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| | | August 3, 2003
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Sunday, August 3, 2003 |
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In an uneventful technology week, the recording industry made the most hubbub with its unceasing hunt for Internet pirates.
RIAA's crackdown continues, albeit with a minor snag
The efforts of the music industry to pursue individual file-swappers hit a bump on the road after one of the major U.S. broadband Internet connection providers challenged the actions of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Pacific Bell Internet Services (PBIS), a unit of telecommunications giant SBC Communications, filed a lawsuit against RIAA, alleging the industry trade group served subpoenas to identify file-sharing networks' users from the wrong jurisdiction and illegally requested information on multiple users under one subpoena. The Internet Service Provider (ISP) noted the process posed significant threats to the customer's constitutionally protected right to privacy.
An influential U.S. lawmaker also criticized the record labels' approach. In a letter to RIAA, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman requested detailed information about the group's policies, subpoena standards and evidence gathering process in its fight with online music piracy. The association was swift to respond it will cooperate with all U.S. authorities and provide the requested information. The group was widely seen as trying to establish strong ties with the Republican-controlled Senate and the White House by hiring Mitch Bainwol, former chief of staff of Senate Majority leader Bill Frist, to assume the duties of RIAA chairman, beginning this fall.
This comes as several research groups and U.S. government agencies warned of the threats coming from file-swapping applications. The Pew Internet Project released a study showing 67 percent of U.S. adult users of file-sharing networks were indifferent to downloading copyrighted songs. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a consumer warning that using free file-trading software on the Internet could pose potential privacy and legal risks.
As the RIAA pursues illegal file-sharing, the number of legitimate online music services continues to grow. Software company Roxio announced the rebirth of Napster is coming soon. Roxio, which makes popular CD/DVD burning tools, said Napster 2.0 will be available for the Christmas holidays later this year and will be offering unlimited downloads for a monthly subscription fee.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 3 4 5 6 | CRN | InternetNews.com 1 2 3 4 | The Register 1 2 | Reuters 1 2 3 | VNUNET.com 1 2 3 | The Washington Post 1 2 | Wired News 1 2
Worldwide security uproar
Microsoft, Internet security firms and even the U.S. government rang the alarm bells this week over a potential large-scale attack on the Net. The world's largest software company warned in the middle of July that a critical flaw in Windows' Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol could result in the takeover of a vulnerable computer by an attacker.
Two weeks later, after an exploit of the vulnerability was publicly released on the Internet, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), numerous security companies and Microsoft released additional warnings, urging computer users and administrators alike to immediately update their systems. According to various sources, hackers have begun actively scanning for susceptible computers on the Internet and exploiting the flaw. Security researchers have warned that this could eventually result in a significant Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack against major web sites or other critical Internet infrastructure.
In the meantime, a new worm began circulating on the World Wide Web. Antivirus software vendors said the new virus dubbed "Mimail" attempts to trick users into opening the e-mail attachment in which it comes by presenting itself to be a message from the network administrator.
More from:
AP (via The Washington Post) | AP (via eWeek) | CNET News.com 1 2 3 | ComputerWorld | eWeek 1 2 | InternetNews.com | VNUNET.com 1 2
In Other News...
 Microsoft.com experienced Friday a short, but effective Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack, which put the popular IT site offline for about 90 minutes. The software giant reported the outage was not related to any security hole in Microsoft's products. In a statement, the company also said it is cooperating with the authorities investigating the attack.
Remove.org, a Washington, D.C.-based organization claiming it could rid e-mail users from spam with its privately-run do-not-spam registry for $9.95 a year, has apparently been using spam as a marketing tool. The company's chief executive acknowledged using an e-marketer who sent unsolicited e-mail messages, advertising Remove.org. Privacy experts, however, warned that there was no legal framework to oblige spammers to avoid users who have registered with the group and that their claim was, according to one analyst, "pretty absurd."
Internet Service Provider America Online released AOL 9.0 Optimized, providing tangible enhancements, including improved spam filtering, parental control, a blogging utility and more.
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