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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2003 Court Rules Against DeCSS Copyright Violator Faces Fine, Jail Time Navy Cancels 13,000 Credit Cards Stolen by Hackers Government Plans for Permanent Online Access to Documents Feds Push Patching Service to More Agencies COURT RULES AGAINST DECSS Overturning a lower court's decision, the California Supreme Court has ruled that posting code to decrypt DVDs does not constitute protected speech if it violates trade secrets. The lower court had ruled that in putting the so-called DeCSS code on the Web, Andrew Bunner violated the trade secret of the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA)--which holds the copyright to the copy-protection software--but that posting the DeCSS code was protected by the First Amendment. The state Supreme Court decided, based on the assumption that Bunner's posting did violate trade secrets, that in this case property rights trump free speech rights. The case will be returned to the lower court for a reevaluation of whether DeCSS in fact violates DVD CCA's trade secrets. CNET, 25 August 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5067665.html COPYRIGHT VIOLATOR FACES FINE, JAIL TIME A Florida man convicted of pirating music faces a fine of up to $250,000 and as much as five years in prison. Mark Shumaker admitted to being the leader of the Apocalypse Crew, an online group that put copyrighted materials on the Web for download. In many cases, the group obtained copies of music that had not yet been released. Shumaker will be sentenced on November 7. He was caught as part of Operation Buccaneer, a global crackdown on online copyright violators. The Recording Industry Association of America hailed the conviction, saying that it is a clear indication that copyright infringement is a crime and that "the Justice Department means business." BBC, 22 August 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3172859.stm NAVY CANCELS 13,000 CREDIT CARDS STOLEN BY HACKERS The U.S. Navy has canceled 13,000 credit cards after determining that hackers had accessed the account numbers for the cards. Another 9,000 cards that apparently were not compromised will be replaced as well. The hacking first came to light when an unusual amount of activity was detected on one of the Navy's servers. A subsequent investigation revealed that hackers had begun accessing the Navy's site on July 10 and started downloading purchase invoices on July 24. According to Citibank, issuer of the cards, there has not been unusual activity on any of the accounts since the hacking began, and the Defense Department said that so far no fraud had been reported for the cards. Washington Post, 23 August 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34263-2003Aug22.html GOVERNMENT PLANS FOR PERMANENT ONLINE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS An agreement between the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will allow permanent, public online access to more than 250,000 government titles. Under the agreement, the NARA will have legal custody while the GPO will maintain physical custody of the records, which will be available through GPO Access (www.gpoaccess.gov). Groups including the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the American Library Association have long been calling for government efforts to establish such a permanent archive, noting that in the digital age information and documents are increasingly at risk to simply disappear. Information Today, 25 August 2003 http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb030825-1.shtml FEDS PUSH PATCHING SERVICE TO MORE AGENCIES Officials from the National Cyber Security Division are looking at ways to increase participation in the Patch Authentication and Dissemination Capability. The program aims to ensure that federal agencies have appropriate security by monitoring software vulnerabilities and sending out approved patches to agencies that need them, based on the agencies' subscription profiles. More than 40 agencies have signed up for the patching service, but many are not fully using the service, limiting participation to small parts of their agencies. Recent activity in computer viruses highlighted the need for increased network security and the role software patches play in such security. Federal Computer Week, 22 August 2003 http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0818/web-circ-08-22-03.asp ***************************************************** 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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