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| | | October 5, 2003
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Sunday, October 5, 2003 |
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SCO: SGI is next
Silicon Graphics Inc. is the next major company to face The SCO Group's ongoing offensive against the open-source community. In an annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), SGI revealed that an August letter from SCO CEO Darl McBride threatened revocation of its UNIX license. The Utah-based SCO Group, which earlier this year launched a multibillion-dollar litigation against IBM for illegally transferring UNIX code into Linux, claims SGI breached its contract by making parts of Irix, SGI's version of UNIX, available to open-source developers.
In the early days of September, SGI sent a written response to SCO, saying the allegations were without merit. Still, the high-end computer maker appears to be headed IBM's way, facing SCO's legal challenge. But according to news reports, SCO had said it would not sue SGI for the time being.
At the same time, SCO responded to IBM's recently amended counterclaims by claiming the General Public License (GPL), under which Linux is distributed, is an untested legal ground, which may not stand in court. The SCO Group is saying its allegations are based on U.S. copyright and contract laws and expressed optimism it would be able to prove its case against the computer giant.
More from: CNET News.com | Computer Business Review | Computerworld | InternetNews.com | VNUNET.com 1 2
VeriSign shuts down Site Finder
VeriSign backed down from its controversial Site Finder service after in a formal statement and a letter to VeriSign's general manager Russell Lewis the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) ordered the company to suspend domain name redirections. California-based VeriSign, which operates the master domain name registry for .com and .net domains, introduced Site Finder on September 15 and swiftly drew widespread criticism and a slew of lawsuits from competitors.
ICANN accused VeriSign of disrupting Internet's underlying technology, the Domain Name System (DNS), and criticized its unilateral approach. In addition, ICANN determined VeriSign had breached its contractual obligations, failed to act as a neutral registrar and violated the Code of Conduct. ICANN's president and CEO Paul Twomey gave VeriSign until 9 p.m. EDT on Saturday (0100 GMT on Sunday) to disable the Site Finder application.
VeriSign announced it will accede to the request and the Site Finder service was shut down late on Friday. The company described the action as temporary and said it is looking into its options.
More from: CNET News.com | Computerworld | InternetNews.com | The Mercury Times | The Register
Microsoft readies to secure the perimeter
After being harshly reprehended for weeks, Microsoft released an updated fix for an easy-to-exploit Internet Explorer vulnerability known as the "Object Type" security hole. Over the week, a newly appeared Trojan, dubbed Qhost or Delude.B by antivirus companies, successfully exploited the then unpatched flaw. Qhost hijacked web traffic to popular sites such as AltaVista, Google, Lycos, MSN, Yahoo! and others. The annoying Trojan, although not particularly harmful, served pornographic and gambling pop-up ads to infected users.
Microsoft's security woes sparked a lawsuit against the giant by a Los Angeles woman who contends the software maker is guilty of creating products that wreak "massive, cascading" havoc across networks worldwide. The suit, although having a single plaintiff, is designed as a class-action litigation, but analysts expect Microsoft to fight hard to prevent such escalation.
Battered with security mishaps, senior Microsoft executives are hinting at the software maker's rapidly expanding security strategy that may no longer merely involve patch installation. Microsoft is increasingly expected to attempt to secure the perimeter of its customers' computer networks, working more closely with antivirus and firewall software vendors, but few details about its upcoming initiatives have been leaked.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 | Computerworld 1 2 | NewsFactor 1 2 | Reuters | TechWeb
Adobe overhauls, integrates products
Adobe Systems Inc. announced an overhaul of its product line, scheduled to be on sale from November. Adobe will be offering new versions of its Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and GoLive products, also available in a complete, professional design environment called Adobe Creative Suite. Among the most prominent features of the package is Version Cue, a novel file management tool that allows members of graphic design teams to keep track of file iterations. With Creative Suite Adobe will be pushing for stronger adoption of its web and print media publishing software, which has for years been battling powerful competitors in the face of Quark and Macromedia.
More from: AP (via CRN) | CNET News.com | InternetNews.com | TechWeb
In Other News...
 Sun Microsystems said it would revise its earnings for the quarter that ended June 30, posting a loss of $1.04 billion. Previously the California-based software and hardware maker had reported a profit of $12 million. Upon the announcement, Sun's shares plunged more than 15 percent on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Microsoft launched its Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, a version of Windows offered in Europe and the United States, packed with software that turns PCs into entertainment hubs.
After months in the making, Napster is coming back. CD and DVD-copying software maker Roxio Inc. will officially unveil a test version of Napster 2.0 on October 9. Unlike its past, Napster will no longer allow unrestricted song-swapping, but a catalog of over 500,000 digital audio files for sale.
The web site of CBS News was hacked on Friday by a supporter of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Some of the visitors of CBSNews.com were shown a text and a video message promoting the policies of the Cleveland congressman.
Cerulean Studios released a patch for its Trillian instant messaging (IM) software, which according to the company, allows users to connect to Yahoo!'s IM network. Recently Yahoo! blocked third-party applications and asked its users to upgrade to the latest version of its Yahoo! Messenger.
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