Napster Present On 30 Percent Of PCs Report
A Web site that analyzes personal computers
reported today that Napster software was installed on 30 percent
of the PCs it tested last month.
The rising number of Napster-equipped PCs has now surpassed
computers bearing such heavyweight software packages as Microsoft
Works, Microsoft Money, ICQ, Intuit Quicken, and McAfee VirusScan, said
Rob Cheng, president of PC Pitstop LLC, in an interview with Newsbytes.
"We're actually going inside the PC, so we know all this stuff," Cheng
said.
AOL To Roll Out New Features
America Online Inc. will reportedly launch
today its latest version software, dubbed AOL 6.0, which includes a
built-in music player allowing subscribers to download music without
falling into the copyright infringement abyss.
A Wall Street Journal report said the new software is part of the
company's "AOL Anywhere" strategy, which aims to put the service on
every device - from cellular phones to pagers to TVs, and introduces
a range of initiatives designed to expand its online service,
including features such as e-mail and instant messaging, which go
beyond the PC.
Another Security Hole in Internet Explorer - Bug Hunter
Bulgarian bug hunter Georgi Guninski has
uncovered what he says is another serious security hole in
Microsoft's Web browser engine - a glitch that could allow a
malicious hacker to read the contents of files stored on a user's
PC.
In a post to the BugTraq mailing list Thursday, Guninski reported
that attacks using the exploit could be launched through a Web page,
tripping up unsuspecting users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer
browser, or through HTML-formatted mail delivered to users of
Microsoft's Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail application.
MP3.com Negotiates Licensing Deal With Music Publishers
While online music destination MP3.com continues to wrestle record company Universal
Music in a potentially crippling lawsuit, it has inked a tentative
licensing deal that could see top music publishers give their
blessings to the company's controversial My.MP3.com service.
MP3.com and the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) today
announced an agreement that will see the online digital music
company pay up to $30 million over the course of the three-year
pact. The payments, to be administered by the NMPA's wholly owned
licensing arm, the Harry Fox Agency, would clear copyright hurdles
with some 25,000 music publishers who rely on the agency for its
communal royalty funds.
SDMI Denies Hackers Trumped Security - Update
The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI)
forum is denying that hackers successfully hacked into copyright-protected software, as part of a $10,000 challenge the company issued to anyone who thought themselves capable of compromising its technology.
A report in Web 'zine Salon last week quoted SDMI insiders as saying
that all six technologies were successfully mastered after the
organization issued a public challenge to code-breakers last month.
However, the SDMI is saying this week that it is not yet sure whether
challenge participants, who were competing for $10,000 prizes
offered for each technology, have actually defeated the six methods.
Appeals Court: Anonymous Posters Can't Hide On The Net
A Florida Appeals Court has upheld a lower court's ruling that ordered America Online and Yahoo to reveal information they have about individuals who posted under pseudonyms on their message boards.
In a decision filed last week, the Third District Court of Appeals
in Miami upheld a decision by District Court Judge Eleanor
Schockett, who agreed in May that J. Erik Hvide of Fort Lauderdale
had a right to find out who was posting what he felt were
defamatory statement about him on financial message boards.
Scour Could Face $250 Billion In Liability
Following an announcement on Friday that it had
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Scour Inc., a
high-profile online entertainment service, now reportedly said
it is carrying about $4 million in debt and could be liable for up to
$250 billion in damages stemming from pending litigation.
A Reuters report today said the privately held company, whose
investors include well-known Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz and Los
Angeles grocery magnate Ron Burkle, listed about $1.2 million in
assets and $4 million in debt, but could be required to cough up as
much as $250 billion in damages if several lawsuits alleging
copyright infringement are successful. The company is also confronted
by a number of vendors waiting to be paid. Scour recently laid off
all but 12 of 70 employees, the report said.
Have Someone Else Type E-mail For You
Our new mobile society means people are receiving e-mail just
about everywhere they go over devices like pagers and cellular telephones.
This leads to the logistical problem of trying to give a full response
with text using the 10-digit keypad of a telephone.
One solution may be the voice to text e-mail service announced
today by WeType4u.com, a company that launched in May with what it calls
"cyber typing service." With the company's regular document service,
registered customers phone in and dictate letters, memos, sales reports
or any other item that they want transcribed on their behalf. The finished
product is then sent via e-mail as a Microsoft Word document.
Jury Pool Survey - Napster's Chances Good
Music file-swapper Napster would have a good chance before
a jury hearing the lawsuit brought by the recording industry, according to
a
survey of the potential jury pool released today.
A surprisingly high 41.5 percent of 1,000 men and women over 18
years of age believe that taking copyrighted music off the Internet should
be
free if it's for personal use, according to a National Law Journal survey
of
the done by DecisionQuest. It's not a majority, the journal and pollsters
said,
but it's a big enough chunk of the potential juror population to make
civil suit
litigators, record company CEOs and recording artists nervous.
Napster Mum On Acquisition Report
Napster had no immediate comment late today on a report that
it has been in acquisition talks with two major Internet service providers
(ISPs).
For months the unnamed ISPs have reportedly been engaged in separate
talks to acquire Napster, which is embroiled in a legal battle that could
end
in its demise. The two companies are a "Western telecommunications giant
and a brand-name ''pure'' Internet service provider," according to
Inside.com, which posted the story on its Web site today.
Govt. Targets Set-Top Box Access In AOL Review
Both the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal
Communications Commission have expanded their review of the America
Online Inc. [NYSE:AOL] and Time Warner Inc. [NYSE:TWX] merger to
include set-top boxes, an integral part of accessing the Internet via
television sets.
According to the Wall Street Journal, both agencies have begun
studying the role of set-top boxes and interactive television as a
potential bottleneck in accessing the Internet, contending that if a
single company can control the boxes, they would also control what
goes through the cable TV line and is seen on the viewer's screen,
including such Internet-related features as e-commerce, e-mail and
instant messaging, as well as telephone service.
Napster, BMG Entertainment In War Of Words
One of five big music companies suing Napster for
copyright infringement, BMG Entertainment, a unit of Germany's
Bertelsmann AG, reportedly said on Tuesday it proposed various
business models to the song-swap site, contrary to Napster's claims
of the opposite.
A Reuters report quoted BMG Entertainment's chief marketing officer
and president, Kevin Conroy, as saying, "Napster's statement is
completely inaccurate." The declaration was made in reference to
Napster Chief Executive Hank Barry's statements issued on Monday
after oral arguments were heard in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
in San Francisco.
Universe Of Potential New Internet Domains Unveiled
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) late last night posted the master list of proposals from which a
small handful of new global Internet "neighborhoods" will be selected in
November.
At least 45 companies plunked down the requisite $50,000 application
fee and submitted a proposal to ICANN to operate a new global Internet
domain. Because several bidders proposed more than one new domain,
the list, located online at
http://www.icann.org/tlds/tld-applications-lodged-02oct00.htm ,
contains hundreds of suggestions for new domains.
FBI Releases Documents On Carnivore
The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday released
565 pages of information related to its e-mail surveillance system
also known as "Carnivore."
The release of documents came in reply to a Freedom of Information
Act request issued by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC),
which in mid-August convinced the DC court to expedite the request
for response within 45 days.
Multi-Attack Virus Discovered By Norman Data Defence
Norman Data Defence said that it has discovered a new and vicious
virus in the wild. Known as W32/MTX@mm, the virus is said to be
highly malicious since it can strike as a conventional virus, a
backdoor program and/or as an e-mail worm.
The IT security firm said that the program will attach itself to a
second e-mail sent from a computer to a recipient and critically
also block access to several major anti-virus companies' Web sites,
blocking reporting e-mails to these sites as well.
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