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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2002 Appeals Court Throws Out Libel Case ICANN to Add Restricted Domains E-Mail Infected with Viruses on the Increase Development Group Adds Members, Widens Focus AND North Carolina Builds Virtual Lab Group Offers Copyright Licenses for Acceptable Uses Student Uses Computers to Find Computer Thief APPEALS COURT THROWS OUT LIBEL CASE The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia dismissed Virginia prison warden Stanley Young's lawsuit against the Connecticut newspapers The Hartford Courant and The New Haven Advocate, ruling that articles posted on the newspapers' Web sites did not target a Virginia audience. The court's decision reversed a lower court's ruling that the warden could sue in Virginia because that is where he said his reputation was damaged. The decision came soon after Australia's highest court ruled that an Australian business may sue Dow Jones & Company for an article posted on the Internet from New Jersey but accessible in Australia. Associated Press, 15 December 2002 (registration req'd) http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/674265p-5031575c.html ICANN TO ADD RESTRICTED DOMAINS The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said it will approve an undecided number of restricted domains in 2003. The announcement came from ICANN's annual meeting in Amsterdam. ICANN will decide early next year which domains will be added, but the group said they would be restricted domains, such as .edu or .museum, rather than public domains like .com and .net. Stuart Lynn, president of ICANN, said restricted domains will be faster to implement and will not be subject to cybersquatting. At its meeting, ICANN also approved a proposal to streamline its processes, which many critics say prevent quick action by the organization. Reuters, 16 December 2002 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-977921.html E-MAIL INFECTED WITH VIRUSES ON THE INCREASE According to a report from MessageLabs, an e-mail scanning firm, the number of e-mail infected with viruses nearly doubled from 2001 to 2002. Compared to one infected e-mail for every 389 in 2001, 2002 saw one infection per 215 e-mails. The Klez virus was the most active throughout the year, but its peak of one infection per 169 e-mails was well shy of the Bugbear virus's peak of one infection per 87 e-mails. Alex Shipp, senior antivirus technologist at MessageLabs, said much of the blame for the dramatic increase in infected e-mail rests with home users who do not have adequate protection on their systems. ZDNet, 16 December 2002 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-977935.html DEVELOPMENT GROUP ADDS MEMBERS, WIDENS FOCUS Eclipse, a development consortium supported by IBM, announced Monday that it would add 13 members to its board of stewards and would begin work on three new projects. The goal of Eclipse is to build tools that allow developers, primarily those working with Java, to integrate various applications using a set of plug-ins. By developing those plug-ins in an open-source environment, Eclipse hopes to offer an alternative to the proprietary developer networks supported by Microsoft. Hewlett-Packard, SAP, and Oracle are three of the new board members, joining support for Eclipse by Sybase, Borland International, Fujitsu, and Red Hat. Sun Microsystems and BEA Systems, both of which have their own proprietary plug-ins for their development tools, are currently not part of Eclipse. CNET, 16 December 2002 http://news.com.com/2100-1001-977953.html AND ***************************************************** NORTH CAROLINA BUILDS VIRTUAL LAB The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is building a virtual physics laboratory in which computer simulations will take the place of lab equipment, the professor, and other students as online students test principles of physics. The lab, called Learn Anytime Anywhere Physics, is designed to help distance-education students meet an introductory science lab requirement. Project director Gerald Meisner, a physics professor at Greensboro, said the lab will recreate as much of the lab experience as possible in a virtual environment. Chronicle of Higher Education, 16 December 2002 http://chronicle.com/free/2002/12/2002121601t.htm GROUP OFFERS COPYRIGHT LICENSES FOR ACCEPTABLE USES The Creative Commons is a group set up last year to increase the amount of intellectual property that is available for public use and to make uses of such property easy and inexpensive. To that end, the group this week will release its first set of copyright licenses that copyright owners can use to specify how and when their content may be used. The licenses allow broader use of material than copyright law, giving copyright holders a simple way to identify acceptable uses without relinquishing their copyright. Copyright owners can choose one of four predefined copyright tools, they can craft their own acceptable uses and restrictions, or they can release their work into the public domain with no restrictions. Wired News, 16 December 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56704,00.html STUDENT USES COMPUTERS TO FIND COMPUTER THIEF A student at the University of New Orleans was able to use computer and Internet resources to track down a computer that had been fraudulently purchased from him over the Internet. Eric Smith had sold his Apple laptop on eBay, but the check to pay for the computer bounced after Smith had shipped the computer to the buyer. By posting the buyer's e-mail address, as well as his cell phone number and the street address where the computer had been shipped, on message boards and in chat rooms, Smith learned that another seller in Los Angeles had been similarly cheated. Smith set up another sale to the same individual and notified police, leading to the arrest of Melvin Christmas. A police officer in Chicago, where Christmas was arrested, said the suspect may be part of a theft ring. Associated Press, 15 December 2002 (registration req'd) http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/674804p-5033760c.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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