July 2004 Archives

By Tanya Nolan -

Computer anti-virus experts are warning more versions of a sophisticated new internet virus, that attacks through search engines, will emerge in the coming days.

MyDoom version Oh is a derivative of the destructive virus that attacked the World Wide Web earlier this year.

But this mass mailer is the first computer virus to use internet search engines in order to infect even more email accounts, collapsing the world's largest search engine, Google, for several hours.

By John Foley -

In annual meeting with financial analysts, Microsoft's chairman puts the focus on R&D and intellectual property.

Microsoft will continue to ramp up its patent filing and intellectual-property licensing efforts, chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates said today in a meeting with financial analysts at the company's Redmond, Wash., campus.

Microsoft plans to file more than 3,000 patents in fiscal 2005 compared with "something over" 2,000 patent filings the previous year, Gates said. The company's planned "cycle of innovation" includes securing intellectual-property rights on Microsoft products and licensing that technology to other companies, signing license agreements to use other companies' software within Microsoft's own products, and providing indemnification protection to customers. Gates said Microsoft is still in the early stages of its licensing program.

By J. Lyman

Different interpretations of a memo from Office of Management and Budget IT and E-Government administrator Karen Evans make this software purchasing directive look both bad and good for open source.

While Citizens Against Government Waste cited the memo in its complaint that open source can be more expensive than proprietary software, the OMB memo itself simply advises an adequate review of all software, regardless of whether it is open source or not. A CAGW press release states, "The OMB memo noted that open source software has more complex licensing requirements, requiring review by agency general counsel, which also adds to its costs."

By David Armstrong

Beijing -- Business is vibrant at the China World Hotel, where a group of female entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, cell phones at the ready, is checking in, fresh off a hugely popular new, daily United Airlines flight from San Francisco that is filled to near-capacity.

In another part of town, architects from the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill are overseeing construction of the huge $4.6 billion Beijing Finance Street project. Meanwhile, Stanford University is preparing to launch a mini-campus this fall at elite Peking University in the city's high-tech corridor.

By C. J. Chivers

IZHEVSK, Russia, July 24 - The bazaar in this industrial city shows why Western companies regard Russia as a land of piracy.

Bootlegged copies of new American movies - "King Arthur,'' "Troy'' and "Spider-Man 2'' - sell for $3. Photoshop CS, a $600 program in Western stores, fetches $2.75.

Markets like this, found throughout Russia, have been a longstanding subject of diplomatic complaint. Washington contends Russian intellectual-property pirates cost the United States more than $1 billion a year.

By Jack M. Germain

One of the trends this product targets is the ability of the malicious code to keep reinstalling itself. That characteristic of spyware is what makes it so difficult to excise once it infects a machine. Antispyware applications can find instances of the intrusion and remove it. But these existing antispyware products can't prevent Windows registry entries from reactivating hidden spyware code on subsequent reboots.

If you use the latest antivirus packages and run a firewall, you don't have to worry about spyware intrusion, right? Wrong, say leading security experts.

By Bruce Schneier of Counterpane Internet Security, Inc.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided the three legal challenges to the Bush administration's legal maneuverings against terrorism. These cases have been endlessly debated on legal and civil liberties grounds. They were decided, mostly but not entirely, in favor of presumption-of-innocence and due process.

But I want to talk about how important the decisions are to our nation's security. Security is multifaceted; there are many threats from many different directions. It includes the security of people against terrorism, and also the security of people against tyrannical government.

By Seth Lubove

Acacia Research, the controversial intellectual property firm that claims to own a patent on most forms of Internet video streaming, wanted a fight with the porn industry.

Now it's got one.

In a preliminary ruling last week known as a Markman Order, the California federal judge overseeing several of Acacia's patent-infringement cases agreed that while seven of the underlying definitions that form the basis of the company's patent claims were likely valid, 12 other terms or phrases were debatable. The judge also took the usual step of inviting the defendants--several porn firms--to file for a summary judgment in the case.

By Adam Richard - SecurIT Informatique Inc.

The goal of this document is to define new guidelines in order to improve the security in Microsoft Windows-based internal networks. In order to be useful in real situations, these measures have been thought in function of obtaining the lowest-cost possible approach, to prevent such a project to become financially prohibitive. Security being a field in constant evolution, it is possible that new solutions will be integrated to these presented here in the future.

By Ryan Naraine

A 20-year-old Northern California man suspected as being one half of the high-profile "Deceptive Duo" hacking team is scheduled to appear in court on Monday to face charges of breaking into government computers and defacing government Web sites.

Robert Lyttle, who allegedly teamed up with 22-year-old Benjamin Stark and hacked into computer systems run by the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years if he is found guilty, authorities announced.

By Erin Joyce

You can stop staring at the ceiling each night, wondering. A new study has confirmed what many a cubicle dweller has long suspected: Many companies, maybe even yours, are monitoring outgoing e-mails.

According to a new survey conducted by Forrester Consulting and sponsored by Proofpoint Inc., a company that makes anti-spam and filtering software, more than 43 percent of corporations with more than 20,000 employees employ staff to monitor and read outbound e-mail.

The survey of 140 corporate decision-makers found that companies' concern about employees leaking sensitive information via e-mail ranked as the biggest reason behind the snooping policy.

One in four people on the internet have illegally downloaded a film and the problem is set to get worse, said the US movie industry's trade body.

A study released by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) found that film piracy was worse in South Korea, where broadband is commonplace.

The film studios say piracy on the net has cost them billions of dollars.

Last year Hollywood's major studios made a record $10.85bn (£5.8bn) at the international box office.

The world's "biggest bootlegger" who ripped off some of entertainment's biggest names, has been jailed.

Mark Purseglove, 33, who pocketed £15m, was sentenced to three and a half years at London's Blackfriars Crown Court on Thursday in connection with the racket.

For at least 11 years he used illicit recordings made by sound engineers and concertgoers to create counterfeit CDs.

Oasis, the Beatles, Eminem, Madonna and the Rolling Stones were among the hundreds of artists targeted.

By Ian Youngs

Film companies in the UK have joined forces for the first time to convince movie fans that buying pirate DVDs funds terrorism and drug dealing.

The £1.5m Piracy is a Crime campaign, the biggest of its kind yet in the UK, was launched in London on Monday by broadcaster Jonathan Ross.

A new trailer will warn that buying a copy is like stealing a car or phone.

p2pnet.net News:- The BSA (Business Software Alliance) industry group is highly chuffed.

Owned by some of the fattest companies in the world and with a heavy intererest in all things Hollywood, it's persuaded the US congress to cough up $10 million "to continue the Justice Department's fight to end the theft of intellectual property".

In other words, US taxpayers will be forking out $10 mil to protect certain corporate bottom lines.

By Johnson Choo

Singapore has set aside more than S$3m worth of scholarships to develop nanotechnology, the study of structures many thousand times smaller than a strand of hair.

At the launch of NUS Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative, Acting Education Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, said Singapore has filed six patents under the NUS Nano programme.

More than one third of the software installed on the world's computers is pirated according to a survey by the Business Software Alliance.

The annual survey of global software piracy shows that 36% of software was being used illegally in 2003 according to figures prepared for the BSA.

North America was the most law-abiding region and had a piracy rate of 23%.

The most piracy-ridden region was Eastern Europe where currently 71% of the software in use is stolen.

By Serene Luo

SINGAPORE is not exactly a desert when it comes to technological innovation. And Mr Sim Wong Hoo is not the only Singaporean who has made an international splash with his Creative brand of Sound Blaster speakers and Nomad MP3 players.

In fact, according to the Economic Development Board, Singapore is ranked 12th in the world for the number of patents filed per capita, on a par with the United States and Japan.

The number of patents filed each year has been on the rise since 1998, said its assistant managing director in charge of enterprise ecosystem and planning, Mr Chua Taik Him.

By David McGuire

The selection of former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman to replace Jack Valenti as head of the Motion Picture Association of America won't result in any changes in the industry's policy of aggressively fighting online piracy, the two men said Thursday.

"Privacy and protecting the intellectual property of creative works has got to be the number one issue," Glickman said in the press conference to announce his ascension to one of Washington's top lobbying posts.

By Gregory M. Lamb

In coming years, the likes of giant defense contractors Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin may have to make room for tiny start-ups and big drug companies that make antidotes for bugs instead of bombs.

Project Bioshield, a bill passed by Congress and expected to be signed shortly by President Bush, authorizes $5.6 billion over the next decade to induce drug and biotech firms to develop new vaccines, drugs, and diagnostic tools to counter biological attacks on the United States.