The Newspaper Shop -- Thursday edition

[walktalker]

Watch out for snooping spam
Watch out -- the spam choking your e-mail in-box may be loaded with software that lets marketers track your moves online, and you may not even be aware that you've been bugged. Web sites have long planted bits of code called "cookies" on consumers' hard drives to tailor Internet pages for returning visitors and better target ads. Now, enhanced messages that share the look and feel of Web pages are being used to deliver the same bits of code through e-mail, in many cases without regard for safeguards that have been developed to protect consumer privacy on the Web.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-876183.html

Watchdog: FCC plan a 'threat' to the Net
The Federal Communications Commission wants to weaken regulations meant to create competition between high-speed ISPs, some of the largest consumers groups in the country said Thursday. The Consumer Federation of America, the Consumers Union and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) plan to file objections Friday with the FCC, according to Jeff Chester, CDD executive director. The FCC requires that companies allow access to telephone lines and provide room in central switching offices for rivals that want to offer DSL (digital subscriber line) services.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-876474.html

Brilliant CEO: Nothing to worry about
Kevin Bermeister's Brilliant Digital Entertainment has become a household name in Internet circles almost overnight. But the company's chief executive didn't plan on it happening so quickly. Brilliant, a small, California-based software company, has sold 3D advertising and modeling software for several years. But Monday, the company revealed that it had entered a more ambitious business, called Altnet, aimed at distributing content online using peer-to-peer technology.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-875711.html

DivX plots course to block pirates
Video compression provider DivXNetworks has teamed with the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics to develop a system to protect digital video and audio from copyright violations. Under a deal announced Wednesday, the companies said they would work together to create a digital watermark system. Watermarking technology places a unique bit of code into a video or audio file, making the file difficult to copy or play without permission from copyright holders.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-876318.html

Can AIM enchant strangers on the Net?
America Online has struck a deal with a developer that could turn Web sites into vast instant messaging playgrounds, the companies said Thursday. Alexandria, Va.-based PresenceWorks will use its "presence technology" to embed AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) capabilities into Web sites. For example, putting the technology on Monster.com, a job search Web site, would allow job seekers to chat with potential employers who could leave their AIM contact information on the site.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-875829.html

Terrorized by file swappers
As the chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America, he talks in apocalyptic terms unmatched by lesser peers. Belying his genteel drawl, his pronouncements are the equivalents of celluloid fireballs, warning of catastrophe for the industry. A former aide to U.S. Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, he joined the movie industry's trade association in 1966 and has led the group ever since, turning it into one of the most powerful forces on Capitol Hill.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-875420.html

Microsoft: AOL trying to take over Net
A Microsoft attorney sparred with an America Online executive in court on Thursday, each accusing the other of plotting to dominate the Internet. Microsoft attorney Richard Pepperman tried to deflect charges by AOL executive John Borthwick that Microsoft could use its new .Net strategy to perpetuate its Windows operating system monopoly and boost its Internet presence. Borthwick, in charge of AOL's Advanced Services division, is the 11th witness called by the nine states that have rejected the antitrust settlement reached in November by Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-876122.html

Judges iffy about library filtering law
A trial to determine how far the government can go to protect children from pornography ended Thursday with judges openly concerned about whether the latest online smut law from Congress infringes on free-speech rights. The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which supporters view as the government's best shot yet at reining in online smut, requires public libraries to install filtering software on all computers or lose federal technology funding.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-876406.html

Disney wins round in movie-trailer case
In a move that could limit companies' ability to show film clips online, a judge has ordered a movie-trailer distributor to stop selling online previews of popular Walt Disney hits. Saying Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment unit is likely to prevail in its case, Judge Jerome Simandle of the U.S. District Court in New Jersey last week told Video Pipeline to stop streaming clips and creating online previews from Disney's copyrighted works pending a trial.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-876267.html

Free speech and the Internet; a fish story
This is a legal thriller set in a fishbowl. It's the story of a multi-million dollar lawsuit that has transformed a sleepy online community of aquatic plant gardeners into a hotbed of accusations of libel, conspiracy, defamation, computer hacking, infringement on freedom of speech and even death threats. The plaintiff in the case of Robert Novak vs. APD List Members, filed last May in a federal court in New York, seeks damages of more than $15 million. The FBI has even been notified, although there is no public evidence to date that it is conducting an investigation.
http://salon.com/tech/feature/2002/0...nts/index.html

Microsoft preps content locks for devices
Microsoft is preparing an upgrade to its anti-piracy technology aimed at bridging the gap that continues to separate online music subscription services and portable devices such as MP3 players. Code-named Mercury, the upgrade will add features to the company's Windows Media digital rights management software that sits on handhelds, MP3 players and similar gadgets. The company has had a version of the software available for portable devices since 1999, but that version has had fewer features than technology Microsoft produces for PCs.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-876449.html?tag=cd_mh

Dion disc could bring PCs to a standstill
It's not hard to believe that the voice of Canadian diva Celine Dion might shatter glass -- but will it crash your computer? That's the word from Sony Music Entertainment, the owner of Dion label Epic/Sony, which released a copy-protected version of her new album, "A New Day has Come," in Europe. The discs -- Sony doesn't call them CDs -- include a label warning consumers that they aren't meant to be used with either PCs or Macs. That said, people who insert them into their computer drives may run into problems, a Sony representative said Thursday.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-876055.html?tag=cd_mh

Labels accuse Technicolor of piracy
A recording industry trade group said Thursday that it has sued Technicolor, one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of music and video programming, for allegedly producing pirated CDs of major artists. In its complaint, the Recording Industry Association of America alleges that Technicolor's plant in Camarillo, Calif., has knowingly copied and distributed pirated CDs from artists such as 'NSync, the Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, Will Smith, Amber, Lauryn Hill, Marc Anthony and Julio Iglesias.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-875803.html?tag=cd_mh

NetRadio Gives Up The Ghost, Liquidates Assets
NetRadio was among the first online-only radio stations, and at one time it was among the most popular. The company reported more than 2.5 million unique listeners had accessed music and information through its 125 separate online radio stations during March 2000. Jupiter Media Metrix entertainment analyst Aram Sinnreich said the company never failed to deliver the goods to its audience. It folded, he said, because its revenue plans – based on a combination of advertising and CD sales on the site – never panned out.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175671.html

'Rent-A-Hacker' Site Says It Offers Cracking For Hire
A group of Chicago Web site operators say they will break into school, government and corporate computers and alter records, for fees starting at $850. But at least one security expert thinks the operation probably is a scam. Among the services promised by Chicago-based 69 Hacking Services, is changing "bad grades" and other records on elementary, high school or college computer systems. The site is co-owned by a 23-year-old identifying himself as Akbar "Andy" Hooda.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175667.html

Sentencing commission considers hackers' motives
The courts may one day treat recreational hackers with a gentler justice than malicious intruders and cyber thieves, depending on the results of a study being spearheaded by a member of the government commission responsible for setting federal sentences. Since 11 September and the passing of the USA Patriot Act into law, hackers have been lumped into an homogeneous and enigmatic category of evildoers, along with terrorists, drug dealers, and arms smugglers. The act provides for a maximum of ten years in jail for first time computer criminals, and the definitions of these crimes are vague at best.
http://www.theregus.com/content/55/24546.html

Anti-Unix site returns - on MySQL?
The Microsoft/Unisys promotional site wehavethewayout.com, which has added so much gaiety to our lives in recent days, has returned. In its place is a sober page inviting users to download some white papers, submit their contact information or join Unisys' eCommunity pages. On Unisys' site you can still see some of the painting imagery in teaser ads about the site.
http://www.theregus.com/content/53/24539.html

lol later on

[mozart]

Originally posted by walktalker
Watch out for snooping spam
Watch out -- the spam choking your e-mail in-box may be loaded with software that lets marketers track your moves online, and you may not even be aware that you've been bugged. Web sites have long planted bits of code called "cookies" on consumers' hard drives to tailor Internet pages for returning visitors and better target ads. Now, enhanced messages that share the look and feel of Web pages are being used to deliver the same bits of code through e-mail, in many cases without regard for safeguards that have been developed to protect consumer privacy on the Web.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-876183.html

By way of a precis, this is basically just another 'use html email to bypass privacy' technique, fairly minor in this case, and (in general) seems to have long been known (2 years, at least).

I'm curious - does anyone still (or ever did?) accept html email?

[assorted]

Originally posted by walktalker


Free speech and the Internet; a fish story
This is a legal thriller set in a fishbowl. It's the story of a multi-million dollar lawsuit that has transformed a sleepy online community of aquatic plant gardeners into a hotbed of accusations of libel, conspiracy, defamation, computer hacking, infringement on freedom of speech and even death threats. The plaintiff in the case of Robert Novak vs. APD List Members, filed last May in a federal court in New York, seeks damages of more than $15 million. The FBI has even been notified, although there is no public evidence to date that it is conducting an investigation.
http://salon.com/tech/feature/2002/0...nts/index.html

This story made me furious. But it becomes an issue of how much energy I want to expend on stuff that makes me furious.