First Music File Sharing Case to Go to Trial May Get Another Day in Court

Last fall we reported on the results of the first suit brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that actually went to trial. In that case a Minnesota woman was ordered to pay $220,000 in restitution – a whopping $9,250 for each of the 24 songs she was accused of sharing. That’s a pretty steep fine for anyone much less a single mother making $36,000 a year. Now the judge in the case has ordered hearings for a new trial. U.S. District Court Judge Michael J. Davis said he has found a 1993 ruling that states infringement requires an actual dissemination of the copyrighted material, not merely making the material available. The “making the songs available for download” has been the center of the RIAA’s arguments, but has recently suffered setbacks in other cases as well.

Woman Indicted in MySpace Bullying Case

A federal grand jury has handed down indictments on four separate charges against a woman accused in a 2006 online bullying case which resulted in the suicide of her 13-year old victim. Lori Drew, from O'Fallon, Missouri, was charged with one count of conspiracy and 3 counts of unauthorized computer access. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison for each charge. According to the indictment, Ms. Drew created a phony account on MySpace under the name Josh Evans and used it to contact the 13-year old girl, Megan Meier, a neighbor and former friend of Drew's daughter. After several weeks of chatting, Megan began receiving nasty messages from the fictitious Josh Evans, the last of which suggested the "world would be a better place" without her. Megan committed suicide by hanging herself at home. The case was investigated by local authorities who failed to bring charges. Federal prosecutors decided to bring charges in California where MySpace and its servers are located. Drew has repeatedly denied creating the fictitious account.

CBS Buys CNET For $1.75 Billion

It would appear that television network CBS has agreed to purchase CNET, the popular tech news and entertainment portal for approximately $1.75bn. With the move CBS aims to significantly increase its online exposure, and will make it one of the big players, with 54 million US users and 200 million worldwide. CNET's portfolio includes sites such as ZDnet, Gamespot and News.com and will be added to CBS owned sites, CBSSports and CBSNews. The deal still has to be approved by regulators and CNET shareholders, though I expect the $11.50 per share offer (45% more than CNET's closing price yesterday) should pass with the latter.

Is Your ISP Throttling BitTorrent?

Recently, Comcast has been the center of attention in many news stories detailing its alleged throttling of legitimate BitTorrent traffic - Steam users, for example, have complained about interference, Comcast's subsequent "deal" with BitTorrent to prevent throttling, and the FCC's investigation into numerous allegations of P2P-related throttling.  As we have learned, Comcast has been less than honest about its activities, and may face serious regulatory penalties.  So, what's an honest BitTorrent user to do?  You can start by finding out whether or not your ISP is throttling your connection by using a neat browser-based BitTorrent emulation app named Glasnost, which currently offers two tests to determine if you're among the affected.  I tried out the "Simple" four minute test, and found out that Comcast is indeed interrupting uploads from my computer, but my download service is fine.  I did not experience any inappropriate content while I was on the Glasnost site.

CONTENT WARNING from Hot Hardware - Several users have reported that links on the Glasnost pages result in popup windows with inappropriate content. Visit these pages at your own risk, and at the very least make sure a popup blocker is active.

Hackers Cause Seizures on Epilepsy Forum

Rarely does one consider hacking to cause physical harm to another human being. Hacking often involves stealing data or taking control over computers or networks, but not in the recent attack on the Epilepsy Foundation's Web site.  This time around, hackers weren't in it for the money.  Instead they decided to post numerous pictures and links to pages with rapidly flashing images to a forum dedicated to epilepsy support, causing several forum members to experience migraines and even seizures. Has hacking finally reached a new low?

Comcast Considering Capping Bandwidth Use

Comcast Corp. is looking at the idea of officially capping the monthly bandwidth used by customers and charge a fee for those who exceed the limit. This revelation comes on the heels of the announcement of Time Warner's plans to test out tiered service plans in Beaumont, Texas. Comcast has long had an unspoken limit on their 'unlimited service' plans and would caution customers who exceeded the limit, and sometimes terminate service for up to one year for those who abused the policy. The problem was this policy was never publicly disclosed and Comcast only vaguely defined it when pressed. This plan would make those limits official and public for the first time. One idea would be to cap usage at 250GB per month and dun users $15 for every 10GB over that limit. While users are used to unlimited service, the term 'unlimited' most often doesn't mean all-you-can eat. Other providers, such as Cox Communications, have limits in place for some time but those limits are generally clearly defined and communicated to subscribers.

Security Firm Finds Treasure Trove of Stolen Data on 'Crimeserver'

Security research firm Finjan announced it had discovered a virtual cornucopia of stolen business and personal data on a server on the Internet. The server had apparently only be active for about three weeks and yet had garnered more than 1.4GB of stolen information including personnel files, social security numbers, credit card and medical records as well as sensitive business information including details of an upcoming court case. Finjan has notified police agencies around the world including the FBI and more than 40 financial institutions in Europe, India and the United States. Researchers were not only amazed at the large amount of data collected in such a short period, but also by the fact that the server itself was not secured and could have been accessed by anyone over the Internet.

Porn Surfing Japanese Government Worker Racks up 780,000 Hits

A Japanese employee of the Kinokawa local government managed to total over 780,000 visits to, how shall we put this, non-work related web sites from his work computer. In all fairness to the individual, whose name has not been disclosed, some sites do register multiple hits per visit according to city officials. Apparently no one at his work place was aware of his extracurricular activities, which were conducted over a period of at least nine months. The worker was tripped up after his computer became infected with a virus, causing a review of is Internet activity. The worker was demoted and received a $190/month pay cut. I bet that will make his hobby a little more difficult to afford. 780,000 visits and he finally got a virus? Not a bad record.

Microsoft Ends Pursuit of Yahoo

Microsoft announced over the weekend it was withdrawing its bid to buy Yahoo. Microsoft had been mulling a hostile bid to acquire Yahoo after its initial offer of $31 per share was rejected by Yahoo. This effectively puts an end to the months long saga that began January 31 when Microsoft originally disclosed its offer to buy the Internet services company. Yahoo all along maintained the offer was too low and that the company was worth more. Microsoft upped the bid to $33 per share during negotiations. Reports indicate Yahoo might have been willing to settle for $37 per share, a price Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, found unacceptable, especially in light of recent moves by Yahoo including a deal it struck with Google for outsourcing advertising. Apparently that type of 'poison pill' defense worked as Ballmer found that arrangement unpalatable. Some analysts are predictable a rash of shareholder lawsuits against Yahoo to start cropping up today.

Proposed Bill Aims to Prevent Corporate/International Internet Censorship

The U.S. government has, in recent years, made no bones about passing laws that on the surface seem to violate Americans' Constitutionally granted freedoms and rights, but a Republican from New Jersey is intent on fixing that image.  U.S. House Representative Chris Smith's proposed Global Online Freedom Act would severely penalize U.S. corporations who infringe upon a person's right to express themselves and their beliefs on the Internet - no matter what that person's country of origin.  The GOFA seems to be a direct response to Yahoo's reprehensible NARC-ing out of a group of Chinese dissidents, and subsequent lying about the extent of their knowledge of the Chinese investigation into the group's activities.  The only major drawbacks to GOFA are an allowance given to the President to waive its powers in the event of national security, and permitting the Dept. of Justice to give up details on individuals at the request of "legitimate International law enforcement" on a case-by-case basis.  This may turn out to be one of those "it's the thought that counts" things, but I think it looks good on paper, for the most part.

Court Deals RIAA Setback in File Sharing Suit

A U.S. District Judge denied a request by the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) for a summary judgment against an Arizona couple accused of illegally sharing music files through the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing service. RIAA asserted the presence of the music files in a shared folder constitutes copyright infringement. The defendant, Jeffery Howell, claims he did not place the music in the shared folder but that it was automatically put there by the system. The judge denied the motion on the grounds that it was unclear whether Howell had put the files in a shared folder and said that, even if he had, making files available does not meet the requirements for copyright infringement or distribution. MedaiaSentry, an agent hired by the RIAA, was able to see the files in the shared folder, but unless someone does actually download the content, there is precedence in other court ruling that this does not necessarily meet the standards for distribution or infringement. While this represents a small victory for the defendants, they still must face a trial sometime later this year.

UK Broadband - BT Finally Begins ADSL2+ Roll Out

BT, the company which controls and maintains the vast majority of the UK phone network, will start offering its wholesale ADSL2+ broadband products to ISPs starting this week. ADSL2+ allows up to 24Mbps download rates, which is considerably faster than most UK ISPs have previously been able to provide. However some ISPs such as Sky, O2 and Be* have already been providing ADSL2+ services for months now, thanks to LLU (local loop unbundling), which places equipment from ISPs in local exchanges. Only around a million homes will able to access the new services, with BT aiming for a potential of 10 million by the spring of 2009. It is also worth noting that ADSL2+ speeds vary greatly depending on how far a customer's home is from their local exchange (as an example, my own connection achieves around 11Mbps from the potential 24Mbps maximum). The quality of existing telephone lines can have an effect on speeds as well, so this is by no means an exact science. BT have previously been criticised for moving slowly when it comes to network upgrades and this step is unlikely to silence those critics.

Myspace Karaoke Anyone? Ear Defenders At The Ready

Ah, karaoke, that ancient (ok not so ancient) Japanese tradition of humiliating yourself in front of friends, relatives and / or work colleagues. If you happen to be a fan of out of tune warbling and butchering of classic songs, you might be interested that the Myspace Karaoke service enters public beta today. It enables Myspace members to sing along with instrumental tracks and then share the results with others. Now doesn't that sound like fun? (What's that angry face you're pulling?). All you need is a microphone to take part and songs can be shared via your profile, bulletins or bookmarks with the ability to store up to ten songs for free. The whole thing is powered by kSolo, an online karaoke service bought by Myspace's parent company a couple of years ago. The public beta is only available in the US at the moment with plans to go international in the future. I for one am hoping it doesn't catch on, if only for the aural health of many.

Radio Free Europe Suffering From DDoS Attack

Radio Free Europe is reporting several of it's web sites are under attack and have been since Saturday. The assault came in the form of a distributed denial of service attack that floods sites with bogus information requests, preventing the sites from responding to legitimate traffic. The attack seems to be primarily affecting the Belarus service, however Radio Free Europe is reporting services to other countries including Russia, Iran, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, among others, are also experiencing difficulties. Radio Free Europe, a private corporation that receives funding from the U.S. government, pointed to the Belarus government as possibly being behind the attacks. The DDoS attack comes on the anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. A similar incident occurred last year but the attack lasted only hours instead of days.

First Spam Message Nears Its 30th Birthday

It was 30 years ago today, now spam has a birthday..... Ouch - major apologies to the Beatles for that introduction. Besides, it isn't today, but May 1 that will mark the 30th anniversary of what is widely recognized as the first spam message ever sent. On May 1, 1978 a marketing rep from Digital Equipment Corporation sent an unsolicited message to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States announcing a product demo of the DECSystem 2020 computer. And the rest, as they say, is history. While the origin of the term 'spam' in reference to unsolicited email remains shrouded in history, the popular belief is that it can be traced back to a Monty Python sketch about Spam, the meat-like food product, and a fad people once had of sending the words to the song to multiple people at once. By the way, did you know that Spam has a purported shelf life of 50 years? 

Defending Net Neutrality With, ummm..., Well, Sex

Sometimes you encounter certain news items that make you scratch your head and say Huh?? While the approach may be a bit unorthodox to say the least, the intentions of the group behind the "Don't Stay a Virgin" web site seem to be sincere. If you're not familiar with the ongoing battle over net neutrality I Power, the group behind this campaign, wants your attention and, as we all know, sex sells. The premise, or should I say 'promise', behind I Power's approach is that one of their members, Tania Derveaux, offers certain intimate services to any virgin who is willing to defend the Internet by supporting net neutrality. Actually her statement is a little more inclusive as she says "every" not "any". Anyway, you can do your own research in the matter and decide where you stand on the issue.

Microsoft Unveils Live Mesh

Microsoft hasn't always been the fastest moving or most innovative company, something which probably applies to developments in web services more than other areas. However, with the Live Mesh service this could be changing and embraces the fact that computing has been moving away from individual entities for a good while now. Live Mesh aims to get all of your devices working together seamlessly so that you never have to worry about having all that personal data with you wherever you need it, as well as sharing it with others. At the moment this is limited to Vista and XP based PCs, but should see the addition of Macs and Mobile phones sometime in the future (hopefully sooner rather than later). The program is still in the tech preview stage at the moment (which also happens to be full of course), but you can learn more about how it will work on the Live Mesh site. If any of you are already trying it out, then we would like to hear from you.

New Potential Defense Against DDoS Attacks

Researchers at the University of Washington have come up with an innovative way to defend servers against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS attacks are generally orchestrated through legions of zombie computers - individual computers that have been compromised and organized into botnets. These networks of computers can then be used to simultaneously send information requests to a target server, overwhelming its ability to respond and subsequently slowing the server's ability to respond to legitimate requests and possibly even causing it to crash. The botnets can even be rented out to extort money from websites. Other recent events, such as the Estonian DDoS attacks, illustrate how they can be used for political purposes as well. The team at the University of Washington have designed a system called Phalanx that turns the tables on attackers by borrowing some of their techniques - specifically using swarms of 'good' computers to protect the host under attack. Instead of requests going directly to the server, each request must first pass through one of the swarm computers known as a 'mailbox'. The mailboxes then pass on the information only when requested by the protected server which allows it to process information at its own pace without becoming overwhelmed. Researchers have tested this approach using a simulated million-bot network attacking a server protected by 7,200 mailbox computers and showed how the server could continue to function even though a majority of its protectors were being attacked simultaneously. One of the research team even postulated on the possibility of incorporating home computers into the defense network in the future.

Apple Stops Pushing Safari on Windows Users

Windows users who use Apple's QuickTime or iTunes software are probably too familiar with the Fruit Company's pesky Software Update program that up until now pushed the Safari 3.1 internet browser on users by default - even those who never had Safari installed in the first place.  Those users can now breathe a sigh of relief, as Apple finally caved under enormous consumer and industry watchdog pressure demanding that their Software Update program clearly differentiate "necessary updates for installed software" from "stuff Apple wants on your computer".  Under the new protocol, Apple's updater will also allow users to turn off automatic updating for software that is no longer installed on their computer - a truly revolutionary feature...  For those still interested, Apple has also updated its Safari browser to version 3.1.1, fixing four potentially dangerous security holes.

PayPal Now Says it Won't Block Safari

PayPal seems to be clarifying its position on blocking unsafe browsers from accessing its payment site. As originally reported on Friday, PayPal had stated it would block browsers it considered unsafe, including any that did not have anti-phishing capabilities and support of Extended Validation certificates. The announcement did not specifically single out any browsers excepting certain older versions of Internet Explorer. Many interpreted this statement to include Apple's Safari browser because it lacks both features. However, now PayPal is either backtracking or clarifying its position by stating it won't block any of the current browsers from accessing its payment services, this time specifically singling out Safari by name. Apparently what PayPal meant was browsers on operating systems no longer supported by vendors such as IE4 under Windows 98. PayPal has not stated when they might switch on the browser blocking features.

Internet to Reach Capacity by 2010?

As our lives continue to revolve more and more around access to online news and entertainment, most of us are oblivious to the possibility that the Internet may soon run out of, well - Internet.  Some analysts predict that our exponentially increasing reliance on, and contributions to, the online world may soon lead to a scenario where 20 typical households will generate as much traffic as the entire Internet as it is today.  Jim Cicconi, VP of Legislative Affairs at AT+T, feels that the Net's infrastructure - which is currently being upgraded and maintained by a group of mostly private companies - will need an additional $130 billion in worldwide improvements by the year 2010 to cope with the forecasted bandwidth demands of ever-increasing high-definition video content and user contributions.  Cicconi estimates that video will account for 80% of all Internet traffic by 2010 - up from 30% today - and that broadband traffic in general will increase 50-fold by 2015.  Many broadband providers - including AT+T - are already upgrading their backbone networks in preparation for the coming onslaught.

PayPal to Block Unsafe Browsers

PayPal has announced its intention to block users from its payment service site if they are using browsers it considers unsafe because of increased phishing attacks against PayPal customers. To be considered 'safe', browsers must have anti-phishing technology embedded and offer support of the new Extended Valuation Secure Socket Layer certificates (EV SSL). In support of the announcement, PayPal said allowing users to continue using browsers without the new security features was akin to car makers allowing buyers to purchase cars without seatbelts. The PayPal spokesman only singled out older versions of IE, but the move could result in excluding Safari browsers completely as well as older versions of Firefox. IE7 supports EV SSL and indicates sites using the new certificates with a green background in the address bar. Both Firefox and Opera have announced intentions to support the new security features in the near future.

The Pirate Bay Pushes IFPI Onto the Plank

The Pirate Bay, popular BitTorrent tracker, is demanding compensation from International Federation of the Phonographic Industry(IFPI). This is due to Pirate Bay being blocked from some customers on a Denmark ISP. This block was put in place last February by the IFPI after a court found the ISP to be assisting in the distribution of copyrighted material by allowing their customers to access The Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde is filing a legal complaint, asking for compensation for the total time the site was blocked in Denmark. Proceeds of this compensation would go to artist who are interested in sharing their music online, The Pirate Bay also stated that unlike the IFPI they will only ask for "a reasonable amount of money." Earlier in the month the IFPI demanded $2.5 million from The Pirate Bay for its aid in the illegal distribution of music, movies and video games.

Twitter to the Rescue

A graduate journalism student at UC Berkeley used his cell phone to send out an SOS via Twitter moments prior to his arrest by Egyptian authorities. The student, James Karl Buck, had been photographing a demonstration as part of a journalism project. As his arrest was imminent Mr. Buck managed to send out a single word: ARRESTED. The message made its way to various cell phones and computers of friends in the U.S. and Egypt who rallied to his defense. His circle of friends contacted the university and the American Embassy who arranged for an attorney who helped spring him. Buck is now safely back in the U.S.

Sewers The Gateway To Superfast UK Broadband?

That is one possibility that may arise from an Ofcom study of the UK's existing ducting network to check its suitability for distributing fibre networks. Britain finds itself in a situation where other European countries are ahead when it comes to fibre roll out, with notable examples being Sweden and France (where three providers already offer speeds of 50-100Mbit/s). It turns out existing infrastructure in place for other utilities such as water and energy could be used to deploy fibre at a much lower cost than if roads had to be dug up. Several companies have already setup such services to offer greatly improved speeds to businesses via the sewer system. If similar programs could be setup for consumers then speeds around ten times what is generally available wouldn't seem such a big leap. Of course, as this is the UK there is plenty of red tape involved. Now I just have to hope someone will do a trial in my area.

US Military Begins Testing Broadband Satellite

The United States military has launched the first of six Wideband Global SatCom satellites, and it is expected to go online for the first time next week, beginning a three month testing period.  Once all six satellites are in orbit and functional, the military expects a 10x boost in data transmission, effectively providing more voice, data, and video capacity than the 10 satellites that they are set to replace.  The full satellite force - built by Boeing - is expected to be fully operational in 2012, and is a joint US/Australian venture, with about 10% of the total bandwidth going to our friends Down Under.  Hopefully, some of that broadband speed will be used to scour eBay for stolen military equipment.  Doh!

Microsoft-Yahoo Saga Continues

With time running out on an ultimatum issued by Microsoft last weekend, Yahoo is still searching for a way to counter the attack or at least to get Microsoft to up its offer. Now, news is leaking out about the potential of News Corp. partnering with Microsoft in some sort of deal in its bid to acquire Yahoo. News corp.'s Fox Interactive is the owner of MySpace. That could potentially make the triad a much more formidable competitor to Google. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Yahoo has announced it plans to test Google search ads and is in talks with Time Warner, parent company of AOL. Reportedly, that deal would generate some sort of Yahoo/AOL combination while also garnering Yahoo a cash infusion from Time Warner. Yahoo then could use that cash to begin buying back its shares in a defensive move against Microsoft. Stay tuned, the music's still playing but the number of chairs is dwindling.

Internet Explorer 8 Security Enhancements Detailed

Personal security has been a hot-button topic in recent years, as we try to fend off onslaughts of identity theft, bank and credit card fraud, and attempts to compromise privacy.  In an effort to preserve and improve the quality of Internet security and privacy, Microsoft has identified three key areas of concern - social engineering, browser vulnerabilities, and attacks on susceptible web servers - and has built into Internet Explorer 8 measures aimed at diffusing the effectiveness of potential threats.  The updated browser - now in the public beta phase - will build on and strengthen the anti-phishing abilities found in IE 7, deepening website analysis, and displaying in the address bar the true domain of a website in boldface - enabling the user to better distinguish a genuine webpage from a fake aimed at stealing passwords, for example.  IE 8 will also automatically enable Data Execution Prevention - DEP - which will severely limit the ability of attack code to compromise a system.  DEP will also act as a sort of "tab firewall" - each tab will be run as its own separate process, and attack code - if launched - will be limited to that particular tab and shut down - preserving the security of the browser as a whole.  Additionally, Active X controls will be installed on a per website basis - users will need to "opt-in" for every website that uses a particular control.  The new opt-in protocol will also eliminate some of those annoying User Account Control balloons, as the Active X control will be installed on a per user - and not global - basis.  Of course, all of these security advancements are worthless in the hands of a lazy user - every individual needs to take an active role in preserving the sanctity of their own security and privacy.

Black Holes on the Internet

NASA scientists may have recently discovered the smallest black hole to date but there are black holes of a different type much closer to home. A research group at the University of Washington have determined there may be reasons why sites can be unreachable because packets along the Internet simply disappear. Using a project called Hubble, doctoral student Ethan Katz-Bassett has been tracking what he calls information black holes. A path between two computer may be present but the information packets get lost somewhere between the two points. To enable users to better visualize the problems, Katz-Bassett has created a map to display areas currently experiencing issues.

Man Sells Pizza.com Domain For $2.6m

By now we all know that meaningful and memorable domain names are worth sizable amounts of money. This has certainly played into the hands of Chris Clark (43) of North Potomac, Maryland who has just sold the pizza.com domain name for a cool $2.6 million. He first bought the domain way back in 1994, thinking it would help him nab a contract for his consulting company with a pizza firm. He then had the foresight to continue paying $20 a year for the name since then, which I would bet he was very glad he did. One of the triggers for the decision to sell was the Vodka.com domain, which garnered a price of $3m back in 2006. Mr Clark has said that the sale will make a considerable difference to his life (a slight understatement maybe?).