A new sheriff is aiming to clean up the wild, wild Internet: the U.S.
Justice Department.
The Justice Department has adopted a new crime-fighting tactic: seizing
control of domain names for Web sites that allegedly violate the law. The
Justice Department took over the iSoNews.com domain, whose owner pleaded
guilty to using his site to sell "mod" chips that let Microsoft Xbox and
Sony PlayStation owners modify their devices so that they could use them to
play illegally copied games, or "warez."
Visitors to the site were greeted with the message: "The domain and Web
site were surrendered to U.S. law enforcement pursuant to a federal
prosecution and felony plea agreement for conspiracy to violate criminal
copyright laws." But the Web site is still online and accessible via means
other than the domain name. iSoNews.com regulars have resorted to using the
site's numeric IP address and are continuing to discuss the case.
Earlier in the week, the Justice Department indicted 11 Web site operators
for allegedly selling illegal devices including bongs and holders for
marijuana cigarettes. Attorney General John Ashcroft said that the domain
names for the Web sites allegedly set up to sell illegal "drug
paraphernalia" would be pointed at servers located at the Drug Enforcement
Administration.
"With the advent of the Internet, the illegal drug paraphernalia industry
has exploded," Ashcroft said. The prosecutions represent the federal
government's boldest attempt yet to shutter Web sites that sell drug
paraphernalia.
Federal law could also be employed to strike back at computers that are
attacking a company or home network, a technology-law expert says. Curtis
Karnow said during a speech at the Black Hat Security Briefings conference
that no court case has yet established precedent regarding the use of a
limited counterstrike to stop Internet attackers but that nuisance statutes
appear to apply.
Nuisance laws allow the state and private individuals to file lawsuits
aimed at ending activities deemed harmful to a community. They have been
used to close buildings that house drug dealers and to shut down
businesses, such as quarries, that create excessive dust in a neighborhood.
In hot pursuit of pirates
The federal government has its sites on the growing copyright wars too. Key
politicians chided universities for not doing enough to limit peer-to-peer
piracy, calling unauthorized copying a federal crime that should be
punished appropriately. Members of Congress said at a hearing that
peer-to-peer piracy was a crime under a 1997 federal law, but universities
continued to treat file-swapping as a minor infraction of campus
disciplinary codes.
Under the 1997 No Electronic Theft Act, it is a federal crime to willfully
share copies of copyrighted products such as software, movies or music with
anyone if the value of the work exceeds $1,000, or if the person hopes to
receive files in return. So far the Justice Department has not tried to use
the NET Act to imprison peer-to-peer pirates.
321 Studios is asking a judge to block Hollywood's attempts to stop it from
shipping its DVD-copying products, claiming its software is protected free
speech. The company has been sued by seven major movie studios, which claim
321's DVD X Copy and DVD Copy Plus programs are helping to promote movie
piracy.
However, in its latest filing, 321 argued that its products are protected
free speech and that the studios are violating the First Amendment by
trying to quash them. The company said the software is designed to allow
people to make backups of DVDs they already own.
Two major trade groups filed a slew of civil lawsuits against people they
claim were selling pirated copies of films and software via online auction
sites. The Motion Picture Association of America brought 12 cases against
individuals who were allegedly auctioning pirated editions of popular
films. The Business Software Alliance, whose members include Adobe and
Apple Computer, filed a handful of similar cases against people it said
were selling stolen or illegally copied pieces of software.
Note the PC
Dell Computer is getting ready to deliver a more powerful Inspiron notebook
for consumers. The Inspiron 5100 uses Intel Pentium 4 processors with clock
speeds ranging from 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz, as well as a 14-inch screen and
built-in wireless networking. The new machine also adopts a "desknote"
design theme, meaning that it uses desktop versions of the Pentium 4 and
pairs them with a large screen.
While the overall PC market has been weak since the end of 2001, notebook
sales have comparatively been very strong, especially among consumers. Many
consumers have begun replacing their desktop PCs with desknotes. Despite
drawbacks that make the machines heavier and more power-hungry than
standard laptops, desknotes come at a lower price than a notebook with a
mobile processor.
Portable is key these days. Top vendors Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba say
sales of their tablet PCs--tiny portable computers fitted with pens, touch
screens and handwriting-recognition technology--are exceeding predictions
made before the devices' November launch.
Tablet PCs are still a fairly small segment of the overall notebook market.
But the devices have so far been a bright spot for manufacturers that are
still feeling the effects of the PC market crash of 2001. The smaller
machines have generated interest among the legal, real estate and health
care industries, as well as from some consumers, executives from Toshiba
and HP said.
Eastman Kodak is inching back into the consumer printer business with a new
device that works as both a docking station and as a photo printer. The
$199 Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock 6000 can send photos to a PC or
television as well as make standard 4-inch-by-6-inch prints.
Kodak used to sell a line of inkjet printers but discontinued that effort,
focusing instead on just making paper for other companies' inkjet printers.
Despite the new release, executives say Kodak does not see itself as a
printer maker.
Sun sheds light on future
Things have been tough for Sun Microsystems, but Chief Executive Scott
McNealy wants analysts to maintain faith in the company. "The skepticism is
at an all-time high right now," McNealy acknowledged at the company's
annual analyst conference, but he exhorted, "Don't write us off too
quickly...We've had a lot tougher times than today."
The usually brash McNealy adopted a restrained, guarded tone in his
introductory remarks. Sun is coming back to an even keel after several
years of adjusting to the bursting of the dot-com bubble and the recession
that struck immediately afterward.
Taking a page from the Intel playbook, Sun revealed many of its future
microprocessor plans as part of an effort to illustrate why the company
continues to push its own chips. Traditionally Sun has forsaken technology
such as Intel processors and the Windows and Linux operating systems, and
then been criticized for shunning it or adopting it late after the
technology improved.
But Sun began a counterattack, shedding more light on its chip plans to
show why it thinks its UltraSparc processors are worth buying now and in
the future. Sun detailed several processors scheduled to arrive in coming
years, including the UltraSparc IV and V models, and the "throughput
computing" technology acquired from Afara Websystems.
Sun also announced that it would build its entire collection of software
into a single, gigantic version of its Solaris operating system and release
updates once a quarter. The project, called Orion, is Sun's attempt to make
its software simpler to install, run and buy.
Strictly speaking, however, it won't be just Solaris, because Sun will
release the Orion components for Linux at the same time. And though Orion
is a response to Microsoft's broad collection of software, the
"uber-operating system" is designed to make Sun compete better against its
chief rivals, IBM and HP.
Also of note
Former file-swapping wunderkind Sean Fanning has signed up to help
CD-burning technology company Roxio build a reborn Napster service that
will cooperate with the recording industry…Legal online music services
began their biggest test this week as America Online launched a
long-awaited paid-subscription music plan aimed at competing with free
services such as Kazaa…The U.S. Defense Department has awarded millions of
dollars to more than two-dozen research projects that involve a
controversial data-mining project aimed at compiling electronic dossiers on
Americans…Washington lawmakers and the White House were inundated by
e-mail, fax and phone as part of a "virtual march" on Washington…Printer
maker Lexmark International Group won a preliminary injunction in its
efforts to prevent a company from selling computer chips that allow toner
cartridges to be recycled.
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