escalation from its earlier strategy of targeting file-sharing developers -- as a sort of "last call" announcement.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?nav=hptoc_tn

More news later on

[ab-NORM-al]

thank you for the news, Sir!


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