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| | | April 6, 2003
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Sunday, April 6, 2003 |
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Targeting file-sharing
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) dealt a crucial psychological blow to Internet file-sharing by filing a lawsuit against four U.S. university students. The RIAA, an organization representing all mainstream record labels, alleged that the students used school networks to operate centralized Napster-like song-swapping services, resulting in large-scale copyright infringement. According to a spokesperson for the association, $150,000 per shared song -- the maximum legally allowable amount -- is being sought from the defendants.
The four students -- two from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, one from Princeton University and another from Michigan Technological University -- were not notified prior to the filing of the suit. In addition, the schools they attended expressed outright disappointment from their students' actions, but disagreed with RIAA's handling of the situation, claiming they were to cease any illicit activity if they had been informed.
More from: CNET News.com | PC World | The Washington Post | Wired News
Google buzz
Google, the largest Internet search solutions provider, reached an agreement with the most prominent e-retailer Amazon.com to provide the company with search and targeted advertising technology. Amazon.com will start offering Google-powered web search and is expected to carry sponsored links from Google's AdWords program on some of its pages. For the first time Amazon.com may advertise products from competing e-businesses.
No further details were disclosed about the deal, but the move is expected to increase the popularity of Google's search solutions since Amazon.com is one of the most popular Internet destinations.
Meanwhile, Microsoft-owned MSN announced the world's largest software maker is eyeing the search engine market. MSN is currently using solutions from Google's rival Overture, but Microsoft appears intrigued by the sudden surge of interest in such services. According to Reuters, Bob Visse, director of marketing for MSN Internet Services, claimed the company will make substantial investments in the future to challenge Google's predominance in the market.
More from: CNET News.com | IDG.net | InternetNews.com | Reuters 1 2
Security watch
 Information about a second major security hole in the Sendmail Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) in less than 30 days was disclosed last weekend, triggering an urgent release of a patch to the most popular e-mail server software. A malformed e-mail message could allow attackers to overtake servers running vulnerable Sendmail versions and potentially attempt to perform a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. Due to the specificity of the flaw, the e-mail can easily pass through highly secure firewalls and affect corporate servers using unpatched Sendmail software.
More from: CNET News.com | ElectricNews.net | Internetweek.com | PC World
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the organization developing and distributing the world's most popular web server, released Apache version 2.0.45, fixing a critical vulnerability. The security flaw could reportedly lead to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack and is considered very important. The ASF update, however, does not patch the vulnerability for the OS/2 platform for the release was rushed in fear of information leak.
More from: InternetNews.com | Internetweek.com | PC World | VNUNET.com
RealNetworks and Apple Computer, makers of two of the most popular media players, offered updates to their products after two unrelated security flaws had been discovered. A maliciously corrupted Portable Network Graphics (PNG) file could reportedly allow execution of arbitrary code on systems running RealOne Player. Apple noted a buffer overflow vulnerability made the QuickTime player susceptible to similar attacks.
More from: CNET News.com | MacCentral | VNUNET.com
In Other News...
Akamai Technologies refused to develop a customer relationship with much criticized Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera. In a statement, the company confirmed it had worked with the Qatar-based network to understand the reasons behind the site's security breaches, but decided to discontinue the cooperation.
An unidentified hacker has apparently satisfied a $100,000 challenge by Michael Robertson, founder of Lindows, to run Linux on an unaltered Xbox game console.
Red Hat Inc., the most prominent distributor of the Linux operating system, announced the release of Red Hat Linux 9. With an enhanced graphical interface aiming at desktop users, the latest version of the OS was launched to Red Hat Network subscribers on March 31 and is expected to be available to retail customers and RedHat.com visitors on Monday, April 7.
Microsoft announced the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) will certify the giant's C# programming language by the end of the month.
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