***************************************************** Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. *****************************************************
TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2004 Report Concludes Internet Voting Unacceptably Risky FTC Reports Identity Theft, Fraud Still Rising DVD Group Drops DeCSS Program Posting Charges FBI Makes First Arrest in Internet Film Piracy AND Open Source Courseware Project Romania Indicts Student for Blaster Variation Music Industry Sees Progress in Fight Against Music Piracy REPORT CONCLUDES INTERNET VOTING UNACCEPTABLY RISKY According to a report issued by four members of the Security Peer Review Group, any Internet-based voting system poses a "serious and unacceptable risk" of election fraud. The advisory group was formed by the U.S. Department of Defense to evaluate the federally funded Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) system, currently slated by the Pentagon for use in the 2004 primary and general elections. The report authors are David Wagner of the University of California, Berkeley; Avi Rubin of Johns Hopkins University; David Jefferson of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and Barbara Simons, a computer scientist and technology policy consultant. The Register, 23 January 2004 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35078.html FTC REPORTS IDENTITY THEFT, FRAUD STILL RISING The U.S. Federal Trade Commission released statistics showing that identity theft and fraud cost Americans in excess of $400 million in 2003 as scam artists took advantage of the Internet to find new targets. The FTC said it received more than 500,000 consumer complaints in 2003, with identity theft topping the list at 215,000 complaints, up 33 percent from 2002. Internet-related fraud was responsible for more than half the remaining complaints, with auction fraud the most prevalent form of Internet scam. ComputerWorld, 22 January 2004 http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,89299,00.html DVD GROUP DROPS DECSS PROGRAM POSTING CHARGES The DVD Copy Control Association has dropped its lawsuit against a California man who posted copies of the DeCSS program on the Internet. The DeCSS program defeats DVD security technology, and the complaint alleged that the accused man misappropriated trade secrets by posting the program. The move ends a four-year legal battle between the media industry and technology companies. The DVD association mentioned an "evolving legal strategy" in asking the court to dismiss the case and is considering filing suit in other cases to protect its copy-protection technology. PCWorld, 22 January 2004 http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114417,00.asp FBI MAKES FIRST ARREST IN INTERNET FILM PIRACY The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested an Illinois man on charges of using the Internet to illegally distribute "screener" versions of Oscar-nominated movies sent to him by a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. FBI agents arrested the man on charges of copyright infringement after a search of his home uncovered hundreds of copies of screener films. The accused allegedly used software to convert the VHS tapes to digital format for Internet distribution. The arrest is the first targeting bootlegged screener films in the United States. The Motion Picture Association of America began shipping encoded videocassettes of screener movies in October. San Jose Mercury News, 23 January 2004 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7779834.htm AND ***************************************************** OPEN SOURCE COURSEWARE PROJECT Four universities announced collaboration on the Sakai Project, designed to create open source courseware tools and related software. Access to the software will be through an enhanced version of uPortal. Sakai will also use the Open Knowledge Initiative, a collaboration among universities to support educational software. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor will lead the Sakai effort, along with the Indiana University system, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided $2.4 million for the project, and each of the four partners is providing services worth about $1 million over two years. Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 January 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/01/2004012204n.htm ROMANIA INDICTS STUDENT FOR BLASTER VARIATION A graduate student in Romania has been indicted by the courts there on charges of distributing a variant of the Blaster Internet virus. The student was accused of infecting 27 computers at a university in northeastern Romania, creating a "severe disturbance" in the affected computers. The charge carries a possible penalty of 15 years in prison. Romania enacted its first cybercrime law in 2003 and has little experience in prosecuting computer crimes. The trial is scheduled for January 27, and the accused is not in custody. Wall Street Journal, 22 January 2004 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107478760476808929,00.html MUSIC INDUSTRY SEES PROGRESS IN FIGHT AGAINST MUSIC PIRACY The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said its efforts to educate consumers on the illegality of online music swapping are working. The group believes it is successfully persuading people to use legal online music download services that respect copyright laws. At the same time, the IFPI warned that a global legal crackdown on file-sharing Web sites is likely, with Europe, Asia, and Canada targeted. The Recording Industry Association of America has already filed suits against hundreds of people for illegal file sharing in the United States. BBC, 22 January 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3419735.stm ***************************************************** 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. For information on EDUCAUSE publications see http://www.educause.edu/pub/ ***************************************************** CONFERENCES For information on all EDUCAUSE learning and networking opportunities, see http://www.educause.edu/conference/ ***************************************************** COPYRIGHT Edupage copyright (c) 2004, EDUCAUSE
