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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2004 Senate Passes Copyright-Protection Legislation VeriSign Introduces E-Mail Screening Service Learning to Hack as Defense Against Hackers Linux Desktop Products Add RealPlayer SENATE PASSES COPYRIGHT-PROTECTION LEGISLATION Last week the Senate approved two bills aimed at reducing electronic copyright infringement and a third that opens the door to increased cooperation in developing patentable products. All three bills were approved without debate. The Pirate Act and the Art Act are intended to discourage electronic piracy by imposing civil and criminal fines on those found guilty of illegally copying music or movie files. The Pirate Act authorizes the Justice Department, whose actions are typically limited to criminal investigations, to lead an antipiracy campaign and to prosecute those suspected of piracy. The Art Act allows for criminal fines for videotaping movies in theaters. The third bill, called the Create Act, allows patents to be granted for products developed by multiple organizations. In 1997, an appeals court ruled that collaborative development of a product prevents the granting of a patent because the sharing of information could render the product "obvious." Higher education associations have been working to amend that decision, and the Create Act aims to do that. It allows collaboratively developed products to qualify for U.S. patents as long as the collaborators sign written agreements before the products are invented. Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 June 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/06/2004062801n.htm VERISIGN INTRODUCES E-MAIL SCREENING SERVICE VeriSign has announced a new service designed to limit both spam and viruses. The company said the service uses a variety of measures, including blacklists and heuristic tools that employ more than 10,000 rules, to identify spam and filter it from users' in boxes. The service uses three antivirus engines to protect users from malicious code contained in e-mail, and VeriSign said it will add other features such as sender identity verification and domain authentication in the future. The service will be available July 12, though pricing details were not released. According to Judy Lin, executive vice president at VeriSign, using a service-based approach to fighting spam and viruses, "enterprises can easily obtain comprehensive e-mail protection in a matter of hours, without deploying any software or hardware." CNET, 28 June 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5250010.html LEARNING TO HACK AS DEFENSE AGAINST HACKERS A Florida-based company called Intense School offers hacking courses designed to give graduates knowledge and skills to anticipate and defend against malicious hackers. The company offers about 200 classes each year, for which students pay nearly $4,000 to ultimately earn the title of "Certified Ethical Hacker." A study by Good Harbor Consulting suggests that corporate expenditures on security have risen from 3 percent of technology budgets five years ago to as much as 12 percent today. According to Dave Kaufman, president of Intense School, the best way to prevent malicious attacks is to understand where they will come from and how they will function. Ben Sookying, director of network security services for the California State University system, is a student in one of the ethical hacking classes offered in California. "I can definitely say it's not for everyone, "Sookying noted. "If you don't have discipline, you won't make it through this course." Wired News, 27 June 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,64008,00.html LINUX DESKTOP PRODUCTS ADD REALPLAYER Red Hat and Novell are expected to announce this week that the RealPlayer 10 media player will be included in their Linux desktop products. Linux has made significant inroads into the server market but has continued to lag in the desktop market. The addition of a media player will presumably move the Linux products closer to being competitive with Microsoft in the desktop operating system market. Previously, TurboLinux and Sun Microsystems agreed to include the media player in their versions of Linux desktop software, and Dan Sheeran, a senior vice president at RealNetworks, said the deals with Red Hat and Novell will make RealPlayer "the de facto standard for media-playing software on Linux." Microsoft, which still controls more than 95 percent of the market for desktop software, has been at odds with European officials for bundling its Windows Media Player with Windows operating systems. The European Commission ruled in March that the software giant must start shipping versions of Windows without the media player installed, though that requirement has been put on hold while Microsoft appeals the ruling. New York Times, 28 June 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/28/technology/28linux.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ 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/ ***************************************************** 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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