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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 06 Issue 27
Volume 6, Issue 27 Atari Online News, Etc. July 2, 2004
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2004
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Kevin Savetz
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0627 07/02/04
~ Outfoxing The Phishers ~ People Are Talking! ~ Make-A-Wish Game!
~ New OS X Is Previewed! ~ ISPs Win Downloads Case ~ Massachusetts Wins
~ E-Mail Privacy Limited ~ Scob After Financials! ~ COPS Sources Out!
~ MS Settles With Mass.! ~ iMac Delayed Until Fall ~ Slocum's Music CD!
-* EU Gives Microsoft Reprieve! *-
-* Microsoft Settles Arizona Lawsuit! *-
-* Supreme Court Bars Web Porn Law Enforcement *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, it's been another great week here in New England. Comfortable
temperatures (and no humidity!) during the day, a few rain showers at night.
I played in a golf tournament on Thursday, and we ran into a few typical
summer thunder, rain, and lightning bursts near the end of the round. We
finished out the round despite the concerns of one of our foursome! We fell
one place out of the money. It's good to be able to get out on the course
more than I usually do.
Today starts the beginning of another two-week vacation; and this time my
wife will be off as well. We have a few plans, and will definitely get in
some rest and relaxation! I think that we're both overdue, my wife more
than me. This weekend also marks the beginning of a long holiday weekend
here in the States, July 4th, and is marked by the following Monday as a
legal holiday (yes, we're strange with regard to holidays here in the
U.S.!). So, please be safe out there this weekend. Watch out for fireworks
and drinking! We should be pretty safe around here as our annual block
party is celebrated this weekend. Stay at home and party! Enjoy the 4th,
however you plan to celebrate.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
COPS and NEWSie Sources Complemented
In the initial release of COPS sources, there was an entire directory
missing. Those missing files are now available for download on TOPP.
(Thanks to Sascha and Wilfried!) But that is not all: Recently, FreeMiNT
maintainer Frank Naumann has put some efforts into adapting the COPS
sources to be compatible to GCC and has now succeeded in compiling stable
and useable binaries! Knowing that, it might not come as a shock to find
out that the sources has been added to the FreeMiNT CVS and can now be
maintained by MiNT developers. In other words: -COPS is back! :)
Over to NEWSie. As the previously released sources to v0.96 was not the
most recent ones, John has now sent us the files for the 0.961 version.
NEWSie still has no new maintainer, but GFA guru Lonny Pursell has set out
to squash a few of the most infamous NEWSie bugs in the near future.
Both applications are released under GPL.
http://topp.atari-users.net/
Paul Slocum Releases Music CD
Tree Wave, a two piece band from Texas that makes pop songs using obsolete
computer and video game equipment as instruments, has released their first
music CD, Cabana EP+. Paul Slocum, creator of the Atari 2600 Synthcart and
Testcart, codes the music primarily on an Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Compaq
286, and Epson dot matrix printer, and Lauren Gray adds lush vocals. You
can listen to two of the Cabana EP+ tracks as well as purchase the CD in
the AtariAge Store (www.atariage.com/store), and can visit the Tree Wave
web site (treewave.com) to learn more about the band.
http://www.atariage.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=285
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. This is going to be a 'down and dirty'
column this week. I am, quite simply, exhausted. My company is getting
ready to shut down for vacation and the extra work would seem to be more
than the work required to just go on with business as usual.
But does anyone ever ask me? Nooooo. <grin>
The one thing (apart from reminding you to register to vote) I want to
mention is that The Forth of July is upon us. There's sure to be much
merriment and libation, so be responsible on as many levels as you can
manage. Hey, I like a few beers here and there as much as the next guy,
but too often we lose track of our limits.
And even if you stay stone-cold sober, remember: The other guy might not
be as conscientious.
You know, I think that's (another) wide-spread problem today... we've
forgotten how to put ourselves in the other guy's place. And not just
where drinking and having a good time is concerned either.
We're so tied up in our own lives these days that it's easy for us to
forget that everyone else has the same problems as we do. Perhaps it's
just part of our 'big purple dinosaur' philosophy or a cumulative
genetic breakdown or maybe even damage from cosmic rays getting through
the ever-thinning ozone layer, but there's very little doubt about it...
we're more self-absorbed as a whole than any that have come before us.
And I guess that does, indeed make us.... special. How about that?
<Grin>
Well, let's get to the news, hints, tips and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
'Rich' asks for help in converting ST documents into PC format:
"This must have been done by someone - but there are no available posts
here to read. Has someone got a program or a Link to a program that will
allow my PC to read and convert WORD PLUS FILES created on my ST, please?
I have managed to copy my discs into my PC but cannot get it to read then
convert them to a Word document, for example."
David Bolt tells Rich:
"Others have suggested converting the files into RTF format and importing
those. After a very quick hunt, I've found a Word+ to RTF convertor that
should run under Windows, using a DOS prompt, at:
<URL:http://www.funet.fi/pub/atari/util/wpls2rtf.zip> "
John Clark agrees:
"Use Word+ to save them as .RTF files. The PC can then read them."
Peter West points out the flaw in that line of thought:
"First Word+ can't save as RTF - at least the Atari version can't -
only WordPlus DOC and ASCII. I presume Rich no longer has an Atari
or 1Word+ - if he has, then saving as ASCII will allow Word to
read them; or run an Atari emulator - provided he still has the WP
program disk.
If not, use an ASCII editor (?Notepad?), remove the header down to
and including the ruler, then multiple search and replace: Replace
ASCII 028, 029 and 030 with a space, and all Esc ? combinations
(where '?' is a wildcard) with nothing (these are style and
end-of-page commands etc). You will be left with pure text. You
could with a little more work retain any styles by converting the
Esc combinations to e-mail style attributes: Esc+129 (umlaut-u) =
Bold on (mark *), Esc+130 (e-accent acute) = Light on (mark ~),
Esc+132 (umlaut-a) = Italic (mark /), Esc+136 (e-circumflex) =
Underlined on (mark _), Esc+176 (a-tilde) = Superscript (mark say
+), Esc+160 (a-acute) = Subscript (mark say -). Esc+128 (C-tilde)
switches each style off again (place same marker as for switching
attribute on); it also marks formfeeds. Combinations are also
possible - there is a good discussion about this in the IdeaList
documentation.
Then in Word you can convert the e-mail style attributes back to
what they should be. Longwinded, but doable."
John tells Peter:
"Sorry it was so long ago that I used First Word+. I moved on to
Calligrapher, which exported as .RTF. That was the way I got my ST to
talk to the PC, via Word, at work."
Jim DeClercq adds:
"If you are using a mumble mumble PC, get the program Ultra Edit, which is
shareware, and pay Ian Mead (?) his $30 USD for it. It is a programmers
and general purpose editor, and you can use it to take the ruler line off
of Word Plus files so another program can read it, and also excise any
other characters a PC program cannot handle. Yes, Notepad will do it, but
Ultra Edit will do it better.
If using an Atari emulator, Edith is freeware, I think. I have a
registered copy. And Edith will do search and replace, fast and well.
Or, get something much better than Word, IMHO, which is Tempus-Word."
Joseph Place asks:
"Anyone ever use 800XL Deejay with a Falcon? I think it may require
using the lan port? The serial port is not working. The DOC is in
German, so I haven't been able to figure it out."
Edward Baiz tells Joseph:
"I use 800XLDJ with my Hades and it works great. I use the Modem 1
port on my Hades. You should be able to do the same for the Falcon
and the STe. If you need any DI image files, email me. I have a
lot that I will soon be putting on CD. I am still in the process
of making more files for the program."
Joseph replies:
"It works fine on my STe, but I can't get it to work on my Falcon.
The program runs, but I can't get any transfers going. As far as I
can tell from translating the DOCs it looks like some hardware mods
are required to use the Falcon. I gave up and went back to the STe."
Mark Bedingfield asks Joseph:
"Have you tried using HSmodem? The patches you are referring to, are
probably the above patch. It fixes some compatibility issues. I am pretty
sure it is possible to make the Falcon's modem port appear the same as the
ST's, but I have forgotten what the patch for that is. I would doubt you
would need a hardware mod of any kind."
Joseph tells Mark:
"Yes, I'm using HSmodem7. I also tried the serial.cpx to try to
direct to the serial port, but transfers still do not work."
Jason Davey asks about swapping Falcon TOS ROMs:
"I am looking at purchasing a Falcon which currently has German TOS ROMs
installed. I want UK English ROMs, where could I get them?"
Derryck Croker tells Jason:
"I suppose you might get the ROM from Atari Workshop, but alternatively you
could consider installing Magic which would give you effectively an English
machine?
Hmm, what about physical keyboard keys, are they the same for UK and German
machines?"
Matthias Arndt tells Derryck:
"Yes - electronically completely the same except for the sticker with the
symbol on. You could simply take an old english keyboard from a 1040 or the
like - should work in Falcon as well if you need english stickers on top of
the keys.
The meaning of each key is software configurable."
Derryck tells Matthias:
"I also forgot that the OS is multi-lingual too!"
'BeeBee' tells Derryck:
"That 's true! But, something is wrong! You aren't obliged to have cpx
to change nvram! Software, on floppy can do the job:)
And another point wrong too! If, you burn your rom! It's because you have
the kit electronic to do the job! So if something don't run! just erase and
burn again!
Not all the tos 4.** have this possibility! You need to see a little window
under the paper. To erase you need uv lamp.... You need to unplug the
chip.....
It's completely different with eeprom! You don't need special electronic
installation! For ct60 centronic adaptor and special soft is require,
that all!
It's all the difference for this point between the ct2 and ct60!
It's true today for agp&pci graphic cards! Sometime the same card is sold
with rom or eeprom! It's one point to do choice today!
And the last point, if a hack exist to put magicC on rom, it's for fun!
I suppose, the concept or do the right job! I never test myself!
Of, course, it's a little part of magicC! it's the thin boot:-) for directly
boot magicC!"
Well folks, that's it for this week. Have a happy, healthy, and safe July
Forth celebration. Please, please, please don't drink and drive... the life
you save may be mine! 'Till next week, keep your ears open and listen to
what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - 'Riddick' Revels in Violence, Death!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Former Cancer Patient Debuts Game!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
'Riddick' Revels in Butchery, Profanity
In the flourishing forest of computerized adventures, game developers are
always looking for something new to make their product stand out.
The folks behind "The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay" have
come up with three elements that immediately grab your attention: shadows,
swearing and smokes.
Now, those are not necessarily good things, but I'll get to that in a
second.
"Butcher Bay" is an extremely violent game that has been designed as a
prequel to the Vin Diesel science fiction movies "Chronicles of Riddick"
released in early June, and the first Riddick movie, "Pitch Black" (2000).
In this game - $50 for Xbox - Diesel lends his distinctive voice to Richard
B. Riddick, the baddest of the bad guys ever to enter a Butcher Bay prison
cell.
I was only planning to play it for a few hours as part of a wrapup of
movie-related games due out this summer. But, frankly, once I started, I
found it difficult to stop.
The game opens with Riddick in custody and about to land on the prison
planet. As a harbinger of the violence to come, your first task is to snap
the neck of your captor. The game gives you two ways to do that - quick and
silent, or slow and noisy.
Then you have to enter the prison, take out guards, move through air vents,
find some heavy weaponry, perform hand-to-hand combat, learn to use the
shadows to your advantage, and figure out how to operate the automated
health rejuvenator, which seems to have been inspired by the Borg in Star
Trek.
The first level of the game turns out to be a dream sequence. Then the
adventure begins in earnest, as Riddick is taken to his cell and given a
few brutal lessons in prison politics.
"Butcher Bay" is not big on firepower, at least on the early levels I
played. One of the joys of this game is being rewarded for sneaking up on
your opponents. You can also pummel opponents into oblivion, or drop down
on them from aerial walkways.
To avoid discovery, the game lets you grab dead opponents and drag them
into the shadows. When you drop into stealth mode you can't be seen and the
screen turns blue, a helpful feature.
The prison itself is a truly hideous place, reminiscent of "The Suffering"
- another prison-based game. Blood spatters the walls. In the infirmary,
guards beat prisoners who complain they've waited a long time to see the
doctor. Hygiene is a hollow promise.
One element of the game I found incredibly distracting was - of all
things - Riddick's shadow.
Shadows are elements that make a game look realistic. But in "Butcher Bay,"
they are maddeningly wrong. Instead of being gray with diffuse edges, as
they are in most real-life situations, they're sharp, pitch black, and
sometimes misaligned. To make matters worse, they get more screen time than
Riddick himself.
It's a surprising deficiency in a game that uses some hotshot programing
tools to make the graphics unusually realistic, eliminating a lot of the
sharp edges that, in lesser games, make hands and other body parts appear
blocky.
As for the swearing, when you have a game set on a prison planet with some
of the toughest inmates in the galaxy, you've got to expect foul language.
I can spew profanity with the best of them, but even I was taken aback by
all the obscenities, and that was just in the narration for the training
video - never mind the actual game itself. It's as if the developers are
trying to show what tough guys they are.
Needless to say, the game's "Mature" rating is well deserved.
As for the smokes, I can't recall ever seeing a game that uses cigarettes
as a reward. Each pack, with brand names like Voodoo ("Give in to the
magic"), unlocks a piece of artwork or a stillframe from the new Riddick
movie.
Anti-smoking advocates have long complained about the way the entertainment
industry tries to make tobacco seem cool. This game is a perfect example of
that, especially when it appears to mock cigarette warning labels. (One
brand advises: "Do not feed to children.")
I wonder if the developers would be just as willing to encourage players to
collect packets of heroin to get access to bonus features. But maybe I
shouldn't be giving them ideas.
On the other hand, this game revels in violence and death. So what's a slow
deadly addiction compared with a quick snap of the vertebrae?
Former Cancer Patient Debuts Video Game
Ben Duskin has helped turn fighting cancer into a game. When the 9-year-old
former leukemia patient was asked if he had an unrequited wish by the
Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ben requested a video game be made that fellow
cancer sufferers could play to take their mind of the painful side effects
of chemotherapy.
"I really like video games," Duskin said Tuesday. "And I wanted to do
something special, something more than going on a Disney cruise and stuff
like that."
Enter Eric Johnston, a software engineer for LucasArts who helped create
such games as "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "Loom" and "The Secret
of Monkey Island."
Johnston agreed to volunteer his time to help Ben achieve his wish.
Johnston persuaded his bosses to donate LucasArts facilities after hours
and met with Ben once a week for six months as they developed "Ben's Game."
The game's central character, modeled after Ben, zooms around the screen on
a skateboard, zapping mutated cells and collecting seven shields to protect
against common side effects of chemotherapy, which include nausea, hair
loss and fevers.
"We spent a long time discussing what he wanted this game to look like,"
Johnston said at the game's unveiling at the University of California, San
Francisco Pediatric Treatment Center. "This is his game."
Duskin's leukemia is in remission and he is on summer break between fourth
and fifth grades. UCSF officials said "Ben's Game" is now a staple in the
children's chemotherapy ward.
"I feel really good in my heart that lots of people are playing it," Ben
said.
The game can also be downloaded for free at http://www.makewish.org/ben
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Supreme Court Bars Enforcement of Internet Porn Law
A closely divided U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday barred enforcement of a
federal law designed to keep Internet pornography away from children
because it likely violates constitutional free-speech rights.
The 5-4 ruling, however, does not resolve the constitutional question in a
case pitting free speech against efforts by the U.S. Congress to protect
minors from online pornography.
The court majority sent the case back to a federal judge in Philadelphia
for a trial to consider changes in technology and law since the 1998
adoption of the Child Online Protection Act. The ruling gave the government
another chance to show the law does not impose an unconstitutional burden.
The ruling marked the second time the court has considered the 1998 law,
but failed to issue a definitive ruling on it.
The law in question requires that Web site operators use credit cards or
adult access codes and personal identification numbers to keep minors from
seeing harmful pornography. Violators face up to six months in prison and
fines of as much as $50,000 a day.
Justice Anthony Kennedy in the majority opinion upheld an injunction that
has blocked the U.S. Justice Department from enforcing the law and from
bringing any criminal cases.
Kennedy said a trial can decide whether blocking and filtering software
would be a less restrictive alternative to the law. Such software would
likely be a more effective way to restrict access by children to harmful
material.
He said the factual record developed in the case had been gathered by the
judge in 1999 and that Internet technology and the legal landscape had
changed.
Kennedy also said a congressionally appointed commission has concluded
filters are more effective than the verification screens required by the
law.
The Supreme Court last year upheld a law that requires content filters in
libraries that pay for Internet access with government funds.
Kennedy said Congress adopted two other laws that might qualify as less
restrictive alternatives to the 1998 one. One prohibits misleading domain
names and the other creates a "Dot Kids" domain that would be safe for
minors, he said.
Thirteen Web sites have set up child-friendly domains in the .kids.us
Internet domain since it was set up in September 2003.
The government also can still enforce existing obscenity laws, Kennedy
said.
Ann Beeson of the American Civil Liberties Union, which was among those
challenging the law, urged Attorney General John Ashcroft to stop defending
it.
"If he insists on going back to trial, we are confident that the lower
court will again find that the law went too far," she said.
Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo expressed concern the court "yet
again opposed these common-sense measures to protect America's children."
"The department will continue to work to defend children from the dangerous
predators who lurk in the dark shadows of the World Wide Web," he said in a
statement.
One of the law's sponsors said he would ask the Justice Department to mount
an aggressive case.
"Larry Flynt can't set up in front of a news store handing out free copies
of Hustler to minors, and the operators of pornographic Web sites shouldn't
be allowed to entice a kid with a teaser page," Ohio Republican Rep.
Michael Oxley said.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin
Scalia and Stephen Breyer dissented. They said they would uphold the law as
constitutional.
"The court's decision removes an important weapon from the prosecutorial
arsenal," Breyer said.
ISPs Win Canadian Music Downloading Case
Canada's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Internet service providers do
not have to pay royalties to composers and artists for music downloaded by
Web customers.
Companies providing wide access to the Web are merely "intermediaries" who
are not bound by Canadian copyright legislation, the court said in a 9-0
ruling.
At issue was an effort by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music
Publishers of Canada, or SOCAN, to force Internet service providers to pay
a tariff.
SOCAN also wanted to extend Canadian copyright law beyond the country's
borders and apply it to offshore Web sites that serve Canadians.
Opposing the effort was the Canadian Association of Internet Providers,
including the Canadian subsidiaries of some of the world's high-tech
giants, like Sprint Corp., America Online Inc., MCI, IBM Corp. and Yahoo!
Inc.
The service providers argued that artists should seek royalties directly
from Web sites offering their work, not from companies providing
wider-ranging access to the Web.
The case was closely watched abroad because of the international
implications for the computer and music industries. The music industry says
it has lost billions of dollars in revenue in recent years as people
shunned traditional stores and downloaded music from the Internet.
SOCAN's effort contrasted with the legal route taken by the recording
industry in the United States, where the usual tactic has been to sue
individual file-sharing services and customers who download music.
The Recording Industry Association of America has launched about 2,000
lawsuits against file swappers since last year. The RIAA has settled
hundreds of those cases, generally for a few thousand dollars each.
The attempt to collect instead from service providers was significant
because they provide an easier target for litigation than tracking down a
myriad of individual Web sites and customers.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association lost a Federal Court challenge
in March to force five Internet service providers, including Bell Canada,
Rogers Cable and Shaw Communications, to hand over the names and addresses
of 29 people who allegedly shared hundreds of songs with others in November
and December.
The recording industry association wanted the names of subscribers who are
currently identifiable only through a numeric Internet address and user
handles. The association could not begin civil litigation until the alleged
offenders were identified.
Court Limits Privacy Of E-Mail Messages
A company that provides e-mail service has the right to copy and read any
message bound for its customers, a federal appeals court panel has ruled
in a decision that could expand e-mail monitoring by businesses and the
government.
The 2-to-1 decision by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st
Circuit in Massachusetts alarmed privacy advocates, who said it torpedoes
any notion that e-mail enjoys the same protections as telephone
conversations, or letters when they are sorted by mail carriers.
The court ruled that because e-mail is stored, even momentarily, in
computers before it is routed to recipients, it is not subject to laws that
apply to eavesdropping of telephone calls, which are continuously in
transit. As a result, the majority said, companies or employers that own
the computers are free to intercept messages before they are received by
customers.
"This puts all of our electronic communication in jeopardy if this decision
isn't reversed." said Jerry Berman, head of the Center for Democracy and
Technology, a public interest policy group.
Peter B. Swire, an Ohio State University law professor who was a privacy
adviser in the Clinton administration, said the ruling means that an e-mail
provider "can intercept all your e-mail with impunity, and can read them
and use them for its own business purposes."
Large companies that dominate e-mail services were quick to disclaim any
desire to read their customers' e-mail. America Online, Microsoft Corp.,
EarthLink Inc., Comcast Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have policies governing their
terms of service that generally state that they do not read customers' mail
or disclose personal information unless required by law enforcement
agencies.
"AOL does not monitor or intercept member communications, in accordance
with AOL's privacy policy and terms of service," said Nicholas J. Graham,
a company spokesman.
EarthLink spokeswoman Carla Shaw said the company does not "retain copies
of e-mails, and we don't read individual e-mails."
But a small online company that sold out-of-print book lists did just that,
sparking the case decided Tuesday by the appeals court. The now-defunct
firm, Interloc Inc., also provided e-mail service to its members.
In January 1998, according to prosecutors, an Interloc vice president,
Bradford C. Councilman, directed the firm's engineers to make copies of all
incoming mail to its members from Amazon.com Inc., which also sells books.
The government charged that the company, which was later acquired by a
California firm, wanted to get an idea of Amazon's book-selling strategy.
Prosecutors charged Councilman with gathering thousands of messages in
violation of laws governing interception of wire, oral or electronic
communications.
Councilman appealed, claiming that laws prohibiting interception did not
apply because the messages were stored as a part of delivery to customers.
Andrew Good, Councilman's lawyer, declined to comment on his client's
motives. But Good said no one ever complained about the practice and that
the case resulted from a tip in an unrelated investigation.
Good said the decision mirrors other rulings that give employers and
companies broad rights over e-mail stored in their systems.
In upholding a lower court decision, the appeals panel majority said
Congress intended for "any temporary, intermediate storage" of
communication to be governed by laws other than those involving wiretapping
or other interception. The court rejected the government's argument that if
communication is being transmitted and stored simultaneously, it is
protected by interception laws.
"We believe that the language of the statute makes clear that Congress
meant to give lesser protection to electronic communications than wire and
oral communication," the court said. The judges acknowledged, however, that
the wiretap law may now be outdated given advances in technology.
In dissent, Judge Kermit V. Lipez said the majority misread the law and
that the ruling "will have far-reaching effects on personal privacy and
security."
Like several privacy advocates, the judge raised particular alarm over what
the decision might mean for the ability of law-enforcement to monitor
e-mail.
Based on the court's ruling, law enforcement officers would need only a
search warrant to gain access to e-mail before it reaches its recipient,
instead of a wiretap order, which can be far harder to obtain.
The decision, Lipez said, "would undo decades of practice and precedent
regarding the scope of the Wiretap Act and would essentially render the Act
irrelevant to the protection of wire and electronic privacy."
In other legal cases, courts have treated temporary storage of electronic
material differently. Swire said disputes have arisen over whether Internet
service providers are liable when their customers have illegally copied
music or other works on their systems, thus temporarily storing them on the
ISP's networks. Courts have found no such liability, he said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Boston, which prosecuted
the case, declined to comment on the decision.
An appeal of the case could put the office at odds with the FBI, which has
been pushing Congress and the Federal Communications Commission for greater
flexibility to monitor Internet communications.
"This decision makes clear that the law has failed to adapt to the
realities of Internet communications and must be updated to protect online
privacy," said Kevin Bankston, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a privacy advocacy group.
EU Agrees To Stay Microsoft Penalties
European regulators have agreed to temporarily hold off on forcing
Microsoft Corp. to change its business practices until a court hearing
later this summer, a company spokesman confirmed yesterday.
The decision by the European Commission, following its ruling in March that
Microsoft broke European Union antitrust laws, was largely a formality.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., is appealing the ruling, which levied a
fine of more than $600 million and would force the company to sell a
version of Windows operating system without programs for playing digital
video and music.
Late Friday, Microsoft asked the court to delay all penalties while it
appeals, a process that could take years. The decision announced yesterday
puts the penalties on temporary hold until the court can decide whether to
suspend the sanctions for the duration of the appeals. Had the regulators
not acted, those sanctions would have taken effect today.
Microsoft is accused of illegally using its Windows monopoly to squeeze out
rival makers of software for playing digital entertainment. Because the
Windows Media Player is distributed with the ubiquitous Windows, European
regulators charge, other media player developers, such as Real Networks,
are at an unfair disadvantage.
The European Commission, which is the executive arm of the EU, wants
Microsoft to offer two versions of Windows in Europe - one with its own
media player and one without. They hope this will encourage computer makers
to seek deals from other media player companies to bundle their software
with new machines.
Microsoft argues that removing its media player from Windows will degrade
the operating system, and that there is significant competition from other
media players, including Apple Computer Corp.'s iTunes.
Microsoft also is accused of trying to squeeze out rivals in the market for
server systems, which power computer networks, by making it harder for
competing software to work well with Windows. Microsoft denies these
charges as well.
None of the court filings in Europe are made public, so the substance of
the appeal was not known.
Microsoft Settles Arizona Antitrust Suit
Microsoft Corp. will offer as much as $105 million in product vouchers to
settle an Arizona class-action lawsuit accusing it of using its monopoly
power to overcharge for software.
The Arizona settlement, approved by a judge on Monday, concluded nine
months of talks and comes as Microsoft looks to put antitrust claims behind
it. The world's largest software maker has now settled such lawsuits in
11 states and the District of Columbia.
The Redmond, Washington-based company is also appealing a $600-million fine
levied against it by the European Commission, as well as an order that it
sell a version of Windows without media player software.
The plaintiffs' attorneys said the Arizona settlement, given preliminary
approval by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael O'Melia, covers
businesses and consumers who bought Microsoft products in the state from
1996 to 2002.
Brian Goodwin, one of the class attorneys, said the deal covered a total of
7.8 million software licenses in Arizona.
Eligible users in Arizona who apply under the settlement would get vouchers
of $15 for their past operating system purchases and $9 for past
application purchases.
The settlement, apart from related fees and administration costs, will cost
Microsoft between $52.3 million and $104.6 million, depending on how many
vouchers are issued and used.
The settlement also includes a provision that some Arizona public school
districts will get half of the value of any unclaimed vouchers, and then
half the value of any vouchers that have been claimed but have not used to
redeem software or computer-related hardware products.
Microsoft will fund the settlement from reserves already set aside for such
claims, the company said.
"We're pleased by the opportunity to help schools all across Arizona get
the computers and software they need," said Brad Smith, general counsel for
Microsoft, in a statement. "The novel approach we've taken in structuring
this settlement has not only allowed us to resolve this legal matter, but
provide needed benefits to students at the same time."
Goodwin, the plaintiffs attorney, said that the settlement was the
second-highest for Microsoft on a per-user basis, behind its $1.1 billion
deal for California consumers in 2003.
The Arizona lawsuit had been certified as a class action in November 2000
and a state Supreme Court decision in August had cleared the way for it go
forward, he said.
Final approval of the Arizona settlement is set for Dec. 10, Goodwin said.
Class members will have 120 days to claim their vouchers after the
settlement is approved.
Microsoft Settles Massachusetts Consumer Suit
Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it would offer as much as $34 million in
product vouchers to settle a class action in Massachusetts, the latest in a
series of suits claiming it broke laws on unfair competition and consumer
protection.
In a joint release with the plaintiffs' attorneys, Microsoft said the deal
received preliminary approval from Massachusetts Superior Court Judge
Judith Fabricant on Monday. Microsoft also won preliminary approval on
Monday for a similar settlement in Arizona worth nearly $105 million.
Microsoft has been working to put antitrust claims behind it, having
settled such suits in 12 states and the District of Columbia over the past
two years, for a total of more than $1.5 billion. The company has reserves
set aside to pay for those settlements, the largest of which was a $1.1
billion deal with California plaintiffs in 2003.
As with the Arizona settlement and other such deals it has struck across
the United States, Microsoft said it will provide half of the value of any
unclaimed vouchers to certain Massachusetts school districts.
"The dollar amount may not seem large compared with other states, but
Massachusetts' consumer protection law is limited to consumers and does not
cover businesses and government," Ann White of Mager White & Goldstein LLP,
one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, told Reuters.
"It is a good result because if the consumers choose not to put in a claim,
that leaves more money for the underprivileged students within the
commonwealth."
The class covers anyone in the state who bought certain Microsoft operating
system or application products between early 1996 and late 2002. The
vouchers cover both hardware and software purchases, though the value of
the individual vouchers was not disclosed.
Appeals Court Upholds Microsoft Antitrust Deal
A U.S. appeals court upheld the government's landmark antitrust settlement
with Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday, handing a huge victory to the world's
largest software maker.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously endorsed
the 2001 settlement and turned down appeals for stricter sanctions from the
state of Massachusetts and two high-tech industry groups.
The settlement, approved by District Judge Colleen Kollar- Kotelly in 2002,
gives computer makers like Hewlett-Packard Co. greater freedom to feature
rival software on their machines by allowing them to hide some Microsoft
icons on the Windows desktop.
Microsoft also must license key computer code that competitors need to make
their server software work well with Windows.
Massachusetts and two technology-industry trade groups had argued the court
should force Microsoft to redesign Windows and stop "commingling" programs
like Internet Explorer with Windows. But the appeals court said the
settlement struck the right balance.
"The district court, by remedying the anti-competitive effect of
commingling, went to the heart of the problem Microsoft had created, and
it did so without intruding itself into the design and engineering of the
Windows operating system. We say, Well done!" Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg
wrote.
The same appeals court ruled in 2001 that Microsoft had illegally
maintained its Windows operating system monopoly, but rejected another
lower-court judge's proposal to break the company in two.
A Microsoft spokeswoman declined immediate comment.
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly said the opinion showed antitrust
laws are not working.
"Our high-tech economy will not reach its full potential unless regulators
and the courts are willing to deal with Microsoft and its predatory
practices," he said in a statement.
"We're disappointed, obviously," said Ed Black, president and CEO of the
Computer and Communications Industry Association, one of two trade groups
that had challenged the deal. "The settlement remains a failure and it has
not served the public interest."
Outfoxing the Phishers and Other Scammers
Quick! An exiled Nigerian businessman worth millions needs your help.
His funds have been tied up by the government and he needs your bank
details to get the money out. Only you can help. If successful, you can
share the millions. Everybody walks away happy.
Sound familiar?
E-mails with this very message are sent out daily. And every once in a
while they lure in the odd victim. The result is always the same: The good
Samaritan is wiped clean of his savings and the fraudster moves on to fresh
prey.
The scam has evolved to a more diabolical level. Over the past year or so,
some crafty fraudsters have ditched the tear-jerker prose for the
straightforward instruction.
"Quick. Your bank details need updating," the message now reads. "Click on
this link to submit them."
Each month, billions of such e-mails, masquerading as official messages
from banks and online retailers, arrive in in-boxes. The scam is known as
"phishing."
They work with surprising effectiveness, as many come with a link to an
authentic-looking bank or retailer site. The e-mail directs the user to
input his bank or credit card details, and again, just one party - the
fraudster - walks away happy.
In Web parlance, you've just been "phished."
British police recently estimated that phishing scams cost UK banks an
estimated 60 million pounds last year. The economic toll of phishing in the
United States is much worse, costing American banks and credit card
companies $1.2 billion in 2003, according to Gartner Research.
Gartner estimates that 1.78 million Americans fell foul of the scam, each
responding to the e-mail and revealing their personal details. The list of
spoofed, or fake, sites is an impressive one. It includes eBay, just about
every commercial bank in the UK, U.S. and Australia, and the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
Help may be on the way in the form of a variety of computer programs - some
from universities, others from major technology outfits - that aim to
unmask the fraudsters.
The mission of the programs is to harpoon the problem by developing Web
browsing toolbars that sniff out the fake sites and expose the phishers for
the swindlers they are.
The idea is to take the Web link in a suspicious e-mail and type it into
the toolbar and press return. Within moments you will know if you've landed
on the real McCoy or an impostor's site posing as your bank.
To help detect the fakers, CoreStreet Ltd., a Cambridge,
Massachusetts-based technology outfit, last month introduced a free product
called SpoofStick at http://www.corestreet.com/spoofstick/.
When entering a site, like say eBay, via the SpoofStick browser extension
(it works with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla FireFox browsers),
the surfer is greeted with a clear message saying "you are on eBay."
If you type in what turns out to be a spoofed Web site address, the message
will be very different, likely revealing the IP, or Internet Protocol,
number - a confusing, but telltale sign you want nothing to do with this
site.
Every computer that is connected to the Internet has a unique IP number
consisting of 4 digits - each between 0 and 255 and separated by periods.
A similar detection tool comes from SpoofGuard
(http://crypto.stanford.edu/SpoofGuard/), a California technology start-up.
And, eBay and Internet service provider EarthLink have been hit with so
many phishing attacks they've decided to develop their own spoof detection
toolbars. EarthLink's is available at
http://www.earthlink.net/home/software/toolbar/; eBay's is at
http://pages.ebay.com/ebay_toolbar/.
Computer security experts warn, however, that the toolbars should not lull
users into a false sense of security.
"It's the most sophisticated defense we have at the moment, but it's not
foolproof," said Pete Simpson, network security specialist at Clearswift,
a British network security firm.
CoreStreet admits as much, saying on the SpoofStick site: "It's not a
comprehensive solution, but it's a good start."
The spoof-proof browsers are viewed as the first line of defense in a novel
new area of criminality.
"The next stage will see the scammers spoofing the toolbars. Then, a new
technology will spring up to put an end to that," Simpson said.
Quoting a recent Nigerian e-mail scam: "You can take it to the bank."
Scob Virus Targets Financial Data
The so-called "Scob" virus that infiltrated possibly thousands of popular
and mainstream Web sites apparently was trolling for financial data from
unprotected PCs, according to antivirus firms tracking this latest
malicious code.
For now, the danger has passed, reports Panda Software CTO Patrick
Hinojosa. "Fortunately, this particular one has been defanged - for the
moment," he told NewsFactor. He said that authorities apparently have shut
down a Russian-based server that was harboring the code. Unfortunately, the
hackers behind the scam are still at large. "All today's events mean is
that this particular server is out of commission. If someone else wants to
set up another server, the whole thing can start all over."
Late Thursday, the U.S. Homeland Security Department put out a warning that
a mysterious virus had attacked "thousands" of Web servers that power a
number of popular Web sites.
The names of the sites still have not been identified. This may be for
legal reasons, Hinojosa suggests. "It was not immediately apparent if a
particular Web site got infected, so I think everyone is double checking
for accuracy before they release names."
He said some of the sites were rumored to be U.S.-based.
Called "Scob" or "Download.Ject" or "Toofer," the virus targeted at least
one version of Microsoft software, Internet Information Server, which
operates many Web sites. Browsers who happened onto the IIS-powered sites
using Microsoft Internet Explorer - sans the relevant patches, of course -
would become infected. Customers whot have deployed Windows XP Service
Pack 2 RC2 are not at risk, Microsoft said.
Much of this information was available this morning. What was not clear,
however, was the reason behind the attack.
This latest episode is just another indication that the threat from viruses
and other variants of malware has grown more severe. "Not that long ago,
most of the worms originated from people who wanted to see what they could
accomplish technically, or see how much damage they could cause," Hinojosa
says.
"Now, it is clearly an organized for-profit occupation by many groups of
people," he says, including organized spammers and organized criminal
groups.
"That means they have more resources to devote to these endeavors; money to
set up many servers, to put skilled people on the payroll to code these
viruses and the ability to exploit the data in an organized manner."
Apple Previews Next Version of Mac OS X
Apple Computer Inc. on Monday previewed the next version of its Mac OS X
operating system, which it said would include powerful search features that
would put it far ahead of the next major update to Microsoft Corp.'s
market-leading Windows software.
Cupertino, California-based Apple also introduced a 30-inch flat panel
display - its largest yet - in a sleeker and trimmer housing, which adds
to the 20-inch and 23-inch displays it already offers. That new offering
puts Apple up against other PC companies that sell large flat panels, such
as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
Apple's search technology, which it calls Spotlight, lets Mac users find
any file, document or information created by any application on a Macintosh
by entering the query in a search at the upper right hand corner of the
desktop.
Simplifying the search process on a PC's hard drive has emerged as one of
the major goals of both Tiger and Microsoft's next version of Windows,
code-named Longhorn, which is due out in 2006.
"What they've (Apple) done with search is a key element of Longhorn," said
analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, adding that Apple's next
version of OS X, code-named Tiger, will be available to consumers at least
a year or more before Longhorn.
Tiger will be available in the first half of 2005, Apple Chief Executive
Steve Jobs said, and will cost $129.
Apple, best known for its Macintosh computers and the popular iPod digital
music players, last updated the Mac OS X in October 2003 with version 10.3,
code-named "Panther."
With Tiger, Apple will have pushed out five major releases of OS X since
its debut in March 2001. Apple unveiled the new version during its annual
conference for software developers, in a bid to encourage them to write
more applications that work with the operating system.
"We think we are years ahead of Longhorn," Jobs told about 3,500 software
developers in San Francisco, referring to the forthcoming major Windows
update. "The other guys have been talking about it and we're doing it."
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, unveiled Windows XP, the
latest major overhaul of its Windows operating system, in October 2001.
Apple has been on a roll lately with the iPod and its iTunes Online Music
store. It has sold more than 3 million iPods and customers have purchased
more than 80 million tracks from the music store.
As successful as those two ventures have been, however, sales of its Mac
computers remain Apple's largest source of revenue.
The company's global share of the PC market has remained at 5 percent or
below in recent years, but Jobs has indicated the company is happy to be a
profitable niche player.
The 30-inch high-definition display monitor will be available in August and
cost $3,299. The redesigned 20-inch and 23-inch monitors will go on sale in
July and cost $1,299 and $1,999, respectively.
Apple Says It Will Delay New iMac Until September
Apple Computer Inc. said on Thursday its next-generation iMac desktop
computer will be delayed until September and that it has stopped taking
orders for the current iMac.
The delay means that Apple will miss the crucial back-to-school season for
the new iMac. Apple earlier this week held its annual developer conference
earlier this week and it often announces new products at the gathering.
"We planned to have our next-generation iMac ready by the time the
inventory of current iMacs runs out in the next few weeks," the Cupertino,
California-based company said in a statement. "But our planning was
obviously less than perfect."
The company said it has stopped taking orders for the current iMac as it
begins "the transition from the current iMac line to an all-new iMac line."
In the education market, Apple has historically emphasized its iBook
notebook PC and the eMac desktop machine rather than the iMac computer,
which has a circular base and a flat-panel screen that hovers above it.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment beyond the statement issued by the
maker of the Macintosh computer and iPod digital music players.
=~=~=~=
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