***************************************************** 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 MONDAY, JUNE 27, 2005 Supreme Court Rules for Entertainment Industry University of Connecticut Discovers Security Breach Sun Broadens Open Source Releases SUPREME COURT RULES FOR ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY In a long-awaited decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that providers of file-sharing services can be held liable for copyright infringement that takes place on their networks. The decision overturns a lower-court ruling that companies including Grokster and StreamCast were not liable for such infringement because their P2P services have legitimate, legal uses as well. Citing the Betamax ruling of 1984, which permitted technology to videotape movies and television, the Ninth Circuit found in favor of the file-sharing companies. That decision was appealed to the Supreme Court by entertainment companies, which argued that file-sharing services are built on a model of facilitating infringement and that the companies charged have gone so far as to "disable mechanisms that would prevent the very infringement that sustains their businesses." The Supreme Court agreed, saying, in part, that "one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright ... is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties." Wall Street Journal, 27 June 2005 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111927666876564101,00.html UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT DISCOVERS SECURITY BREACH Officials at the University of Connecticut have discovered a breach of one of the university's servers, which contained personal information for about 72,000 individuals. According to Michael Kerntke, a spokesperson for the school, the university found a program on the server that could have given a hacker access to the information on that computer, which included names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth. Although the program has evidently been on the server since October 2003, officials said there was no evidence that any of the data had actually been taken. Kerntke noted that the program seems to have been part of a broad Internet attack rather than one specifically directed at the university. As a result, he said, "the attacker most likely had no knowledge of the kind of data stored on the server." New York Times, 24 June 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/25/technology/25conn.html SUN BROADENS OPEN SOURCE RELEASES Just weeks after Sun Microsystems published the source code for its Solaris operating system as an open source application, the company announced it would also release the source code of its Java application server software. Offering the two technologies as open source tools is part of Sun's efforts to rebuild momentum and market share lost in the collapse of the dot-com economy, which has hurt Sun more than competitors including IBM, HP, and Dell. The Java language can be used to develop applications that run on a variety of computers and other electronic devices, such as cell phones. By moving the Java software to open source, Sun hopes to broaden the number of developers working with Java (already estimated at 4.5 million) and give the company a stronger foothold in various markets. According to John Loiacono, head of Sun's software group, making the source code for the Java application server software available will help Sun sell "services, systems, storage, and design services" to greater numbers of customers. Reuters, 27 June 2005 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8897847 ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 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] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. To access resources including articles, books, conference sessions, contracts, effective practices, plans, policies, position descriptions, and blog content, go to http://www.educause.edu/resources ***************************************************** CONFERENCES For information on all EDUCAUSE learning and networking opportunities, see http://www.educause.edu/31 ***************************************************** COPYRIGHT Edupage copyright (c) 2005, EDUCAUSE
