« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »
March 31, 2005
Microsoft gives Blaster author a break on damages
By Joris EversThe teen convicted of creating a variant of the Blaster worm won't have to pay Microsoft Corp. US$497,546.55 in restitution. He can instead work it off by doing community service. Microsoft has agreed to forego the cash and convert the punishment into 225 hours of community service, according to a court document filed late Tuesday. Jeffrey Lee Parson, a 19 year-old from Hopkins, Minnesota, will have to work 75 hours per year over a three-year period with less fortunate members of his community. The work cannot involve computers or the Internet, according to the document.
Parson last year pleaded guilty to creating the W32.Blaster-B worm, which infected tens of thousands of computers in 2003. In January he was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by a three-year supervised release and 100 hours of community service. The parties later stipulated that Parson owed Microsoft nearly half a million dollars in restitution.
The Blaster variant appeared a few days after the original in August 2003. Both worms took advantage of flaws in Microsoft's Windows operating systems that allowed hackers to take control of PCs. The Blaster worms instructed infected PCs to launch denial-of-service attacks on Microsoft's Windows Update Web site on certain dates.
Parson's variant used a file name that was identical to a domain name registered in his name. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation was able to trace the domain name to computers owned by Parson. He was arrested days after his variant appeared.
"We are pleased this prosecution has been fully resolved with a prison sentence and appropriate restitution. Parson’s additional community service will have a stronger impact on him in serving his sentence," said Tim Cranton, senior attorney with the Internet Safety Enforcement team at Microsoft, in a statement provided by Microsoft's public relations agency.
The agreement between Microsoft and Parson still has to be approved by Judge Marsha Pechman, who in January gave Parson a break at sentencing. The sentence could have been as long as 37 months in prison but Pechman chose the lighter sentence based on Parson's age, history of mental illness and lack of parental supervision, prosecutors said at the time.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:50 PM
Microsoft expands Windows piracy check on downloads
By Joris EversExpanding its measures to combat software piracy, Microsoft Corp. will require users who want to download local language add-ons to Windows to first validate their copy of the operating system as legitimate. Microsoft offers versions of Windows XP in 24 languages at present. It supports an additional 20 languages with free operating system add-ons, called Windows XP Language Interface Packs. The add-ons do not offer complete translations of the Windows XP user interface, but cover many of its common features.
Over the coming months, Microsoft will require users who want to download the add-ons to first authenticate their copy of Windows, blocking access for users of pirated Windows copies, the company said in a statement. The first add-on to be affected will be the Vietnamese language interface pack, which was made available on Wednesday and requires validation to download.
Microsoft has been testing the piracy lock, which it calls Windows Genuine Advantage, on its Download Center Web site since September. Over 5 million users have taken part in the test, according to Microsoft.
The Redmond, Washington-based software maker has gradually been expanding the piracy check, beginning with certain international versions of Windows XP. Currently Download Center visitors using Norwegian, Czech and Simplified Chinese versions of Windows are required to validate their copy of Windows.
At an unspecified date in mid-2005 Microsoft will require all Windows XP and Windows 2000 users to validate their copy of Windows before they can download software from the Download Center or Windows Update Web site, the company has said.
Microsoft's Download Center and Windows Update Web sites offer applications such as Windows Media Player and the Windows AntiSpyware product as well as security updates for Microsoft products. Windows Automatic Updates, the security update feature in Windows, will not require validation, nor will security patches on the Download Center, according to Microsoft.
The Windows Genuine Advantage checking mechanism is anonymous, according to Microsoft. It includes an ActiveX control on the client side and the Windows Product Activation service on the Microsoft side. A user has to install the ActiveX control and enter the Windows product key, which is typically found on a sticker affixed to the PC.
Software piracy is a major issue for Microsoft. In the U.S. alone, almost a quarter of all Windows users run an illegal copy. However, one problem the software maker faces is that many users running illegal copies of Windows don't know that their software is pirated. Users who discover that they have a pirated copy of Windows will be offered a genuine version of Windows at a discount, Microsoft has said.
Microsoft has adopted a multipronged attack on software piracy. The company is selling cheaper versions of Windows in certain Asian countries where software piracy is widespread and is also working closely with law enforcement to stop those who manufacture or sell illegal copies of its products.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:49 PM
I2 to lay off 15 percent of workforce
By Robert McMillanSupply chain software vendor i2 Technologies Inc. on Wednesday announced that it has begun a round of layoffs that will see as much as 15 percent of its 2,000 person workforce eliminated. The struggling software vendor will notify most employees of the layoffs by Thursday, the end of the company's first fiscal quarter, said company spokeswoman Beth Elkin. The layoffs will be company-wide and are not focused on any one business unit or geographic region, she said.
Faced with losses and declining revenue over the last year, i2 is looking for ways to cut costs. Though the layoffs will result in a restructuring charge for the company's first quarter, the Dallas-based company hopes to eventually trim more than $15 million off its operating costs. Operating expenses totalled $85 million in the fourth quarter of 2004, the company said in a statement.
In addition to the layoffs, i2 also hopes to cut costs with a number of unspecified program and operating expense reductions, Elkin said. The company plans to detail these programs during its next quarterly earnings call, she said.
The workforce reductions come just over a month after i2 appointed Michael McGrath, as president and chief executive officer. In Wednesday's statement, McGrath said he was given a "mandate by the Board of Directors to resize and refocus i2."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:49 PM
Comdex canceled again this year
By Joris EversMediaLive International Inc. is canceling the Las Vegas Comdex trade show for another year because it has not yet been able to rebuild the event, the company said. "Considerable work remains to build an industry event to serve the industry as it matures with the same success that Comdex did in its infancy. As such, Comdex 2005 will not be held this November in Las Vegas," MediaLive spokesman Ben Stricker said in a statement sent via e-mail on Wednesday.
Comdex in Las Vegas was once a staple of the technology industry. However, attendance at the show fell after the Internet bubble burst, from about 200,000 in 2000 to 125,000 in 2003. Many attendees said the show had grown too big and unfocused, and a rival Las Vegas event, January's Consumer Electronics Show, became the place to be.
Last year MediaLive canceled Comdex because of a lack of support from the biggest IT vendors. That problem persists, Stricker said in an interview. "We're still working with the IT community," he said.
Despite having to go two years without Comdex, MediaLive sees a future for the event. "We hope to bring back Comdex in 2006," Stricker said. However, he would not give a probability of the event returning next year. "Right now it is too early to say," he said.
Other Comdex events around the world, including shows in France and Greece, will go ahead as planned, MediaLive said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:49 PM
Microsoft pegs new Exchange release for 2006
By Joris EversMicrosoft Corp. plans to release the next version of its Exchange messaging server in 2006, a company executive said Tuesday. Microsoft had previously said that Exchange 12, the code name for the next Exchange version, would be out in 2006 or 2007. Andy Lees, corporate vice president of the server and tools business at Microsoft, in a presentation in San Francisco on Tuesday said the product is slated to ship in 2006.
Exchange 12 succeeds Exchange Server 2003, which Microsoft released in October 2003. The product will aim to help users cut costs, bolster security, and improve the messaging experience. Chief rival to Exchange is IBM Corp.'s Notes/Domino and the Java-based Workplace platform. Other competing products are sold by vendors including Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.
One major improvement to Exchange 12 will be its role-based architecture, which Microsoft has said will simplify deployment and cut operational costs. Administrators will be able to configure Exchange 12 in six distinct roles using a wizard, Microsoft has said. The server roles are edge server, bridgehead server, unified messaging server, client access server, mailbox server, and public folder server.
Microsoft also is improving management with new scripting and user interface upgrades in Exchange 12, improving the search feature, and adding Web services APIs (application programming interfaces) and 64-bit support. Also in the works is continuous backup, a new replication feature that copies data from an active server to a passive server.
Microsoft is aligning development of Exchange 12 with the next version of Office, which is also expected out late in the second half of 2006. Other closely linked products that likely will be updated around the same time are Windows SharePoint Services, SharePoint Portal Server, Live Communications Server and Windows Mobile, Microsoft has said.
Lees spoke at a San Francisco event where Intel Corp. launched new high-end Xeon processors with 64-bit capabilities and discussed new dual-core processors coming next year.
Other Microsoft products due in 2006 that will support Intel's new 64-bit processors include the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, Commerce Server 2006, Host Integration Server 2006, BizTalk Server 2006, Virtual Server v2 and Microsoft Operations Manager, according to Lees' presentation. Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and Windows Server 2003 will support the processors this year, according to the presentation.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:48 PM
March 30, 2005
Supreme Court justices question P-to-P lawsuits
By Grant GrossTechnology companies may shy away from inventing new products that could be used to violate copyright laws if the U.S. entertainment industry can sue the distributors of the Grokster and Morpheus P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software packages for their users' actions, some U.S. Supreme Court justices argued Tuesday. During oral arguments in the MGM vs. Grokster case, justices peppered a lawyer for the entertainment industry with questions, saying a move away from a 21-year-old standard on technology and copyright could have major effects on the U.S. technology industry. The Grokster case was the first of two technology-related cases argued before the Supreme Court Tuesday, with the court also examining federal regulation of Internet cable modem service.
Donald Verrilli Jr., representing the music and movie industries in the case, told justices that Grokster Ltd. and Morpheus distributor StreamCast Networks Inc. built their business plans around copyright violations, and the vast majority of files traded with the Grokster and Morpheus software violate copyright law. The Supreme Court's 1984 Sony Betamax ruling exempts makers of technology from secondary copyright liability lawsuits when their technology has "substantial noninfringing uses," but Grokster supporters can point to just a few hundred thousand legal files among the 2.6 billion traded with P-to-P software each month, he said.
"That's the whole business," Verrilli said. "What they're talking about as lawful is a tiny, teeny little fraction."
Verrilli called Grokster and Morpheus a "gigantic infringement machine that was built on inducement" of copyright violations.
But Justice Stephen Breyer questioned how the court could draw the line between Verrilli's assertion that P-to-P software enabled "substantial" infringements and the Betamax ruling. If the court recognized a new standard penalizing technologies enabling substantial copyright violations, the copying machine, the VCR and the Gutenberg printing press might not be legal, Breyer said.
Using the same logic, the entertainment industry could argue that Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod also encourages copyright violations, added Justice David Souter. "If I can get music to the iPod without buying the CD, I'm not going to buy the CD," he said. "How do we know in advance on your test anything that gives the inventor or ... the developer the confidence to go ahead?"
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals erred in rejecting the entertainment industry's case because it "basically adopted a test of theoretical noninfringing uses," answered Paul Clement, acting solicitor general of the U.S. Department of Justice, which is siding with plaintiffs Motion Picture Association of America, the National Music Publisher's Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America in the Grokster case.
But a tougher definition of secondary liability would open up technology companies to many more lawsuits, said Justice Antonin Scalia. "I'm going to get sued right away before I get a chance to do business," he said.
Justices didn't spare P-to-P lawyer Richard Taranto from tough questioning. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that the Sony Betamax decision continued on for 13 pages after establishing that the Betamax VCR technology was capable of substantial noninfringing uses. The Supreme Court in 1984 recognized that the VCR's primary commercial use was for "time shifting" television programs by recording them and watching them later, a legal use, she said.
Justice Anthony Kennedy questioned why the Supreme Court should stick to the Betamax standard when most commercial uses of P-to-P are related to copyright violations. Taranto told justices that the Grokster case focused only on the current actions of the P-to-P vendors, not past actions that may have encouraged users to violate copyright law, but Kennedy questioned how Taranto could separate past actions from the current business plans.
"What you want to say is unlawfully appropriated property can be used for (a business') startup capital," Kennedy told Taranto.
Ginsburg also questioned how the distributors of Grokster and Morpheus could shield themselves from charges of willful ignorance of their users' copyright violations. Justices noted the 9th Circuit Court, in 2001, ruled against file-trading service Napster.
Unlike the old Napster service, which operated centralized servers, Grokster and StreamCast Networks don't know what's being traded by users of their software, Taranto said. Their decision to offer decentralized file-trading software went beyond avoiding Napster's fate, he said; P-to-P technology also frees the vendors from the cost of operating central servers.
Outside the courtroom, advocates for the Grokster side wore T-shirts saying, "Save Betamax." One spectator said he arrived at the court at 10 p.m. Monday, and slept on the sidewalk, but was 31st in line for the hearing starting at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Grokster supporters said they were encouraged by the justice's questions during the hearing. "I thought the justices asked exactly the right questions," said Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and lawyer for StreamCast Networks in this case. "Is it right that the entertainment industry should be in charge of the nation's technology sector?"
A Supreme Court decision is expected in about three months.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:39 PM
Supreme Court asks why cable broadband lacks regulation
By Grant GrossU.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday questioned why the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would classify cable modem broadband as unregulated, while it regulates DSL (digital subscriber line) and other services offered by large telecommunications carriers. In the Brand X vs. FCC case, a group of Internet service providers has opposed the FCC's attempts to classify cable modem service as an unregulated information service, effectively shutting out independent ISPs from riding on cable broadband networks and selling their services to cable modem users.
During oral arguments, Supreme Court justices questioned how cable modem service providers can argue that broadband access and Internet functionality are an inseparable service when the FCC has required large incumbent telecom carriers to sell access to their broadband networks to competing Internet service providers (ISPs).
Thomas Hungar, deputy solicitor general at the U.S. Department of Justice, told justices that the FCC had the authority to separate cable modem service from traditional telecommunication service.
In recent years, the FCC has moved away from classifying DSL as a telecommunication service, he noted. Incumbent local telecom carriers have traditionally faced regulation, including requirements they share access to their networks with competing carriers, because the four large incumbents inherited large parts of their networks after the breakup of the government-sanctioned AT&T Corp. monopoly in 1984.
In February 2003, the FCC voted to phase out rules requiring the large incumbent telecoms, often called regional Bells, to share residential DSL lines at discounted rates with competing ISPs.
On one side of the Brand X case is a group of ISPs, including Earthlink Inc. and Brand X Internet LLC, arguing that U.S. broadband customers would have more choices of providers, and that competition could drive down prices, if the Supreme Court rejects the FCC's attempt to classify cable modem broadband as an unregulated information service.
Supporters of the FCC action, including the cable industry, say broadband adoption in the U.S., hailed by President George Bush and other politicians as an engine of economic growth, would slow if cable providers were forced to share their networks with competing ISPs.
Both sides' arguments depend heavily on arcane definitions of telecommunication and information services buried in FCC regulations and U.S. telecom laws.
During arguments Tuesday, Justice Antonin Scalia compared the cable industry's argument in the case to an automobile parts vendor who requires customers to purchase car windshields when they want to buy windshield wipers. Justice Stephen Breyer compared cable modem service to voice mail, which offers similar functionality to e-mail but is associated with a highly regulated telecommunication service.
"I keep thinking of my answering machine and it doesn't seem that much different," Breyer said.
The FCC in March 2002 ruled that cable modem service was an information service not subject to the same regulation as telecom services. The FCC suggested then that less regulation would foster the growth of broadband, and by extension, the Internet. In October 2003, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the FCC decision.
The FCC mistakenly separated information services from telecommunication services, when cable modem service is a combination of both, argued Thomas Goldstein, lawyer for Brand X and the other ISPs involved in the case. The FCC allowed cable modem providers to avoid regulations by not offering a separate, stand-alone broadband service, he said.
"Congress could not have intended carriers to deregulate themselves simply by adding some (Internet) service," Goldstein said.
But Paul Cappuccio, a lawyer representing the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, told justices it was impossible to separate the Internet functionality from the broadband functionality in cable modem service. The cable companies tied together "two ingredients that come together to make a separate product," he said.
Cappuccio argued that the FCC looked at how cable modems work in practice and saw an unregulated Internet-related service. But definitions in U.S. law suggest carriers can offer both information and telecommunications services at the same time, and the two don't have to be exclusive, Goldstein countered.
Breyer questioned if the court should overrule the FCC and attempt to draw its own lines. "I don't know how broadband services will be offered 20 years from now," he said. "There could be wireless. People could be broadcasting using their teeth. Why not leave it to the FCC?"
The Supreme Court on Tuesday also heard oral arguments in another technology-related case. The entertainment industry argued it should have the right to sue the makers of the Grokster and Morpheus peer-to-peer software for their users' copyright violations.
The court is expected to rule on both cases in about three months.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:39 PM
Bloglines adds package tracking to its service
By Juan Carlos PerezThe Bloglines online content-aggregation service plans to let its users track from within its service package-shipping information from FedEx Corp., United Parcel Service of America Inc. (UPS) and the U.S. Postal Service, according to a company executive. This is the first of many types of personalized online information that Bloglines will be able to gather on behalf of its users, said Mark Fletcher, Bloglines' vice president and general manager. "Bloglines is moving beyond the blog," he said. For example, Bloglines will be able to collect local weather information and stock prices.
Bloglines' core service is monitoring the content "feeds" that millions of Web sites distribute using technologies such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom. Users decide which feeds they want monitored and Bloglines aggregates the content in users' Bloglines personal Web pages.
But Bloglines wants to aggregate a broader scope of online information and become a "universal inbox" for its users, Fletcher said. "Instead of you having to go out and get all of this online information that's part of your life, Bloglines will bring this information to you," he said.
The shipping tracking feature will be available on Wednesday. To access it, users go to their Bloglines personal Web page and add the tracking number of the shipment they're interested in having Bloglines monitor. As are all existing Blogline services, it will be free, Fletcher said.
Bloglines was recently acquired by Ask Jeeves, which later was itself bought by IAC/InteractiveCorp.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
Microsoft launches mobile video download service
By Scarlet PruittMicrosoft Corp. has launched a video download service that offers daily television programming, entertainment clips and other digital content for viewing on Windows Mobile-based devices, it said Wednesday. The MSN Video Downloads service draws on content from Microsoft partners such as CinemaNow Inc., MSNBC.com and TiVo Inc., allowing subscribers to watch video on their smart phones, Pocket PCs and Portable Media Centers.
The service was previewed in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, showing how users can download specially formatted content to their PCs and then transfer it to devices running Windows Mobile software. For the final launch the service has been updated to allow subscribers to select specific content to be downloaded each day, Microsoft said. Users can also turn on an automatic deleting feature that vets files according to how long they have been stored on their PCs, it said.
The software maker has lined up numerous content partners to make video available online and optimized for Windows Mobile-based devices to strengthen the appeal of its mobile software. The Food Network, the DIY Network, Home & Garden Television, Fox Sports and MTV Networks Music are just some of the content providers on hand.
In addition to smart phones and Pocket PCs based on Windows Mobile, a handful of manufactures have signed up to make Portable Media Center devices using the Redmond, Washington, company's mobile software. Creative Labs Inc., for instance, launched its Zen Portable Media Center last year, targeting users who like to view video, music and pictures on the go. Microsoft's new download service is aimed at users of devices like the Zen.
The service is currently being offered only in the U.S. Premium memberships are priced at US$19.95 for one year, allowing access to every MSN video download. It requires Windows XP and Internet Explorer 5 or higher on the user's PC and Windows Media Player 10 and up. Additionally, some content is available for free, Microsoft said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
China uses Internet to oppose Japan's UN bid
By Sumner LemonChinese Internet users have turned to the Web to voice their displeasure over Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council, with millions of users signing their names to online petitions in recent days. The UN Security Council currently has five permanent members who can exercise the power to veto any resolution by the council. The five permanent members are: the U.S., China, France, the U.K., and Russia. Japan is hoping to secure a permanent seat to reflect its position as one of the world's largest economies.
At 3:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday, 6.1 million people had signed their name to a Sina Corp. petition opposing Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Online petitions by rival portal operators Netease.com Inc. and Sohu.com Inc. had garnered 4.4 million and 2.3 million signatures, respectively. To sign these petitions, users must submit their name and place of residence.
Sina has been collecting signatures of those opposed to Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council since March 23, according to the company. The collected signatures will be presented to the UN and the Japanese and Chinese governments, it said.
Political discussions on the Internet are closely monitored in China. These controls -- which can involve screening posts or deleting those postings that are deemed undesirable -- are usually stepped up around sensitive events and anniversaries.
For example, Internet surveillance of chat rooms and discussion forums was stepped up during the annual National People's Congress meeting in Beijing earlier this month. Chinese officials have also recently shut down Internet bulletin boards at some universities. However, the Chinese government is less quick to stifle political discourse that reflects its own positions or expressions of nationalism.
Chinese opposition to Japanese efforts to secure a permanent seat on the UN Security Council largely stems from continued anger over Japan's brutal invasion and occupation of China during the 1930s and 1940s. Many Chinese feel that Japan has not fully accepted responsibility for atrocities committed by its soldiers during that period, including the 1937-1938 massacre in Nanjing.
In addition, official Chinese press reports have recently expressed disapproval with a recent joint declaration by Japan and the U.S. that defines Taiwan as a mutual security concern. China and Taiwan were separated in 1949 at the end of a civil war. China today regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has repeatedly threatened to attack the island if the Taiwanese government formally declares independence.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
March 29, 2005
MCI accepts Verizon bid
By Nancy Weil and Grant GrossMCI Inc. has accepted a revised US$7.64 billion acquisition bid from Verizon Communications Inc., rejecting a higher offer from Qwest Communications International Inc., MCI announced Tuesday. The Verizon bid increases the cash payout to MCI shareholders and protects them against the possibility of a drop in the value of Verizon shares they will receive, MCI said in a statement explaining its decision.
In a statement announcing the decision, MCI said that its board considered the following matters as part of the discussion about which offer to take: changing competition in the telecommunications industry; increased need for scale and comprehensive wireless capabilities; access economics; how well the companies will mesh; strength of the capital structure; ongoing ability to sustain network service quality and invest in new areas; how best to ensure customer confidence among large business and government customers.
"We believe Verizon's substantial increase in its offer, the strength of its competitive position and the financial certainty at close make this offer compelling to our shareholders, customers and employees," MCI Chairman Nicholas Katzenbach said in the statement.
Under revised terms of the Verizon deal, each MCI share will receive cash and stock worth at least $23.50, which is an increase in cash of $2.75 per share, or about $900 million in the aggregate, MCI said. That brings the per-share cash payment to $8.75. Verizon may pay more cash instead of issuing additional shares beyond an agreed-upon exchange ratio. The original agreement on Feb. 14 called for MCI shareholders to receive $6 cash along with Verizon shares.
Qwest's most recent proposal was for $10.50 in cash per share along with shares in Qwest. It's total value is $8.45 billion, according to MCI's valuation.
Verizon set off the bidding war by making its Feb. 14 offer, three days after Qwest got things rolling. Both had been in talks with MCI. The bids for MCI came to light a couple of weeks after SBC Communications Inc. announced it would acquire AT&T Corp in a $16 billion deal.
After the initial volley of bids, revisions came in, and deadlines were set to allow MCI to consider the rival bids and negotiate before the board made its final decision.
Verizon, Qwest and SBC are three of the four remaining incumbent local telecom carriers that divided up U.S. local telephone service after the government breakup of the old AT&T in 1984. MCI and AT&T, traditionally long-distance companies, have in recent years focused on building Internet Protocol-based networks and providing telecom and Internet services to large business customers. The incumbent carriers, often called regional Bells, would gain large international and business customer bases through acquisition of AT&T or MCI.
MCI Inc., formerly known WorldCom Inc., has faced financial struggles since June 2002, when an internal audit uncovered $3.8 billion in accounting errors. In July 2002, WorldCom declared bankruptcy, and the accounting misstatements eventually reached $11 billion. In March 2004, a month before the newly renamed MCI emerged from bankruptcy, the company issued a report reducing pretax income for 2000 and 2001 by $74.4 billion.
WorldCom merged with the original MCI Communications Corp. in September 1998 in a $37 billion deal. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history.
Before the company declared bankruptcy, WorldCom Chief Executive Officer Bernard Ebbers resigned in April 2002, amid questions about more than $360 million in personal loans he received from the company. In March 2004, Ebbers was charged in federal court in New York with conspiracy and securities fraud. Scott D. Sullivan, WorldCom's former chief financial officer, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Ebbers was recently convicted on those charges.
After emerging from bankruptcy, MCI reported revenue of $5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004, down 10 percent compared to the year-earlier period. The company's operating profit for the quarter was $434 million, compared to an operating loss of $332 million a year earlier.
Verizon was formed through a $53 billion merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE, announced in 1998. Verizon is the incumbent local telecom carrier in New England, New York and the Mid-Atlantic states.
The company, which started as a local phone service carrier, has focused in recent months on enterprise telecom services and on delivering fiber-to-the-premises service to some customers. Verizon’s fiber deployment will allow it to offer television services that compete with cable TV.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 06:14 PM
Japan tightens personal data protection
By Paul KallenderNext month many companies throughout Japan, including foreign companies, will have to comply with legislation that sets out new rules for handling personal data. The Personal Information Protection Law, effective April 1, applies to any company with offices in Japan that holds personal data on 5,000 or more individuals, according to Kazuhito Masui, an attorney at Shiba International Law Offices, a major international law firm based in Tokyo.
Personal data as defined by the law includes a person's name, address, date of birth, sex, home and/or mobile phone numbers and also a person's e-mail address if that address is recognizably the person's name. The 5,000 minimum includes company employees, Masui said in an interview last week.
The law states a set of obligations for companies handling personal data, and Japan's Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI) has issued a set of guidelines on how to maintain data security, he said.
Companies must designate a manager called a corporate privacy officer (CPO) and other staff to be responsible for meeting the provisions, and the law also sets fines of up to ¥300,000 (US$2,804) or jail sentences up to six months for the manager or data handlers who are found to have not complied, Masui said.
Among the new rules that companies must follow, they must specify for what purpose information is being collected, obtain consent from individuals before using the information for any other purpose than the one originally stated, and take measures to prevent data being leaked and stolen. Companies must also deal with complaints and correct mistaken data, Masui said.
The METI guidelines mirror many basic PC security measures, for example the use of long passwords that are changed frequently. Other guidelines cover data storage and antivirus measures.
In recent years there have been a string of cases in which personal data has been stolen or leaked from some of Japan's most famous companies. For example, in February 2004 Softbank BB Corp., a major broadband service provider, leaked personal data on more than 4.5 million subscribers, said Kazuo Makino, a professor of law at Kokushikan University.
The law and guidelines represent a significant step forward toward making personal data more secure in Japan, experts said.
"It's an attempt to make companies more responsible," Makino said.
While the penalties set for noncompliance to the law are low, the legislation should prove effective in making companies tighten up their security because of the damaging publicity that might arise if they are found guilty, Makino said.
The law also takes steps to protect civil liberties, said Eiji Yamada, an investigator for the Japan Network Security Association, a nonprofit information security consulting organization.
"The fundamental point is that it's an effort to protect privacy, and that's part of protecting individual rights," he said in an interview on Monday.
So far, less than one percent of people who have had their data leaked have filed civil suits over recent years, Yamada said. After April 1, private individuals will find it much easier to file civil suits for compensation, he said.
"At the moment, Japanese don't generally go to court. Now lawyers are lining up and even offering application forms to join suits on their Web sites. For companies, the damages arising could prove very expensive, and it could be a busy time for lawyers," he said.
Achieving compliance should be possible within the existing IT budgets for larger companies, although it is having a bigger impact on smaller companies, experts said.
For example, designating a manager for a small company of 10 to 20 people and having that person handle all the new duties might add 20 percent to the manager's monthly workload, said Masui.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:42 PM
ISPs join to 'fingerprint' Internet attacks
By Paul RobertsLeading global telecommunications companies, ISPs (Internet service providers) and network operators will begin sharing information on Internet attacks as members of a new group called the "Fingerprint Sharing Alliance," according to a published statement from the new group. The companies, including EarthLink Inc., Asia Netcom, British Telecommunications PLC and MCI Inc., will share detailed profile information on attacks launched against their networks. Information to be shared will include the source of attacks. The alliance will make it easier for ISPs and network operators to crack down on global Internet attacks more quickly, according to Tom Schuster, president of Arbor Networks Inc., which launched the new alliance.
The Fingerprint Sharing Alliance uses technology from Arbor called Peakflow to spot network attacks and automatically generate a profile, or "fingerprint" of the attack in a standard data file format called PCAP. That fingerprint information is passed along to other service providers closer to the source of the attack, which can then block the source of the traffic, he said.
Arbor wrapped features that support the Fingerprint Alliance into the last release of Peakflow, which came out at the beginning of 2005. Alliance members have been using Peakflow to share attack fingerprints since then, Schuster said.
The alliance replaces an ad hoc system of e-mail messages and phone calls that operators of large networks use to coordinate their response to attacks and threats, Arbor said. Because communication has been cumbersome, ISPs and network owners have had no incentive to share attack information.
The alliance will make it easier for them to cooperate, which will also lower the threshold that attacks must pass to get the attention of ISPs, so that even attacks on small ISP customers prompt response from large infrastructure providers. Peakflow also scrubs the data in fingerprints, so alliance members cannot use them to sniff sensitive information on competitors, according to Schuster.
"People are realizing that the world is a connected place. We have to empower service providers at the point of origin to have zero tolerance," he said.
Cracking down on those behind even small attacks may also improve the overall health of the Internet and quell raging problems such as "botnets" of zombie computers that are used in large-scale attacks, according to Schuster.
Membership in the alliance is not limited to Arbor customers or Peakflow users. Network owners that are not Arbor customers can generate their own fingerprints and accept PCAP-format fingerprints generated by Alliance members. However, Arbor's technology "speeds up the process considerably" by automatically creating and distributing the fingerprints.
All current members of the alliance are Peakflow customers, and the company's roster of global ISPs gives the program bite, Schuster said.
The alliance is a first step in addressing the problem of Internet attacks. Arbor hopes that the participation of leading ISPs will compel competitors, as well as smaller network owners, to take part as well.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:42 PM
Industry group sets out to make VOIP secure
By Stephen LawsonA group formed to head off VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) security problems laid out its first set of priorities on Monday: setting up a taxonomy to classify threats and establishing the requirements for making VOIP secure. The VOIP Security Alliance (VOIPSA), which was established last month and includes Verizon Communications Inc., Nortel Networks Corp., VeriSign Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and about 50 other vendors and service providers, also announced its first board of directors.
Initially, the group will set up two committees, according to David Endler, VOIPSA chairman and director of security research at Tipping Point, a 3Com Corp. company that sells intrusion prevention gear. One committee will figure out a way to classify threats and the other will define security requirements for VOIP equipment and security components, as well as for network architecture and management and user authentication. Armed with the results of these committees, VOIPSA will move on to defining best practices, developing test methodologies, driving research into vulnerabilities and educating the industry and public, Endler said. VOIPSA is not intended as a standards organization but as a vendor-independent resource for the industry, he said.
VOIPSA aims to prevent a common problem with popular new technologies, such as Wi-Fi wireless LANs, in which the technology is quickly adopted and only later does the industry find and address security problems, Endler said.
Potential dangers to VOIP include DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks, voice spam and a form of phishing in which attackers could spoof the phone number of a legitimate caller on a caller ID display, Endler said. The threats are only beginning to emerge, but over time they're likely to proliferate, even getting into the hands of inexperienced hackers known as "script kiddies," he said.
"The same security threats that plague data networks today are inherited by VOIP," Endler said. But the addition of VOIP as an application on the network makes those threats even more dangerous, he added. For example, a DDOS attack may slow down someone browsing the Web, but on a VOIP network it could prevent 911 calls, he said. "By adding VOIP components to your data network, you're also adding new security requirements."
Though the group has a broad roster of equipment vendors, service providers and security companies, major VOIP names such as Cisco Systems Inc., Vonage Holdings Corp. and chip maker Texas Instruments Inc. are not yet members. Those companies all have been invited, Endler said.
Cisco declined the invitation because it's already working on enhancing VOIP security through standards organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, International Telecommunication Union and SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Forum, said Roger Farnsworth, a Cisco product marketing manager. Cisco believes it ships secure VOIP systems today and has published its own set of guidelines for implementing secure IP telephony as part of the Cisco SAFE Blueprint series, he said.
"We thought it would be redundant to join another group that is addressing these problems," Farnsworth said. "If they specify activities that are in the interests of the industry and aligned with Cisco's interests, we'll be the first to line up," he added.
IDC VOIP analyst William Stofega is cautiously optimistic about the alliance.
"I think they have enough critical mass between carriers and vendors that it should provide enough momentum to solve some of the outstanding problems," Stofega said. However, the addition of more service providers and a dominant company such as Cisco or Microsoft Corp. would help, he added.
Other major threats to VOIP networks include spam calling, tapping into calls and denial of service, Stofega said.
One frequently overlooked area that should be addressed in VOIPSA's guidelines is physical security for server rooms, Stofega said. An attacker who gets access to a server can wreak havoc, and the results could be especially devastating if that server is running a company's phone calls, he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:41 PM
Google acquires Web analytics system developer
By Martyn WilliamsGoogle Inc. has acquired Urchin Software Corp., a Web site analytics system developer, it said in a statement on Monday. The deal, financial terms of which were not disclosed, is expected to close in April.
Urchin's software is typically used by Web site operators to provide data on user experience and allow the optimization of content and Web marketing, the statement said. Urchin said its system is used by over 1 million sites worldwide and claims this makes it the most widely deployed Web analytics system.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:41 PM
Report puts VeriSign in lead to continue running .net
By Scarlet PruittVeriSign Inc. moved a step closer to renewing its contract to operate the .net domain registry this week after an independent evaluator ranked its bid higher than those of the four other contenders. In a report released Monday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), evaluator Telcordia Technologies Inc. rated VeriSign's proposal for .net as "exceeding requirements" in 14 high priority categories, putting it in the lead to win the bid.
The independent evaluation is a critical factor in deciding which bidder will operate .net when VeriSign's existing contract expires on June 30. The coveted domain supports more than US$700 billion in e-commerce annually, as well as 3 trillion Web page views a year, according to VeriSign.
The new contract will be offered for at least six years. VeriSign has held its current .net contract since May 2001. The Mountain View, California, company also manages the .com registry.
ICANN, the nonprofit organization that oversees technical matters related to the Internet, issued a request for proposals on the new .net contract in December. Four challengers to VeriSign threw their hats into the ring: Dublin-based registry services provider Afilias Ltd., Sentan Registry Services Inc., Core++, representing a consortium of partners from various businesses providing registry management services, and German domain registry Denic.
The Telcordia report puts VeriSign on top based on factors such as technical competence, stability and security, but the company is closely followed by Sentan, which was rated by the evaluator as exceeding requirements in 12 high priority categories. Afilias, Denic and Core++ trailed far behind, effectively turning the bid into a two-horse race.
Telcordia concluded in its report that the risk to the operation of .net is minimal if either Sentan or VeriSign wins the contract.
ICANN is now inviting the Internet community to review the report, which is available on its Web site. The Marina Del Rey, California, organization will then enter into negotiations with the top contenders to reach an acceptable agreement, it said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:41 PM
March 28, 2005
Mark Cuban to finance Grokster's battle against MGM
By Martyn WilliamsLawyers for Grokster Ltd. have recruited a financially powerful ally in their fight against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. Mark Cuban has agreed to finance the legal effort against MGM, he wrote on Saturday in his web log. Cuban co-founded the HD.net high-definition broadcasting service and owns the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team. He is also known to many as a co-founder of the Broadcast.com service, which was sold to Yahoo in 1999.
"The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and others came to me and asked if I would finance the legal effort against MGM," he wrote. "I said yes. I would provide them the money they need."
Grokster is due to face MGM in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in a case that some say could have broad implications for the future of technological innovation. The issue in front of the court is whether content holders can sue peer-to-peer distributors like Grokster for the copyright violations of their users. Some critics of the entertainment industry say that should the court rule in favor of MGM that would open the door to legal actions by content holders against inventors of new technologies.
Cuban appears to agree with this point of view. In his web log entry, he said a loss for Grokster would make technological innovation the domain of big companies only. This is because smaller companies and innovators would not be able to legally insulate themselves against lawsuits that might result from a perceived threat that their new technology holds against the entertainment business, he said.
"It doesn't matter that the RIAA has been wrong about innovations and the perceived threat to their industry, every single time," Cuban wrote of the Recording Industry Association of America which is supporting MGM alongside the Motion Picture Association of America and the National Music Publisher's Association of America. "It just matters that they can spend more then everyone else on lawyers. That's not the way it should be," Cuban wrote.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:18 PM
Sony loses PlayStation patent case, must pay $91M
By Martyn WilliamsA U.S. court ordered Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) to pay Immersion Corp. US$90.7 million for patent infringement of touch feedback technology used in PlayStation games consoles, said court documents. The court also ordered a halt to U.S. sales of infringing PlayStation-brand consoles and 47 software titles as part of a patent-infringement lawsuit but put the order on-hold pending an appeal. The rulings from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday are the results of a lawsuit filed in 2002 by San Jose-based Immersion against SCEI, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
In the suit Immersion alleged that the three defendants had infringed on its patents covering haptic -- or touch -- feedback. Microsoft licensed Immersion's technology in 2003 but Sony decided to fight on.
In the rulings, U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken ordered SCEI and its U.S. unit to pay US$82 million for infringement of U.S. patents 6,424,333 and 6,275,213 and an interest payment of $8.7 million. The court denied a counter-claim from SCEI for a declaration of non-infringement, said the judgement.
The court also enjoined SCEI from manufacturing, using, selling and/or importing into the U.S. infringing PlayStation consoles, Dualshock controllers and 47 games that were found to infringe one or both of the patents.
However, this injunction was put on hold in response to a counter-motion from SCEI. The court said it stayed the order after consideration of SCEI's chances of winning an appeal against the injunction, damage to SCEI and Immersion that such a stay would cause and also the public interest, said the judgement. Sony was also ordered to pay a license for products already in the marketplace and those subsequently sold.
SCEI was disappointed by the decision but intends to fight the injunction, said Daisuke Nakata, a spokesman for SCEI in Tokyo.
Immersion could not be immediately reached for comment.
The games listed in the judgement are: A Bug's Life; Amplitude; Ape Escape; Atlantis: The Lost Empire; Bloody Roar 2; Cool Boarders 3, 4 and 2001; Crash Bash; Crash Team Racing; Draken: The Ancients' Gate; Emperor's New Groove; Extermination; FantaVision; Final Fantasy X; Formula One 2001; The Getaway; Gran Turismo 1, 2 and 3; Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and 3; Grind Session; ICO; Jak & Daxter; Kinetica; Kingdom Hearts; Legend of the Dragon; The Mark of Kri; Medal of Honor Frontline; Medieval 2; Metal Gear Solid 2; Monsters Inc.; Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus; SOCOM Navy Seals; Speed Punks; Spyro; Ripto's Rage and Year of the Dragon; Stuart Little 2; Syphon Filter 2 and 3; Tony's Hawk's Pro Skater 3; Twisted Metal: Black, 4 and Small Brawl; Treasure Planet; and War of the Monsters.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:17 PM
Supreme Court to hear cable modem case
By Grant GrossA group of ISPs (Internet service providers) on Tuesday will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to require broadband cable providers to share their networks with competitors, just as incumbent U.S. telecommunications carriers were required to share their DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) networks during the past five years. U.S. broadband customers would have more choices of providers, and the new competition could drive down prices if the Supreme Court rejects a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attempt to classify cable modem service as an unregulated information service, say the ISPs pushing for cable-sharing rules.
Supporters of the FCC action say broadband adoption in the U.S., hailed by President George Bush and other politicians as an engine of economic growth, would slow if cable providers were forced to share their networks with competing ISPs. Cable providers would have less incentive to improve connection speeds and otherwise upgrade their networks if they have to sell their networks at wholesale prices to competitors, said Dan Brenner, senior vice president for law and regulatory policy at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA).
A government effort to determine wholesale prices would put the cable industry in regulatory limbo, Brenner added. "Practically, how do you get from what we have today to (wholesale pricing) without a heavy-handed government intervention?" he said.
The Brand X vs. FCC case -- named for Brand X Internet LLC, an ISP that challenged the FCC's cable modem rules -- is one of two technology-related cases the Supreme Court will hear Tuesday. In the other case, the court will decide whether the U.S. entertainment industry can sue peer-to-peer software vendors for their users' copyright violations.
The Brand X case is tied to complicated FCC policy focused on how telecom carriers and Internet providers are regulated. The FCC has traditionally required the four large incumbent local telecom carriers, often called the regional Bells, to share parts of their networks with competitors at wholesale prices.
The incumbent Bells inherited large parts of their networks after the breakup of the old AT&T Corp. government-sanctioned monopoly in 1984. Congress, in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, required the FCC to establish network-sharing rules, with the goal of increasing competition for local phone service.
The FCC ruled in November 1999 that the incumbent Bells had to share their DSL lines with competitors. The regional Bells argued that DSL and cable modem service should enjoy the same regulatory treatment, and in February 2003, the FCC voted to phase out rules requiring the Bells to share residential DSL lines at discounted rates.
The FCC has taken a different approach with cable modem service, ruling in March 2002 that cable modem service was an information service not subject to the same regulation as telecom services. The FCC suggested then that less regulation would foster the growth of broadband, and by extension, the Internet.
ISPs, including Brand X Internet and Earthlink Inc., appealed the FCC cable modem ruling, and in October 2003, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the FCC decision.
Consumer groups, including Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America, have weighed in on the Brand X case, saying that additional ISP choices will be good for consumers and will encourage more U.S. residents to adopt broadband.
While some U.S. residents have access to DSL or other broadband services, cable modem service is the most widely available broadband option, said Harvey Reiter, with the Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP law firm in Washington, D.C., and a lawyer for Brand X Internet. In September, the FCC released a report saying cable modem service controlled more than 75 percent of the U.S. residential and small business broadband market.
"All of the benefits of competition are lost unless you want to deal with the cable company or its affiliate," Reiter said. "The (FCC) itself has said the industry is very concentrated."
Reiter compared cable networks to the monopoly AT&T enjoyed for decades, saying cable companies were granted exclusive rights to offer their service in many U.S. cities. Many U.S. residents still have only one choice of cable provider, he noted.
NCTA disputes Reiter's view of the cable industry. "The telephone companies have a completely different model than the cable industry," said Brian Dietz, vice president for communications at NCTA. "The cable industry built its networks with private dollars. It's different than a government guaranteed monopoly for 100 years."
The Internet line-sharing rules, which originally applied to dial-up service, no longer apply to always-on cable broadband, which doesn't need a separate ISP to connect to the Internet, NCTA officials added. Cable companies, if required to share their networks, would have to spend significant money to allow ISP access, NCTA's Brenner said.
But consumer groups, along with the Center for Digital Democracy, an advocacy group focused on open access to the Internet, have also raised concerns that without open access to cable networks, cable providers could freeze out services such as Internet-based video services that compete with cable, or VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service that's not affiliated with the cable provider.
"The Brand X case ... is nothing less than a battle for the soul of the Internet," Jeff Chester, the Center for Digital Democracy's executive director, said in December. "While the cable industry is intent on transforming the Internet into an extension of its tightly controlled cable business, it is critical that we maintain an open, nondiscriminatory platform for the exchange of ideas and information."
NCTA's Brenner, in a media briefing Friday, said the concerns about cable providers blocking competing services are a separate issue from the regulatory issues raised in the Brand X case. Earlier this month, the FCC fined a North Carolina telecom for blocking customers from using competing VOIP services over its DSL lines, but Brenner said it's not in cable companies' interest to block services or content.
"There is no market incentive for a company trying to provide a service to make that service unattractive to customers," he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:16 PM
Trend Micro to guard 100M e-mail accounts for Sina
By Sumner LemonAntivirus software vendor Trend Micro Inc. has struck a deal to provide antivirus protection for more than 100 million e-mail accounts managed by one of China's top Internet portal operators, Sina Corp., the company said Monday. Under terms of the agreement, Trend Micro will provide antivirus screening for more than 100 million Sina e-mail accounts, Trend Micro said in a statement. Sina has 101.2 million registered users with e-mail accounts, it said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Antivirus screening for e-mail accounts is just the first step in what will become a wider partnership for the two companies, Trend Micro said. Down the road, Trend Micro and Sina plan to make available an online virus screening service for PCs, anti-spam protection, and antivirus security for mobile devices, it said.
Trend Micro did not state when these additional services would be made available.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:16 PM
March 25, 2005
New federal rules dictate bank ID theft notifications
By Todd R. Weiss, ComputerworldThe U.S. Federal Reserve Board Wednesday issued new rules requiring banks and other financial institutions to notify consumers "as soon as possible" when their personal data has been stolen. In an announcement, the Federal Reserve and three other government banking agencies, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), unveiled their "guidance" on how banks must treat personal information theft under federal laws enacted in 2003.
The rules come at a time when several companies have acknowledged that consumers' personal and sensitive information has either been stolen or accessed inappropriately.
David Barr, a spokesman for the FDIC in Washington, said the agencies spent the past 18 months reviewing the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act. The review included input from government officials as well as from security, banking industry and consumer groups and other entities to create the specific rules.
A key requirement is that consumers must now be notified when personal information has been stolen or illegally accessed and there is reason to believe it will be misused. In such cases, the institution must conduct a "reasonable investigation" to determine if the security breach was significant enough to require notification of affected consumers.
"If the institution determines that misuse of its information about a customer has occurred or is reasonably possible, it should notify the affected customer as soon as possible," the rules say. Notice can be delayed, however, if an appropriate law enforcement agency determines that notification will interfere with a criminal investigation.
Specific timelines on how quickly such notice should be given hasn't been established.
A financial institution is also expected to notify its primary federal regulator of a security breach involving sensitive customer information, whether or not the institution notifies its customers.
According to the rules, sensitive customer information includes a customer's name, address or telephone number, in conjunction with the customer's Social Security number, driver's license number, account number, credit or debit card number, or a personal identification number or password that would permit access to the customer's account. The rules also state that such data breaches would include the release of any combination of sensitive data that would allow someone to log into or access a customer's account, such as a username and password or a password and account number.
"The customer notification (provision) is brand new," Barr said. "Banks were not required to do that before, though many had. Now, there's an official mandate that they must."
The new rules took time to develop, Barr said, because they were issued by four agencies working together: the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision. "You have four voices instead of just one," he said. Building consensus meant a lot of deliberations, he said.
One of the greatest challenges for the agencies was determining where the legal bar should be set in terms of when consumers should be notified of breaches, he said. Some regulators thought notice should be given in all cases, while others thought notice should be given only if it was likely the data theft would bring harm to affected consumers.
The eventual standard is a reasonable one, he said, because it won't inundate consumers with notices unless there is evidence of a real data security threat. "If there were too many notices, consumers could be desensitized" to the real dangers of actual data security breaches, he said.
Under the new guidelines, the FDIC and other agencies can oversee financial institutions to ensure that they adhere to the notification procedures, Barr said. The agencies can issue enforcement orders if the regulations are not followed, he said.
Douglas Heller, executive director of The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, an advocacy group in Santa Monica, Calif., said the new rules are a good start for U.S. consumers. "At the very least, we should be be notified when our personal information has been stolen."
California is the only state in the nation where such notification is already mandated by law in cases of security breaches and financial or credit information.
But notification after the fact isn't really enough to protect consumers, he said.
"We really need to limit the scope of private information that is collected for resale" by companies that handle personal information, he said. "The only reasons that thieves have access to so much data is that the government hasn't stopped these companies from trading our personal information like it's a commodity."
Recent security breaches involving the theft or loss of sensitive consumer financial and credit data involve ChoicePoint Inc., Bank of America Corp. and LexisNexis.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:07 PM
Court orders blogger to stop posting patient data
By Linda Rosencrance, ComputerworldAn Alameda County Superior Court judge yesterday ordered Elisa Cooper, a former Web coordinator at Kaiser Permanente, to stop posting and distributing the confidential information of 140 of its patients over the Internet. Although Cooper, who called herself the "diva of disgruntled," told the court she would keep the promise she made last week not to post the information, officials for the health maintenance organization in Oakland, Calif., sought the injunction anyway.
"We got a preliminary injunction in court," said Kaiser spokesman Matthew Schiffgens. "Both sides had the opportunity to portray why the injunction should or should not be served, and Cooper said, 'Why do we need an injunction?' She promised not to do it, but now if she does it, she will be in contempt of court and subject to court sanctions."
Schiffgens said he doesn't know what the sanctions are because Kaiser hasn't seen the injunction yet. "But this gives us remedy and gives our members an additional level of security to know the court takes this matter seriously," he said.
Kaiser learned of Cooper's actions in January from the U.S. Office of Civil Rights -- the enforcement arm under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Cooper said she filed a complaint against Kaiser with the OCR after coming across the information on a public Web site. She also linked to the site from her weblog, and when Kaiser had the site taken down, she posted copies of the information on the Internet.
Schiffgens blamed Cooper for posting the information to a public Web site, saying the information was available only on a nonpublic corporate intranet.
An internal investigation into the incident, he said, indicates that Kaiser inadvertently posted patient information -- including names, addresses, telephone numbers and, in some cases, lab test results for the 140 patients -- on an intranet site for IT employees that was not secured. The information was included in schematic diagrams related to an application that generated letters for the lab reporting systems.
"It's safe to say ... that we were the ones who inadvertently posted patient information to our unsecured, unpublished intranet site," Schiffgens said. "It would not have been discoverable by a Google search as (Cooper) indicates. Someone posted it.
"It was copied by, we believe, Miss Cooper and placed on a (public) site that could be found, and she used information that she gathered through her terms of employment to make that available," he said.
Schiffgens acknowledged that some other Kaiser IT employee could have made the information public. "I can't say definitely she was the one who posted it," he said.
Last Friday, the California Department of Managed Health Care issued a cease-and-desist letter to Cooper for unauthorized use of patient information. She has 15 days from that date to request a hearing on the matter.
In an e-mail to Computerworld, Cooper said she has not yet responded to that letter.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:07 PM
Yahoo again argues Nazi speech case
By Joris EversA federal appeals court on Thursday heard arguments in a case that could determine whether foreign courts have jurisdiction over U.S.-based Internet service providers. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo Inc. wants the court to declare that a judgment by a French court in 2000 cannot be enforced in the U.S. The French court ordered Yahoo to make auctions for Nazi memorabilia and other related content on its U.S. Web site inaccessible to Web users in France. Yahoo has said that means removing the content from its U.S. Web site.
Yahoo's French subsidiary, Yahoo.fr, complies with French law, but Yahoo has not complied on its main Yahoo.com Web site. In the French case, brought by the Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) and the League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), the judge imposed a daily fine of roughly US$20,000 at current exchange rates if the company did not comply with the ruling.
Following the French ruling in November 2000, Yahoo sued UEJF and LICRA in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose to find out if the foreign court's verdict could be enforced in the U.S.
"We should be able to learn what our obligations are in terms of this foreign judgment. We have to choose between censoring constitutionally protected speech and letting fines accrue daily," said Mary Wirth, senior international counsel for Yahoo in an interview late Thursday.
Yahoo claimed the French judgment violates U.S. protections for freedom of speech and thus can't be enforced in the U.S., where UEJF and LICRA would have to collect. The district court sided with Yahoo but an appeals court last year ruled the district court acted prematurely because UEJF and LICRA had not sought enforcement of the French judgment.
Yahoo subsequently asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to again hear the case with 11 judges, which it did on Thursday. The appeals court may take many months to reach a verdict. The last time it reviewed this case, the court took almost two years to reach a verdict.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:06 PM
Yahoo launches Creative Commons search
By Cathleen Moore, InfoWorldYahoo Inc. this week launched a beta version of a search tool designed to scour the Web for information that can be shared, built upon, or reused under certain conditions. The Yahoo Search for Creative Commons makes it easier to locate Web content with a Creative Commons license. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyrights for creative works. The group builds upon the traditional "all rights reserved" form of copyright to create a voluntary "some rights reserved" copyright, according to Creative Commons. Tools from Creative Commons are free and the organization offers its own search engine.
Yahoo's new offering can restrict a Web search to content published by authors who want a user to share or reuse the content under certain conditions, according to Yahoo officials.
This content can include text, books, educational material, and more. Most of the time, Web searches return content with a full copyright, which is applied automatically to almost any form of expression, such as a photo, song, or Web page.
Typically, the author's permission is required for copying or re-use of creative work found online, but the Creative Commons license can help relax some of those copyrights. According to Yahoo, the limited rights of Creative Commons content will be clearly marked, so users can use the works without having to contact the author for permission.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:06 PM
IBM's Sametime enterprise IM to gain telephony links
By Juan Carlos PerezIBM Corp. plans to launch in the second half of this year an API (application programming interface) for linking the Lotus Sametime enterprise instant messaging product to VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) platforms, mobile phones and traditional office telephony systems. The API is being used currently by a small number of partners who are working on early voice applications for Sametime, and IBM expects to make the API generally available to developers in 2005's third or fourth quarter, said Ken Bisconti, vice president of IBM Workplace products.
"At this point, it has mostly been used in development of applications that haven't yet shipped to market," Bisconti said. "I expect that later this year you will see voice-enabled applications running on Sametime."
The API has been designed to be used by independent software vendors, by providers of telephony equipment and services, such as network equipment vendors, wireless carriers and telecom service providers, and by corporate developers within IT departments of Sametime clients.
Although there hasn't been widescale integration of instant messaging platforms and telephony networks yet, it is a developing trend and IBM is responding to it, he said. "We're definitely moving in that direction and believe it is a very natural convergence that will be seen in the industry. The biggest question is how rapidly it will be adopted," Bisconti said.
When telephony is integrated with instant messaging, users get a more complete picture of someone's availability because the system can indicate whether that person is on the phone. Instant messaging systems can also typically be configured to allow users to generate calls to others on their instant messaging contact lists from the instant messaging interface.
In the case of Sametime, it's a welcome sign to see IBM attempting to make it easy for external developers and partners to extend the platform, an analyst said.
"One thing that makes this (IBM move) significant is that Sametime is not an easy platform for third parties to link with," said Andrew W. Davis, a managing partner at market analysis firm Wainhouse Research near Boston. "So the development and publication of an API kit would be a significant advance for IBM and for a variety of potential third-party partners."
Demand from corporate clients for integrating their instant messaging systems with their telephony infrastructure has been overstated but it is increasing, so IBM does well to focus on this area, Davis said. "Demand is somewhat overhyped by the vendors and the press. Until now, there has been much more excitement about the technology and its potential to change way businesses work (than actual deployments.) But demand is building and it will emerge. I just don't think it will be as fast as some people believe."
There is particular interest in instant messaging integration with VOIP infrastructures specifically, said Michael Osterman, president of industry analysis company Osterman Research Inc., in Black Diamond, Washington. "Organizations are looking at voice over IP as a way of reducing telecommunications costs, providing additional services, making it easier to support remote users and so forth," he said. "The most logical way to do that is through the instant messaging interface."
In a recent study of VOIP enterprise trends in North America, Osterman Research found that currently only about 10 percent of employees use VOIP, but by late 2007 the adoption is expected to increase to 45 percent. Most of the organizations surveyed said they will want to integrate VOIP with their enterprise messaging systems.
Sametime, whose formal name is Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing, has between 11 million and 12 million users, plus an additional 10 million to 15 million users who have some Sametime capabilities, such as presence awareness and instant messaging, available within their Notes messaging and collaboration environment, IBM's Bisconti said.
Sametime's main competitor is Microsoft Corp.'s Live Communications Server, which is also gaining telephony support with the upcoming release of its new Istanbul client component. Istanbul, which now goes by the official name Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, is slated to ship within the next 80 days or so, a spokesman for Microsoft said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:05 PM
HP's h6315 phone on hold at T-Mobile
By Tom KrazitT-Mobile USA Inc. has suspended sales of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s (HP's) iPaq h6315 device after users reported numerous software glitches with the device, spokesmen from both companies confirmed Thursday. The wireless carrier is waiting for the release of a ROM update on HP's Web site that is expected to fix many of the problems experienced by early adopters of the h6315, said Mike Hockey, an HP spokesman. HP will offer the software update as a free download from its Web site during the first week of April, he said.
The h6315 was released last July as HP's answer to the popularity of PalmOne Inc.'s Treo smart phone. HP added phone capabilities to one of its iPaq PDAs (personal digital assistants) with a GSM/GPRS (Global System for Mobile Communications/General Packet Radio Service) modem, and also installed an 802.11b wireless chip and Bluetooth connectivity. Early reviews were kind, in part because of the device's ability to seamlessly shift between GPRS and 802.11b networks.
However, since its release users have been underwhelmed by the phone capabilities of the device, according to numerous posts on handheld enthusiast Web sites and user review sites. The device does not appear to work consistently as a phone, as many users reported having to frequently reset their units after software lockups.
The ROM update will correct many of those problems with new code for the software that controls the GPRS and Bluetooth chips, HP's Hockey said. T-Mobile is working with HP on the problem and will alert customers when the update is available, a T-Mobile spokesman said.
However, T-Mobile h6315 customers currently can exchange HP's device for other phone/PDA devices available through T-Mobile, according to sources familiar with the problem. Those other devices include PalmOne's Treo 600 or several BlackBerry devices from Research in Motion Ltd.
For several years, PDA users and analysts have been calling on companies such as PalmOne and HP to add communications technology to their PDAs. Shipments of unconnected PDAs have been in steady decline for some time, while shipments of mobile phones have skyrocketed. Many companies are starting to integrate the two devices, with varying degrees of success.
HP plans to introduce its second phone/PDA device in the second quarter, it said earlier this year. The HP iPaq Mobile Messenger is designed to work with EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) networks, which are slightly faster than GPRS data networks. It will also feature built-in GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:04 PM
March 24, 2005
Grokster case may have large impact beyond P-to-P
By Grant GrossWhen the entertainment industry faces off against two peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software vendors in the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, nothing less than the future of technological innovation is at stake, according to some technology trade groups. Lawyers for the plaintiffs -- Motion Picture Association of America, the National Music Publisher's Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America -- say they're simply trying to get the court to recognize that the Grokster and Morpheus P-to-P software packages were created primarily to encourage users to illegally trade copyright songs and movies. They argue that while users are responsible for copyright violations, P-to-P vendors share a secondary liability.
The issue before the Supreme Court in the MGM vs. Grokster case focuses on a relatively narrow question: whether movie and music companies should be able to sue the P-to-P distributors for the copyright violations of their users.
Critics of the entertainment industry's position, including some technology trade groups, say the case has much broader implications: If copyright owners are able to sue inventors of new technologies for the sins of their users, few tech companies would be safe.
"Demanding that innovators guess how people use a new technology, and holding them liable retroactively if they fail to anticipate what users will do ... is a radical new definition of secondary liability that will chill innovation," said Mark Cooper, research director of the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer rights advocacy group. "The tyranny of copyright risk and the liability it will bring will make innovators timid in inventing new communications technologies."
If the Supreme Court allows entertainment companies to sue P-to-P vendors, it will overturn its own 21-year-old ruling that has balanced the rights of copyright owners with those of the creators of innovative new technologies such as the VCR, the copying machine and the MP3 player, said critics of the entertainment industry's position.
"This case is not just about peer-to-peer, it's fundamentally about trying to change the rules for all of the technology industry," said Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and lawyer for Morpheus distributor StreamCast Networks Inc. in this case.
The case centers around the Supreme Court's 1984 Sony Betamax ruling, in which judges rejected claims of a movie studio brought against Sony Corp., maker of the Betamax VCR. The court ruled against Universal City Studios, saying that makers of technologies with significant uses other than infringing copyrights were not liable for their users' copyright violations.
The entertainment industry has lost its previous attempts to sue Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, citing the 1984 Betamax decision, ruled in August that the P-to-P vendors were not liable for their users' copyright violations.
Lawyers for the entertainment industry say they're not trying to overturn the Betamax decision, but want the court to recognize that the Grokster and Morpheus software is designed specifically to allow users to steal music and movies. Many P-to-P vendors have designed software that doesn't track the files users are trading and refuse to make changes that would filter out copyright files, said Charles Ortner, a lawyer representing the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences Inc.
"Grokster designed this system to attract a large audience to get free music that they otherwise would have to pay for," said Ortner, who filed a brief in the case supporting the plaintiffs. "They have deliberately avoided any kind of screening mechanism."
The 9th Circuit Court failed to recognize the "pervasive" copyright violations through Grokster and Morpheus, instead suggesting that minor legal uses of the P-to-P software constituted a "substantial noninfringing use" as described in the Betamax decision, Ortner said. "It's cynical for them to say the principles of Betamax apply in this case," he added.
But 17 computer science professors and tech trade groups, including the Information Technology Association of America and NetCoalition, have questioned the tactics of the entertainment industry. The NetCoalition group asked the Supreme Court to uphold the Betamax standard in a neutral brief filed in the case in January, suggesting the court send the case back to lower courts to measure the liability of P-to-P vendors using different standards.
If a P-to-P vendor promises users they can download all the latest hit songs for free, the entertainment industry can sue on those claims without determining the noninfringing use of a technology, said Markham Erickson, general counsel for NetCoalition, a trade group representing Internet companies such as Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. The court shouldn't punish the P-to-P technology itself, which has many legitimate uses, Erickson added.
In many ways, the Internet itself is a P-to-P medium, he added.
If the entertainment industry gets its way, e-mail service providers could conceivably be required to monitor their customers' sent e-mail for copyright materials, or a photo storage Web site like Snapfish.com could be required to check its customers uploaded files for copyright content, Erickson said. New rules supported by the entertainment industry would affect the "entire Internet and most of the technology industry," he added.
"Venture capital would dry up for cool (technologies) that people can do illegal things with," Erickson added. "It would require technology companies to consult with lawyers for the entertainment industry at the development stage. It's just an impossible solution."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:07 PM
Sony rebrands, expands IP communication portfolio
By Stacy CowleySony Corp. is introducing several products and a new brand name, Ipela, to its portfolio of IP (Internet Protocol) communication gadgets, such as monitoring and videoconferencing systems. "We're clearly looking for a bigger slice of the pie," said Sony's IP communication products General Manager Mike McCausland at a launch event Tuesday in New York.
The first products to adopt the Ipela brand include Sony's PCS-G70 large-room videoconferencing system and its PCS-TL50 desktop videoconferencing system, as well as a number of its network video monitoring cameras, such as the SNC-RZ25N pan-tilt-zoom camera and the DF40 and DF70 mini-dome cameras.
Due in mid-2005 are new XIS series cameras, including the high-end XIS-5100 wide-area monitoring camera -- able to cover a 160-degree by 15-degree area -- and the XIS-10DC, which will offer a 360-degree view. The products will launch simultaneously worldwide, including in the U.S. and Sony's home market, Japan, according to John Scarcella, president of Sony Electronics Broadcast and Business Solutions Co.
Sony is also working to advance its video conferencing technology. At Tuesday's event, company officials demonstrated an under-development desktop conferencing system intended to increase deployment flexibility. That system remains a year or two away from being ready for the market, executives said.
Sony is backing its Ipela launch with a US$10 million marketing campaign. It will be showing off Ipela products at several upcoming trade shows, including the ISC (International Security Conference) West, NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters Show) and InfoCom, all in Las Vegas.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:07 PM
Quest pays CA $16 million to settle lawsuit
By Stacy CowleyQuest Software Inc. has agreed to pay US$16 million plus additional royalties to Computer Associates International Inc. to settle a lawsuit CA filed in 2002 accusing Quest of illegally using CA source code, the companies said Thursday. The deal also resolves Quest counterclaims challenging the validity of some CA copyrights. In its initial complaint, CA alleged that Quest employees who once worked for Platinum Technology International (which CA bought in 1999) shared with their new employer Platinum source code and knowledge of its software designs.
In July 2004, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued a preliminary injunction barring Quest from selling its Quest Central for DB2 software, although the company was allowed to continue maintenance and support to existing users. In a recent regulatory filing, Quest estimated that Quest Central for DB2 accounted for about 3 percent of its revenue in the first half of 2004.
Thursday's deal with CA allows Quest to resume selling Quest Central for DB2. Under the settlement's terms, neither Quest nor CA admitted wrongdoing.
Quest General Counsel Michael Vaughn said his company is pleased to resume selling its software and to leave behind the distraction and expense of litigation.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:06 PM
March 23, 2005
Gannett, Knight-Ridder, Tribune buy stake in Topix.net
By Juan Carlos PerezGannett Co. Inc., Knight-Ridder Inc. and Tribune Co.newspaper chains, have each bought a 25 percent stake in Topix.net, a privately held startup that aggregates and categorizes online news, the companies said Wednesday. The newspaper companies expect that Topix.net technology will allow them to improve and extend their online editorial and ad sales activities, while Topix.net plans to leverage their financial, content, advertising and audience assets to grow its operations.
"They have enormous amounts of assets that they bring to the table and that we can draw on, which makes this a dream deal for us," said Rich Skrenta, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Topix.net.
Likewise, Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Tribune will benefit from Topix.net's news aggregation and categorization technology, he said. "If you want to have success online, you need the right technology, and working with Topix.net is going to add some pretty compelling technology to their mix. It has the ability to catalyze a lot of extra value for them," Skrenta said.
Topix.net will remain editorially and operationally independent, said Skrenta, who will continue as CEO of the Palo Alto, California, company. This means that Topix.net will maintain the freedom to strike deals with other online news producers, he said.
"They (Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Tribune) completely understand that. We had a lot of discussions with them about this very point. The deal is structured deliberately to keep us independent. They like what we're doing and they want us to continue to operate in this way," Skrenta said.
Topix.net was founded in 2002 and officially launched its service a little over a year ago, he said. The company aggregates news from over 10,000 online sources and categorizes the articles both by topics and by geographical area. That way, users can configure Topix.net in a very granular way to show only the news they are interested in.
Topix.net generates revenue through advertising and by syndicating its content. The company, which has nine employees, became profitable in December 2004, Skrenta said.
This is not the first time that competitors Gannett, Tribune and Knight-Ridder have formed a partnership. The companies are partners in other joint ventures, such as the jobs Web site CareerBuilder.com.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 07:50 PM
Yahoo desktop search reaches beyond the PC
By Juan Carlos PerezYahoo Inc. is expected to launch on Wednesday the first upgrade to its desktop search tool, adding the ability to index data from Yahoo's instant messenger archives stored on users' PCs and from users' address books residing on Yahoo's servers. In its first version, the product could only index information found on users' hard drives, but now Yahoo has built a bridge between the tool and Yahoo's servers, said Bradley Horowitz, the company's director of media and desktop search.
Although the only Yahoo online data available now is the address book information, Yahoo will add links between the desktop search tool and other server-based data, such as Web mail, calendar and photo album, he said.
Ultimately, the goal is to have the tool index a user's data whether it is stored on his PC hard drive or on Yahoo's servers, he said. "That's the direction in which we're moving," Horowitz said. "This is the first bridge between local and server-based content."
Yahoo, in Sunnyvale, California, hasn't decided yet whether it will enable the tool to tap into data stored on competitors' servers, such as Web mail services other than its own, Horowitz said.
In order to have the tool index data from Yahoo's servers, users have to activate a feature which asks for their Yahoo ID and password, he said.
The tool is still useful for those users who just want to index data stored on their PCs, he said. For example, Yahoo Messenger sessions are archived locally, and this new version of the tool can index that data.
Like other desktop search tools, the Yahoo product can index a plethora of other local information, including word processing and spreadsheet documents, downloaded e-mail messages and images.
Yahoo Desktop Search, which is still in test, or beta, mode, can be downloaded for free at http://desktop.yahoo.com/.
The Yahoo Desktop Search tool is based on technology from X1 Technologies Inc., which sells a desktop search product tailored for business users, a market Yahoo isn't pursuing, Horowitz said.
Other players in the crowded desktop search space include Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., America Online Inc., Blinkx, Lycos Inc. and Copernic Technologies Inc.
Desktop search tools in general are designed to help users find information stored on their local hard disk drives, although increasingly these products are reaching out into data stored beyond the PC's boundaries.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:35 PM
Yahoo's free mail service to offer 1G byte of storage
By Juan Carlos PerezYahoo Inc. will increase the inbox capacity of its free Web mail service for the third time in the past 9 months, now raising storage to 1G byte, exceeding Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail and matching Google Inc.'s Gmail. Yahoo Mail users all over the world will begin to see the larger inboxes between late April and early May, said Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's vice president of communications products.
Yahoo, in Sunnyvale, California, decided to increase the inbox capacity because it has become apparent that users are increasingly storing messages with large attachments, such as photos, he said.
Keeping up with user demands is important because Web mail service plays a big role in people's overall consumption of Yahoo content and services, Garlinghouse said.
"Today e-mail is a much richer and essential part of people's lives than it was five-plus years ago, and the more essential Yahoo Mail is to someone's life the more engaged they will be with the overall Yahoo network," he said.
Yahoo's Web mail is indeed a very important starting point for engaging users, said Charlene Li, a Forrester Research Inc. analyst. "The big three doorways (to Yahoo) are the homepage, My Yahoo and Yahoo Mail," she said.
In mid-2004, Yahoo increased the inbox size of its free Web mail service from 4M bytes to 100M bytes, and later to 250M bytes, which is the current capacity.
Web mail service providers of all sizes have increased their inbox storage in the past year as a reaction to Google's free Gmail service, which offers 1G byte to its users. For example, Microsoft increased the inbox storage of its free Hotmail service from 2M bytes to 250M bytes after Gmail was announced.
Although Google triggered a massive reaction from Web mail providers when it announced Gmail in April 2004, Gmail remains in test, or beta, mode and isn't generally available except through invitations and through random offers via the main Google.com page.
With this move, Yahoo is anticipating the moment when Gmail is launched to the general public, so that inbox storage will not be a competitive advantage for Google, Li said.
Yahoo is also beefing up the free Yahoo Mail service's antivirus capabilities by allowing users to clean infected attachments, Garlinghouse said. This feature was previously only available to subscribers of Yahoo's fee-based Web mail service, which is called Yahoo Mail Plus and costs US$19.95 per year. Yahoo Mail Plus offers subscribers 2G bytes of inbox storage along with other features not available to free users.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:35 PM
AOL may say adios to Latin America
By Scarlet PruittAmerica Online Latin America Inc. (AOLA) is quickly running out of funds and could soon cease operations or file for bankruptcy, it said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. The troubled Internet service provider only has enough cash to continue operations into the third-quarter of this year, and will not be able to obtain additional financing, it told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Given its financial troubles, the company is considering the possible sale of all or part of its businesses and assets. Even if it is successful in selling its entire business, the proceeds would not be enough to repay senior convertible notes, the company said.
The company is weighing the possibility of filing for bankruptcy under U.S. law, or filing under insolvency laws in one or more of the foreign jurisdictions in which it operates, it said.
AOLA began in 1998 as a joint venture between America Online Inc. (AOL) and the Cisneros Group to offer the AOL-branded Internet service in Latin America. The company, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, currently offers services in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. It also serves members of the AOL-branded Puerto Rico service.
The company has been bleeding cash and members for some time, however, and its management concluded earlier this month that AOLA is not a going concern for financial reporting purposes.
In its last financial update, the company reported a net loss of US$23.6 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2004, and 400,000 members, including those on free trials. Three years earlier, it claimed 1.15 million members.
AOLA representatives weren't immediately available to comment Wednesday on how or when its current customers would be affected by its potential closure.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:34 PM
BMC buys OpenNetwork for $18 million
By Paul RobertsEnterprise management software company BMC Software Inc. is continuing its identity-management buying spree, announcing Wednesday that it is buying OpenNetwork Technologies Inc., a maker of Web access management and single sign-on technology, for US$18 million in cash. The acquisition of privately held OpenNetwork will add technology for securely managing federated user identities and Web-based applications to BMC's identity management product suite. The news is the latest evidence that BMC is making Web-based identity and access management a top priority, and comes just two months after BMC said it would purchase Calendra, a Paris-based maker of identity management technology.
OpenNetwork, of Clearwater, Florida, makes software for managing user identity over the Web. The company's Universal Identity Platform (Universal IdP) product integrates with existing LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directory services, such as Microsoft Corp.'s Active Directory. It is designed to work with Microsoft's .NET Framework and .NET Web Services, permitting Web applications and other resources to be secured and managed without needing to duplicate network policy and user identity information, according to OpenNetwork.
Universal IdP also works closely with Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS), allowing companies to extend MIIS' user provisioning and synchronization features across an enterprise environment, OpenNetwork said.
BMC plans to use the OpenNetwork technology to complement its other identity management products, allowing customers to deploy technology that adapts to existing business processes, rather than requiring them to modify those processes to work with BMC's platform, according to a statement attributed to Somesh Singh, vice president of BMC's identity management business unit.
BMC will acquire 100 percent of OpenNetwork's assets in the transaction. About 40 OpenNetwork employees will be added to BMC's Identity Management Business Unit when the transaction is complete, BMC said.
In January, BMC announced plans to buy Calendra and add that company's workflow and user directory management features to its Business Service Management line of products and combine Calendra's identity management technology with its own user provisioning product, CONTROL-SA.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:34 PM
ICANN approval moves .eu domain forward
By Laura RohdeThere is new hope for those waiting for the domain name suffix ".eu" to be brought to life, in what has already been a seven-and-a-half year process. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body that oversees technical matters related to the Net, has this week approved the application from the European Registry of Internet Domain names (EURid) to take the new TLD (Top Level Domain) into ICANN's root files, the group said Wednesday.
EURid was chosen by the European Union's executive body, the European Commission, to manage the .eu TLD. The nonprofit group has long contended that the creation of the .eu TLD is an important step in promoting e-commerce in Europe as well as the European identity and for creating higher visibility of the internal market.
EURid said that the date when companies can start registering their trademarked names with the .eu suffix, the so-called sunrise period, would begin in late 2005.
On Tuesday, EURid also tapped the Belgian arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP to over see the work involved with the validation of "prior right" claims invoked by domain name applicants during the four month sunrise period. During that period, only public bodies and holders of rights, such as trademarks and company names, are allowed to register the names using the .eu TLD, after which, general registrations are granted on a first-come-first-served basis.
EuroDNS.com, a privately held domain name registration company based in Luxembourg, has been offering domain registration including free .eu preregistration since February and said it already has requests for several hundred preregistrations.
As part of the ICANN process for creating the domain name suffix, the registrar agreement for the .eu TLD will become available in May, which will then allow the EURid to begin accrediting .eu registrars and publishing a list on its Web site. In June, a draft .eu TLD registration policy will be published, ICANN said.
The effort to create the European suffix was launched in September 1997, when a group of European Internet service providers, EuroISPA, proposed in the Commission that it request the delegation of .eu.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:33 PM
Texas sues Vonage over 911 service
By Grant GrossTexas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Vonage Holdings Corp., accusing the fast-growing VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) provider of not warning customers about limits to its 911 emergency dialing service. Abbott's lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Travis Country, Texas, accuses Vonage of deceptive marketing practices by not making it clear to customers that they must sign up separately for 911 service, instead of it being automatically part of the Vonage VOIP offering.
In an announcement about the lawsuit, Abbott cited a February incident in Houston in which a family with Vonage service couldn't get through to 911 dispatchers. Joyce John tried to dial 911 from a VOIP phone in her home as burglars broke into the house and shot and wounded her parents.
John's call to 911 connected to a recording saying she would have to dial 911 from a different phone. She eventually contacted authorities from a neighbor's house. "This Houston family’s moment of crisis signals a dire need for Vonage to clearly communicate to its Internet telephone customers that 911 access may not be available to them," Abbott said in a statement. "This is not just about bad customer service; it’s a matter of life and death."
A Vonage spokeswoman said the company would welcome a dialog with Abbott on how to improve its 911 service. Vonage customers are told multiple times, including twice during the subscription process, that they need to take action to sign up for 911 service, added Brooke Schulz, senior vice president of corporate communications for Vonage. Vonage warns customers on their dashboard online account summary that they have not signed up for 911 service, and Vonage sends e-mail to customers who have not activated 911 service, Schulz said.
The company also tells customers on its Web site's features page that they must pre-activate 911 service, although the company also notes that "Vonage offers 911 dialing to all customers."
"We want to work with the attorney general's office to resolve his concerns," Schulz said. "We do all these things today, and if those aren't adequate, let's talk about it."
The lawsuit, filed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, requests the court issue an injunction stopping Vonage from "misrepresenting" the type of emergency telephone service it offers, according to a press release from Abbott. The suit seeks US$20,000 per violation.
Because VOIP services route 911 calls through IP networks instead of the traditional telephone network, VOIP 911 service doesn't work the same way as traditional 911 service. Dispatch centers aren't able to pinpoint the address where the VOIP call originated, unlike enhanced 911 service available with most traditional telephone service today.
Vonage on March 7 reported it had exceeded 500,000 total phone lines on its network, and it was signing up customers at a rate of 15,000 lines per week.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:32 PM
Level 3 withdraws VOIP petition before FCC
By Grant GrossLevel 3 Communications Inc. on Monday withdrew a petition before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that sought to reduce access charges paid to telecommunications carriers when calls originated over VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) end on the traditional telephone network. Level 3 said in a statement it had withdrawn its request because of a leadership change at the FCC. On March 16, U.S. President George Bush named Commissioner Kevin Martin as FCC chairman, replacing Michael Powell, who left the FCC this month.
The FCC was required to rule on the Level 3 petition by Tuesday if commissioners wanted to deny it. If the FCC failed to act, the Level 3 petition would have been automatically granted.
"Given the appointment of new leadership only three business days before the statutory deadline for ruling on the petition, we determined it was inappropriate to ask the agency to resolve this important issue in the timeframe required by law," James Crowe, Level 3's chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Some supporters of the Level 3 petition had expressed concern that the FCC would reject it. Level 3 may refile the petition at a later date, Crowe said in his statement.
The Level 3 petition had asked the FCC to exempt VOIP calls from fees, called access charges, that occur when a call originating from a VOIP provider terminates on the public switched telephone network. Many traditional telecom carriers depend on access charges, typically added to interstate calls, for a large portion of their income.
Instead, Level 3, in an FCC petition filed in December 2003, asked the FCC to allow VOIP providers to instead pay reciprocal compensation rates, typically exchanged between telecom carriers for local and intrastate calls. Level 3 argued that these reciprocal rates, which are lower than access charges, are closer to the actual costs incurred by telecom carriers.
Supporters of Level 3's petition argued that an FCC denial would hinder the growth of VOIP and could lead to higher VOIP prices. "If the FCC denies Level 3's request, VOIP providers, and worse, their customers, will be forced by incumbent carriers to pay significantly higher rates," Jeff Pulver, chief executive officer of VOIP provider Pulver.com Inc., wrote in his Web log earlier this month.
But incumbent telecom carriers, such as Verizon Communications Inc., opposed the Level 3 petition. Verizon had argued that Level 3's petition would create new regulations for VOIP and give VOIP providers preferential treatment over other telecom carriers. Verizon, in a statement Tuesday, cheered Level 3's decision to withdraw the petition, saying an approval of the petition would have confused VOIP regulations only months after the FCC in November ruled that some VOIP service was not subject to state regulations.
The United States Telecom Association (USTA), representing hundreds of rural telecom carriers, argued that the petition would hurt many rural carriers.
USTA applauded the Level 3 withdrawal in a statement Tuesday. "Level 3's retreat ensures that consumers benefit from real competition in today’s vibrant communications market," Walter McCormick Jr., USTA's president and chief executive officer, said in the statement. "We applaud the FCC for recognizing that it should not take a piecemeal approach to intercarrier compensation reform and we look forward to working with the commission on a comprehensive approach to these issues."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:32 PM
MCI adds thousands of wireless hotspots
By Grant GrossMCI Inc. announced Tuesday a major expansion of the number of wireless hotspots available across the globe to its large-business consumers. The telecommunications carrier has launched 1,300 new Wi-Fi hotspots in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region, and will launch 3,400 hotspots in the U.S. in May, the company said. Corporate customers of MCI's wireless service had access to about 6,200 hotspots worldwide before the new expansions.
In addition to typical Wi-Fi locations such as airports and hotels, the MCI expansion will bring hotspots to new places that MCI customers requested, including cafes, bookstores and business service centers, said Kevin Gatesman, senior manager of emerging technologies at MCI. Some of the new hotspots represent an expansion of options in regions where MCI has already offered service, while others will be in new regions of the U.S. or new countries.
The expanded Wi-Fi network comes through an enhanced agreement between MCI and Boingo Wireless Inc. The new hotspots will primarily be located in the U.S., U.K, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong and Japan. MCI hotspots are now available in several countries where they weren't previously: Greece, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Spain, the Philippines and the Hong Kong region of China.
The Wi-Fi service is part of an MCI service for medium-size and large businesses called Remote Access Services, which includes dial-up, virtual private network connections. The MCI service includes a software package that connects users to the Internet using the connection of their choice.
While other carriers offer Wi-Fi access, an advantage of the MCI service is that it ties Wi-Fi, dial-up and broadband wired access together in one package, with thousands of hotspots and connection options, Gatesman said. MCI customers don't need a separate subscription to multiple wireless providers for Wi-Fi access, he said.
The MCI service includes an unlimited Wi-Fi plan for US$40 a month as an add-on to dial-up service. A time-based plan charges $8 an hour for the first hour, with a maximum of $15 a day.
MCI plans to continue expanding the number of hotspots offered in its plan, Gatesman said. "I expect there will be more as we proceed through the rest of 2005 and beyond," he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:31 PM
March 22, 2005
HP reels in Snapfish
By Stacy CowleyHewlett-Packard Co. said Monday it has agreed to buy online photo sharing and printing service Snapfish. Terms of the deal were undisclosed. San Francisco-based Snapfish competes with similar Web sites such as Ofoto (acquired by Eastman Kodak Co. in 2001) and Shutterfly Inc. to attract digital photography enthusiasts. Snapfish's Web site allows users to share and store albums of their digital photos; for a fee, it also sells printed photos. HP said the site has 13 million registered members.
HP offers an assortment of digital photography equipment, including cameras and photo printers. The company said it will look to tie together Snapfish and its digital photography product portfolio. Snapfish President Ben Nelson will join HP and lead the new division, HP said. The acquisition is expected to close in April.
HP's deal was announced hours after Yahoo Inc. scooped up another photo sharing Web site, Flickr, also for an undisclosed sum.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 01:40 PM
Time Warner pays $300 million to settle SEC charges
By Stacy CowleyTime Warner Inc. has agreed to pay US$300 million in penalties to settle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over charges of securities fraud related to its accounting for online advertising revenue, the SEC and Time Warner said Monday. Time Warner consented to the settlement without admitting or denying allegations in the SEC's complaint against the company. "Some of (Time Warner's) misconduct occurred while the ink on a prior Commission case-and-desist order was barely dry," SEC enforcement division director Stephen Cutler said in a written statement. "Such an institutional failure calls for strong sanctions."
The fine is among the largest ever levied by the SEC, topping the fines Qwest Communications International Inc. ($250 million) and Computer Associates International Inc. ($225 million) paid last year to settle fraud charges. WorldCom paid about $750 million in cash and stock in 2003 to settle charges related to the accounting fraud that led the company into bankruptcy.
The SEC settlement echoes an agreement Time Warner reached with the U.S. Department of Justice in December to avoid criminal prosecution on related charges. In that deal, Time Warner agreed to pay $150 million to a fund to compensate affected investors, along with a $60 million penalty fine.
As part of the SEC settlement, Time Warner will restate its financial results to decrease by $500 million its reported online advertising revenue from the fourth quarter of 2000 through all of 2002. It will also amend its 2000 and 2001 annual reports to consolidate AOL Europe's financial results into its company-wide results. Time Warner agreed to bring in an independent examiner to evaluate whether the company's historical accounting for certain transactions conforms to legal requirements; depending on the examiner's findings, it may again restate its results, the company said.
The SEC complaint rolls together several different schemes it alleges Time Warner carried out in violation of accounting laws. To boost its online advertising revenue in mid-2000, as sales began declining, America Online Inc. (AOL), which Time Warner bought in 2001, began using "round-trip transactions" where it effectively gave outside parties the means to pay for advertising they otherwise would not have bought, according to the SEC. These transactions boosted both AOL's reported revenue and that of the involved outside companies, which include PurchasePro.com Inc. Several former PurchasePro.com executives previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the AOL transactions.
The SEC also accused Time Warner of improperly failing to include in its financial reports the results of AOL Europe, and with using bulk sales to incorrectly inflate its AOL subscriber count throughout 2001.
Time Warner's $300 million penalty will be paid into a fund for compensation of affected investors, in accordance with the "Fair Fund" provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
The SEC also issued, with Time Warner's consent, cease-and-desist orders against three company executives it says should have more closely scrutinized the disputed transactions: Chief Financial Officer Wayne Pace, Controller James Barge and Deputy Controller Pascal Desroches. All three remain with Time Warner.
Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dick Parsons said the company is pleased to have resolved the SEC investigation. Time Warner first disclosed the long-running investigation in mid-2002. Parsons also expressed confidence in Pace, Barge and Desroches, and said he is pleased they will remain in their positions.
Leaving itself room to bring further charges against individuals for their roles in the alleged fraud, the SEC said it will continue its investigation into the transactions.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 01:39 PM
Plaxo contact service adds paid features
By Joris EversTwo years after launching its free online address book service, Plaxo Inc. on Tuesday plans to introduce paid offerings for mobile access and for cleaning up duplicate entries in address books. Plaxo Mobile Access will let users view their contacts, calendars and tasks using a phone or other device equipped with a browser that supports WAP (wireless application protocol). Plaxo Address Book Optimizer can scan the user's contact list for duplicate entries and delete those, and it can merge multiple incomplete entries into a single, complete entry, according to Plaxo.
Each service will cost US$29.95 per year. Plaxo also will offer a $49.95 per year bundle that includes both premium services and Plaxo VIP Support, which has been available since December 2003 and includes priority e-mail, phone and online support.
Although it does not know how many of its more than 5 million users will buy the new services, Plaxo hopes they will help the company break even, said Todd Masonis, founder and vice president of products at the Mountain View, California, company. Plaxo is privately held and has raised almost $20 million from venture capitalists and private investors since it was founded in 2001.
Plaxo already makes some money through a Yahoo search bar in its client software and from electronic commerce partnerships, such as one that reminds users of birthdays and allows them to order flowers or gifts through Plaxo, Masonis said.
Plaxo's current service lets users synchronize their address book, calendar and tasks in Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook and Outlook Express clients with the online service. The service keeps the address book up to date by linking Plaxo members and letting users send update request e-mail messages to contacts who are not members.
Plaxo is working to add address book synchronization for users of Yahoo Corp.'s Web-based mail service. The feature is scheduled to be launched in several weeks, Masonis said. Users can already import Yahoo contact information as well as contact data from a variety of other sources, including the Max OS X Address Book and Palm Desktop software, according to the Plaxo Web site.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 01:39 PM
Panasonic, Samsung release MP3 players
By Paul KallenderMatsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have each launched a range of new digital music players that combine numerous functions with head-turning designs that go as far as a diamond-encrusted model. Matsushita, better known for its Panasonic brand, is releasing four players in its D-snap range, two of which use SD (Secure Digital) memory cards to store music files and two that use built-in flash memory, the company said.
The SV-SD100V and SV-SD90 look almost identical, play files in MP3, AAC and Microsoft Corp.'s WMA (Windows Media Audio) formats, have OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays and use SD cards for storage, the company said.
The SV-SD100V measures 42 millimeters by 42 mm by 17.5 mm, and weighs 39.9 grams with batteries. It has an FM tuner and a voice recorder, the company said.
The battery life is 14 hours 30 minutes when playing audio, and 7 hours 30 minutes when using the FM receiver. With an external battery pack, the SV-SD100V's audio playback time is extended to about 50 hours, according to Panasonic.
The SV-SD90 has the same volume as the SV-SD100V and weighs slightly less at 39 grams with batteries. It does not have the battery pack, so the audio playback time is 14 hours 30 minutes, the company said.
Panasonic also released the SV-MP730V and SV-MP720V players that use built-in flash memory to store data. Both play WMA and MP3 formats but not AAC files. The SV-MP730V has a capacity of 1G byte and the SV-MP720V has 512M bytes of memory.
All the players will be on sale in Japan from April 8. They will be available in the U.S., Europe and Asian countries including China before the end of May, said Akira Ikenouchi, a spokesman for Panasonic.
The SV-SD100V will be on sale in Japan for about ¥18,000 (US$172) and the SV-SD90 for about ¥14,000, while the SV-MP730V will cost about ¥28,000 and SV-MP720V about ¥20,000, he said.
Samsung is releasing three players that use hard-disk drives (HDDs) to store data, and three players that use flash memory. All will be available in the Asian, European and U.S. markets over the next two months, the company said.
Of the players that use HDDs, the YH-J70 supports gaming functions and is available in a 20G-byte or 30G-byte version. It has a 1.8 inch TFT (thin-film transistor) display, can play files in MPEG-4 video and Audible, Ogg Vorbis, MP3 and WMA audio formats, and has a playback time of 25 hours, the company said. The 20G-byte version will cost 499,000 won (US$494), said Anthony Lee, a spokesman for Samsung.
The other players with HDDs, the YH-J50 and YP-D1, have similar features to the YH-J70, but have HDDs with capacities of 5G bytes or 6G bytes, according to the company. The YP-D1 has a 2-megapixel camera, the company said.
Of the three players using flash memory, the YP-W3, which is shaped like a pocket watch, has 8 diamonds embedded around its display and white gold plating, the company said. Pricing for this model was not available.
The latest models from Panasonic and Samsung join a growing list of products that vendors are releasing to try to cash in on a growing MP3 player market, said Shyam Nagrani, principal analyst for consumer platforms, at U.S. market research company iSuppli Corp.
The MP3 player market will nearly triple in value from $4.6 billion in 2004 to $12 billion in 2009 and vendors will add yet more features to attract customers, he said.
"This is still a very young market; remember the iPod was only released in 2001. We'll see more and more features such as digital cameras, PDAs, dictionaries and GPS come in," he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 01:38 PM
Google removing Agence France Presse from Google News
By Juan Carlos PerezGoogle Inc. is in the process of removing French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) from its Google News service, which aggregates links to online articles and accompanying photos from about 4,500 news outlets. Google's decision is a direct reaction to a lawsuit AFP filed against the search engine provider alleging copyright infringement over the inclusion of AFP content in Google News, said Steve Langdon, a Google spokesman, on Monday.
Google doesn't have a timetable for when all AFP links and content will be removed from Google News, but the company is actively working on the matter, Langdon said.
"We allow publishers to opt out of Google News. Most, however, want to be included in Google News because they believe it's a benefit to them and their readers," Langdon added, reading from a prepared statement.
AFP sued Mountain View, California-based Google in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday of last week. The news agency is seeking to recover damages of at least US$17.5 million from Google. AFP also asks the court to forbid Google from including its content in Google News.
An AFP spokesman in the agency's North America headquarters in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on the lawsuit.
A copy of the complaint is available online at http://www.resourceshelf.com/legaldocs/afpvgoogle1.pdf.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 12:26 AM
March 21, 2005
IAC to acquire Ask Jeeves
By Stacy CowleyMedia conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp agreed Monday to buy search and portal Web site operator Ask Jeeves Inc. in a stock-swap deal the companies valued at around US$1.85 billion. IAC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Barry Diller said he sees Ask Jeeves as a company with "the potential to become one of the great brands on the Internet." Currently, it significantly trails search leaders Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. -- Forrester Research Inc. estimates its North American search engine market share at 3 percent. IAC plans to integrate its portfolio of Web properties with Ask Jeeves, potentially increasing traffic both ways. IAC, citing comScore's Media Metrix, estimates that Ask Jeeves draws 42 million unique monthly users in the U.S., while its own Web sites collectively attract 44 million.
IAC's network, built through acquisition, includes Match.com, Evite, Ticketmaster, Hotels.com, CitySearch and Expedia (which IAC is in the process of spinning off). The company also owns a number of tele-shopping cable channels including Home Shopping Network in the U.S., Australia's TVSN, Germany's 9Live and Japan's Shop Channel. Ask Jeeves brings to the company its Ask.com search engine, Excite, search/marketing site iWon.com and recently acquired content aggregation service Bloglines.
New York-based IAC said it will seek to differentiate Ask Jeeves in the crowded search pack by emphasizing its local search, content and merchant information. The company will also continue Ask Jeeves' in-development plans to launch wireless search services.
Ask Jeeves will remain an independent brand based in Oakland, California, and led by current CEO Steve Berkowitz, IAC said. Pending regulatory and shareholder approval, the deal is expected to close late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2005. IAC will issue 1.2668 shares of its stock for each share of Ask Jeeves stock.
Forrester analyst Charlene Li said that while Ask Jeeves struggles for recognition against its more famous and heavily trafficked rivals, having a search company in-house will benefit IAC.
"Search drives much of the traffic for key IAC properties like Expedia, Citysearch, and Match.com. Having direct connections to a search engine, even a smaller one, will give those companies insights into how consumers use search and how to best leverage other search engines," Li wrote in a post on her commentary Web site. "It could give IAC companies a much bigger leg up, especially in the area of organic search optimization."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:40 PM
Yahoo acquires Flickr photo sharing service
By Martyn WilliamsYahoo Corp. has acquired the Flickr photo sharing Web site and Ludicorp Research and Development Ltd., the privately held Vancouver company that runs it, according to a posting on Flickr's staff blog. Both companies are yet to issue official statements concerning the deal.
The acquisition, the value of which was not revealed, was disclosed through the posting on Sunday and comes after several rounds of rumors that had placed the two in talks.
The posting was credited to Caterina Fake, Flickr's vice president of marketing and community. In it, Fake outlined a few benefits to users of the acquisition while also stressing that the Flickr service will continue its current course and not lose its identity.
Yahoo's existing photos hosting and sharing service, Yahoo Photos, will gain features from Flickr and the two services will remain separate "for the foreseeable future." Another change will be the ability to log into Flickr using a Yahoo ID and password. Users of the company's free and paid-for services will get more space and prices for professional accounts will fall, the posting said.
The current management team at Ludicorp will also remain in place, it said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:39 PM
AOL travel search site goes into beta
By Juan Carlos PerezAmerica Online Inc. will unveil on Monday a preview version of the travel information search site it announced in November in partnership with Kayak Software Corp., maker of a travel search engine. With the site, called Pinpoint Travel, AOL aims to tap into the growing market of online travel, in which users increasingly demand functionality to search airfare and hotel options, said Jeff DeKorte, vice president and general manager of AOL Travel.
There are two types of online travel buyers: one is loyal to a particular travel site, while the other likes to shop around and search for the best deals. Pinpoint Travel has been designed to serve the latter type of buyer, DeKorte said.
"This other group is really very different. They lack brand loyalty. They don't use just one site all the time. Instead, price and convenience are the main criteria guiding their search," DeKorte said.
The travel information contained in Pinpoint Travel isn't unilaterally harvested by AOL and Kayak from travel Web sites; instead, AOL and Kayak have struck deals with all of the travel sites whose information is featured in Pinpoint Travel. Revenue streams are varied and include advertising, pay-for-inclusion and pay-for-placement, he said.
Pinpoint Travel will contain flight and hotel information from over 100 travel Web sites, 550 airlines and 85,000 hotels, he said. Its goal is to help buyers find merchants, not sell directly to them, DeKorte said.
This is why AOL views Pinpoint Travel as a complement to AOL's own online travel channel, which sells travel products to its clients, he said. AOL's travel channel is available to AOL subscribers in the company's proprietary service and to Web surfers in general from various AOL Web sites.
Pinpoint Travel, however, will not feature information from large travel sites run by Orbitz LLC, Travelocity.com LP and Expedia Inc., because each declined to have its listings included. Ironically, AOL's travel channel is run in partnership with Travelocity.com.
The decision by these big players took DeKorte by surprise, because Pinpoint Travel, he said, has been designed for the underserved type of online travel buyers who aren't loyal to brands and are looking for better search technology to assist them.
"We're fine with their decision, but I'm a little surprised though. We want to go after that audience that isn't being served and capture its attention," DeKorte said. "But if (Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia) don't want to play, I respect that. I understand this is a new model and there is some trepidation about it."
Ultimately, DeKorte trusts Pinpoint Travel will succeed, as a Web site that caters to users craving a good search engine for travel products.
The site will be open to all Web visitors, not just AOL members, during the preview, or beta, period, and after it is launched in final form a few months down the road, he said.
This is in keeping with AOL's recent strategy of increasingly offering content and services to Web users in general, instead of only to subscribers to its fee-based proprietary online service, DeKorte said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:39 PM
ICQ upgrades IM service with new voice features
By Juan Carlos PerezAmerica Online Inc.'s ICQ unit has upgraded its instant messaging service, adding two types of voice communication and improving video transmission. The service's new version, ICQ 5, has a new PC-to-PC voice chat feature for users interested in having long conversations, and a push-to-talk feature for users who just want to exchange a few quick spoken comments.
The PC-to-PC voice chat provides a persistent voice connection, while the push-to-talk feature works similarly to a walkie-talkie, with users taking turns to speak.
ICQ 5 has enhanced video transmission features. The software lets users launch a video session directly from a message window or from the contacts list; the process previously required additional steps. Another enhancement includes the ability to capture images from a video transmission.
The new voice features and the enhanced video respond to AOL's belief that its instant messaging services ICQ and AIM have to be broad communications tools that don't just offer traditional IM features such as text messaging, said Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president and general manager of AIM and ICQ at Dulles, Virginia-based AOL.
"If you're going to live up to the potential to be a great communications platform, you have to do other things beyond IM," he said.
Another new feature in ICQ 5 is the ability to send an instant message simultaneously to multiple recipients. ICQ 5 also lets users send a message by hitting the "enter" key; before messages could only be sent by clicking with the mouse on the interface's "send" button.
AOL has also increased ICQ's personalization capabilities in version 5, by giving users new "skins" to choose from for dressing up the interface and more options for crafting status messages, which a user employs to let others know what he's doing at the moment.
Meanwhile, AOL plans to continue its strategy of having two distinct IM services, Palihapitiya said. AIM dominates the U.S. market, while ICQ is very strong abroad, and their respective user bases are extremely loyal, he said.
However, users can expect to see an increase in the degree to which AIM and ICQ interoperate, he said. ICQ and AIM are interoperable to an extent -- for example, text messages can be sent across the services -- but ICQ doesn't support all of AIM's features, and vice versa.
The new ICQ version can be downloaded for free at http://www.icq.com/download.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
Ireland putting digital films in every cinema
By Laura RohdeDigital cinema is coming to Ireland in a big way. A project is underway to install a digital cinema network throughout the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, with the aim of converting all its cinema screens to digital format. "The digital projection offers picture perfect quality and signifigant cost savings," said Moira Horgan, the head of marketing for the Irish Film Board. "The boxes are being inserted as we speak."
Avica Technology Corp. is bringing the digital presentation systems to 515 screens throughout Ireland to run alongside traditional 35mm film projectors, said Kevin Cummins, spokesman for Avica Europe, the European arm of the Santa Monica, California, digital cinema technology and services company.
"Digital can reduce the cost of distribution, eliminating the need for costly reels of film that need to be printed, delivered, collected once the cinema is done showing the movie and then destroyed," Cummins said. "From the (average viewer's) point of view, digital provides picture-perfect quality. The movies just look a lot better, from the first showing through to a thousand showings."
Movie theaters will be able to download a movie to a computer server over a satellite link. The content is protected with multiple levels of encryption and each projector has its own encryption key, Cummins said. When a movie is no longer needed it can be deleted from the projector by the theater or the movie studio.
The encryption technology was developed by Digital Cinema Initiatives LLC, a joint venture of the Walt Disney Co., Fox Entertainment Group Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Avica and its subsidiary Digital Cinema Ltd. (Ireland) have been planning the project for the past two years and began installing the first 25 projection boxes on March 1. Those boxes should be operational within the next few weeks, and in a year's time all the movie screens in Ireland should be fitted out with the digital kit, Cummins said.
The €40 million (US$53.3 million) price tag for the project was raised though venture capital investors, he said. Avica hopes to announce similar deals in other European countries at the 58th Cannes Film Festival in France, which takes place May 11 to May 22, Cummins said.
Ireland was picked as the first region to get the full digital cinema treatment because it is a manageable size and has the second-highest level of cinema attendance in Europe, with 80 percent of its films coming from Hollywood, Cummins said.
"There are about 40 screens in the U.S. that are using the digital projectors, but they aren't tethered to any sort of network. This will the first time a nationwide digital network will be rolled out," Cummins said. "This is the best way to show the industry what is possible with digital technology."
According to the Irish Film Board, besides offering superior picture quality for cinema goers, the digital network may have a positive knock-on effect for the Irish film making community.
"It will be cheaper to make small Irish films because the costs of making and distributing prints won't be factored in," Horgan said. "The money saved can then be used to on promoting and advertising smaller films."
Additionally, cinemas can afford to show a wider variety of films, bringing more choice to the public, she said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
Bluetooth pitched as national standard for China
By Sumner LemonThe Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has made the core specifications of the Bluetooth short-range wireless networking technology available to a research institute overseen by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) in a bid to have the technology made a national standard in China. The Bluetooth specification has been made available to the Institute of Posts and Telecommunications Industry Standardization, which is part of MII's China Academy of Telecommunication Research in Beijing. The specification has been licensed to Chinese government researchers for them to translate and distribute, but not to modify or sub-license, the Bluetooth SIG said in a statement.
Bluetooth SIG hopes that sharing its technology with MII researchers will smooth the way for Bluetooth to become a national standard in China, spurring wider adoption of the technology by Chinese companies, the group's statement said. Bluetooth SIG currently has more than 1,000 member companies in Asia, including 160 Chinese companies, it said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
March 18, 2005
Google's Blogger tool faces performance problems
By Juan Carlos PerezGoogle Inc. is working to address performance problems that slow down its popular Blogger service. The company is both adding new hardware and addressing an electricity-availability issue in order to improve performance, wrote Biz Stone, a Blogger official in an entry posted Thursday in the official Blogger team blog called Blogger Buzz (http://buzz.blogger.com). "Performance is a huge priority for us and we're adding a bunch of new machines right now to speed things up," Stone wrote. "New machines are not an issue because here at Google we can add them quite smoothly as needed. The real issue is power -- actual electricity, if you can believe it. So now we're adding more power in addition to more machines."
Stone posted his entry after receiving an e-mail from a Blogger user who complained about "slowness issues" with the free service. It turns out that the performance problems not only affect regular Blogger users but also Blogger team members, Stone wrote.
"We use Blogger for this blog and many of the people on our team use Blogger for their own, personal blogs. We don't have a super-special employee server that gives us preference over anyone else so we are just as frustrated with slowness and performance problems," Stone wrote. "That being said, we are just as eager as you to make this fix so things will be fast again."
Mountain View, California-based Google didn't immediately respond to a call seeking comment about this issue.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:34 PM
Sony's PSP movie plans form around US launch
By Martyn WilliamsSony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) will begin to realize its plan to expand the PlayStation Portable (PSP) platform beyond games into prerecorded movies and other video next week when it launches the PSP in North America. The upcoming launch on March 24 will be the first for the PSP outside Japan, where is was launched on Dec. 12.
At present only gaming software is available in the PSP's UMD (Universal Media Disc) format. UMD is a 6-centimeter optical disc inside a protective cartridge. Each 10-gram disc can hold up to 1.8G bytes of data. That's significantly less than a DVD-Video, but by using more advanced compression and cutting DVD extras such as out-takes, SCEI can fit a movie on a UMD disc.
The availability of films on UMD from March 24 will mark the start of the PSP's transformation into a portable media player, said Masa Chatani, corporate executive and chief technology officer of SCEI, in an interview Friday.
The first 1 million PSP Value Packs being distributed in North America will contain a copy of the film Spider Man 2, and Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced a further seven titles that it plans to launch on UMD. The PSP has also received support from other movie studios. Lions Gate Entertainment has announced 16 titles and earlier this week Buena Vista Home Entertainment said it plans to release five titles on UMD.
"In the U.S. we have already met with all the major studios," Chatani said. "They pretty much love the PSP and the quality of the UMD. They are also happy because it's not cannibalizing their existing business. It's an incremental purchase and poses very little risk to their existing business."
The PSP has a widescreen format, 4.3-inch (10.8-centimeter) display, and movies will be displayed in up to 480 pixels by 272 pixels resolution. While the screen is about a quarter of the resolution of a conventional widescreen TV, its small size should mean that images remain sharp and crisp.
SCEI has yet to announce UMD support in products beyond the PSP, but it has talked about the possibility of making it a common format for a family of gadgets. Should this happen, the UMD movies may benefit from future players with larger screens. The movies are stored on the discs at a resolution of 720 pixels by 480 pixels, said Chatani. That's the same resolution as DVD.
The discs have something else in common with DVDs: region coding. Whether it is actually used, however, is up to the content publisher, as in the DVD world, he said. To date, game publishers haven't been overly keen to use the system, but the same might not be true of movie companies. The Spider Man 2 disc bundled at launch will be region coded to North America and won't work on Japanese systems, said Chatani.
There's a third format in the UMD family: UMD Audio. No companies have announced plans yet to release audio-only UMD discs, and Chatani thinks some may opt for a combination of the audio and video formats to offer users a disc of music with accompanying music videos or short films.
Users can also view and listen to their own content on the PSP through memory cards, and this has been popular among early purchasers, said Chatani. Earlier this week Sony Corp., SCEI's parent, announced a new version of its PSX combined game console and digital video recorder that can compress video onto memory cards for playback on the PSP.
By launching next week, Sony is keeping a promise to North American consumers that it would launch the PSP before the end of its current fiscal year, which finishes on March 31. The company made the same promise to European users but has had to let them down.
"We are examining the European market," Chatani said, without giving an estimate for when the PSP is likely to launch there. "At the moment we need to focus on the launch in the U.S."
Demand for the system is strong and SCEI is on track to meet its fiscal year target of 3 million units shipped, he said. In Japan, after an initial surge when the PSP first went on sale, demand has remained fairly constant and many shops are unable to keep stock, he said.
The company is shipping about a million units to retailers for the North American launch, or about five times the number available at launch in Japan.
The Value Pack will cost US$250 in the U.S. and C$299 in Canada.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:31 PM
Wall Street Beat: Merger mania continues
By Marc FerrantiMarch is turning out to be merger mania month. Acquisitions and takeover battles are providing excitement in a technology investment market that has been depressed by news about modest corporate IT spending plans and general economic concerns about rising oil prices and interest rates. A good first quarter revenue forecast from Intel Corp. last week failed to set the stage for a generally upbeat tech trading week or even sustained higher share prices for Intel itself. Some analysts suggested that global economic concerns played a part in dampening enthusiasm for all industrial sectors. Though Intel raised the low end of its first quarter forecast, from US$8.8 billion to $9.2 billion, oil prices during the week, for example, played out to traders' concerns, hitting record levels Thursday, when quotes for April oil futures prices went over $57.60 a barrel. On Thursday Intel (trading symbol: INTC) closed at $23.41, down 5.79 percent for the week.
Trader interest was sparked, on the other hand, by the Monday announcement that IBM Corp. would buy data integration software maker Ascential Software Corp. for $1.1 billion in cash. The acquisition is expected to bolster IBM's middleware and information integration products. Ascential (ASCL) shares rose by $2.59 to $18.29 while IBM (IBM) shares ticked upward by $0.39 to $91.90 Monday. Though IBM gradually settled down over the week, Ascential shares closed Thursday at $18.35, up 18.23 percent for the week.
The business software arena saw a continued battle over retail-management application company Retek Inc., which is being wooed by SAP AG and Oracle Corp. On Thursday, hours after Retek accepted a new, $11-per-share bid from SAP, Oracle again raised the stakes by offering $11.25 per share. SAP and Oracle are archrivals in the ERP (enterprise resource planning) market, and Oracle proved its mettle as a mergers-and-acquisition combatant last year when it successfully completed a $10.3 billion hostile takeover of PeopleSoft Inc. Before Oracle's after-market offer Thursday, Retek (RETK) shares rose by $1.13 to close at $11.65, up 10.95 percent for the week. Oracle (ORCL) shares closed up $0.17, at $40.25, while SAP (SAP) closed down by $0.02, at $40.25.
In the telecommunications sector, the war of words and dollars surrounding competing bids for MCI Inc. continued. Thursday, Qwest Communications International Inc. made an expected increase in its offer to acquire MCI, in a bid to edge out Verizon Communications Inc. MCI and Verizon announced an acquisition deal last month.
Qwest is now offering to pay about $26 in cash and stock for each share of MCI, up from its previous counteroffer of $24.60 per share. That brings the total value of the deal up to about $8.5 billion, topping Verizon's package, worth about $6.7 billion. MCI, which was going to decide on the earlier offer by the end of the week, now says it will make a decision on March 28.
Verizon executives suggest the Qwest offer is a desperate gamble from a smaller company with weak finances. Qwest officials claim that, due to common assets, a merger with MCI would eliminate expenditures and ongoing operational costs.
MCI (MCIP) shares were buffeted by the news, closing at $23.30 Thursday, down 1.81 percent for the week but still up by 11.61 for the month. Also on Thursday, Qwest (Q) shares closed at $3.74, down 2.60 percent for the week and 5.79 percent for the month, while Verizon (VZN) shares closed at $35.21, down 2.65 percent for the week and 2.51 percent for the month.
In other tech market news:
--Shares of Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), maker of the BlackBerry, Wednesday jumped $11.87 to $78.96 on the announcement that the company will pay $450 million to NTP Inc. to resolve patent litigation.
--Shares of Cray Inc. (CRAY) dropped by $0.78 to close at $2.23 Thursday after the company said it would delay its annual report to gain time to review its internal controls. The company indicated that auditing was crimped by insufficient review of third-party contracts.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:30 PM
Customization comes to low-end CRM
By Stacy CowleyThe knock against low-end CRM (customer relationship management) software has traditionally been that it takes a one-size-fits-most approach that does not work for businesses with complex processes. If you need customization, you're steered toward the wares of enterprise vendors -- with their correspondingly high enterprise-class price tags. But as vendors in the crowded market advance their technology and look for competitive advantages, sophisticated customization features are creeping into less expensive applications. NetSuite Inc. took the wraps Thursday off a set of capabilities it dubbed "NetFlex," aimed at making NetSuite's ERP (enterprise resource planning)/CRM/e-commerce applications bundle a flexible, standards-compliant platform adaptable for custom business needs. The move parallels rival Salesforce.com Inc.'s preview of functionality due in June called "Multiforce," which will let users add new features and applications to run within their Salesforce.com system.
At the heart of both company's updates are tools designed to let users customize their systems without digging into programming code. Salesforce.com's point-and-click tool is called Customforce; NetSuite's is AppBuilder.
NetSuite customer Barry Friedman raves about the customization he's been able to do on NetSuite's system. Friedman is the chief executive officer of BizActions LLC, an e-mail newsletter technology company. While the company is officially headquartered in Potomac, Maryland, its staff is scattered throughout the country, thanks in large part to BizActions' ability to run operations through NetSuite's software.
Friedman has used AppBuilder to create a number of specialized applications within NetSuite, such as programs for tracking renewals and collections and a program that manages his company's telesales process via scripts.
"In my more than 30 years in accounting and technology, I've never seen software like this," Friedman said. "I literally manage the entire company from my dashboard."
NetSuite and Salesforce.com both offer their customization functions at no extra cost to customers of their full-featured editions. Both are hosted service providers which maintain and manage their applications on a subscription basis.
Meanwhile, Microsoft Corp. is preparing a major update of its CRM application, scheduled for release in late 2005, that will significantly increase its adaptability. Microsoft first released its closely watched Microsoft CRM software at the end of 2002 and has done one major update since then. But the current software has limited functionality, some frustrating glitches relating to software synchronization, and limited integration with Microsoft's Outlook e-mail and information management client. The next version will be a significant leap forward, according to Microsoft executives and those who have had early access to the new product.
Key to the update will be the ability to add "entities," records that carry throughout the system and can be customized, said Yankee Group Inc. analyst Sheryl Kingstone. She expects Microsoft's forthcoming integration, data management, and workflow improvements to put Microsoft CRM on par with its rivals.
One mystery still surrounding Microsoft's software is its name. Initially referred to as Microsoft CRM 2.0, the overhaul briefly became Microsoft CRM 2005 before reverting back to unnamed limbo, according to Microsoft CRM General Manager Brad Wilson. Microsoft promises that more information about the update, including its name and a detailed feature set, will be out in the third quarter of this year.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:30 PM
New Yahoo service to feature blogging tool
By Juan Carlos PerezYahoo Inc. is developing a free service designed to let users stay in touch with acquaintances such as friends, family and co-workers via new and existing Yahoo services. The service will include the Sunnyvale, California company's first blogging tool, according to a company executive. Called Yahoo 360, the service will enter a restricted beta, or test, period on March 29, when it will be available to select users invited by Yahoo to try it out. Yahoo will expand the scope of the beta testing in coming weeks. Yahoo has set up a waiting list for interested users at http://360.yahoo.com/reg/beta_list.html.
Like similar offerings recently introduced by Yahoo competitors Microsoft Corp. and Lycos Inc., Yahoo 360 provides blogging within a broader service whose main aim is to serve as a communications tool between users and acquaintances.
Similar to Microsoft's Space and Lycos' Circles, Yahoo 360 lets users do things such as publish blogs, share content and post pictures, while keeping a tight grip on who is allowed to visit the Web site.
Yahoo 360 has also been designed to let users consolidate a variety of existing Yahoo services and content in one place, with the goal of increasing users' interaction, said Paul Brody, the company's director of community products. "It's about integrating all the great resources across the Yahoo network into this service to deepen the users' engagement," he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 01:59 AM
Google improves AdSense with Ad Links
By Juan Carlos PerezGoogle Inc. has introduced a feature into its AdSense advertising program that increases the number of text ads tied to a Web page. The feature, called Ad Links, also improves the relevance between the ads and the Web page's content. In the AdSense program, Web site publishers insert Google code into their Web pages, which generates text ads that are relevant to each page's content. The ads are sold by Google to advertisers and are distributed to publishers who participate in AdSense. When a visitor clicks on an ad, Google pays the publisher.
Google believes Ad Links will benefit Web site visitors, advertisers and publishers, said Shuman Ghosemajumder, Ad Links product manager. "It helps users by giving them a greater choice of ads they can select from. Meanwhile, advertisers benefit from additional distribution they're gaining. And for publishers there's a higher likelihood visitors will click on ads," he said.
Ad Links has been designed as a complement to the contextual ads served through AdSense. Publishers who sign up for Ad Links will still receive the AdSense ads. But with Ad Links, publishers will also get a list of topics that are contextually related to the content of their page. When a visitor clicks on an item on that topic list, he is taken to another Web page with related text ads.
For example, a page about vacationing in Hawaii will feature AdSense text ads about that content. But it's possible that not all visitors who land on that page are looking specifically for information about vacationing in Hawaii. They may be looking for other type of information about Hawaii or about vacationing in general, he said.
In that case, the visitor is unlikely to click on the AdSense ads. However, with Ad Links, the page could feature a list of topics related to Hawaii and vacationing, which, when clicked upon, would serve up corresponding ads, broadening both the scope and quantity of the ads available to the visitor.
The Ad Links topic list has been designed to be unobtrusive and not clutter the space devoted to ads on a page, Ghosemajumder said. "It integrates very well with the navigation structure of sites," he said. The Ad Links feature is ready now and is already being implemented by Web site publishers, he said. It is available in the 22 languages AdSense supports.
Another enhancement Mountain View, California-based Google is readying is the ability for publishers to have AdSense payments deposited directly into their bank accounts via Electronic Funds Transfer technology, he said. This feature is currently being tested.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 01:59 AM
March 17, 2005
Google reaches out to open source community (Update)
By Juan Carlos PerezGoogle Inc. has launched a site designed to deepen the company's interactions with external software developers by providing Google source code for free, along with discussion forums. The site, called Google Code (http://code.google.com) and announced Thursday, has been in development for about six months and is an admittedly modest start that is expected to grow in scope.
"We have derived a great amount of software from the open source community, so we felt it would be appropriate for us to interact more closely with those developers than we have done to date," said Chris DiBona, Google's open source program manager.
"Enough people at Google came from the open source community that it's sort of built into us that we want to do this. It's one of the reasons I was hired," said DiBona, who joined Google about eight months ago.
The site is aimed at providing the open source community with software tools developed and used internally by Google, contributing code that external developers might find useful, DiBona said. An added bonus for Google would be to get feedback from developers on ways to improve the code it posts on the site, he said.
While Google Code contains links to information on Google's open application programming interfaces (APIs), the site's purpose isn't to get external developers to write applications that extend Google functionality, he said.
"These aren't applications per se. They aren't environments to develop in. These aren't interfaces to use Google search," DiBona said. "These are (tools) for creating software. This is about releasing code to help people develop."
Google has a separate site devoted to its APIs at http://www.google.com/apis/.
An open source community leader praised Google's effort. "This looks great. It's great news. I'm not surprised. Google has always been a class act and it has had close ties to the open source community," said Eric Raymond, president emeritus and founder of the Open Source Initiative.
Google's decision to start the project modestly and allow the program to expand is the right approach, Raymond said. "In general, when you're dealing with the open source community the best thing is to speak softly and deliver a lot of code: underpromise and overperform. They're doing the right thing here."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 09:53 PM
Bush names Martin new FCC chairman
By Grant GrossU.S. President George Bush on Wednesday announced that he will appoint former advisor Kevin Martin to be the new chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates the telecommunications and broadcast industries. Bush named Martin, a member of the FCC since 2001, to replace departing chairman Michael Powell, the White House announced Wednesday. Martin, a former special assistant to Bush for economic policy and a lawyer for the Bush 2000 campaign, has at times disagreed with Powell about how far the deregulation of incumbent local telecom carriers should go.
Martin, in February 2003, parted with fellow Republicans Powell and Kathleen Abernathy in voting to allow states to decide whether parts of the so-called unbundled network element pricing (UNE-P) rules should remain in place. The FCC's UNE-P rules required the incumbent local carriers, often called the regional Bells, to share parts of their networks with competitors at discounted prices as a way to foster competition. Powell had argued the rules were outdated and discouraged network investment by the Bells, which inherited large chunks of their networks after the government breakup of the old AT&T in 1984.
Although parts of that UNE-P decision were later struck down in court, Martin had called for a "balanced approach" to UNE-P and deregulation.
Martin, in a statement, said he was "deeply honored" to be appointed chairman. "I look forward to working with the administration, Congress, my colleagues, and the FCC's talented staff to ensure that American consumers continue to enjoy the benefits of the best communications system in the world," he said.
Bush's decision was cheered by the telecom industry. Tom Tauke, executive vice president for public affairs, policy and communications at Verizon Communications Inc., praised Martin even though the regional Bell has disagreed with him on UNE-P.
"Commissioner Martin has an excellent grasp of the issues, knows how to move the FCC's decision-making processes, and can hit the ground running as the new chairman," Tauke said in a statement. "He has a record of supporting the administration's broadband policy, and that is good news for consumers and the communications sector. This is a challenging time to lead the FCC, and I certainly believe he is up to the task."
CompTel/ALTS, a trade group representing competitors to Verizon and the other regional Bells, also praised Martin's appointment, calling him the "best possible candidate" for the job. "Kevin Martin has earned a reputation as a thoughtful, fair and open-minded individual, and he has always been willing to listen to all perspectives of an issue to reach the right conclusion," H. Russell Frisby, chief executive of CompTel/ALTS, said in a statement.
Powell, in a statement, also congratulated Martin. "He will soon take a front seat at the technology revolution," Powell said. "His wide knowledge of telecommunication policy issues and insight into the rapidly changing nature of communications technology will serve the agency well. Ultimately, everything the FCC does must serve the public interest and benefit consumers, and I am confident he will be vigilant in pursuing these goals."
Martin's appointment will leave a new opening at the FCC. Bush has not announced Martin's replacement. New members of the FCC must be confirmed by the Senate, but Martin's appointment to chairman does not require Senate confirmation.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:34 PM
Africa looks to incubators to spark ICT
By John YarneySome African countries are looking at technology incubation centers, and in some cases are vigorously promoting the projects, as a way to bolster national information and communication technology (ICT) development. While Busyinternet Ghana Ltd., a cyberbusiness center in Ghana's capital, Accra, gets ready to officially launch the second phase of its incubation project, similar centers on the continent are coming to fruition. These projects include the Bodibeng Technology Incubator in South Africa, founded in 2002, and the Mauritius ICT Incubator Centre, which started operations in 2003.
In Busyinternet’s case, the business-support center is moving away from providing only managed office space, toward offering operational support and technical assistance to startups. There are four companies in-house now, and the project supports 17 other startups as well.
For two years, Busyinternet has been limited to managing office space. But last year it won a grant from Infodev, the Information for Development unit of the World Bank, to expand its business-incubation portfolio of services. The US$300,000 grant from Infodev will help Busyinternet add operational support and technical assistance to the services it offers new companies.
Infodev is chartered to help developing countries maximize the impact of ICTs in combating poverty and promoting broad-based sustainable development. That concept is fundamental to Africa's budding incubation-center projects.
Mauritius, for example, identified ICT as having the potential to sustain economic development and is promoting the ICT sector as a new economic pillar, according to Roshan Seebaluck, the assistant manager of Mauritius' National Computer Board and ICT Incubation Centre.
Developments in the Mauritian ICT sector, including the incubation center, business process outsourcing activities and the growing interest of foreign investors in the local market, are expected to increase employment, Seebaluck said. Seebaluck expects the ICT sector to require 7,000 workers to 13,000 workers by 2006.
"Assuming a ratio of one IT professional to two supporting staff, total employment that would be required in the economy would range from 22,000 to 39,000 by year 2006 within the ICT sector," said Seebaluck.
The Bodibeng Technology Incubator in South Africa is also part of broad national policy to develop the small business sector, according to Leon Lourens, its chief executive officer.
Unlike the incubation projects in Mauritius and South Africa, the Busyinternet project is not closely linked to a broader national policy, though Lesley Dodoo, Busyinternet’s incubation manager, said "Busyinternet has a social responsibility obligation to do social development."
The deals between incubation centers and startups vary slightly. In some centers the startups pay for space, while at Busyinternet they contribute a percentage of the cost of the support services offered. Each incubation center offers support, which is considered standard. All the incubators offer infrastructure support in the form of office space; logistics support in the form of broadband Internet connectivity and telecommunications; and business support in the form of business advice and counseling.
The amount of time startups can spend in the centers also varies. Busyinternet limits startups to 18 months, while startups have up to three years in the Mauritius ICT Incubator Centre. Time limits are not predetermined at the Bodibeng Technology Incubator, though generally tenants do not stay longer than two years, according to Lourens.
Selection criteria for clients is similar across the different incubators: The startups are typically required to have innovative ideas with an ICT focus, should have been in operation for a while and have growth potential.
The incubators are beginning to see their services generate results. Three companies left the Bodibeng Technology Incubator, while five enterprises -- Bleen Technologies Ltd., Alliance Reseaux Ocean Indian Ltd., Innovative & Creative Lines Ltd., Active Connect Ltd. and Three S Ltd. -- left the Mauritius ICT Incubator Centre.
Other companies, like Childnet Electronic Publishing Company Ltd., a Busyinternet client specializing in interactive educational software, are starting to experience the incubator's benefits. Nana Kwabena Sarpong, a Childnet official, said that locating the company in the incubator brought it closer to customers.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:34 PM
IDC analyst: Too many choices slows consumer spending
By Johan BostromThe growth of the technology industry is largely driven by consumer spending, but too many choices can slow the adoption of new products and put entire markets on hold, an IDC analyst said Wednesday. A consumer confronted with too many choices might simply walk away from buying or upgrading the product, said Danielle Levitas, a consumer market analyst with IDC at the analyst firm's Directions conference Wednesday.
"Imagine replacing your TV for example. Today it's digital or analog, 4:3 versus 16:9, direct view, rear projection or a flat? If you go for a flat: a plasma or a LCD? And the resolution: standard, enhanced or high definition?" Levitas said. "Choice is good -- to a certain point."
The solutions are simplification, packaging and buyer education, according to Levitas. "Home theater in a box is a good example. It was marketed with emphasis on the feature, not on the technologies enabling the experience."
Levitas agrees that limitation of choice might be seen as provocative. The user interface on Apple Inc.'s new iPod Shuffle MP3 player has been criticized by some for being too simple, emphasizing random playback and lacking a display that allows a user to see what song will appear next
"I'm not sure any other company would get away with that. It's more driven by cost than usability, I think," Levitas said.
Levitas finds Apple's larger MP3-players a better example of a simplified user interface that still provides choice. "The surface must be at its most simplified level, then you let people get deeper. Apple also gives the customer a chance to put a personal stamp on the product by choosing color," she said.
Emerging technologies can also be hampered by competing standards, like the dispute underway between vendors of next-generation DVD recording technology, Levitas said. "The next generation of blue laser DVD players and recorders won't take off until the vendors and the entertainment companies have agreed on using Blu-ray or HD DVD," she said.
IDC is a subsidiary of International Data Group Inc., the parent company of The Industry Standard.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:34 PM
IRiver pitches specs and style for music players
By Martyn WilliamsIn the digital music player market things are getting more competitive by the day. At last week's Cebit show in Hanover, Germany, there was no shortage of new music or multimedia players from companies from around the world each hoping that their product is the "iPod killer." Despite this competition Apple Computer Inc.'s lead in the market remains strong. Whether that changes or not might be up to people like Joon Yang, chief executive officer of Reigncom Ltd. The South Korean company sells music players under the iRiver name and is one of a handful of companies nipping at Apple's heels.
Until recently the two companies weren't direct competitors. Reigncom's product line-up was mainly confined to players that use flash memory chips for storage while Apple used hard-disk drives. However, that all changed in January. Within the space of a week Reigncom launched its H10, its first serious attack at Apple, while Apple unveiled its iPod Shuffle, a direct competitor to some iRiver players.
"We needed some product to be launched as an Apple alternative," said Yang, during an interview in Seoul earlier this month, about why he entered the hard disk, drive-based player market. "I don't think 100 percent of people like the iPod but it's hard to find an alternative so we thought, 'Let's make an alternative.' "
The result of that effort, the 5G-byte H10, has been received well by various reviewers, who suggested that potential buyers weigh the price against its extra features. At US$280, the player is $30 more expensive than Apple's 6G-byte iPod Mini but potential users get several features not found on the Apple player. These include a color LCD (liquid crystal display) screen, FM radio, photo slide show ability and voice recorder.
Then, at last week's Cebit show, Reigncom expanded the H10 line-up to include a larger 20G-byte version and a smaller 1G-byte version, the former based on a 1.8-inch hard-disk drive and the latter on flash memory. The three H10 players now compete broadly with Apple's iPod Shuffle, iPod Mini and iPod and all carry the additional features the original H10 offers.
Reigncom has decided that such features are its best weapon against Apple, said Yang.
"I gave up competing on style and looks," he said. "If I did it would just turn into an Apple imitation. So, Apple is focused on style and I am focused on features."
But to completely forget about style would be a mistake, he added. Design of iRiver players is handled by Inno Design, an industrial design company based in Palo Alto, California, that does work for clients including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., LG Electronics Inc. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
"Image is important, Apple proved it," Yang said.
Yang expects the H10 will help increase Reigncom's sales of hard-disk drive-based players to more than 30 percent of its unit shipments by the end of the year. Such players currently represent about 20 percent of the company's shipments, he said. However, while Yang sees hard-disk drive player shipments rising, he doesn't see this growth coming at the expense of flash memory based players. Such players are still superior when it comes to durability, weight and power consumption.
Despite the competition within the music player market, the biggest threat might come from outside.
Cell phones, for example, have offered rudimentary music players for some time and now Samsung is upping the stakes with its SGH-I300, that sports a 3G-byte hard-disk drive and multimedia options to rival any stand-alone player. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB recently announced its first Walkman handset and Motorola Inc. has been working with Apple on an iPod phone. Other devices are also trying to muscle in on the market, such as Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation Portable, which includes a digital music and movie player.
Yang kept his cards close to his chest when asked about an iRiver-powered cell phone. However, he said the company is planning to launch its first convergence product this year. The device will work as a portable music player and also have car and home configurations and carrier and content components.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:33 PM
March 16, 2005
Microsoft developing its own paid search program
By Juan Carlos PerezMicrosoft Corp. is developing its own paid-search advertising program to become a player in a lucrative market where rivals Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have been playing for years. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer is expected to make the announcement on Wednesday in a speech at the MSN Strategic Account Summit, an event on online advertising the company holds every year.
However, Microsoft will not make its presence in paid search felt immediately. The paid search program will be tested within the next six months in Singapore and France, but beyond that the company has no date for its official launch, a Microsoft executive said.
"We're not talking about a timetable for delivery yet. We're focusing now on this pilot," said Karen Redetzki, a product manager at Microsoft's MSN Internet division.
For its paid search program, Microsoft will provide advertisers with demographic usage profiles tied to keywords, including users' geographic location, gender, age group, as well as the time of day when queries were submitted, Redetzki said. For example, Microsoft will be able to identify the most searched-for keyword by males between the ages of 18 and 24 in New York City between 5 pm and 7 pm EST, Redetzki said.
This information is collected from users who register with Microsoft's Passport program, but it isn't used to identify individuals, meaning users' online activities will remain private, Redetzki said. Passport is a service that lets users enter the same login information to access any participating Web site, saving users from having to remember multiple usernames and passwords.
This demographic data Microsoft plans to provide to paid-search advertisers goes a step beyond what is available to them currently, and will open the search engine marketing field to new possibilities, said Gary Stein, a Jupiter Research analyst. "Exposure to that level of data and its potential uses is very interesting," he said.
While Google, Yahoo and others have established themselves in paid search ahead of Microsoft, the Redmond, Washington, vendor isn't late to the party, because this market is new, Stein said. "Search as a vibrant marketplace is only about two years old," he said.
And while Microsoft is a later entrant to the marketplace, it's not coming in with a me-too product, but rather with a distinct approach, such as providing very granular user demographic information to advertisers, Stein said.
The paid search effort is part of a larger program Microsoft is putting together called MSN adCenter, in which the company will consolidate all of its online advertising activities. "We have built a house to put all (online advertising programs) in one place," Redetzki said. "Our vision is for adCenter to be a one-stop shop for all ad campaigns."
It's no surprise that the first horse out of the adCenter gates is a paid-search program, since this is one of the largest and fastest-growing types of online advertising.
In the second quarter of 2004, total U.S. Internet ad spending was about $2.37 billion, a 42.7 percent increase over the same period in 2003, according to a report issued in September by the Internet Advertising Bureau and Pricewaterhousecoopers LLP. Search-related ads were the largest category with $947 million, according to the report.
Advertisers bid on search engine queries and pay a fee whenever someone clicks on their ads. The advertiser that bids the most on a particular keyword has its ad show up first on the list. For example, a sporting goods vendor might bid on keywords such as "basketball" and "racquet" and its ads will show up next to the search engine results of someone who used those terms as queries.
Until now, Microsoft has relied on Yahoo's Search Marketing Solutions division (formerly called Overture) to supply its paid search ads. But Microsoft wants to have its own program developed in-house from scratch and tailored to its MSN content and services, which draw about 385 million unique users every month worldwide to MSN sites, such as the MSN.com portal, Redetzki said. "Overture continues to be a very valuable partner for MSN. They are delivering (services) beyond paid search to us," she said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:09 PM
Google expands access to Gmail
By Juan Carlos PerezGoogle Inc. opened up its Gmail Web mail service to a wider scope of users on Monday by randomly offering, for the first time, accounts to some visitors of the main Google.com page. Until Monday, to get a Gmail account, a user had to be invited to the service by either Google or an existing Gmail user.
"We just started (on Monday) offering Gmail accounts to a randomly selected sample on Google," said Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products. "It's a natural step to leverage the wider user base of Google.com to grow Gmail."
About one in 20 Google.com visitors are getting the Gmail account offer, Mayer said. "Based on the success of this one-in-20 scope, we'll be ramping it up over the next couple of weeks," she said.
Gmail, a free service, is still in a beta, or test, phase, but there has been much speculation about when it will be launched officially and opened up to Web users in general.
Gmail rocked the Web mail market when it was announced in April 2004 due to its then unprecedented 1G-byte inbox storage. Since then, webmail providers large and small, including big players Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., have reacted to Gmail by increasing significantly their inbox storage capacity.
Gmail also brought Google, in Mountain View, California, a good amount of controversy due to its inclusion of contextual text ads in the messages based on their content, which prompted privacy advocates to criticize the practice. Google defended itself by saying that the ads are generated automatically with text-scanning technology and without human intervention.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:37 PM
Google reaches out to local businesses
By Juan Carlos PerezGoogle Inc. has created a program to let businesses create or update listings on its Google Local index, the latest enhancement the Mountain View, California, vendor has made to one of its most popular search services. Google Local Business Center, at http://www.google.com/local/add, lets business owners add their company information to Google Local or, if it's already there, edit it, said Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products.
By offering this free service, Google seeks to increase the number of listings in Google Local and keep information current. "We want to build the most comprehensive index of local business information available on the Web and potentially anywhere," Mayer said.
Receiving information directly from businesses will complement Google Local's other sources of business listings data, such as yellow pages publishers, business directories and Web sites.
"If you don't advertise in the yellow pages and you don't have a Web site, right now you're not findable in Google Local," she said, adding that this new service is aimed at changing that.
Because Google needs to certify that the person supplying the information is authorized to do so, it sends a letter to the business address with an personal identification number. Once the authentication process is completed and the person has been certified, the information should appear in Google Local after several weeks, a Google spokesman said.
Local search is a very hot area right now because it lets users limit queries to a specific geographical area, allowing them to find information on local businesses, entertainment, news, weather and the like. Consequently, local search has also attracted local advertisers that can have their ads run only when someone is looking for information about the area where they are based.
User interest in local searches is evident by the growing popularity of Google Local, whose traffic is increasing rapidly, Mayer said.
"Local is a very important space. Most consumer dollars are spent close to home in local businesses," she said. "It's clear that there's a great need to provide good local search."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:37 PM
US lawmakers push for data privacy legislation
By Grant GrossFollowing the disclosure of two recent large-scale identity theft operations, the U.S. data brokerage industry will most likely face new laws this year governing what personal data it collects and shares, several U.S. lawmakers said Tuesday. As the chief executives of ChoicePoint Inc. and a LexisNexis division looked on, nearly all the members of a House of Representatives subcommittee blasted the companies for collecting personal data and sharing it with other companies without telling the people whose data is being collected. Since mid-February, both companies have disclosed that identity thieves have stolen the personal information of tens of thousands of U.S. residents.
Representative Joe Barton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called such security breaches "intolerable," and he promised to look into legislation that would regulate data brokers, including a ban on the sale of Social Security numbers without the permission of the owner of the number, except when needed by law enforcement.
In the Internet age, ID thieves have easy access to personal information such as bank records contained in huge databases operated by data brokers, said Barton, a Texas Republican. "Under current law, anyone has a near-perfect right to package your personal information and do almost anything they want with it," he said. "They can change it, share it, rent it or sell it. The constraints are so flimsy they're laughable."
The two companies' chief executives seemed to disagree, saying most of the personal information they collect is governed by the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act, which allows individuals to check their credit records and ask credit reporting agencies to make corrections.
A law that would prohibit almost all sales of Social Security numbers could hamper financial institutions investigating fraud, bill collection companies and law enforcement investigations, said Derek Smith, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ChoicePoint, and Kurt Sanford, president and CEO of U.S. Corporate and Federal Government Markets at LexisNexis. In some cases, consumers may not give explicit permission for a data broker to share their Social Security numbers in transactions that benefit them, such as pre-employment background checks, Smith said.
Smith told lawmakers that his company provides a valuable service to lenders, insurance companies and even law enforcement agencies hunting down criminals. ChoicePoint has done "some serious soul-searching" since its breach and has decided that it should have acted more quickly when it discovered the breach, he said.
"Every advance in technology that makes our lives easier also makes it easier for our enemies to move swiftly against us," Smith said. "You and I can be approved for a bank account in a matter of minutes, but a person can use that same technology to get a false or real drivers' license or to create a fake business." In February, ChoicePoint disclosed that up to 145,000 U.S. residents are potential victims of an ID theft scheme, discovered in September, in which thieves set up a bogus business that requested background checks from ChoicePoint.
This month, LexisNexis' parent company, Reed Elsevier PLC, announced that hackers compromised databases and stole the personal information of at least 32,000 people. The company is still investigating how thieves gained access to passwords that allowed them into a LexisNexis database, Sanford said.
Both executives told the House Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Subcommittee that their companies have taken steps to ensure their recent breaches do not happen again and to help the people whose personal information may have been stolen. Both companies are offering victims free credit reports and free one-year access to a credit monitoring service.
One free year of credit monitoring isn't enough for victims of ID theft, who often struggle for years to clear up their credit, said Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Markey suggested a lifetime credit monitoring service paid for by ChoicePoint would be more appropriate. "Will you give them 10 years?" he asked Smith. "Will you give them five years, will you give them two years?"
ChoicePoint will "take a hard look" at additional ways to help the victims, Smith said, but he didn't commit to giving away credit monitoring services for a longer period. The company will spend nearly US$2 million on the one year of credit monitoring services, he said. "We will continue to look at other remedies," he added.
On March 3, Markey introduced a bill, the Information Privacy and Security Act, that would require the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to develop rules for data brokers, including methods of protecting personal data, ways for individuals to check if their personal data is held by a data broker, and a way for individuals to correct mistakes in data held by data brokers.
FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras, like Smith and Sanford, questioned whether a new law should prohibit nearly all sales of Social Security numbers without permission, but Markey ripped into the two CEOs for suggesting such a law could be too broad. "To whom do you think my Social Security number could be sold?" he said. "Who would it be appropriate for you to sell it to?"
Both companies said they supported additional data privacy laws. Sanford and Smith endorsed Platt Majoras' call for a national law that requires companies to tell consumers when personal data has been compromised and there is "significant risk" to consumers. Only California now has a data notification law, and both executives said they preferred a national law to a number of conflicting state laws.
Both companies called for increased penalties for ID thieves, and Sanford also agreed with an FTC proposal that would extend data safeguard requirements in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, governing financial institutions, to data brokers.
But Markey criticized both companies for not backing stronger regulation, such as a ban on the sale of Social Security numbers.
"What we're hearing today is basically an industry that is still in denial, that still doesn't recognize how highly all Americans value their privacy, and who hope to be able to ride out this scandal," Markey said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:37 PM
Ezmax to sell MP3 player with VOIP software
By Paul KallenderEzmax Co. Ltd. of South Korea will put on sale this May an MP3 player that allows users to make and receive telephone calls using VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol), the company said at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, last week. The EZMP4200P contains software so that when the device is linked to an Internet-connected PC via a USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 port, people can make local and international calls using a microphone that is included in the device's earphone cord, said Ezmax's director, Lee Sung Soo.
When the device is connected to a desktop or notebook PC it appears on screen as a removable disk icon. When the icon is double clicked, dialing software appears, enabling the user to make calls, he said.
Users need to sign up with a VOIP provider. The company is talking to providers in South Korea, Germany and other European countries to sign agreements that will enable the company to adjust the software in the device to the software used by the providers, Lee said.
In a demonstration at the company's stand at Cebit, the device was plugged into a notebook PC and the VOIP dialing software appeared. After a few clicks, an international call was successfully made via a South Korean VOIP provider to the mobile phone of a fellow Ezmax employee standing a few meters away.
While there was a slight delay and an echo, the voice coming out from the player's attached microphone was loud and clear, despite the background noise from the crowded exhibition floor.
The device's software is presently compatible with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 and later editions. Ezmax is considering making the player's software compatible with Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system, according to Lee. "This is not a big problem," he said.
The device is 70 millimeters long, 24 mm in diameter, and weighs 24 grams without the AAA-size battery. As well as MP3 music files, it plays a number of other formats including WMA (Windows Media Audio), ASF (Advanced Systems Format) and Ogg. In addition, the device is capable of voice recording, comes with an FM radio and has a two-color (blue and yellow) 128 pixel by 64 pixel OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen, according to the company.
The player uses flash memory to store songs. Flash memory retains data even when the electricity is switched off.
The device is available in three models, each with a different storage capacity: 256M bytes, 512M bytes and 1G byte.
The company aims to launch the product in South Korea and European countries in May, according to Lee.
"We've already had talks with three providers this week and they have said they are very interested," he said.
If the company signs agreements with VOIP providers in the U.S., it will also sell the product in that country, Lee said.
The added VOIP software adds about US$8 to the price of the company's non-VOIP capable devices. Prices for the EZMP4200P will be about US$150 for the 256M-byte model and about US$220 for the 1G-byte model, he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:37 PM
Vodafone invests in Eastern Europe with US$3.5B deal
By Laura RohdeVodafone Group PLC has spent US$3.5 billion to buy Romanian and Czech mobile assets from Telesystem International Wireless Inc. of Canada, the U.K. operator said Tuesday. As part of the deal, Vodafone will gain an additional 79 percent of Romania's MobiFon S.A., bringing its stake to about 99 percent. It will also gain the assets of Oskar Mobil A.S. in the Czech Republic. Vodafone will take on about $900 million net debt in total, it said.
The acquisition will bring Vodafone 5.7 million additional customers and $1.3 billion in new revenue, the Newbury, England-based company said.
MobiFon is Romania's largest mobile operator, while Oskar is the third largest in the Czech Republic.
"MobiFon is the primary player in Romania and Oskar has a loyal customer base with quite good revenue. It's a good, timely investment," said Robin Hearn, an analyst with Ovum Ltd. in London.
Eastern Europe offers Vodafone good opportunities for expansion, Hearn said, particularly since its brand is already recognized there through its sponsorship of the soccer team Manchester United which plays matches throughout Europe. Vodafone has also been looking into acquisitions and partnerships in Poland, Albania, Lithuania and Greece, he said.
With plenty of cash reserves and a low debt load, Vodafone and its chief executive officer, Arun Sarin, have made no secret of the company's desire to expand, particularly in the U.S. Vodafone lost to Cingular Wireless LLC last year in its bid to buy AT&T Wireless Services Inc., and has been at logger heads with its partner Verizon Communications Inc. over increasing the size of its share in Verizon Wireless, something both companies would like to do.
Vodafone faces a similar situation in France, the last remaining Western European market where it does not have a dominant presence. Vodafone has repeatedly said it wants to increase its 44 percent share in French mobile operator Societe Francaise du Radiotelephone SA (SFR), but its partner, Vivendi Universal SA, has shown no desire to sell.
"Both Verizon Wireless and SFR generate lots of cash for Vodafone's partners and there is little reason to give that up unless Vodafone offered vast sums of money," Hearn said. "But the market has changed: these acquisitions don't go at any cost anymore, it has to make financial sense."
Vodafone's move into Eastern European could provide it with some interesting opportunities in the long term -- potentially even helping it to expand into the U.S. market, Hearn said.
The other major player in Eastern Europe is T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG, the mobile arm of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, which also owns T-Mobile USA Inc.
Vodafone's biggest desire is to get its brand into the U.S., giving it a more truly global presence. T-Mobile, on the other hand, is most comfortable in the Eastern European market on its doorstep, according to Hearn. T-Mobile, therefore, may at some point be willing to strike a deal with Vodafone, Hearn suggested, exchanging its U.S. holdings for Vodafone's Eastern European assets.
"There could be room there for an interesting swap somewhere in the future. So expansion into Eastern Europe is good for Vodafone in both the short and medium term, and may make for a good bargaining chip in the future," Hearn said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:37 PM
March 15, 2005
Interest in VOIP grows at Cebit event
By John BlauTelephony has not been a big theme traditionally at the Cebit trade show -- until now. Interest is surging as voice evolves into one of many software applications that businesses and consumers can now run on their office or home IP (Internet protocol) networks. Voice over IP, or VOIP, is a not-so-new but increasingly popular technology that allows voice calls to be carried over a data connection.
Developed in the early 1990s, VOIP has been slow to spread to the masses, largely because big phone companies have been reluctant to cannibalize their cash-cow circuit-switched telephony businesses with an essentially free voice service. But many of the early VOIP companies have also struggled to generate interest in the new technology among normal telephone customers with little, if any, understanding of computers.
That was then. The VOIP market is changing and Cebit is the place to see it happening.
Siemens AG is showing three different VOIP systems for consumers and small businesses. One features an ATA (analog telephone adapter) device that users slip into the USB (Universal Serial Bus) slot of their notebook computer or PC and connect by cable to a cordless DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) phone. The product, called Gigaset M34 USB, uses Sipps net telephony software from Nero AG.
The second product integrates the ATA module directly into a WLAN (wireless LAN) phone. The Gigaset S35 wireless phone is based on the IEEE 802.11g standard.
The third product, the SX541, is an inconspicuous white box containing a WLAN router that allows users to connect traditional cordless phones. The ATA module is integrated directly into the system, similar to the WLAN phone. But with the SX541, users can also make and accept both VOIP calls and circuit-switched ISDN calls. "This is a nice feature because it helps you easily contact people using one or the other technology, which will be the case for some time," said Armin Mayr, Siemens mobile product manager for southern Europe. "All the voice technology is tucked away in the router so users just have to navigate between the two services on the handset."
French wireless equipment manufacturer Inventel SA is showing a similar home gateway product that provides VOIP over cordless telephones.
Skype Technologies SA, which offers a peer-to-peer VOIP service, is currently working together with an unidentified handset manufacturer to develop a cordless phone that connects to a router, said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Niklas Zennström in an interview. He declined to say when the product would be available.
Last year, Skype collaborated with Danish handset supplier RTX Telecom A/S to launch a cordless phone with preinstalled Skype software that connects to PCs and notebooks, according to Zennström.
At the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes last month, Skype announced a partnership with Motorola Inc. to develop "Skype-enabled" wireless devices.
Several network operators are also using Cebit to announce their VOIP plans. T-Online International AG, the online arm of German telco Deutsche Telekom AG, unveiled a new service targeted at its DSL customers. The carrier's fixed-line unit, T-Com, also announced in Hanover additional testing of advanced VOIP services using technology from Lucent Technologies Inc.
Deutsche Telekom is following in the footsteps of several other big phone companies, notably AT&T Corp. and BT Group PLC, that have decided to enter the VOIP fray and eat their own lunch before someone eats it for them.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:25 PM
Nokia drops price for N-Gage, games
By Grant GrossNokia Corp. has dropped the price of its N-Gage QD wireless gaming device and of games available for it in the U.S., the company announced Monday. Following price drops in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region announced last week, Nokia said that the U.S. base price of the N-Gage QD would be US$99.99 for customers who prepay for wireless service, and that games would cost between $14.99 and $24.99. The base price for the device was previously $199.99, although wireless carriers have offered substantial discounts depending on the service contract customers signed up for, said Nokia spokesman Stephen Knuff. In some cases, wireless carriers were giving away the device for free, depending on the service plan.
Games generally cost between $24.99 and $34.99 before the new pricing announcement, which Nokia made at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association Wireless 2005 show in New Orleans. The new prices take effect Thursday in the U.S.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, available in late March, will be the first new N-Gage game to launch with the adjusted pricing levels, while the existing games catalog will switch immediately to the new prices, according to a Nokia press release.
The N-Gage platform features online 3D multiplayer game play over Bluetooth wireless technology and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). The N-Gage QD also functions as a wireless phone.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:24 PM
AT&T CTO sees WiMax replacing 3G
By Johan BostromTwo corporate customers in New Jersey will have broadband services delivered by AT&T Corp. using WiMax technology on a commercial trial basis beginning the first week of May, with plans for full deployment in 2006. These are trend-setting contracts, according to Hossein Eslambolchi, AT&T's chief technology officer and chief information officer.
"WiMax will take over the 3G networks and become the 4G wireless technology," he said.
A "fairly large retail corporation with distribution across the U.S." and another corporation in Middletown, New Jersey, will be AT&Ts first commercial trials for the emerging last mile wireless broadband access technology.
"We have been testing voice over Internet Protocol services, video, instant messaging and gaming over IP for these customers," Eslambolchi said, not disclosing the companies.
WiMax is a popular term for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.'s (IEEE) 802.16 standard using the 700MHz to 66GHz frequency band delivering 2M bps (bits per second) to 6M bps to each customer within the network's cell radius deployment of up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) with the line of sight interrupted. If the line of sight is uninterrupted, the speed can be higher and the radius larger.
The technology is often described both as a competitor and a complement to 3G (third-generation) and wired broadband but Eslambolchi, responsible for AT&T's strategic technology direction, considers WiMax superior to 3G -- and in many ways a substitute for wired broadband.
WiMax combines the benefits that other wireless networking techologies offer individually, addressing the needs of office, home and mobile users, he said.
In addition to the advantages in converging mobility, portability and fixed Internet access, the cost factor is also important for Eslambochi.
"We pay US$8.5 billion per year to local exchange carriers to lease capacity to business customers and consumers," said Eslambochi. "With only 7,000 business buildings in the U.S. wired by ourselves, out of 270,000, the local access is crucial -- a battle ground. WiMax becomes the niche play which can lower our cost."
Eslambochi, who serves on the IEEE editorial board of the Journal of Network and Systems Management, notes that there is no world standard for wireless broadband technology except the wireless local area network standard Wi-Fi.
"I personally think that WiMax will end up (being) a worldwide standard," he said
The live customer trial in Middletown will be carried out using Intel Corp. hardware. Intel already announced its participation in WiMax network deployment with carriers in Latin America, China and the U.S., and is developing a wireless broadband chip for WiMax products.
AT&T will continue its live U.S. customer trial at two other locations in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Eslambochi.
The experimental licenses from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for the AT&T trials covers 2GHz to 3GHz.
AT&T launched its first commercial 3G service in the U.S. last year.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:23 PM
Skype is enjoying the hype
By John BlauNiklas Zennström made a name for himself as cofounder of the Kazaa peer-to-peer (P-to-P) file sharing service. Now the entrepreneurial Swede hopes to make his latest venture, the Skype P-to-P voice service, a household brand. In recent weeks, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA has signed a string of deals with wireless handset manufacturers. Carrier Devices Ltd., for instance, has agreed to install proprietary Skype VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) software in its i-mate branded Pocket PC phones with Wi-Fi capability. Motorola Inc. is also on board to integrate Skype software into a number of its new wireless devices. Another big-name manufacturer on the list is Siemens AG.
In a crowded booth with music blaring in the background, soft-spoken Zennström fielded a number of questions from IDG News Service.
Contrary to reported customer complaints about call latency, failed connections and voice quality with Skype, Zennström said the VOIP offering is much better than traditional phone service. Don't expect this shrewd businessman to knock his own service in free editorial space. Zennström takes pride in boasting that his company is adding millions of customers without paying a cent on large advertising campaigns.
IDGNS: Your service appears to be growing strongly. What are your numbers?
Zennström: Skype is growing extremely rapidly: We have 29 million users and are adding 155,000 users each day. Most of them run the software on their computers, but we also have around 1.3 million Pocket PC users.
IDGNS: Last year, you entered into an agreement with RTX Telecom A/S to develop a line of cordless phones. How do these work?
Zennström: You can connect the cordless phone to a normal socket and use it as a normal phone. But it also has a USB connection to your computer, which runs the Skype software. When you push a designated button on the handset, you can use Skype to make a VOIP call.
IDGNS: But your computer must be running all the time. Some people don't want to have their machines running all day. Are you looking at a product for these users?
Zennström: Many people like to keep their computers on most of the time, so connectivity isn't an issue with them. But, yes, some people don't like to have their machines running all day. So we are working together with a partner on a router-based product to reach out to a larger group. We will integrate our software either into the cordless handset or the base station, which users can then connect directly to their router. We can't say today when we will launch this new product.
IDGNS: Skype has attracted numerous users because it's free. But last year, you launched a new service, called SkypeOut, that allows users to pay for VOIP calls terminating in the public telephone network. How's that service doing?
Zennström: We now have around 1 million customers for this service. They pay €0.017 (US$0.023 ) to call to any landline in 20 countries. We're also working on a logical counterpart: SkypeIn, which accepts calls from the public telephone network.
IDGNS: You're working to let Skype users send and receive SMS (Short Message Service) text messages. What else can we expect?
Zennström: Let's wait and see. In October, we released an API (application programming interface). Software developers can develop a lot of other applications with this API. One company, for instance, has developed an SMS gateway for Skype users to both send and receive text messages. Another company has developed an answering service. So we're starting to see more and more companies develop applications around this API.
IDGNS: In the early days of VOIP, lots of folks complained about poor quality. How is Skype's quality?
Zennström: Our phone call quality is far superior to traditional calls made on the public telephone network, which is based on narrowband technology. Traditional telephone technology is coding speech at 300 hertz to 3,000 hertz or something like that. It's using limited spectrum. We're using wideband codec, with a much higher frequency spectrum. Today, the Internet has much more capacity. When we tested VOIP in 1997, we came to the conclusion that the public Internet at that time wasn't good enough for VOIP: There was too much packet loss and too many delays. Since then, the capacity on the Internet has been doubling almost every year.
IDGNS: But what happens if everyone moves to VOIP?
Zennström: I don't see this as a problem because of the doubling of capacity and also the fact that voice requires very little capacity, compared to file sharing. We've also taken a very different technology approach with peer-to-peer, which has an impact on efficiency. With some VOIP systems, users must go through a server to connect to each other. This is an extra leg. Our service connects users directly. It avoids bottlenecks by taking the shortest path over the Internet to connect users. We are able to utilize full broadband connectivity.
IDGNS: So with quality like that, what else are you planning?
Zennström: Video calls.
IDGNS: Is there a market for that?
Zennström: If you go to Logitec (Inc.), they'll tell you that they're selling over 10 million Web cameras a year. Video on the Internet has suffered from poor quality, mainly because the video streams are passing through many servers and using narrowband codecs. But since we use P-to-P, we're expecting much better quality.
IDGNS: So where do you see VOIP headed in the future?
Zennström: Down the road, everyone will be connected to the Internet -- even wirelessly, using different technologies. Telephony will become a software application that you run on your device. Once telephony becomes a software application and not something requiring a dedicated network, you have completely different rules. First of all, you can't charge for a call just as you can't for other software tasks. You don't charge for each page you download into your Web browser or each page of text you compile in your word processing program.
IDGNS: Until now, VOIP has thrived in an unregulated market. Are you concerned about possible regulation?
Zennström: In well-developed regions of the world, such as Europe, North America and parts of Asia, regulators understand that there's no reason to regulate VOIP. You regulate something to protect consumers. If there is a dominate player, the regulator needs to ensure a level playing ground for competitors. No one gains anything from VOIP being regulated. There is absolutely no reason for such regulation. You're only stopping market forces if you do so. Granted, some developing countries may think differently. They view telephony as a way to make money. But this is short-term thinking.
IDGNS: Speaking about paying, many people think the Internet is something that is essentially free -- free phone calls, free surfing and free messaging. Your free P-to-P phone service sort of propagates this impression, wouldn't you agree?
Zennström: The Internet isn't free. Some people may be able to take advantage of some special promotions for free Internet access but typically you pay a monthly access fee. So in that sense, the Internet isn't free. In the Internet value chain, some companies provide network infrastructure. Others offer applications. We provide software to run over the Internet. We have chosen to do this for free. That's our decision, and we're benefiting from this decision.
IDGNS: How exactly are you benefiting, assuming that you want to make money?
Zennström: Look at Google. When did you last pay to use Google? Similar to Google, we offer a free service but charge for value-added services, such as SkypeOut and down the road for the Skype phone.
IDGNS: Until now, you have been able to grab business from telephone companies without much of a fight. Many of them, however, are now entering the VOIP market -- AT&T Corp., BT Group PLC, Deutsche Telekom AG and Telefonica SA, to name a few. Do you see telcos as a big threat?
Zennström: The great thing today is that consumers can make a choice. They can choose whomever they want. Today, 29 million people have made a decision to use Skype. They're using Skype as an add-on service; they're not throwing away their normal phone yet. Over time, however, we expect people to stop using the public telephone service altogether and use VOIP only. Unlike the telcos that have built telephone networks, we view telephony as a software application, which you download and install on your own device, whether it's a computer or PDA or Wi-Fi phone. Our cost model is very different. It's about zero. We don't have to maintain equipment, and we don't have a big, global advertising campaign.
IDGNS: Operators have been fond of saying that owning network infrastructure is an asset. But you seem to be saying it's more of a liability?
Zennström: Our benefit is that we don't have a network. If you have a network, you have a cost structure and you're limited in your geographical penetration. Deutsche Telekom, for instance, targets its service mostly at customers in its local market where it has a network.
IDGNS: But what if telcos come out with their own VOIP software similar to Skype?
Zennström: Some already are. BT, for instance, came out with such a service last summer. The service is picking up. Calls between BT users are free. But they pay a relatively high price to make outside calls. And some telcos are even promoting Skype to their users, such as Hutchison (Telecommunications International Ltd.) in Hong Kong. As I said before, when telephony becomes a software application on the Internet, the dynamics are different. Rapid software development is necessary. Telcos haven't been best in world in that area.
IDGNS: True, but they learn fast, especially if they feel threatened. Are there any particular operators you need to worry about?
Zennström: There will be many different companies competing in this space, and that's good for consumers because there will be plenty of choice. Some telephone companies will work with us. Some will do their own thing. Some won't do anything. BT is certainly a company to watch.
IDGNS: Your Kazaa P-to-P file sharing service has had its day in court. Any legal issues to worry about with your P-to-P voice service?
Zennström: There is no legal issue with voice. There is no legal monopoly to provide voice service in developed countries.
IDGNS: And what can we expect from Skype at next year's Cebit?
Zennström: I hope to show a whole lot more devices at the next show.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:20 PM
UK biometric ID card bill faces uncertain future
By Laura RohdeFacing likely defeat in the House of Lords, the U.K. government is expected to shelve its plans for a national identity card program using biometric technology until after the next general election. The Identity Cards Bill, introduced to Parliament on Nov. 29, will go for a vote before the House of Lords on March 21. The legislation seeks to create by 2010 a system of ID cards with embedded chips that carry personal information and biometric identifiers. The information will include each citizen's name, address and biometric information such as fingerprints, face scans and iris scans, all of which will be included in a massive database called the National Identification Register.
But even the bill's principle sponsor, Secretary of State for the Home Department Charles Clarke, has said he expects the legislation to face stiff opposition in the House of Lords next week. In the light of such resistance, local media are reporting unnamed government ministers as saying the current Labour government will shelve the bill until after the next General Election, expected in early May. Should Labour win re-election -- current polls have Labour in the lead -- the bill could then be reintroduced at a later date.
"Our political contacts are telling us the same thing: the ID Cards Bill is on hold until after the election," said Andy Robson, head of campaigns for NO2ID, an organization opposed to the bill.
The ID Cards Bill was approved by the House of Commons in February and the Home Office, the ministry whose responsibilities are similar in scope to the U.S. State Department, remains publically committed to the legislation. The government, including Prime Minster Tony Blair, have insisted the ID Cards are needed to fight against identity fraud, illegal workers, illegal immigration, terrorism and for combating the illegal use of the National Health System (NHS) as well as other government entitlement programs.
The plan calls for a standalone biometric ID card to be issued alongside a biometric passport. It would most likely become compulsory for everyone living in the U.K., including children above the age of 16, to pay for and carry the card by 2012. The U.K. population is about 60 million.
The bill has weathered much criticism, including concerns within the government itself about various aspects of the legislation. The government's Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said in a January report that the bill potentially infringes the European Convention on Human Rights, while a Cabinet Office study indicated biometric tests would incorrectly identify individuals between 10 percent and 15 percent of the time.
The U.K. government has already committed itself to the use of facial biometric identifiers in passports beginning next year and the U.K. Passport Service (UKPS) is expected to publish a report on its trial of biometric technology by the end of this month, according to a Home Office spokeswoman. The six month trial, conducted by Atos Origin SA, involved 10,000 volunteers and tested for three biometrics traits: electronic fingerprint, a scan of the iris of the eye and a full face scan.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:20 PM
March 14, 2005
AOL unveils set of new mobile services
By Juan Carlos PerezAmerica Online Inc. (AOL) plans to announce Monday a series of mobile services aimed at increasing the AOL functionality and content users can access from their mobile devices. The services are being made available to carriers, which will in turn decide which services they offer, how they package them and how they price them, AOL is expected to announce at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association Wireless 2005 show in New Orleans.
Already, AOL has struck deals with some major carriers that have concrete plans to offer their subscribers some of the services. These include Cingular Wireless LLC/AT&T Wireless, Verizon Communications Inc. and Nextel, which is in the process of merging with Sprint Corp. The services are also being offered to T-Mobile USA Inc. and other smaller carriers. For now, the services are being offered to U.S. carriers only.
Extending AOL mobile services and content to members of its proprietary service and to non-members as well is fundamental, considering that mobile devices have become so ubiquitous and are increasingly able to support advanced Internet functionality, said Himesh Bhise, vice president and general manager of AOL Mobile.
"People have their (mobile) phones on for 15 or 16 hours a day. They spend far more time with their (mobile) phones than in front of their desktop PCs. So it's important for us that they take the AOL experience with them on the go," Bhise said.
The services include:
- An extension of the Instant Pictures feature for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), so that users can send pictures from the AIM interface on their PCs to mobile AIM users and to mobile users who don't use AIM as well. This functionality is enabled by AOL's Multimedia Messaging System server. Previously, AIM users could only transmit pictures among PCs.
- Two new MapQuest features. One is called Find Me and uses GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to let users determine their location, get maps, obtain driving directions and find nearby sites, such as restaurants. The other one is called Traffic, which lets users obtain real-time traffic information for 90 metropolitan areas in the U.S.
- A redesigned mobile portal with a new interface that simplifies access to AOL Mail and other AOL services.
- New premium services, including mobile access for the You've Got Pictures service to let AOL members tap into their digital photo albums, and share, download and print pictures; a mobile version of Radio@AOL for tuning in to the service's radio stations; a mobile version of AOL CityGuide, which provides entertainment information for 317 geographical areas; and a new mobile version of Moviefone, to search for movie show times and purchase tickets from the mobile devices.
Regarding commitments from carriers, Nextel plans to announce that it will begin offering on Monday the Mapquest Find Me service, while Verizon is picking up Mapquest Traffic, an AOL spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, Cingular is signing up for Instant Pictures, You've Got Pictures and the redesigned mobile portal, the spokeswoman said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:41 PM
Yahoo Messenger makes jump to BlackBerrys
By Scarlet PruittBlackBerry wireless e-mail devices will soon come with Yahoo Inc.'s Messenger software installed, allowing user to chat as well as e-mail on the go. Full color, graphical Yahoo Messenger clients will be installed on the devices in "coming months," BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) said on Monday. The companies will also offer an enhanced version of Yahoo's Mail service for Blackberrys in the future, they said.
The alliance allows Yahoo to get its instant messaging (IM) software onto yet another platform, while RIM gains another feature to offer to BlackBerry customers.
Yahoo already has agreements with a number of mobile operators, including AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc., to offer Messenger to mobile customers. The Sunnyvale, California, Internet company has tailored versions of its Mail service for mobile phone browsers.
Yahoo is not alone in offering its IM service beyond the desktop, as other leading IM providers Microsoft Corp. and America Online Inc. (AOL) have also been wheeling and dealing with mobile providers.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:41 PM
Burst, Microsoft reach settlement
By Grant GrossMicrosoft Corp. will pay video player software vendor Burst.com Inc. US$60 million to settle Burst's antitrust and patent-infringement claims. The settlement will give Microsoft a nonexclusive right to Burst's media player software, according to a Burst press release from late Friday.
Burst.com, based in Santa Rosa, California, will use the settlement money to pay off long-term debts, enforce patent claims against other companies and to pay shareholders, according to the press release.
The Burst.com case was among the first round of antitrust lawsuits filed by Microsoft competitors following settlement of the U.S. government's antitrust case against the company in November 2001.
Burst.com filed its lawsuit against Microsoft in June 2002, alleging that Microsoft stole patented technology and trade secrets concerning Internet-based video-on-demand for its Windows Media Player product. Microsoft learned about Burst.com's technology in two years of meetings and discussions, although it signed a nondisclosure agreement with Burst prior to those meetings, Burst.com alleged. Microsoft denied those claims.
Microsoft has settled several other antitrust lawsuits against it, but the company still faces lawsuits from Novell Inc. and RealNetworks Inc., as well as several class-action claims.
Novell in November filed an antitrust lawsuit accusing Microsoft of unfairly eliminating competition for office productivity applications during the time Novell owned the WordPerfect word processing application and the Quattro Pro spreadsheet application. Earlier that month, Microsoft agreed to pay Novell US$536 million for antitrust claims relating to Novell's NetWare product.
In December 2003, RealNetworks filed a lawsuit claiming that Microsoft illegally used its power as a monopoly to control the digital media market.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:41 PM
UK MP seeks tougher penalties on DOS attacks
By Laura RohdeA U.K. member of Parliament (MP) will offer amendments next month to U.K. law in an attempt to raise the penalties for crimes committed over the Internet, in particular targeting denial of service attackers. Derek Wyatt, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG), will introduce a motion in the House of Commons on April 5 to update the Computer Misuse Act (CMA). Part of his goal is to increase the prison time for hacking offenses from six months to two years, the APIG said.
The motion will also attempt to make denial of service (DOS) attacks an explicit offense. Many, though not all, DOS attacks are currently illegal under the CMA.
The APIG, which also includes MPs Richard Allan and Brian White, issued a report last year alerting the government to the urgent need for updating U.K. IT security legislation to address new threats to users. The government did not move on the report, and Wyatt's Computer Misuse Act 1990 (Amendment) Bill now seeks to turn the group's key recommendations into law.
Rasing hacking sentences to two years would have the added benefit of making the offense an extraditable one, bringing it into line with the European Convention on Cybercrime, the APIG said.
The amendments face a tough road if they are to become part of U.K. law, however. The bill revising the CMA will have to pass several votes in Parliament and a committee review, and then be approved by the House of Lords.
E-mail security company MessageLabs Ltd. was among the vendors to offer its support for the amendments. The e-mail security company has long supported moves to update the CMA, particularly the APIG's call for Internet service providers to develop better practices for monitoring DOS and hacking attacks.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:40 PM
Verizon Wireless buys additional spectrum
By Laura RohdeVerizon Wireless Inc. will pay US$102.5 million to acquire 23 spectrum licenses and other assets from Leap Wireless International Inc., Verizon Wireless announced Monday. The deal, which is expected to close around the middle of the year pending standard regulatory approvals, will allow Verizon to expand its network into new markets in the U.S. while also increasing its capacity in some existing markets, the Bedminster, New Jersey, company said.
In addition, as part of the agreement Leap's customers will now be able to roam on Verizon Wireless' network.
Verizon Wireless will gain spectrum licenses in 20 markets (including nine new markets for the company) in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and upstate New York, covering a population of 8 million people, it said.
Leap Wireless, in San Diego, California, will also transfer its operations and about 25,000 customers in Michigan to Verizon Wireless.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:40 PM
March 12, 2005
Yahoo delivers syndicated feeds to mobile devices
By Juan Carlos PerezYahoo Inc. has created another link between its My Yahoo service, which lets users aggregate content and services on a single Web page, and mobile devices, such as cell phones and personal digital assistants. Specifically, Yahoo announced Thursday that, for the first time, users will be able to access via their mobile devices the My Yahoo syndicated Web content feeds they subscribe to.
A syndicated feed is a service that lets a Web publisher broadcast content out to subscribers using standards such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom.
Now, when users log in to My Yahoo from their mobile devices, they will have access to their syndicated feeds, whereas previously these were only available when using My Yahoo from a PC.
This is the latest My Yahoo service the vendor offers via mobile devices. Other My Yahoo features offered via mobile devices include e-mail alerts, weather data, sports scores and stock information.
The access to My Yahoo syndicated feeds is available in the U.S. to subscribers of all major wireless carriers, including the recently merged Cingular Wireless LLC/AT&T Wireless; Verizon Communications Inc.; T-Mobile USA Inc.; and Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc., which are in the process of merging. Yahoo doesn't charge for the access, but carriers may apply fees.
To access their My Yahoo syndicated feeds, users need to find the Yahoo Mobile Internet service on their mobile devices, log in, click on the "news" section and look for an option called "My headlines," which contains the feeds.
Depending on the type of device and data-transfer functionality, users will be able to only view headlines, or to view headlines and a portion of the article's text, or to link to the article's Web page to read it in its entirety.
"When we designed this, we were thinking about how to extend My Yahoo syndicated feeds beyond the desktop and bring that functionality to the mobile Internet," said Scott Gatz, Yahoo's senior director of personalization products.
This service is part of a larger and ongoing strategy at Yahoo to extend its content and services to mobile devices, Gatz said. "We want to give our users more of the functionality they love about Yahoo anywhere they go beyond the desktop. That's been our focus and why we're doing this," he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:35 PM
March 11, 2005
Senators rip into ChoicePoint, Bank of America
By Grant GrossSeveral U.S. senators faulted ChoicePoint Inc. and Bank of America Corp. Thursday for recent large-scale identify thefts from the two companies, and some lawmakers called for national legislation that would regulate what data collection companies can do with private information. Two Democratic members of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Senator Charles Schumer of New York, announced plans to introduce legislation to regulate data brokers, companies that sell private information such as Social Security numbers and credit histories to law enforcement agencies, insurance companies, lenders and other businesses.
Speaking at a committee hearing, Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, criticized ChoicePoint for failing to recognize legitimate customers after ID thieves using stolen identities set up businesses that requested hundreds of thousands of background check records from the company during 2004.
In mid-February, ChoicePoint disclosed that the identity thieves had gained access to the personal information of up to 145,000 U.S. residents. ChoicePoint maintains a 19-billion-item database including Social Security numbers, drivers license numbers and credit data.
"It was an irresponsible violation of the fiduciary relationship they have with their customers," Leahy said of ChoicePoint.
Leahy also criticized Bank of America's decision to transfer a digital tape containing private data on a commercial airline flight. In late February, Bank of America announced that, on a flight, it lost digital tapes containing the credit card account records of 1.2 million federal employees, including 60 U.S. senators.
Leahy questioned the apparently common practice in the financial industry of transferring such data on commercial flights, saying he's lost his luggage too many times to trust that airplane holds are secure. "I don't know what these people are thinking," Leahy said. "You can imagine how disillusioned their customers must feel that Bank of America didn't care any more about them."
Senator Paul Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat, called ChoicePoint the "world's largest private intelligence operation."
In addition to the ChoicePoint and Bank of America incidents, LexisNexis' parent company, Reed Elsevier PLC, announced Wednesday that hackers compromised databases and stole the personal information of at least 32,000 people.
In the first of several likely congressional hearings on ID theft after the recent disclosures, representatives of ChoicePoint and Bank of America were scheduled to testify, but their appearances were rescheduled until next week after a conflict with several votes on the Senate floor.
Both companies, in written testimony, apologized for the ID thefts and said they've taken steps to ensure that similar incidents will not happen. Representatives of both companies said they welcome a debate on national privacy protection laws. "As Congress continues its work in this area, we stand ready as a company to cooperate with your efforts," ChoicePoint Vice President Don McGuffey said in written testimony.
In its statement, ChoicePoint detailed a series of steps it has taken since the breach, including its decision to stop selling sensitive consumer data to many of its customers, except when that data helps complete a consumer transaction or helps government or law enforcement.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, in January introduced a bill that would require businesses and government agencies to notify the likely victim when there is a "reasonable basis to conclude" that a criminal has obtained unencrypted personal data. Her bill is similar to a California notification law passed in 2003, the only state law requiring companies to notify customers of data breaches.
But Barbara Desoer, executive for global technology, service and fulfillment with Bank of America, asked lawmakers in her written statement to be cautious about passing a law that would require immediate notification of a security breach.
"Our recent actions demonstrate our support of the conviction that customers have a right to know when their information may have been compromised, and that timely notification in the appropriate circumstances could help to minimize various risks," she wrote. "At the same time, we advise some caution regarding legislative solutions. In some instances a thorough investigation of the security may conclude there is no risk that the information was used for illegal purposes. In these instances, it is probably best to leave it to the discretion of the institution to decide if customers should be notified."
Deborah Platt Majoras, chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), agreed, saying that in some cases, computer hackers may attempt to crack databases for the sport of it, instead of attempting to steal personal data. "If we try to inform consumers of every single breach, for one thing, they're going to become numb to it," she said.
Platt Majoras acknowledged, however, that ID theft is a growing problem. The FTC estimated there were 10 million U.S. victims of ID theft between early 2002 and early 2003, at a total estimated cost of $53 billion to U.S. businesses and individuals.
"Isn't this one of the biggest robberies going on today?" asked committee chairman Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican. "Traditional bank robbers are petty thieves compared to the aggregate of this, are they not?"
Platt Majoras agreed.
Of the two bills announced Thursday, Corzine's bill would require companies that lose private information to ID thieves to notify potential victims promptly. His Identity Theft Prevention and Victim Recovery Act would also require companies holding private information to establish security systems to protect that data. A high-level company executive would be required to personally attest to the security measures
Schumer's bill would establish an ID theft office at the FTC that would have jurisdiction over data brokers, he said. It would also require companies that sell consumer data to third parties to conspicuously display that information on the front of their Web sites.
Schumer said he was "utterly amazed" at the ease with which data collection companies give up private consumer data. "Every year, (ID theft) gets much worse and much worse and much worse, and yet, we're doing very little about it," he said. "Our laws are a patchwork quilt of state and federal laws that, frankly, don't do the job. It's the crime of choice these days."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:46 PM
Intel founder: Silicon Valley no longer unique
By Robert McMillanThe region that gave birth to such legendary high technology startups as Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Cisco Systems Inc. may be seeing some of its influence wane, Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel Corp., said Wednesday. Though Silicon Valley was once unparalleled as the natural home of high technology startups, things have changed in the nearly 40 years since Moore, along with Robert Noyce and Andy Grove founded Intel. "It's uniqueness is not as great as it was in the beginning. Other areas have picked up on the technology," Moore said of the region. "Now it's spread around to a lot of other places."
China, for example, is fast rising as a technology player, he said. "We have very formidable competition in the world. I think the impact of China is just beginning to be felt," he said. "China is training 10 times as many engineers. ... Their technology is catching up fairly rapidly. It's a very entrepreneurial society."
Chief among the challenges ahead for Silicon Valley is the relative weakness of the U.S. public education system, which Moore characterized as a problem for the entire country, and the San Francisco Bay Area's notoriously high cost of living, both which are making it harder to attract top workers. "It's so damned expensive, especially the housing. It's hard to move young people in."
The median price paid for a Bay Area home was US$534,000 in January, according to real estate research firm DataQuick Information Systems Inc.
But Moore did express a qualified faith in both the region and the country that had given birth to his company. "Silicon Valley is still a great place to start a company," he said. "I expect the U.S. will still be a successful player, but I don't think it will enjoy the position it's had in the past 20 years."
Moore's comments came Wednesday, at a press event to honor the 40th anniversary of the April 1965 Electronics magazine article that first articulated Moore's famous law on the rate of growth in the chip industry. Originally, a somewhat obscure prediction that the number of components on an integrated circuit would continue to double every year, Moore's Law has come to be regarded as an article of faith in an industry that has defined itself with rapid growth. In 1975, Moore updated his law to predict that components would double every two years.
Though he was at first embarrassed that his observation had become an industry rule -- "it was (in) a McGraw Hill publication that we described as one of the throwaway journals," he said Wednesday -- Moore eventually grew more comfortable with his status as a lawmaker. "Gradually, I got to accept it. It was shorthand for showing what the technology allowed you to do."
With the dimensions of chip components now being measured in atoms, it seems that the ability of engineers to keep doubling the number of transistors they put on chips may now be in jeopardy. But on Wednesday, Moore warned against writing off his famous maxim before its time. "I've never been able to see more than two or three (product) generations ahead without seeing something that appeared to be an impenetrable barrier there," he said.
For example, the 90 nanometer process technology commonly used by chipmakers today once seemed an impossibility, Moore said. "I remember the time that I thought 1 micron was probably going to be the limit," he said. "It wasn't a barrier at all." There are 1,000 nm in a micron, which represents one millionth of a meter.
Though Moore stopped short Wednesday of predicting that his law would hold for another 40 years, he pointed out that it has continually defied a more pessimistic maxim. "Moore's Law is a violation of Murphy's Law," he said. "Everything gets better as you make things smaller."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:45 PM
Wall Street beat: Traders jumpy, 5 years after the high
By Marc FerrantiMerger news and the processor sector were at the top of technology investors' minds this week, as the Nasdaq Composite Index passed a poignant anniversary: On March 10, 2000 the index (ticker symbol: COMPX) hit its highest point, 5048.62, compared to 2059.72 Thursday. The index has rallied in the last couple of years: On March 10, 2003, it was at 807. But gains over the past two years have not consoled investors, as the Nasdaq has flattened out in the last few months. Investors may be cautious since various market research firms have forecast corporate IT spending to grow between 6 percent and 9 percent this year -- not bad for spending on products in a mature industry but still depressed compared to the heady days of the dot-com bubble.
"We may never see that again in our lifetime. You have to think of that as a one-time event," said Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates, speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Television Wednesday, the five-year anniversary of when the Nasdaq first hit 5000. Gates was generally upbeat, saying that the low dollar helps sales of U.S. products abroad, and Microsoft plows the incremental earnings back into research and development.
Nevertheless, events this week showed that traders remain jumpy, promptly taking whatever gains they can and pulling back investments at the shadow of bad news, as the high-tech sector continues to mature and consolidate.
For example, the Nasdaq rose at the beginning of the week, following broad gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and ahead of mid-quarter updates from chip makers Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) and Intel Corp. But TI (ticker symbol: TXN) cut its profit and revenue forecasts for the quarter, and its share value promptly dropped Tuesday by US$0.92 to $26.45. The TI report and concerns about rising oil prices Tuedsay were said to have dragged down the whole Nasdaq index, which fell by 10.05 to 2080.16.
On its part, Intel gave its own guidance after the market closed Thursday, offering some good news for the sector by raising the low end of its revenue forecast. The company now expects first quarter revenue to hit between $9.2 billion and $9.4 billion, up from a prior forecast of between $8.8 billion and $9.4 billion.
Though telecommunications industry consolidation has been the center of attention during the past month, this week the spotlight shone on a takeover battle for retail inventory-management software company Retek Inc. One week after SAP AG agreed to buy Retek, Oracle Corp. Tuesday announced plans to outbid its ERP (enterprise resource planning) rival. Oracle is offering $9 per share, while SAP agreed to $8.50 per share. Wednesday, Retek (RETK) shares jumped $2.04, to $10.63. The Oracle bid comes in the wake of the company's successful $10.3 billion hostile takeover of PeopleSoft Inc. last year.
Meanwhile, Verizon Communications Inc. has given MCI Inc. until the end of next week to consider a takeover bid from rival Qwest Communications International Inc. Verizon and MCI announced their own $6.7 billion merger agreement on Feb. 14, but Qwest came in with a counteroffer of $8 billion. MCI (MCIP) closed Thursday at $23.73, up 13.75 percent for the month.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:45 PM
Bluetooth snoops with camera on wheels
By John Blau
This year's Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, was expected to show some wacky devices, and at least one lived up to that billing: a camera on wheels that can be controlled remotely with a mobile phone using short-range Bluetooth technology.
The wireless robotic device, called Rob-1, is being demonstrated at the booth of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB.
Well, sort of.
When this reporter stopped by early Friday, the device had a software glitch. "It works, believe me," said a technician at the booth. "Otherwise we wouldn't be showing it,"
OK, let's assume Rob-1 works. So what is it? Imagine an oversized yo-yo (about 11 centimeters) with a tiny navigation wheel mounted to the back and a stationary camera in the middle that can tilt downwards 20 degrees or upwards 70 degrees.
The device can be controlled by a joystick or keypad on a Symbian-based mobile phone or with the touchscreen in Sony Ericsson's P900 and P910 smart phones. The range is 50 meters.
Rob-1 can snap photos or stream video at up to 50 frames per second, with VGA quality, the Sony Ericsson technician said. A bright light on the front of the device allows shots to be taken in dark places.
Sony Ericsson's new remote camera on wheels is based on the wireless steering system that the company developed for its Bluetooth-enabled CAR-100, which was shown at Cebit in 2003.
Rob-1 will be available in the third quarter.
Cebit runs through Wednesday.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:44 PM
Nintendo lifts lid off its next-gen console
By Martyn WilliamsNintendo Co. Ltd. President Satoru Iwata gave his keynote at the Game Developer's Conference held in San Francisco Thursday, outlining what lies ahead for its next-generation console codenamed Revolution. Confirming previous announcements and rumors, Nintendo's next console will be powered by a CPU from IBM, codenamed "Broadway"; the GPU will be from ATI, and is codenamed "Hollywood."
Moving away from its previous reluctance toward online, Iwata implied that online gaming will be a higher priority--the Revolution will feature built-in Wi-Fi, allowing "users around the world to connect with one another wirelessly." Development kits will be sent out to developers by E3 in May.
However, unlike Microsoft, Iwata in his keynote did not explicitly say whether or not the Revolution will be shown at this year's E3--but with both Sony and Microsoft intent on showing off their respective next-generation consoles, Nintendo will likely follow suit.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:44 PM
March 10, 2005
Microsoft to buy Groove Networks (Update)
By Paul RobertsMicrosoft Corp. is buying privately held Groove Networks Inc. of Beverly, Massachusetts, for an undisclosed sum, it said Thursday. Groove makes collaboration software that can be used by people who are geographically dispersed and is the brainchild of Lotus Notes creator Ray Ozzie. Microsoft plans to add Groove's products to its Microsoft Office product line. Ozzie, a recognized visionary who helped found Lotus Software, will become Microsoft's third chief technology officer, according to Jeff Raikes, group vice president of Microsoft's Information Worker Business, during a conference call about the acquisition. Groove, which has about 200 employees, will join that business unit of Microsoft, with Ozzie reporting directly to Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect.
Groove makes a wide range of software and development tools that allow geographically dispersed workers collaborate over the Internet. The company's Virtual Office product allows workers to communicate and securely share information such as files, calendars, sketch pads, task lists, Web links and photos over the Internet.
Virtual Office maximizes Internet bandwidth and is tightly integrated with Microsoft's Outlook e-mail application and Office suite of products, according to Groove.
"It's very exciting to have Ray and his team joining Microsoft," Gates said during the conference call. "I think it's going to help us do even a better job for all of the information workers out there."
Microsoft has twice invested in Groove, Gates said, and he has long thought about whether Microsoft could hire Ozzie, who has "made a huge contribution in terms of giving us feedback about (Microsoft's) platform," and whose ideas have "influenced" the Word user interface.
Ozzie is particularly skilled at thinking about the problems and needs of workers and "building the technology in a simple way that can help people become more productive," Gates said.
Likewise, Ozzie said that he is "very excited" to be joining Microsoft and working with Gates. Ozzie expects to "certainly be spending a lot of time in Redmond," Washington, but will split his time between there and Massachusetts, where Groove will continue to operate.
Groove's technology will complement Microsoft's collaboration products, such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services, as well as the newly announced Microsoft Office Communicator 2005, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server and Microsoft Office Live Meeting, Microsoft said.
Acquiring Groove will give Microsoft a way to reach out to the growing number of companies with mobile workers and remote offices. In particular, the Groove's technology for creating ad-hoc workspaces will extend the reach of Microsoft's collaboration technology, allowing workers to communicate securely over the Internet and work in decentralized environments outside of the corporate network, Raikes said.
Microsoft expects to use Groove's technology "very broadly" in future software releases, Raikes said, adding that the company isn't yet going into specifics about those plans.
Groove's technology also will be used in Longhorn, the code-name for Microsoft's next operating system release. The client version of Longhorn is due out next year, with the server version expected in 2007. Longhorn already was to have peer-to-peer (P-to-P) capabilities, Gates said, and so it will benefit from incorporating Groove's application, which has P-to-P and authentication built in.
"We want to take the equivalent things we were incubating at Microsoft and strengthen the platform," Raikes said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:39 PM
Hackers grab LexisNexis info on 32,000 people
By Paul RobertsHackers have compromised databases belonging to LexisNexis and stolen information on at least 32,000 people, according to a statement Wednesday from LexisNexis' parent company, Reed Elsevier PLC. The hackers stole passwords, names, addresses, Social Security and drivers license numbers of legitimate customers of the company's Seisint division. Seisint collects data on individuals that is used by law enforcement and private companies for debt recovery, fraud detection and other services.
LexisNexis identified the incidents in a review of security procedures and warned that there may be more incidents of data theft, Reed Elsevier said. The incident is eerily similar to recent revelations about similar compromises at Seisint competitor ChoicePoint Inc., which acknowledged in February that hackers had access to data on 145,000 people.
LexisNexis, which acquired Seisint Inc. of Boca Raton, Florida, in September for US $775 million, expressed regret for the incident and said it is notifying the individuals whose information may have been accessed and will provide them with credit monitoring services.
The company also said it notified law enforcement and is assisting with investigations of the fraudulent account access.
The U.S. Secret Service is actively involved in an investigation of the incident, but declined to give any details about the case through spokesman Jonathan Cherry.
Like ChoicePoint, Seisint maintains a massive database of public and private information on individuals, including Social Security numbers, credit histories and criminal records. Seisint made the news in recent years as the data source behind the "Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange," or MATRIX, system, a program to bring together criminal and public records from participating U.S. states.
Bill Shrewsbury, a vice president at Seisint, said that identity thieves used a different approach to breach the company's database than what was used to get ChoicePoint's data, but declined to elaborate.
LexisNexis is taking actions to improve its ID and password administration security, and customer screening, the company said in its statement.
In an e-mail statement, Kurt Sanford, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of LexisNexis Corporate and Federal Markets, said that the company will improve the user ID and password administration procedures that its customers use and will devote more resources to protecting user's privacy and reinforcing the importance of privacy.
Despite the security breach, Sanford defended LexisNexis' business on Wednesday. The company provides important products for fraud detection and identity authentication that are used by law enforcement, homeland security and the private sector. The information is used to "safeguard citizens, find missing children and reduce consumers' financial losses," Sanford said.
But the LexisNexis security breach is almost certain to add more fuel to the fire of public anger over lax data privacy laws, said Mark Rasch, the vice president and chief security counsel at Solutionary Inc.
The incident is just the latest in a series of revelations about consumer data being leaked or lost. Those incidents include the ChoicePoint hack and Bank of America Corp.'s disclosure last week that it lost digital tapes containing the credit card account records of 1.2 million federal employees, including 60 U.S. senators.
ChoicePoint, of Alpharetta, Georgia, has also been the focus of intense scrutiny and criticism since it acknowledged that identity thieves posed as legitimate customers to gain access to the company's database of 19 billion public records. Some of the information stolen from ChoicePoint has since been used in about 750 identity theft scams, according to the company.
The company said last week that it is discontinuing data sales to many of its customers, except when that data helps complete a consumer transaction or helps government or law enforcement.
Since disclosing the security breach, ChoicePoint has been the subject of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission inquiry into its compliance with federal information security laws, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into possible insider stock trading violations by its chief executive officer and CEO and lawsuits alleging violations of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and California state law. ChoicePoint disclosed the inquiries in a filing to the SEC on March 4.
Tighter federal controls on the use of consumer data are needed to prevent more grievous security lapses, like those at ChoicePoint and Reed Elsevier, as well as the lawsuits that follow, Rasch said.
Third-party purveyors of personal data, such as ChoicePoint and Seisint, should have to notify individuals when they sell their personal information. Currently, they do not have to notify those whose information they trade, he said.
FCRA should also be amended to cover data brokers, perhaps making them liable for selling inaccurate information and requiring them to pay to repair the credit rating of those harmed by identity theft after a breach of their systems, Rasch said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:39 PM
Singapore Airlines to offer live TV in-flight from June
By Martyn WilliamsSingapore Airlines Ltd. this week began offering Internet access to passengers on flights between Singapore and London and will add live television to the service from June this year. The Internet access service was launched on Monday on flight SQ320 from Singapore to London and is also available on SQ321, the return flight to Singapore, the airline said in a statement. The service will be extended to other flights.
Passengers can surf the Internet using The Boeing Co.'s Connexion by Boeing service, which delivers a 5M bps (bits per second) shared downstream and 1M bps shared upstream Internet connection to suitably equipped aircraft. The service costs US$30 for unlimited usage. A metered option is available that costs $10 for 30 minutes of access and then $0.25 per minute.
Singapore Airlines plans to expand the service in June to offer a handful of live television channels via the Connexion service, it said. The TV service will initially offer four channels for viewing on notebook computers. The airline has plans to expand the selection of television from the anticipated international news channels at launch to include sports channels and also to make them available via the personal TVs in each seat, it said.
Singapore Airlines is one of several airlines offering the Internet service and is scheduled to be the first to offer the live TV option.
Connexion by Boeing entered commercial service in May 2004 when Lufthansa AG began offering it on flights between Europe and the U.S. It's now available on many Lufthansa long-haul flights and is also being offered on some flights of SAS AB's Scandinavian Airline System. Japan's All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd. and Japan Airlines System Corp. (JAL) have also launched service on selected flights.
Boeing has also signed deals with El Al Israel Airlines and Taiwan's China Airlines Ltd. and preliminary deals with South Korea's Asiana Airlines Inc. and Korean Air.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
Germany's Netviewer takes on WebEx, Microsoft
By Joris EversA small German company is taking on U.S. Web conferencing heavyweights WebEx Communications Inc. and Microsoft Corp. with a new client application. Netviewer GmbH of Karlsruhe, Germany, on Wednesday unveiled its new "one2meet" Web conferencing client. The launch, at the Cebit tradeshow in Hanover, Germany, is the company's first serious foray into the Web conferencing space, a spokeswoman said. The previous product lacked in functionality, she said.
Netviewer One2meet is a 300K-byte executable file. It does not make any changes to the system registry or install any DLL (dynamic link library) files, leaving the PC configuration untouched, according to Netviewer. By comparison, the WebEx Web conferencing client is a 4.4M-byte file.
Customers requested a small, easy to install, yet full-featured client, Netviewer representatives said during a news conference at Cebit. The Web conferencing features are similar to those offered by the large U.S. players and include application sharing, a white board and chat, they said.
Additionally, the Web conference host application has a special feature called a "back monitor" that shows what participants are seeing, Netviewer said. This feature, in addition with a "freeze" function can prevent the unwanted sharing of screens and information, the company said.
One2meet is available in English and German and will be available "shortly" in Spanish, French and Dutch, the company said. The software and Web conferencing service costs €4,990 (US$6,681) for up to 10 concurrent online meetings and €6,990 for up to 25 concurrent meetings. Maintenance costs 15 percent of the list license price a year, but there is no usage fee, the company said.
Netviewer is privately held and employs about 70 people. The company also sells remote access software and a one-to-one Web conferencing product that is used primarily for tech support purposes. The bulk of its 1,800 customers are in Germany, though the company is expanding and has offices in other European countries as well as the U.S. Revenue last year was €4.1 million, a spokeswoman said.
Cebit runs through Wednesday.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
Intel, T-Online, push digital home in Europe
By Tom KrazitIntel Corp. and T-Online International AG will team up to market broadband Internet services, such as video downloads of high-definition content, to customers in Europe, executives from both companies said Thursday at Cebit. The agreement comes as part of Intel's drive to build next-generation multimedia capabilities into chips and PCs for home users. The company recently created a separate operating group to focus on building products designed specifically for use in the home, and will launch its first group of chips and chipsets for home multimedia users in the second quarter.
T-Online already lets consumers stream movies on their PCs or Internet-equipped televisions, said Michael Ortlepp, executive producer for content with T-Online. The partnership with Intel will allow T-Online's customers to ensure that purchased content will work on their Intel-powered devices, he said.
Most consumers haven't built multimedia networks in their homes like the ones described by Intel Vice President and Director of Worldwide Sales Anand Chandrasekher during a press conference at Cebit.
Intel's vision of a digital home includes a network of PCs, digital media adapters and handheld devices that can share digital content around the home, Chandrasekher said. This vision is starting to take shape as more and more PCs with Intel processors are becoming available with multimedia tools like Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system, he said.
However, much work still remains to be done to assure movie studios and music companies that their content will be protected while also encouraging consumers with the knowledge that they will still have the ability to use their content on a wide variety of devices in their homes.To that end, Intel is working with a number of industry partners in the Digital Living Network Alliance to make its DTCP/IP (Digital Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) technology an industry standard around the world, Chandrasekher said.
Chandrasekher went on to display several of the concept PCs unveiled last week at the Spring Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. The company is showing a new concept design for an in-car PC based on the Pentium M processor at its booth at Cebit.
Cebit runs through March 16 at the fairgrounds in Hanover, Germany.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
March 09, 2005
Group complains about 'legal' download sites
By Grant GrossThe Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a Washington, D.C., Internet civil liberties group, on Tuesday filed a federal deceptive-advertising complaint against two Web sites claiming to offer "100 percent legal" downloads of music, movies and software. The CDT's complaint, filed with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), accuses Mp3DownloadCity.com and MyMusicInc.com of claiming their services are legal while directing their paying customers to free peer-to-peer (P-to-P) services where files are traded without the copyright owners' permission.
The two sites, promising legal downloads of files such as movies still in theaters, each charge customers about US$25 for a subscription, according to CDT. The sites then direct users to P-to-P networks using popular, freely available P-to-P software, such as Kazaa and LimeWire, and offer instructions on how to use the software, CDT said. Users of those P-to-P services have been sued by the music and movie industries for unauthorized file trading.
A link at MyMusicInc.com, leads users to a legal policy, saying: "Today there are over 200 million users trading MP3s & videos on these LEGAL filesharing networks. You can be assured that Filesharing is 100% legal, MP3s are 100% legal, and your membership to MyMusicInc.com is 100% legal."
Customers of the two sites have apparently believed that by paying for the services, they're buying legal downloads, comparable to legitimate services such as iTunes, said Alan Davidson, CDT's associate director. CDT has heard of a handful of cases in which users of such services have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) or the Motion Picture Association of America, Davidson said.
An RIAA spokesman didn't immediate respond to a request for a comment on lawsuits it has filed against users of the two Web sites.
The CDT filed the complaint against these two sites because they appear to be located in the U.S. or Canada, but many similar sites exist, Davidson said. Advertisements for dozens of Web sites promising "100 percent legal" downloads appear across the Internet, he said.
"It's our impression that there's a fair amount of commercial activity going on," Davidson said. "There's a very confusing marketplace for consumers looking for legal sites right now."
A third site, Mp3DownloadHQ.com, agreed on Monday to remove claims to be "100 percent legal" in response to a letter from CDT.
An e-mail to Mp3DownloadCity.com's affiliate service bounced back Tuesday. An e-mail to MyMusicInc.com was not immediately returned. Neither site listed a phone number or mailing address for their businesses.
In January, CDT joined other groups in filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the MGM vs. Grokster case, in which the entertainment industry sued two P-to-P companies for their users' copyright violations. In its brief, CDT asked the court to uphold 1984 Sony Betamax ruling, in which technologies with significant noninfringing uses -- in that case, a video recorder -- were not liable for their users' copyright violations.
However, CDT has advocated the Supreme Court send the Grokster case back to lower courts to determine if P-to-P vendors are liable for copyright violations using standards not considered in the Grokster case. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments later this month; lower courts have ruled that P-to-P software vendors are not responsible for the copyright violations of their users.
CDT has encouraged courts to target "bad actors" encouraging copyright violations and to not outlaw technologies that may offer significant benefits, Davidson said. By filing its FTC complaint, CDT is "putting our money where our mouth is," he added.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:44 PM
EBay classifieds get international launch
By Laura RohdeIn its latest move to expand beyond online auctions and to grow internationally, eBay Inc. late Tuesday said that it now runs Web sites offering free classified advertising in over 50 cities outside the U.S. The Web sites were launched in Canada, Japan, China, France, Germany and Italy on Feb. 28 under the brand "Kijiji," which is Swahili for "village," eBay said. The sites are designed to allow local users to exchange information and trade with other Internet users in the same city.
Kijiji is a start-up operation within eBay created by a small team of its employees last year, the San Jose, California-based company said.
Within the last year, eBay has made a series of investments in the classifieds market as well as other fixed-price services. In August, the company acquired a 25-percent stake in San Francisco-based Craigslist, which offers classified-ad listings in major cities such as San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. In December, it also bought the U.S. property listings site Rent.com Inc. for US$415 million.
Internationally, eBay in November spent about $290 million for Dutch classifieds Web site Marktplaats.nl, while in April it closed a $149 million deal to acquire Mobile.de, a German online site for selling vehicles.
The launch of Kijiji will have no material impact on the company's 2005 financial statements, eBay said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:44 PM
Amazon cooking up search, Web products in India
By John RibeiroAmazon.com Inc. has pulled back the curtain on its new development center in Bangalore, India to reveal it is focused on developing technologies in the area of search and Web services, according to an executive of the company. Development teams at the Bangalore development center have full responsibility for products: from the business specification to development, on to deployment and running the service, said Werner Vogels, chief technology officer of the Internet retailer. This is in line with Amazon's worldwide strategy to give its development teams complete autonomy for the products they develop, he said in an interview Wednesday.
Although the Bangalore center has been in operation since July last year, Amazon.com kept information on the work it was doing at the center under wraps until this week. The Seattle company also has development centers in California's Bay Area in the U.S. and in the U.K., Vogels said.
"We have identified four different areas in which we want to do more innovation: search, Web services, personalization and supply chain. This is along side our continued focus on distributed computing and infrastructure," Vogels said.
The company's development center in the U.K. has a team working on personalization, while the development centers in the U.S. work in areas such as Web services.
The search team in Bangalore is working with Amazon.com subsidiary A9.com Inc. to develop innovative technologies that make search more effective, according to Bharat Vijay, head of the team working on search products at the Bangalore center.
Amazon.com set up A9.com in Palo Alto, California in October 2003 to research and build search technologies. The retailer officially moved into the search engine market with the unveiling in September last year of its Internet search engine A9.com. Search technology is important for Amazon.com both for its retail business to help customers find products, and as a separate business, Vogels said.
The Bangalore center, after completing the phase of hiring staff, is now working on product development, according to Vijay. He did not, however, disclose the number of staff Amazon.com has hired at the center.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:44 PM
Yahoo beefs up small business resource site
By Juan Carlos PerezYahoo Inc. has revamped the information resources section of its small business site, increasing the section's content tenfold, redesigning the layout and adding search functionality, according to a Yahoo executive. The expanded and improved section, called Yahoo Small Business Resource Center, will be launched Wednesday and can be accessed at http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources, said Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Small Business.
The resource center will feature about 1,000 articles on topics such as legal issues, starting a business, sales and marketing, e-commerce and finances. The content comes from Yahoo and from a variety of partners, such as Inc. magazine, Entrepreneur.com Inc. and Nolo.
Yahoo has focused in recent years on its small business services, such as Web site hosting, domain name sales, e-mail and e-commerce, but not so much on content, an oversight the company hopes to address with Wednesday's launch of the resource center.
"We want to be the essential provider of services and content to small businesses. We've been very focused on services these past few years, but we've had a very limited amount of content for small businesses to date," Riley said. "There's a lot of demand from small businesses for content. It's a real market need."
By attracting more small business visitors to the resource center with the expanded content and new design, Yahoo also hopes to draw more advertisers that want to target small businesses, Riley said. There were about 23 million small businesses in the U.S. in 2002, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration Web site.
By beefing up the content, Yahoo is making its small business site a very valuable resource and taking an important step in providing a comprehensive set of tools and information for these companies, said Greg Sterling, an analyst with The Kelsey Group. "This move is consistent with Yahoo's mission to provide an all-encompassing solution for small businesses," he said.
Only about 37 percent of U.S.-based small businesses have Web sites, so there is considerable room for growth in this market, Sterling said. The increased traffic to the Yahoo Small Business Resource Center is bound to yield a steady stream of new clients for Yahoo's small business online services, such as hosting and e-commerce, he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:43 PM
MSN Messenger 7.0 to offer better video chatting
By Joris EversThe next version of Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Messenger will offer improved video chat capabilities developed by Microsoft and Logitech Inc., the companies said Wednesday. In MSN Messenger 7.0, due out in the coming months, users will be able to start a video chat with synchronized audio with a single mouse click, Microsoft and Logitech announced at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany.
Microsoft and Logitech have collaborated on video chat in MSN Messenger for the past two years, and the companies have extended that relationship for MSN Messenger 7.0, they said.
The current version of MSN Messenger offers separate functions for audio and video chat, according to a spokeswoman for Microsoft. Audio is available, though the audio may not match the video. This is solved in the new version, which also promises improved video quality, a spokesman from Logitech said.
The improved video and audio features will be available to MSN Messenger users in the U.S., Germany and additional markets globally, including Canada, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Switzerland, according to Microsoft and Logitech.
The current Web cam for MSN Messenger feature is offered worldwide and is localized in 14 languages.
Each month, more than 30 million of the 155 million MSN Messenger users use the current video chat feature, for a total of more than 3 billion Web cam sessions served since the service's launch, according to the companies.
MSN Messenger 7.0 is currently in beta, the final version of the product is due in the next few months.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:43 PM
March 08, 2005
AOL to launch VOIP within a month
By Stephen LawsonAmerica Online Inc. (AOL) within a month will launch a VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service in a bid to bring packet-based calling technology to the mass market, the top executive of the Internet service giant said Tuesday. The service, called AOL Internet Phone Service, will leverage the "buddy list" used in the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service to show a subscriber whether friends or associates are currently available, said Jonathan Miller, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of AOL, in a keynote address at the Spring VON (Voice on the Net) trade show in San Jose, California. It will be rolled out first to AOL members in limited locations and over time made available to the mass market, Miller said, without providing more details.
Pricing will be tiered, and the company will disclose it at a later time, said spokeswoman Anne Bentley.
The entry of AOL would bring one of the biggest companies associated with consumer Internet service into a market that in the past several months has been joined by major providers of DSL (digital subscriber line) and cable modem services in North America. AOL already has a commercial VOIP service in Canada and has an ongoing trial in the U.S., Miller said AOL research shows consumer awareness and use of VOIP is still low, but he believes that over time, AOL can draw upon its experience in popularizing the Internet for ordinary consumers.
"We intend to come out on the other side with a truly mass market product," Miller said. As with the company's Internet service, ease of use will be key. No AOL product should come with instructions, and if it has to have instructions, "There can't be any more than three things you have to do," he said.
Customers will be able to use their existing phones through an adapter that links them in to their broadband routers.
With the addition of the VOIP service, the AIM service over time will become a "dashboard" that subscribers can use to move easily between e-mail, instant messaging and voice calls, Miller said.
Miller did not provide many technical details of the upcoming service. Level 3 Communications Inc. will provide infrastructure and regulatory compliance with features such as E911 (Enhanced 911) emergency calling and local number portability, and Sonus Networks Inc. will provide a phone switching platform that will allow AOL to add new features over time, Miller said. He added that AOL will cooperate in product development with Time-Warner Cable, a sister company of AOL under Time Warner Inc., though he did not provide any details. AOL also plans a mobile component to the service, Miller said.
Spring VON continues through Thursday.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 09:20 PM
Vonage CEO slams VOIP blocking
By Stephen LawsonThe top executive of VOIP (Voice over IP) provider Vonage Holdings Corp. is satisfied with regulators' response to a carrier that blocked Vonage's service but sees a broader danger ahead with technology for detecting the data service that customers are using. In an interview Monday at the Spring VON (Voice on the Net) trade show in San Jose, California, Vonage Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeffrey Citron also said traditional carriers can't afford to compete all-out with Vonage and other VOIP upstarts despite having greater resources.
Late last year, Vonage determined that Madison River Communications LLC, a broadband provider based in North Carolina, was blocking the use of Vonage's service by some Madison River customers. Following an investigation by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Madison River last week agreed to pay the FCC US$15,000 and not to block VOIP services on its network.
Vonage, in Edison, New Jersey, has been an early leader in rolling out VOIP technology, which this week is bringing together about 240 exhibitors and 6,000 attendees at Spring VON. VOIP breaks up voice calls into data packets and sends them over IP networks, which usually allows for less expensive phone service and can enable advanced services such as unified messaging. Calls made on a VOIP service may travel over the broadband data network of a consumer's phone company or cable provider while bypassing that provider's own voice calling service.
Vonage was pleased with the FCC's action and how quickly it came, Citron said.
"How often do you see the FCC in the position to be able to act in a few weeks?" Citron said. It showed clearly that blocking VOIP service violates FCC rules, he said. Vonage never filed a complaint against Madison River because it didn't have to push the FCC to take action, Citron said. Vonage is investigating possible blocking by one or two smaller service providers and will bring its evidence to the FCC if its suspicions are confirmed, he added.
However, there are larger issues at stake in the matter, Citron contends.
"I think it's a technical issue that extrapolates itself into a First Amendment issue," Citron said. Service providers that own infrastructure and deliver content or services over it now have the capability to look into the packets going to and from a customer's connection and determine what kind of service they are using and even the content of those packets, he said. It is technically possible for network operators to read e-mail, block e-mail messages based on content and limit access to Web sites, Citron said.
In addition to anti-competitive moves against VOIP companies and other content and service providers, the problem raises censorship issues, he said.
"What happens when the media property that owns distribution is owned by a religious group?" Citron asked. Laws should be brought up to date to prevent abuse, he said.
Jeff Pulver, CEO of Pulver.com Inc., which provides a VOIP service and organizes Spring VON, said he can imagine a future U.S. Supreme Court case to address such an issue. However, he downplayed deliberate port-blocking by network operators.
It's common for VOIP users to hit a virtual brick wall when they try to make calls from a hotel or a Wi-Fi hot spot, but in most cases there's no conspiracy, he said.
"Most actual cases of port blocking have been human error," Pulver said. Engineers often block the virtual network "ports" commonly used for VOIP without knowing what they're doing -- and there are ways around it, such as assigning calls to a different port, Pulver said.
Vonage's Citron said he isn't sweating as big traditional carriers such as AT&T Corp., SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. move on to the turf where Vonage has taken the early lead with more than 500,000 subscribers. Vonage is adding more than 15,000 lines per week, more than any other provider, and he sees that trend continuing. Meanwhile, big competitors such as Verizon have more to gain today by concentrating on its lucrative traditional phone service, he said. They are not aggressively pushing VOIP yet, he said.
"It doesn't make sense for them to go out and push voice over IP products today. As a matter of fact, if they did, they would destroy their own company," Citron said. And their customers won't jump to VOIP en masse immediately: The most aggressive estimates see only about 20 million VOIP users by 2008, he said.
"If Verizon can wait five years ... before it does anything aggressively in VOIP, and if it loses 10 percent of its customer base, it will have generated nearly 100 billion in cash just by waiting," Citron said. By that time, Vonage will be in a commanding position, he said.
Spring VON continues through Thursday.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:25 PM
New IM worms target MSN users
By Paul RobertsAntivirus companies are warning users of Microsoft Corp.'s popular MSN Messenger application about a host of new worms that spread using instant messages (IMs) over that network. New versions of the Bropia and Kelvir worms appeared on Monday and are spreading over MSN Messenger, according to alerts issued by leading antivirus companies. Also on Monday, antivirus companies warned customers about the first in a new family of worms, dubbed "Sumom," or "Serflog," which also spreads over MSN. The spate of IM worms is evidence that virus writers are finally realizing the potential of IM to quickly disseminate malicious code, according to one antivirus expert.
IM worms have been gaining popularity in virus-writing circles for months. The Bropia worm, which spreads using MSN Messenger, burst onto the scene in January. New variants from that family of worms have appeared almost weekly ever since.
Bropia has been joined by a number of new IM worms in recent weeks. Kelvir, which first appeared on Sunday, has already spawned three new variants, according to data from Symantec Corp. MSN is not the only victim. The Stang and Aimdes viruses spread over America Online Inc.'s AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) network.
The new worms all target machines that run Microsoft's Windows operating system and steal IM contacts from machines they infect, meaning that victims often receive IM messages containing the virus from friends or acquaintances. The worms also use so-called "social engineering" tricks, such as vague but familiar-sounding messages and salacious file attachments to get users to open files that install the virus or visit Web pages that install viruses, spyware or Trojan horse programs on the victim's machine.
Kelvir arrives in an MSN message that reads "lol! see it! u'll like it," with a link to a file called "omg.pif" that is hosted on the home.earthlink.net Web server. When recipients click on the link, the virus infects the victim's computer and sends identical messages to all of that user's contacts, according to F-Secure Corp.
Serflog, the new IM worm that appeared on Monday, arrives in a blank MSN message with links to one of a number of PIF files that contain the virus, such as "My new photo!.pif," "Topless in Mini Skirt! lol.pif" and "Fat Elvis! lol.pif," Symantec said.
Virus writers have realized that IM is a useful medium for distributing viruses because IM users are inclined to look at or click on IM messages that pop up on their computer desktop, said Gregg Mastoras, a senior security analyst at Sophos PLC.
Many IM users are also relatively new to the technology, compared with e-mail, and are less aware of the threat of IM viruses than they are of e-mail viruses, he said.
Firewalls and antivirus products that corporations use to guard Internet gateways are often unable to stop incoming IM messages that contain virus attachments, though desktop antivirus products often detect and block executable files from being downloaded and installed. Many security products also fail to block IM viruses that use links to external Web sites to distribute malicious code, Mastoras said.
Employers and IM providers need to do more to educate users about the danger posed by viruses and other threats spread via IM, he said.
"It's a big challenge. There's a lot more work to be done, but you're not going to educate people out of being curious," Mastoras said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:25 PM
Antivirus companies report first mobile messaging worm
By Paul RobertsThe first mobile phone virus that spreads using the popular Mobile Messaging Service (MMS) is circulating among mobile phone users with Symbian Series 60 mobile phones, antivirus companies have warned. Antivirus vendors first spotted the new virus, dubbed CommWarrior.A, on Monday. When opened, it places copies of itself on vulnerable mobile phones and uses the phone's address book to send copies of itself to the owner's contacts using MMS. Antivirus experts believe CommWarrior, which has been spreading slowly among cell phone users since January, is not a serious threat. However, the virus could herald a new age of malicious and fast-spreading cell phone threats, according to Mikko Hyppönen of F-Secure Corp.
MMS is a popular text messaging technology that is closely related to SMS (Short Message System), but allows mobile phone users to send multimedia content, such as sound files or photos, between MMS compliant mobile phones. The technology is popular, especially outside of the U.S. where phone users have widely adopted newer-generation cell phones that support multimedia features and MMS messaging, Hyppönen said.
"My kids use it all the time to send messages, or photos," said Hyppönen, who lives in Helsinki.
CommWarrior uses MMS to spread copies of itself to phone numbers stored in the address book of phones it infects. Victims receive MMS messages with file attachments that contain the CommWarrior virus. The messages contain enticing messages such as "3DGame from me. it is FREE!" and "Nokia RingtoneManager for all models," F-Secure said.
When victims open the attached virus file, CommWarrior is installed on the phone and begins randomly sending MMS messages with copies of itself to numbers in the phone book. Complicating matters, CommWarrior can also spread between phones using Bluetooth wireless connections, said Victor Kouznetsov, senior vice president of mobile solutions and McAfee Inc.
Those who do get infected with CommWarrior can easily shut the virus down by pressing and holding the menu button on their cell phone, then selecting the CommWarrior from the list of applications that appears and pressing the "C," or "Clear" button, Kouznetsov said. Once the virus is disabled, mobile phone owners can use file management tools on the phone to locate and remove the virus files.
F-Secure and McAfee both posted bulletins listing the folders where the CommWarrior virus is installed on infected phones.
F-Secure first identified the CommWarrior on Monday. However, a search of the Internet revealed news group messages from Nokia Corp. customers who complained about CommWarrior infections as early as January.
"I need help. I have a very strange problem with my nokia 6600. It tries send MMS automatically to my contacts (Randomly) that I have in my phone book," reads one message, posted January 23, that goes on to verify a commwarrior.exe infection.
A copy of the virus posted on a Web page is dated Jan. 1, and claims to work on the common Nokia Series 60 phones. That could include more than 10 million phones worldwide, but it's doubtful that CommWarrior, as currently written, could infect anywhere near that number, said Kouznetsov.
"It still relies on social engineering and user interaction to spread," he said. Even when users do click to open the CommWarrior attachment, a series of warning messages appear before the virus is actually installed, he said.
F-Secure is testing the sample of CommWarrior. However, the virus is difficult to test. Its ability to spread via wireless and MMS messages makes containment hard, Hyppönen said.
Mobile phone viruses are a recent development, but could be a major threat in years to come, as mobile devices become more powerful, according to Hyppönen and others.
Cabir, the first known mobile virus, spreads on phones running the Symbian operating system and are equipped with Bluetooth wireless connections, including Series 60 phones from a number of manufacturers, such as Siemens AG, Nokia Corp and others. The virus first appeared last June as a "proof of concept" released by virus writing group 29a.
In August 2004 the first Cabir infections were first reported in the Philippines. Since then, the virus spread from to Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, China, India and 12 other countries. The first Cabir infections in the U.S. were reported in February.
Cabir can only spread using Bluetooth wireless connections, and requires physical proximity to a vulnerable phone, as well as user interaction to infect phones. Both those factors have limited its spread. MMS and SMS are believed to be better avenues for spreading viruses, because a single infected phone can rapidly send copies of a virus to all of a user's contacts, Hyppönen said.
F-Secure, which sells antivirus software for mobile devices, developed an antivirus signature that can detect and block CommWarrior. Company researchers are is still studying the behavior of the virus, Hyppönen said.
Mobile phone users with phones that use the Symbian Series 60 operating system are advised not to open unexpected attachments to MMS messages, he said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:25 PM
Scammers use Symantec, DNS holes to push adware
By Paul RobertsOnline scam artists are manipulating the Internet's directory service and taking advantage of a hole in some Symantec Corp. products to trick Internet users into installing adware and other annoying programs on their computers, according to an Internet security monitoring organization. Customer who use older versions of Symantec's Gateway Security Appliance and Enterprise Firewall are being hit by DNS (Domain Name System) so-called poisoning attacks. The attacks cause Web browsers pointed at popular Web sites, such as Google.com, eBay.com and Weather.com, to go to malicious Web pages that install unwanted programs, according to Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer at The SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC). The attacks, which began on Thursday or Friday, may be one of the largest to use DNS poisoning, Ullrich said.
Symantec issued an emergency patch for the DNS poisoning hole on Friday. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
The Domain Name System is a global network of computers that translates requests for reader-friendly Web domains, such as www.computerworld.com, into the numeric IP (Internet Protocol) addresses that machines on the Internet use to communicate.
In DNS poisoning attacks, malicious hackers take advantage of a feature that allows any DNS server that receives a request about the IP address of a Web domain to return information about the address of other Web domains.
For example, a DNS server could respond to a request for the address of www.yahoo.com with information on the address of www.google.com, or www.amazon.com, even if information on those domains was not requested. The updated addresses are stored by the requesting DNS server in a temporary listing, or cache, of Internet domains and used to respond to future requests.
In poisoning attacks, malicious hackers use a DNS server they control to send out erroneous addresses to other DNS servers. Internet users who rely on a poisoned DNS server to manage their Web surfing requests might find that entering the URL of a well-known Web site directs them to an unexpected or malicious Web page, Ullrich said.
Some Symantec products, such as the Enterprise Security Gateway, include a proxy that can be used as a DNS server for users on the network that the product protects. That DNS proxy is vulnerable to the DNS poisoning attack, Symantec said Friday in an article on its Web site. Symantec's Enterprise Firewall Versions 7.04 and 8.0 for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Solaris have the DNS poisoning flaw, as do versions 1.0 and 2.0 of the company's Gateway Security Appliance, Symantec said.
Internet users on some networks protected by the vulnerable Symantec products had requests for Web sites, such as google.com directed to attack Web pages that attempted to install the ABX toolbar, a search toolbar and spyware program that displays pop-up ads, Ullrich said.
The DNS poisoning attacks were easy to detect because Web sites involved in the attack do not mimic the sites that users were trying to reach, Ullrich said. However, DNS poisoning could be a potent tool for online identity thieves who could set up phishing Web sites that are identical to sites like Google.com or eBay.com, but secretly capture user information, he said.
Some of those customers told ISC that they installed a patch that the company issued in June to fix a DNS cache poisoning problem in many of the same products, but were still susceptible to the latest DNS cache poisoning attacks, according to information on the ISC Web site.
Ullrich does not believe that Symantec's customers are being targeted, just that they are susceptible to attacks that are being launched at a broad swath of DNS servers.
The ISC is collecting the Internet addresses of Web sites and DNS servers used in the attack and trying to have them shut down or blacklisted, ISC said.
Symantec customers using one of the affected products are advised to install the most recent hotfixes from the company, Ullrich said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:07 PM
March 07, 2005
Google updates desktop search tool
By Juan Carlos PerezGoogle Inc. is set to launch on Monday an updated version of its desktop search tool whose enhancements include the ability to search the full text of Adobe Systems Inc. PDF files and the metadata of multimedia files, a Google executive said. Until now, the product could only index the names of PDF and multimedia files, such as image, music and video files. But the new version improves on this by indexing the entire content of PDF files and the metadata of multimedia files, such as song and artist names in music files, said Nikhil Bhatla, a Google product manager.
With this version, the product officially exits its beta, or test, phase and is now considered a finished product that, as is customary for all software, will continue to be regularly enhanced. "We've taken the product out of beta because now we have all the file types and features that were high on the list of user requests," Bhatla said, adding that by removing the beta tag, Google is hoping more users will feel encouraged to download and install the product.
Competition is fierce among providers of tools such as this one that let users index and retrieve information found on their PCs, a task for which few products existed until recently. Desktop search is viewed as an important area of the overall search engine market, because increasingly users expect to be able to find information on their PCs in the same way they find information on the Internet.
Although it isn't clear yet how search engine vendors will make money from these tools, most of which are free, it is generally agreed that a user who becomes loyal to a desktop search product is highly likely to extend that loyalty to the tool maker's Internet search engine. In recent years, the market for online ads that search engines serve up with their query results has exploded. However, a big challenge for search engine vendors is to find ways to foster loyalty among their users. Studies have shown users feel little attachment to particular engines.
Google introduced its desktop product in October of last year, joining Lycos Inc. and several smaller, niche players, such as Copernic Technologies Inc., X1 Technologies Inc. and Blinkx, which already had desktop search tools available. However, Google beat big search engine providers such as Microsoft Corp., Ask Jeeves Inc., Yahoo Inc. and America Online Inc., all of which subsequently released their own test versions of desktop search tools. Yahoo partnered with X1 and AOL with Copernic for their respective desktop search entries.
Other improvements in the Google desktop tool, which is free, are support for the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail application and for America Online Inc.'s Netscape browser and e-mail application. Previously, the product supported only Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail applications.
Moreover, Google is also releasing on Monday a tool kit for developers to create plug-in applications that extend the functionality of the desktop search product via open application programming interfaces (APIs.) The software development kit will be available at http://desktop.google.com, along with documentation, sample code and some plug-ins that have already been built.
One such plug-in lets users index instant messaging (IM) conversations from Cerulean Studios' popular Trillian IM application; the original version of the product only indexed IM sessions from AOL's AIM service. Another plug-in that will be available later will let users search the metadata of music files acquired from Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music store, Bhatla said.
Soon, a third-party developer will create a plug-in that, using speech-to-text technology, will allow the product to transcribe the content of audio and video files and make it searchable, thus deepening the indexing capabilities of those files beyond metadata, Bhatla said.
Although this desktop search tool is designed for use by consumers, Google continues to work hard at developing a version that is appropriate for the workplace, he said. However, this new version does have one enterprise feature: It recognizes Microsoft group policy parameters on a PC and cancels its own installation if the parameters state that the Google desktop tool can't be run on that machine.
Finally, Google's desktop search tool will be available on Monday for the first time in Chinese and Korean, which means that the product's interface, support and documentation have been translated to those languages.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:33 PM
VOIP players gear up for fast-growing market
By Stephen Lawson
Vendors and service providers this week will celebrate VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) breaking into the mainstream of telecommunications with a slew of new and upgraded products at one of the young industry's biggest trade shows.
With the number of users exploding and big names such as SBC Communications Inc. and AT&T Corp. stepping in where only small, specialized providers used to tread, VOIP is going big time. Both carriers and the companies that supply their equipment and software are scrambling to differentiate themselves before market consolidation starts up in earnest, industry analysts said last week. The evidence will be there at Spring VON (Voice on the Net), in San Jose, California, where many exhibitors will be unveiling new, more fully featured or highly integrated offerings.
"It's sort of like the world of the Web when it first started out. ... About three guys came out of it. And the same thing is going to happen here," said Deb Mielke, managing director of Treillage Network Strategies Inc., a consulting company in McKinney, Texas.
Competitors large and small see huge potential in VOIP, which breaks phone calls into data packets and sends them over a LAN or a wide-area data network. The technology can be used to consolidate voice and data on an enterprise's own network or to offer a service to companies and consumers, generally at far less cost than traditional phone service and sometimes with more features.
Just considering consumer services, by the end of 2004 there were more than 1 million VOIP subscribers in the U.S. alone, according to IDC analyst William Stofega. By the end of this year, IDC estimates that number will roughly triple, and by the end of 2006 Stofega expects to see 6 million to 7 million subscribers, he said. That includes aggressive upstart Vonage Holdings Corp. but not Skype Technologies SA's popular peer-to-peer calling system. On the business side, at least 20 percent of businesses in the U.S. use VOIP in some form, including Skype, according to market research company In-Stat.
After the strong year of growth in VOIP, vendors and carriers at the show will take the wraps off their next-generation offerings.
Motorola Inc. will announce a series of gateways for consumer VOIP services that build on its previous platforms with the addition of routing and other capabilities. The gateways, which initially will be distributed by DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) providers or VOIP carriers and at retail starting in the second quarter, can eliminate the need for separate router and gateway boxes. Most basic is the VT2000 gateway, which has two voice ports and one data port and basic routing functions. The VT 2400 also has two voice ports but includes four data ports and an integrated firewall, as well as more advanced routing functions such as parental controls for filtering Web sites.
The top of the new line, the VT2500, includes all the features of the VT2400 plus Wi-Fi wireless LAN capability. That means it can support wireless VOIP phones that use Wi-Fi, said Jeff Walker, senior director of marketing at Motorola. With a later software upgrade, the gateway should support the use of combination cell/Wi-Fi phones, allowing users to shift from traditional cellular connectivity outdoors to Wi-Fi VOIP when they enter the home, Walker said.
Texas Instruments Inc. (TI), coming out of a year in which it sold hardware for 100 million ports of VOIP equipment, is set to announce integration of performance management algorithms into the firmware of its VOIP chipsets. The algorithms, developed by Telchemy Inc., are for monitoring and analyzing VOIP quality of service, said Fred Zimmerman, executive director of product management for customer premise equipment at TI. Network equipment made with the enhanced chipsets will allow service providers to find, diagnose and troubleshoot problems in real time, according to TI. They are set to ship to manufacturers in June. The company also is set to announce the addition of an echo canceller and support for multiple conferencing bridges to its TNETV3010 carrier VOIP gateway. The new capabilities are available now.
In 2004, TI doubled its total shipments of VOIP hardware, Zimmerman said. Through 2003 the company had delivered gear for 50 million VOIP ports in customer premise equipment, phones and network infrastructure, he said. One driver of that growth has been a long-standing relationship with Vonage, a VOIP heavy hitter with about 400,000 lines. On Monday, TI is set to announce that Vonage will recommend manufacturers use TI chips if they want their equipment certified to work with Vonage's service, Zimmerman said.
Freescale Semiconductor Inc. also is rolling out improved chips for VOIP equipment. On Tuesday it will unveil the MSC7119 and MSC7118 programmable DSPs (digital signal processors), which represent a performance boost for the company's MSC711x line, the company said. They are available in production today.
Service providers will also be out in force at the show, with appearances by big names that either have jumped into VOIP or may be ready to, such as Comcast Corp., AT&T, SBC, Time Warner Inc. and America Online Inc.
AccessLine Communications Corp., a business VOIP pioneer less well known outside the packet voice world, is set to announce SmartVoice, a service that combines local, long-distance, international and direct office-to-office calling. For international branch offices, the company so far has primarily offered direct office-to-office calls on a customer's own data network, said Chief Marketing Officer Kent Hellebust. AccessLine, in Bellevue, Washington, claims more than 100,000 business customers. It will deliver the service in North America, starting in April, both under its own brand and wholesale through other service providers. SmartVoice will be priced at about $45 for each line, each of which can typically be shared by four or five users.
The entry of major telecom carriers and cable operators is changing the VOIP industry rapidly, analysts said. They come in with cash flow, large customer bases and technology, posing a threat to smaller service providers such as AccessLine, but some specialized operators will survive the likely shakeout as many startups go by the wayside, said IDC's Stofega.
AccessLine has a leg up on some of the bigger competition because it worked out many of the complex problems of back-end software for VOIP, said Treillage's Mielke. Developing and delivering new features is critical for VOIP service providers because of the new capabilities, such as presence and unified voice and text messaging, that help to distinguish VOIP from traditional phone service, she said. Because AccessLine developed its back-end system essentially on its own, it can create and deliver new services quickly, while the system also lets end users pick and choose features via the Web, Mielke said.
Those vendors will have a lot of company at Spring VON, which one year ago hosted about 140 exhibitors and 3,100 attendees at the Santa Clara, California's convention center. This year it moves to the larger San Jose McEnery Convention Center, with 240 exhibitors and at least 6,000 in attendance, according to Jeff Pulver, president and chief executive officer of show organizer Pulver.com.
In tune with VOIP's move into the mainstream, this year's show is likely to be different as well as bigger.
"Sadly, you'll see less of the propellerheads and more of the people you'd expect to see at a regular telecom show," Stofega said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:29 PM
Mozilla moves into China
By Sumner Lemon
The Mozilla Foundation has established Mozilla China, an affiliate and non-profit organization that will help develop and promote open-source Mozilla software in China.
Mozilla China is being backed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Software, and Sun Microsystems Inc. The group will be co-chaired by Gong Li, general manager of Sun China's Engineering and Research Institute, and Li Mingshu, of the Institute of Software, Mozilla said in a statement Friday. Li and Gong will sit on the Mozilla China steering committee alongside Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation, it said.
Mozilla's open-source software is used in products including the Firefox and Camino Web browsers and the Thunderbird e-mail client.
Mozilla China is the third international Mozilla affiliate to be established, the statement said. The other two are Mozilla Europe and Mozilla Japan. Mozilla China will be responsible for development of the Chinese version of the Mozilla Web site and discussion forums and will lead the development of Mozilla source code in China, it said.
Sun aims to play a major role in the development of Mozilla source code in China and has established a Mozilla browser development team in Beijing, Gong said in the statement.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:29 PM
Microsoft looks to bring MSN TV box to foreign markets
By Joris Evers
Microsoft Corp. plans to bring its MSN TV 2 product to an international market in the next few years, buoyed by what it sees as a successful U.S. launch last October.
MSN TV 2 is the latest incarnation of the former WebTV product. It allows users to access MSN's online services and the Internet through a television using a dial-up or broadband Internet connection. It is a silver box measuring 11.8 inches (30 centimeters) wide by 9 inches (23 centimeters) deep by 2.4 inches (6.1 centimeters) tall that runs Windows CE.
MSN TV can quickly be customized for foreign markets, according to Sam Klepper, general manager for MSN TV. He hopes to have the product available in some international markets within three years, he said in an interview at Microsoft's Mountain View, California, campus on Friday.
Microsoft is currently drawing up plans for the product's expansion: Canadian and Mexican ISPs (Internet service providers) have shown interest in the product, and Microsoft is also eying Puerto Rico and some European countries, Klepper said. Additionally, some partners in India have shown a curiosity about MSN TV 2, according to one source.
Microsoft won't give sales figures for MSN TV 2 in the U.S. but Klepper said he is happy with its rate of adoption. While Microsoft sells the boxes in the U.S. through retail stores and its Web site, plans for the international expansion call for co-selling with ISPs and network operators, Klepper said. "Microsoft and MSN have partnerships with operators around the world. It is a more efficient way to get market share," he said.
For the Canadian market, Microsoft is in discussions with Bell Canada on how MSN TV 2 could benefit Bell Canada's broadband customers, Klepper said. For Mexico, Microsoft is in talks with an unnamed ISP that has expressed enthusiasm in the product as a way to introduce customers to broadband Internet services, he said.
WebTV and the first MSN TV box were designed to bring Internet access to users who did not own PCs, including senior citizens. With MSN TV 2, Microsoft hopes to expand the market by including broadband and home networking capabilities. The product includes digital media receiver features that let users access content stored on a PC on their TV.
Microsoft acquired WebTV Networks Inc. in 1997. It operated as an independent, wholly-owned Microsoft subsidiary until 2001, when it was folded into Microsoft's MSN division and the product renamed MSN TV, according to Klepper.
In the U.S., an MSN TV 2 package including the box, a wireless keyboard and remote control is priced at US$199.95. Additionally, broadband customers pay $9.95 a month or $99.95 a year, excluding the broadband connection. The dial-up subscription fee is $21.95 a month, according to Microsoft.
The box has a phone jack for a dial up Internet connection, as well as an Ethernet jack and USB (universal serial bus) ports that can be used for wireless network adapters. Currently, Thomson SA of France is the only manufacturer of the MSN TV 2 box.
Microsoft plans to update MSN TV 2 around the middle of the year. The update will add Movielink LLC's service, allowing users to order and watch movies. It will also let users play songs stored on their PC that are protected with Microsoft's digital rights management technology, Klepper said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:29 PM
EU ministers sign off on proposed patent law
By Simon Taylor
The European Union (E.U.) has taken a step closer to agreeing on controversial new legislation that could make it easier for technology companies to patent their inventions in Europe. The development came as a blow to critics of the proposed law, who argue that it could drive small software developers out of the market.
Economics ministers meeting in the E.U.'s Competitiveness Council in Brussels on Monday formally adopted an agreement first reached in May 2004 on the so-called computer-implemented inventions directive.
The decision means that the process of approving the legislation, which had ground to a halt in December, can be restarted. The text of the agreement approved Monday now passes to members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for debate.
The Parliament's members, however, are expected to demand far-reaching changes to ensure that the legislation does not apply to computer programs or to software itself. They remain angry that their request last month to restart the decision-making process was ignored.
Under the E.U.’s codecision-making process, the Parliament and the Council must try to reach agreement on the proposed legislation. The Parliament can choose to reject a deal put forward by the Council, and some MEPs have already warned that this could happen.
The decision to push ahead also faces increasing opposition from European governments, which expressed concerns with the proposed legislation on Monday, even as they advanced it to the next stage.
Poland, for example, said it will only support the legislation when it next comes up for discussion by the Council of Ministers if changes are made to ensure that it will not permit computer programs to be patented. Six other countries also expressed concerns with the proposal Monday: the Netherlands, Latvia, Hungary, Denmark, Portugal and Cyprus.
Denmark’s deputy Prime Minister Bendt Bendtsen, who attended Monday's meeting, had asked for the agreement be debated openly, with the support of Portugal. But Luxembourg’s economics minister, Jeannot Krecké, who chaired the meeting under the E.U.’s system of rotating six-month presidencies, refused the request.
The agreement was being adopted for “institutional reasons,� he admitted, to avoid creating a precedent that could lead to delays in E.U. decision-making in future.
Approval of the agreement was welcomed by EICTA, an association representing the biggest IT and telecom companies in Europe, which includes Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Adobe Systems Inc., Apple Computer Inc. and Dell Inc.
Mark McGann, the association’s secretary general, called the Council’s decision “excellent news.� The decision had been too long in the making, he said, noting that it took the Council nearly a year to formalize its agreement of May 2004. The directive is “extremely important to the European hi-tech industry and the European economy,� McGann said.
McGann argued that the proposal provides a balanced framework that would protect and encourage innovation. The concerns expressed by some countries can be addressed when the directive is discussed for a second time by E.U. governments and MEPs in the so-called "second reading" part of the legislative process, he said.
One of the most active opponents of the proposed legislation, Florian Müller of the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, said his group would be campaigning for an outright rejection of the directive, either by MEPs or by members of the Council such as Poland. “The European Parliament will have three of four opportunities for rejection,� he said.
The Council admitted that it adopted the May agreement for procedural reasons, he noted. His organization no longer has to argue that the deal is “illegitimate,� and it probably only enjoys support from a minority of governments, he said.
Opponents of the legislation, including the open source software community and some IT vendors, including Sun Microsystems Inc., say the proposal agreed to Monday would open the door to a U.S.-style patent regime. Small software developers would be shut out of the market, opponents claim, because they would be unable to pay for licenses for patented technology and could face crippling legal costs in order to use patented software in their own products.
The proposed law is open to interpretation, and supporters of the directive say the Council agreement would not allow software to be patented.
However, in 2003 the Council rejected an attempt by the European Parliament to create safeguards that would prevent patent protection from being extended to software, which could potentially prevent the Council and MEPs from reaching an agreement.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:28 PM
IRiver adds to H10 music player range
By Martyn Williams
The company behind the IRiver family of digital music players will show two new versions of its recently launched H10 multimedia player this week at the Cebit show in Hanover, Germany, it said on Friday.
South Korea's Reigncom Ltd. is using the exhibition to launch 1G-byte and 20G-byte versions of the player, it said in a statement. The first H10 player, launched earlier this year, has a 5G-byte storage capacity.
Reigncom's target for the first H10 player is potential Apple Computer Inc. iPod Mini buyers. The company is promoting the player to this market through a series of advertisements that feature a picture of a model biting into an apple and the tag-line "sweeter one." The two new players add capacities and sizes closer to Apple's iPod and iPod Shuffle.
"We needed some product to be launched as an Apple alternative," said Joon Yang, president of Reigncom, in an interview last week. "I don't think 100 percent of people like the iPod but it's hard to find an alternative so we thought let's make an alternative."
The H10 supports MP3 or Windows Media Audio files including those purchased from music stores that work with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player 10. All three models have a color LCD (liquid crystal display), can show images or slide-shows, have a built-in FM radio and a text viewer that supports e-books or can be used to display the lyrics of a song being played. A built-in timer allows users to set the H10 to record radio programs at a preset time.
Some of these features, such as the FM radio, aren't available on iPods and some, such as the ability to view photos or the color screen, are only available on some iPod models.
The greater number of features comes at a price. Reigncom has released only U.K. pricing for the two new models: £229 (US$440) for the 20G-byte model and £139 for the 1G-byte model. The equivalent capacity iPod players cost £209 and £99 in the U.K.
In terms of physical size the iPods win out. The 20G-byte H10 measures 102 millimeters by 61 mm by 22 mm while the iPod is 104 mm by 61 mm by 14 mm. The 1G-byte flash player with its LCD panel is considerably larger that the iPod Shuffle, measuring 72 mm by 42 mm by 16 mm against the iPod's 84 mm by 25 mm by 8 mm.
Battery life is 16 hours for the higher capacity model and 60 hours for the lower capacity model, according to the company.
Both new H10 models will be launched in the U.K. in April. Launch details and prices for other markets have yet to be announced.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:27 PM
March 05, 2005
ChoicePoint stops selling some personal data
By Paul RobertsEmbattled personal data vendor ChoicePoint Inc. said on Friday that it will stop selling sensitive consumer data to many of its customers, except when that data helps complete a consumer transaction or helps government or law enforcement, the company said in a statement. The company decided to stop selling sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers after being tricked into divulging personal information on about 145,000 people to identity thieves who posed as customers, according to a statement attributed to ChoicePoint Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Derek V. Smith.
"These changes are a direct result of the recent fraud activity, our review ... of our experience and products, and the response of consumers who have made it clear to us that they do not approve of sensitive personal data being used without direct benefit to them," Smith said in the statement, which was posted on ChoicePoint's Web site.
From now on, ChoicePoint will only sell sensitive personal information to customers when the data is necessary to complete a transaction, to accredited corporate customers that will use the data for user authentication or fraud prevention, or to help federal, state and local government and criminal justice agencies, ChoicePoint said.
The move, which should be complete within 90 days, will eliminate a number of "information products" that the company now sells to its customers, especially small businesses, the company said.
ChoicePoint also said it is creating an independent office of credentialing compliance and privacy. The office will oversee ChoicePoint's overhaul of the company's customer credentialing process, which was blamed for allowing identity thieves to register as legitimate customers and order personal information, the company said in its statement.
Among other things, ChoicePoint is considering increasing the number of on-site visits it conducts when verifying customers, the company said.
ChoicePoint, of Alpharetta, Georgia, has access to about 19 billion public records, and the company reportedly has information on virtually every adult living in the U.S.
The company has been the focus of intense scrutiny and criticism since it acknowledged last month that identity thieves gained access to records and personal information on individuals in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Information provided by ChoicePoint has since been used in about 750 identity theft scams, according to the company.
Since disclosing the security breach, the company has been the focus of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission inquiry into its compliance with federal information security laws, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into possible insider stock trading violations by its CEO and chief operating officer and lawsuits alleging violations of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and California state law, ChoicePoint disclosed in a filing to the SEC on Friday.
The mishap has also prompted calls for new federal legislation to protect consumers. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, introduced legislation called the Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act, which would require businesses and government agencies to notify victims when there is reason to believe a criminal obtained personal information.
Information on the ChoicePoint data theft became public only last month, after the company was compelled by California law to notify about 35,000 of the state's residents that their data had been exposed to identity theft. However, ChoicePoint has known about the theft since last September, but did not notify consumers, citing an investigation by law enforcement.
Public outcry forced ChoicePoint to strike a deal with 19 state attorneys general to notify the remaining 110,000 people whose data could have been exposed.
ChoicePoint supports a national dialogue about how public records information should be used and supports increased penalties of intentional misuse of personal information, said Kristen McCaughan, a company spokeswoman.
The company also warned investors on Friday that the expected changes to its business, and continued fallout from the identity theft revelations, will hurt its bottom line in 2005.
ChoicePoint expects the changes to cut between US$15 million and $20 million of revenue ($0.10 to $0.12 per share) in 2005, not including $2 million that the company will spend purchasing credit reports and monitoring services for consumers affected by the theft, as well as legal, consulting and technology expenses related to the incident, the company said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 12:26 AM
Anti-Phishing Act pushes for 5 years and $250,000 fine
By Grant GrossA bill introduced in the U.S. Senate this week would allow prison time of up to five years and fines of up to US$250,000 for people who design fake Web sites for the purposes of stealing money or credit card numbers. The Anti-Phishing Act of 2005, introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy, would outlaw "phishing," in which scam artists design Web sites to look like real banking or e-commerce sites, then e-mail spam to people saying they need to re-enter their account or credit card numbers at the bogus site.
The Vermont Democrat's bill, similar to one that failed to pass in 2004, would allow law enforcement officials another tool to fight phishing scams, by creating an opportunity to prosecute before the actual fraud takes place, said Julie Katzman, a legal advisor to Leahy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill is intended to deter phishing scammers, she added.
"It helps to have a crime that defines the conduct," Katzman said. "It does send (scammers) a signal."
Leahy's bill would also extend the same penalties to so-called "pharming," in which scammers redirect computer users' browsers and direct them to spoofed banking or e-commerce sites.
Leahy, in a statement, noted that the average phishing Web site is active for less than six days.
"Some phishers and pharmers can be prosecuted under wire fraud or identity theft statutes, but often these prosecutions take place only after someone has been defrauded," Leahy said in a statement. "For most of these criminals, that leaves plenty of time to cover their tracks. Moreover, the mere threat of these attacks undermines everyone’s confidence in the Internet. When people cannot trust that Web sites are what they appear to be, they will not use the Internet for their secure transactions."
The number of new phishing messages climbed by an average of 38 percent a month during the last six months of 2004, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The number of phishing e-mails grew by 42 percent, and the number of unique phishing Web sites grew by 47 percent in January, according to the group.
Leahy's bill requires that the spoofed Web sites be designed with the goal of committing fraud or identity theft. Parody Web sites, both commercial and political, are exempt from the penalties in the bill.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 12:22 AM
March 04, 2005
AOL releases delayed Netscape beta
By Joris EversAmerica Online Inc. (AOL) on Thursday released the first public test version of Netscape 8, a new Web browser with features designed to protect users against online scams and malicious code. The beta release was originally scheduled for mid-February, but was delayed to fix some last-minute bugs. A preview version of the browser has been available to a select group of testers since late November. The Netscape 8 beta version differs significantly from that preview.
With the release of Netscape 8 beta, AOL is taking aim at Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Internet Explorer (IE) Web browser, which has been the subject of many security vulnerabilities. Also, AOL is looking to piggyback on the popularity of Firefox, the open source Web browser that was released in November and has since been downloaded about 27 million times.
The Netscape 8 browser includes features that are meant to protect users while surfing the Web. For example, the browser adjusts settings based on a list of known malicious Web sites to protect users from phishing scams. Also, trusted Web sites are displayed with fewer restrictions and use the IE rendering engine for maximum compatibility.
IE is part of Windows and is used by most Web users. Many Web sites have been designed specifically to work with the Microsoft browser and may not be displayed correctly in browsers using other engines, including the Gecko engine in Firefox. For example, movie site Movielink.com does not work well in Firefox.
Netscape 8 is based on Firefox and uses that browser's rendering engine by default, but also supports the IE browser engine. The Netscape browser doesn't include the IE engine but uses the engine in Windows. As a result, the Netscape 8 browser only works on Windows computers.
In an about-face, Microsoft two weeks ago said it would release a beta of a new IE browser during the middle of this year. Previously, the company had said it would not release a new browser until it ships the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, in 2006. There has not been a new version of IE in four years. The new IE 7.0 will also address security issues such as phishing, Microsoft said.
Phishing scams are a prevalent type of online attack that typically combines spam e-mail messages and fraudulent Web pages that look like legitimate e-commerce sites. The attacks are designed to steal sensitive information such as user names, passwords and credit card numbers.
Netscape was the most popular browser in the early years of the Web. AOL is now breathing new life into the Netscape browser, which was marginalized after Microsoft introduced IE in the mid-1990s. The final version of Netscape 8 is expected out in the second quarter and will be backed by some marketing efforts from AOL, sources familiar with the company's plan have said.
The new Netscape beta can be downloaded at: http://browser.netscape.com/
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:26 PM
Senators want tax breaks for computer disposal
By Grant GrossTwo U.S. senators on Thursday introduced legislation that would give tax breaks to individuals and businesses that safely dispose of computers and other worn-out electronic devices. The Electronic Waste Recycling and Promotion and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 would create incentives for a nationwide recycling infrastructure for computers, monitors and television sets, said senators Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Jim Talent, a Missouri Republican.
The e-waste recycling bill would establish a US$8 per piece tax credit for companies that recycle at least 5,000 monitors or computer units per year. Individuals who use qualified recyclers to dispose of computers or TV sets would receive a $15 tax credit. The bill would also prohibit the disposal of any electronic equipment containing a display screen greater than 4 inches or any computer system in a municipal solid waste landfill, beginning three years after the bill is passed.
The prohibition would take effect only if the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finds that a majority of U.S. households have reasonable access to e-waste recycling.
Wyden, in a statement, noted that old computers contain a number of hazardous toxins including lead, mercury and cadmium, and some experts estimate that more than 150 million tons of electronic equipment were thrown away in 2004. Some states have e-waste recycling programs, but a national program does not exist.
“Growing mountains of e-waste are clogging our nation’s landfills and posing great risks to Americans’ health and to our natural environment,� Wyden said in the statement. “As technology improves and folks get newer and faster computers, they need a safe and easy way to get rid of their old machines.�
The National Recycling Coalition, the Environmental Technology Council, the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition, Waste Management Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Intel Corp. have all expressed support for the bill, according to Wyden.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:25 PM
RealNetworks patches security holes
By Paul RobertsRealNetworks Inc. has warned customers about a security vulnerability in its RealPlayer and RealOne Player software that could allow an attacker to run malicious code on a machine using a vulnerable version of the popular media player programs. The company issued a software patch on Tuesday to fix the holes, which allow attackers to use specially crafted SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) files to create buffer overflows on vulnerable systems, and is encouraging customers to upgrade or patch their software.
The vulnerability exists in a component of RealPlayer that processes user-supplied data in a SMIL file for use by RealPlayer. Attackers could format a SMIL file to take advantage of the hole and create a buffer overflow on the machine running RealPlayer that would allow them to run their own malicious code on the system, according to an advisory from security company iDefense Inc.
In buffer overflow attacks, malicious hackers flood temporary data storage areas on a computer with more information than they were intended to hold. Extra information, such as attack code, overflows into other areas of the computer's memory, overwriting other data and causing the system to crash or begin running the attacker's code.
Victims have to be tricked into downloading and opening a SMIL file from the attackers to trigger the RealPlayer vulnerability. However, on systems running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, the Internet Explorer Web browser opens SMIL files automatically without prompting the user. If SMIL files are designated to be opened with RealPlayer, simply clicking on a link to one on a Web page could open the file and trigger the vulnerability, iDefense said.
Versions of RealPlayer and RealOne Player for Windows, Apple Computer Inc.'s OS X operating system and Linux are all vulnerable to the buffer overflow, iDefense said.
There is no way to work around the problem and RealPlayer users are encouraged to apply one of the available patches, Real said in an advisory. (See: http://service.real.com/help/faq/security/050224_player/EN/.)
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:25 PM
Microsoft researchers target worms
By Joris EversResearchers at Microsoft Corp. showed off some forward-looking technologies on Wednesday, including new ways to protect systems against Internet worms, prevent hacker attacks and measure available bandwidth on home networks. At its fifth annual TechFest, Microsoft Research presented about 150 projects at the company's Redmond, Washington, headquarters. The event was expected to attract about 6,000 Microsoft employees. Its main purpose is to promote the exchange of ideas, or "tech transfers," between Microsoft Research and product teams at the software maker.
One of the technologies on display, dubbed Vigilante, proposes a detection and protection system for Internet worms. The system would consist of "honey pot" computers connected to the Internet that would serve as bait for the worms. Once an attack was detected, the computers would analyze the attack and create alerts that included details on how to protect against the new worm. The alerts then would be pushed out to other computers, which would automatically put up shields and filter traffic to block the worm, Microsoft researchers said.
Systems receiving the Vigilante alerts would not require any action from an administrator to protect against worms, said Manuel Costa, a researcher in Microsoft's Cambridge, England, lab. "We need a completely automatic system to detect attacks," he said.
Costa, who was demonstrating a prototype of Vigilante at TechFest, acknowledged that administrators may be apprehensive of automatic changes to their systems, but he said the filters will block only real attack messages. Automatic filters are needed to provide a quick response to worm outbreaks, he said. "Otherwise, it will be too late."
Another Microsoft Research project focused on security suggests monitoring system activity to prevent malicious code from executing. The system, called Control-Flow Integrity, would prevent malicious code being run on a computer by checking application activity and validating it. Unexpected activity would be blocked, according to Microsoft.
The system would prevent attacks that exploit buffer overflows by inserting malicious code, said Roy Levin, director of Microsoft Research Silicon Valley. However, one side effect of monitoring applications is a slower system. "You are getting a stronger guarantee, but in exchange for some performance," Levin said.
Vigilante and Control-Flow Integrity are research projects only, but the researchers said they are drawing interest from Microsoft product teams. However, there has been no commitment from any of the product groups to use the technologies.
The transfer inside Microsoft has happened for "Probegap," a Microsoft Research technology that lets users estimate the available bandwidth on, for example, a home network. Probegap is planned as part of the next Windows client release, code-named Longhorn, due in 2006, said Venkata Padmanabhan, a researcher at Microsoft.
Application developers can link to the Probegap API (application programming interface) to check available bandwidth before executing a request, Padmanabhan said. For example, Windows Media Player can alert a user that there is not enough available bandwidth to play a high-quality video and instead offer a lower-quality stream, he said.
At TechFest, Padmanabhan demonstrated how lack of bandwidth today can disrupt the use of Windows XP Media Center Edition, a premium version of Windows designed to be an entertainment hub for the home that can be connected to other PCs and TVs over a wireless or wired network.
"Today, you can start an additional (video) stream and disrupt existing streams," he said. Windows XP Media Center Edition can handle about three TV-quality streams over a wireless network before running out of bandwidth, he said.
The more than 700 people at Microsoft Research work on projects in more than 50 research areas, including speech recognition, user interface, programming tools and methodologies, operating systems and networking, graphics, natural language processing, machine learning and mathematical sciences.
TechFest started on Wednesday and ends Thursday.
More information on the research projects mentioned in this story is available on the Microsoft Research Web site.
Vigilante: http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?tr_id=788 Control-Flow Integrity: http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?tr_id=868 Probegap: http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?tr_id=748
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:25 PM
Wall Street Beat: Traders look at Napster, MCI
By Marc FerrantiWith most major IT vendors having reported their quarterly earnings, investors in tech companies this week had other things on their minds: the rebirth of Napster in the form of a revenue-generating company; nagging doubts about the chip sector; and, of course, the ongoing telecommunications takeover saga revolving around MCI Inc. In the macroeconomic view, rising oil prices and a guarded report from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who spoke midweek before Congress, served to keep a damper on the Nasdaq Composite Index, which has failed to ignite this year. Thursday, after several brokerages expressed concern about the chip sector, the Nasdaq dropped 9.10 points to close at 2058.40. That doesn't sound bad against the 52-week range of the index -- 1750.82 to 2191.60 -- but certainly disappointing to observers who had hoped that the latest round of earnings reports would spark higher share prices and investor confidence.
One bright spot, albeit minor, shone on Thursday when Napster Inc. raised its revenue forecast for the quarter ending March 31 to US$15 million, $1 million higher than previous guidance. The change was caused by "robust growth in our subscription service," said Chris Gorog, Napster's chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement. That's good news for digital music distribution in general, which has been dominated by Apple Computer Inc. Napster (ticker symbol: NAPS) rose $0.47 to $7.27 on the news Thursday, while Apple (AAPL) shares declined by $2.33 to $41.79
The chip sector was under the scrutiny of analysts this week as Intel Corp. hosted industry insiders and observers at its Developer Forum in San Francisco, which ended Thursday. Though Intel was upbeat about its product plans, analysts came away wary about the chip market as a whole, with several brokerages, such as Merrill Lynch & Co. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., issuing cautious analyses of the sector. A report from Hynix Semiconductor Inc. on Thursday that forecast a 30 percent decline in processor prices and lower profit margins this year did not help. On Thursday, Intel (INTC) slipped $0.02 to $24.50; Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) declined by $0.39 to $26.58; and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) dropped by $0.13 to $17.52.
Elsewhere in the sector, shares in memory-chip maker Rambus Inc. (RMBS) declined by $1.71 Wednesday to $15.45 and continued downward, closing at $15.19 Thursday, after the dismissal of its patent case against Infineon Technologies AG.
Meanwhile, the telecom arena held traders' attention due to the ongoing takeover fight for MCI Inc. Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI announced on Feb. 14 an acquisition deal worth about $6.7 billion. Spurned suitor Qwest Communications International Inc. then countered with a new bid worth about $8 billion. On Wednesday, Verizon said MCI could consider the Qwest bid until March 18. The telecom companies are looking to merge in order to provide a full range of services in the wake of the January announcement that SBC Communications Inc. plans to acquire AT&T Corp.
The news has pushed MCI shares up to new highs. On Thursday MCI shares (MCIP) closed at 23.55, up 19.66 percent for the month; Verizon (VZ) closed at $36.37, up 1.36 percent for the month; and Qwest (Q) closed at $3.96, down 5.71 percent for the month.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:25 PM
March 03, 2005
Tech groups, lawyers speak out in Grokster case
By Grant GrossA group of technology trade groups, consumer advocates and lawyers filed more than 20 briefs Tuesday in support of peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software vendors facing a U.S. Supreme Court showdown with the movie industry later this month. Groups filing briefs in support of Grokster Ltd. and Morpheus distributor StreamCast Networks Inc. argued that the movie industry's attempts to use courts to shut down the two P-to-P vendors would stop innovative new technologies from being introduced in the U.S. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the MGM v. Grokster case March 29.
The entertainment industry has attempted to stall several technologies, including the VCR, the copying machine and tape recorders, as they became available, but in the end found ways to make money from those technologies, said participants in a press conference organized by digital rights advocacy group Public Knowledge. The case could affect the "entire American technology sector," said Fred von Lohmann, senor staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil rights group.
"The question really boils down to, will America's technology companies be hiring more engineers, or will they be firing engineers and hiring lawyers instead?" von Lohmann said.
In the case, the movie industry sued the P-to-P vendors, arguing they were responsible for widespread copyright violations by people using their software. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August that Grokster, StreamCast Networks and a site operated by StreamCast called Musiccity.com were not liable for copyright violations by their users.
Supporters of the Grokster position argue the movie industry is attempting overturn the Supreme Court's 1984 Sony Betamax ruling, in which technologies with significant noninfringing uses -- in that case, a video recorder -- were not liable for their users' copyright violations. Movie companies and their allies argue that P-to-P vendors are "bad actors" because the vast majority of files exchanged through P-to-P software violates copyright law.
P-to-P vendors trying to build business plans around distributing digital products with permission of the owners take offense to being called "bad actors" by the entertainment industry, added Michael Weiss, chief executive officer of StreamCast Network. "Let me set the record straight: We're not bad actors," Weiss said. "Bad actors are underground or hiding offshore out of reach of the law. Bad actors don't take their fight to the Supreme Court."
At their own press conference, supporters of the entertainment industry argued that movie makers and musicians need to be compensated for their work, and if the U.S. fails to protect copyright law, technology companies will be hurt as their inventions or products are stolen. The position of Grokster supporters -- that technological advances will be slowed if the Supreme Court rules against them -- is "utter nonsense," said Ted Olson, lawyer for the advocacy group Defenders of Property Rights and former U.S. solicitor general.
"Technology will be stopped if the inventors and creators ... of creative works aren't protected," Olson said.
The lower court's ruling "rewards and promotes illegal behavior, that is the theft of intellectual property," said Dan Glickman, president and chief executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). "We support anything that gets more people to see our movies, as long as it also protects property rights. The business model created by Grokster does not support property rights -- it promotes stealing."
In January, a day after five technology-related groups announced briefs in support of Grokster, the MPAA announced about 20 briefs had been filed in support if its position. Among the MPAA's supporters were 40 state attorneys general; U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, and Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican; three major sports leagues, including the National Football League; the Association of American Publishers Inc.; the Independent Film & Television Alliance; and six music publishing groups, including the Songwriters Guild of America.
Among the groups filing briefs in support of Grokster Tuesday were: the Consumer Federation of America, 60 intellectual property law professors, the American Conservative Union, the American Civil Liberties Union, 17 computer science professors, the National Venture Capital Association, Intel Corp., the Computer and Communications Industry Association, and the Free Software Foundation.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:01 PM
U.S. lawmakers question telecom mergers
By Grant GrossThree recently announced telecommunications mergers received mixed revenues in a U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing Wednesday, with some lawmakers questioning whether the deals will lead to less competition and higher prices. During a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, top executives from the six telecom companies involved defended the multibillion-dollar deals announced since mid-December, saying the mergers will ensure healthy companies that will compete with each other and invest in new technologies. The hearing was held as Congress considers rewriting the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Some lawmakers questioned if SBC Communications Inc.'s acquisition of AT&T Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc.'s intended acquisition of MCI Inc. will leave U.S. telecom customers with two near-monopolies that don't compete against each other in many regions. Representative Heather Wilson, a New Mexico Republican, compared the telecom industry after the mergers to the old AT&T monopoly before the government-enforced breakup in 1984.
"We are almost at this point where we've come full circle over the last two decades," Wilson said. "We've had two decades of vigorous competition and technological innovation ... spurred initially by the breakup of a very large monopoly. We're now on the cusp of seeing the emergence of a duopoly."
SBC Communications' acquisition of AT&T, announced in January, comes at a time when the telecom industry is coming out of a recession, or "trying to get up off the mat," said Edward Whitacre Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of SBC. "We will provide business and residential customers alike with the most complete set of services, over a robust national and international network, using the most advanced technology," Whitacre said.
Executives at Verizon and MCI defended their proposed merger on largely the same grounds, while executives from Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc. noted that the merger of their wireless businesses will still leave dozens of wireless companies competing for customers. The Verizon deal, announced in February, still faces a competing bid for MCI from Qwest Communications International Inc.
Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon's chairman and chief executive officer, and Michael Capellas, MCI's chief executive officer, didn't specifically address the competing Qwest bid during their testimony, but both said the Verizon deal made the best sense for the two companies.
MCI's worldwide IP (Internet Protocol) network is best matched with Verizon's local telephone and wireless businesses because local and long distance business plans "are on their way to obsolescence," Seidenberg said. "This transaction is about the future. Verizon and MCI will be a national, full-service company with the technology and financial strength to deliver the broadband future and create economic growth for America."
Whitacre and Seidenberg dismissed lawmakers' concerns about a lack of competition by saying that their companies already compete with each other in the wireless space and that they will compete after the merger in the enterprise and residential markets.
The two companies, often called regional Bells, also face competition from cable operators offering VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and will face increased competition from wireless services, including broadband wireless offerings coming in the next two years, Whitacre said. With more customers cutting off landline service and switching to wireless service, SBC has been losing tens of thousands of landline connections each week, he said.
"I don't think there's any question there will be more competition, not less," Whitacre added.
Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Whitacre and Seidenberg to pledge to not raise residential telecom rates after the mergers.
The SBC/AT&T merger will have "no impact" on consumer prices because AT&T withdrew from the residential market in 2004, Whitacre answered.
Pressed further to pledge not to increase rates, Whitacre added: "I can't pledge that forever, but don't see anything that would impact that in the foreseeable future."
"How long is the foreseeable future?" Markey responded.
"I can't make a pledge for any specific length of time. I can't give you a specific number of days, or years," Whitacre said. "I really don't foresee it."
Markey asked Seidenberg the same question, and the Verizon executive said he couldn't make the pledge, but he also noted that residential prices have seen major drops in the past 15 years. With competition from cable companies and telecom companies, prices could continue to go down, he added.
"We're going to pledge to be the best competitor we can and provide the best value to customers," Seidenberg said. "The market will take care of it."
Others questioned the executives' promise of competition. Lawmakers in rural and low-income districts urged SBC and Verizon to bring broadband and other advanced services to their areas, and Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation of America, said consolidation and "ill-conceived regulatory policies" have crushed hopes for expanding competition. The regional Bells have declined to compete in each others' regions for residential customers, and the mergers will leave residential customers with only a choice between the Bells and their local cable companies, Cooper said.
"The recent wave of proposed mergers in the telecommunications industry ... mark the ultimate demise of the era in which consumers could expect more and more choices and lower prices," Cooper said.
Several lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, defended the mergers, however, as necessary for large telecom companies to grow and offer new services. The Sprint/Nextel merger will create a "broadband giant" that has no affiliation with the giant Bells, said Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and the committee chairman. "We should not be wary of such a combined entity; we should welcome it," he said.
The three deals will continue a "vibrant communications industry" that the U.S. needs, Barton added.
Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, agreed. "These companies will be better positioned -- combined rather than separate -- to do battle in a world where the meaningful fight will be amongst (cross-platform) competitors," he said. "Given the dramatic changes in the communications marketplace over the last 10 years, these mergers are not only logical, but they are integral to ensuring a vibrant and ... competitive communications marketplace."
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:00 PM
CeBIT: Cool Gadgets Arrive in Chilly Hanover
By John BlauBusinesspeople need them and consumers love them--the many new smart wireless devices that are making work and play more productive and entertaining. You can expect a truckload of cool gadgets to appear at the giant CeBIT trade show, which begins next week in Hanover, Germany. Competition is the reason manufacturers are tripping over each other to put more pixels into phone cameras, zap more bits over the airwaves, and beam TV to small screens. And it's why a sizable chunk of the CeBIT fairgrounds this year is dedicated to companies that produce innovative wireless devices.
What to expect this year? For one thing, smart phones that offer plenty of new features and use a mix of operating systems.
While Microsoft Windows Mobile and Symbian grapple with each other for market share, Linux is quietly sneaking in the back door. Even PalmSource, which makes a rival operating system, sees a bright future for Linux. The company has decided to base its new Cobalt smart phone operating system on the Linux kernel.
Arguably, the big buzzword in applications this year is "mobile," as in mobile TV--a technology that generated a lot of attention at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes last month. And even though some market research groups (including Gartner and Strategy Analytics) warn of hype, the industry is roaring ahead.
Mobile TV service has two primary and potentially competing distribution channels. One involves mobile phones receiving regular TV broadcast transmissions via special antennas. The other consists of signals transmitted over the mobile network as a stream of video data. The big difference between the two methods is broadcast's one-to-many relationship versus mobile's one-to-one.
Vodafone D2, the German subsidiary of Vodafone Group, will give visitors an opportunity to view several live broadcasts on a prototype mobile TV device developed by Siemens. The phone is equipped with a special antenna based on the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting--Handheld) standard.
The DVB-H standard, approved by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute in November, was successfully tested last year in a pilot project in Berlin. Vodafone participated in the project, with Nokia, Koninklijke Philips Electronics, and Universal Studios Networks Deutschland.
Several other manufacturers, including Nokia and Sanyo, plan to show their own mobile TV-enabled phones.
Music, too, is catching on with vendors. After having virtually handed the market for personal MP3 players to Apple Computer on a plate, several vendors now see an obvious niche for a combined mobile phone and music player.
And guess who's trying to grab a lead in this market? Hint: The company is jointly owned by the inventor of the Walkman portable CD player and by a telecom equipment manufacturer that has been at the forefront of mobile phone technology. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications will show its new W800, the first Walkman-brand mobile phone. The company announced the new phone last month in Cannes and plans to start shipping it in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, rumors are afoot that German mobile phone operator T-Mobile International will launch a music player of its own at CeBIT. And though Motorola announced its music phone at the 3GSM World Congress, the company plans a U.S. launch in the coming weeks.
What Motorola will show at CeBIT--among many other products--is its range of push-to-talk over cellular (POC) phones, which include a walkie-talkie function along with normal mobile phone telephony service. Numerous operators across Europe and Asia are rolling out POC services, similar to the walkie talkie-type service pioneered by Nextel Communications in the United States. Nokia will be touting its push-to-talk products in Hanover, too.
Speaking of push services, LG Electronics plans to show its new push-to-view (PTV) service. Evolved from push-to-talk voice service, PTV lets multiple users share live video in real time.
And the phonecam pixel race is heating up. As cameras become a standard feature of mobile phones and vendors need to position their products more competitively, the number of pixels will increase--in much the same way that processing speeds in PC chips have. To differentiate their products, phone manufacturers are now racing to deliver camera phones with higher and higher megapixel counts, just as PC makers have been pushing the processor speeds of their machines.
The camera phones announced at last year's CeBIT were slightly over 1 megapixel; models with 2 megapixels or ,ore will dominate the list of new camera phones at this year's event. And experts are talking about 5-megapixel models in the not-too-distant future.
Also worth checking out at CeBIT will be a new generation of phones that integrate cellular and Wi-Fi technologies; and a system, called HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access ), that will provide initial throughput rates of between 400 kbps (kilobits per second) and 600 kbps, with a peak rate of 14.4 mbps. T-Mobile plans to demonstrate the new high-speed technology in a moving vehicle.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:00 PM
Symantec claims new antivirus patent
By Paul RobertsAntivirus software company Symantec Corp. has been awarded a patent for a 5-year-old technology that allows antivirus researchers to scan multiple parts of a file for signs of virus infections, according to executives from the company. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded Symantec U.S. patent No. 6,851,057 for "Data driven detection of viruses," a method of virus detection that allows researchers to program antivirus software to scan multiple areas of a file for signs of infection. The technology has been used across Symantec's antivirus product line since 1999, according to Carey Nachenberg, the inventor and a chief architect in Symantec's antivirus labs.
The Symantec patent specifically refers to a "virus detection system (that) operates under the control of P-code to detect the presence of a virus in a file having multiple entry points," but the reach of the patent could be much more broad, said Michael Schallop, director of intellectual property at Symantec.
"What's patented is a technology to use an intermediate language to drive antivirus functionality such as scanning and emulation," he said.
That could refer to any technology that allows antivirus researchers or antivirus products to use scripting to determine, dynamically, where in a file to scan and detect threats. It could also include the use of Javascript or other common scripting languages to direct antivirus scanning, Schallop said.
Symantec hasn't reviewed competitors' products to see if they might use its patented technique. Schallop said that the company is primarily interested in demonstrating its "thought leadership" in antivirus technology, and declined to speculate on whether the company would try to enforce its patent.
The newly-patented Symantec technology was developed to improve on traditional antivirus scanning methods that simply searched the beginning and end of files for signs of infection, which is where an older generation of viruses operated, Nachenberg said.
Using his patented invention, researchers can write instructions using a scripting language called P-code to direct an antivirus engine to scan specific areas of a file. Areas, or "entry points," that may be infected by a virus can be submitted to a virus emulation module to determine whether the file is corrupted, according to a copy of the patent.
Nachenberg compares the technology to a targeted x-ray or magnetic resonance imagery scans that are directed, by a physician, at specific areas of a body that are known to harbor signs of illness.
The patented technique makes it easier for antivirus products to detect a wide range of malicious code, including spyware and Trojan horse programs, in addition to viruses, Nachenberg said. Researchers can also use data-driven detection to respond to new malicious code developments, using P-code scripts to address new file formats or infection strategies, he said.
The technique was first prototyped in 1999 and it has been used across Symantec's antivirus product line ever since, Nachenberg said.
The computer security space has been fertile ground for patent attorneys in recent years. Symantec was forced to pay US$62.5 million in April 2004 to acquire U.S. Patent No. 5,319,776 from Clearswift Ltd. that covers computer hardware and software that scans data in transit between two 'mediums.'
In January, McAfee Inc. said it was granted U.S. Patent No. 6,839,852 for a "Firewall system and method with network mapping capabilities," which has applications for network traffic monitoring between a local and remote computer and pinpointing the geographical source of an attack.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:38 PM
March 02, 2005
Bill Gates picks up honorary knighthood from Queen
By Laura RohdeMicrosoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will receive an honorary Knighthood from the U.K.'s Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. Gates has been awarded the title KBE, or Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for his contribution to enterprise, employment, education and the voluntary sector in the U.K., and for his efforts to reduce poverty in the developing world, including parts of the British Commonwealth.
As part of the ceremony to present the decoration, Gates will kneel before the monarch, who will tap him on the shoulder with a sword. The motto of the order of chivalry is "For God and the Empire."
Under a system established in 1917, Gates cannot use the title "Sir" because he is not a U.K. or Commonwealth citizen, but he can write the letters KBE after his name.
The U.K. Foreign Office announced in January 2004 that Gates would receive the award.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:04 PM
Intel's Barrett reflects on tenure as CEO
By Tom KrazitIntel Corp.'s Craig Barrett has maintained his sense of humor about resigning his chief executive officer (CEO) role in May and becoming chairman of the world's largest semiconductor maker, referring to the process as "getting kicked upstairs and out of the way" during an interview at the Spring Intel Developer Forum (IDF) Tuesday. In accordance with Intel's mandatory retirement policy, Barrett will relinquish a day-to-day role at Intel just as the company appears to be turning the corner from the various missteps and manufacturing glitches it endured in 2004. The company unveiled a horde of details Tuesday surrounding its upcoming transition to dual-core processor designs, and given the restrained enthusiasm urged by Barrett last year in regard to providing details about upcoming products, analysts called the announcements a sign that Intel is much more confident about its desktop and server road map than it was at the last IDF in September.
That same confidence was apparent in Barrett's demeanor during a meeting with reporters following his keynote address, which focused on a bright future for microprocessor manufacturing and new applications that will be developed for future processors.
Reflecting on his seven-year tenure as CEO at Intel, Barrett said he was proudest of maintaining the company's profitability and status as the world's largest chip maker during the severe downturn in IT spending following the collapse of many Internet companies in 2001.
"Intel is a technology company. It is successful when it continues to invest in the future," Barrett said, referring to his decision to invest heavily in new manufacturing technologies during the downturn.
But not all has been rosy under Barrett's tenure. The company's Itanium processor was once envisioned as the future of its server business and the industry's path to 64-bit computing, but the market has not responded to Itanium, which uses a different instruction set and software from Intel's x86 chips such as the Pentium 4 and Xeon processors.
"Would I have liked (Itanium) to ramp faster? Duh," Barrett said. But he said the chip has a future in high-end servers, although that's a far smaller market than the one Intel had originally envisioned for Itanium.
Barrett has also insisted that Intel develop expertise in chip architectures for communications devices, an effort that has had its ups and downs. The company's XScale applications processor is popular with personal digital assistant and mobile phone manufacturers, its flash memory business is relatively strong after some hiccups, and just about every notebook user on the planet has heard of Intel's Centrino mobile technology for connecting to wireless networks. But a much-hyped entrance into the market for communications silicon in mobile phones has flopped, as no company has released a mobile phone featuring Intel's Manitoba processor.
Reviving the prospects of its mobile phone communications silicon is one of Intel's biggest challenges over the rest of the decade, and the company has significantly increased its investment in that technology, Barrett said. The company will also need to identify new materials that will enable it to continue shrinking the size of its transistors into the next decade, keeping to its historic pace of performance gains, he said.
Those investment decisions and challenges are about to pass to Paul Otellini, the current president and chief operating officer of Intel and Barrett's designated successor. The transition will be very similar to the one that took place when Barrett became CEO in 1997 and Andrew Grove became chairman, Barrett said.
Otellini will likely hold off on designating an executive to take over his role as operations chief, Barrett said. Intel recently reorganized its operating structure into groups such as the Digital Enterprise and Digital Home, and many executives that are thought to be front-runners for Otellini's old job have just taken on new responsibilities.
"Historically, we've used that COO position as an orderly transition of management, and Paul will make that decision over the next couple of years," Barrett said.
Barrett's primary role as chairman will be advocating greater investment in the "sorry state" of the U.S. education system, as he put it. He has very passionately argued for several years that the U.S. is losing its edge in technology expertise, and the only way to fix that situation is to make today's students more interested in science and technology.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:03 PM
China tightens surveillance of Internet forums
By Sumner LemonThe Chinese government has tightened surveillance of Internet chat rooms and discussion forums ahead of the annual National People's Congress (NPC) meeting, which begins on March 5 in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The NPC is China's highest legislative body. A major focus of this year's meeting is consideration of a draft antisecession law, which is aimed at curbing Taiwanese moves towards formal independence. China and Taiwan were separated in 1949 at the end of a civil war and Taiwan is viewed by China as a renegade province.
Chat rooms and discussion boards on popular Web sites have been assigned security guards responsible for monitoring the content of messages and postings during the NPC session, Xinhua said. Messages submitted by users will be filtered and censored before appearing online, it said.
In an effort to boost control over the Internet during the NPC meeting, officials from China's Ministry of Public Security met on Monday with executives from local Internet service providers, major Web sites and Internet cafe chains, Xinhua reported.
The Xinhua report did not specify how long these added Internet control measures will remain in place.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:03 PM
AOL to improve Web mail service
By Juan Carlos PerezAmerica Online Inc. (AOL) is getting ready to upgrade the interface and performance of the Web mail service for its subscribers. The upgrade, possibly by the end of this week, will be followed in several months with the rollout of a free Web mail service for people who aren't subscribers of AOL's fee-based service.
AOL expects to switch over to the improved service by Friday of this week, although it could be a day or two later, said Roy Ben-Yoseph, the company's director of e-mail products, on Tuesday.
"The major thing and the one we're most proud of is the complete redesign of the interface," Ben-Yoseph said.
The Web mail interface has been revamped to have the look and feel of a typical Web application, he said. Currently, AOL's Web mail interface resembles the e-mail interface of AOL's client application.
Another interface improvement is the display of folders in a pane next to the inbox. Currently, users have to click around a couple of times to bring up the folders, which aren't displayed next to the inbox.
Along the way, AOL improved the Web mail service's performance so that it loads and responds faster, Ben-Yoseph said.
Other enhancements and new features include the ability to drag and drop e-mail messages into folders. Also, all the spam-blocking and filtering capabilities of the AOL service will now be available for Web mail users, who currently only have access to a subset of those capabilities, Ben-Yoseph said.
A few months down the road, AOL plans to launch a free Web mail service for nonsubscribers, Ben-Yoseph said. "We're working on (developing) the exact interface and feature set that will be provided," he said. "It will be in a few months."
By enhancing the subscribers' Web mail service with advanced features and capabilities, AOL is trying to discourage them from migrating to free services from competitors such as Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN , said Patrick Mahoney, a Yankee Group analyst.
This is part of AOL's overall effort to stop the continued erosion in its subscriber ranks, as members ditch the AOL fee-based service, which offers dial-up Internet access along with content and services, and sign up for broadband service, which AOL doesn't offer, he said. AOL offers a fee-based option that includes content and services but not Internet access to members that have broadband service.
At the same time, AOL is preparing the free Web mail service as a vehicle towards online advertising, where AOL's larger strategy is to beef up its free AOL.com portal to attract as much Web traffic as possible and consequently advertisers, Mahoney said.
"AOL is going down two paths. It wants to maintain the current subscribers they have and hopefully grow that base with value-added enhancements, unique content and rich applications (that will appeal to broadband users), but it also wants to harness the online ad market and to do that it needs an open (free) portal to attract the mass Web market," Mahoney said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:02 PM
March 01, 2005
Paris Hilton may be victim of T-Mobile Web holes
By Paul RobertsHotel heiress Paris Hilton's mobile phone account and those of other T-Mobile customers may have fallen victim to hackers who took advantage of a gaping hole in the company's Web site to steal information, according to security experts and those familiar with the incident. A flaw in a Web site feature to reset T-Mobile account passwords is believed have played a role in hacking Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick account, which resulted in her star-studded address book, photos, e-mail messages and voice mail being posted for public consumption on the Internet. The password reset hole is just one of hundreds, or even thousands of similar flaws in the mobile provider's Web page that could provide easy access to malicious hackers, according to an analysis by one security expert.
A spokesman for T-Mobile USA Inc., a division of T-Mobile International AG & Co. K.G., declined to comment specifically on the password reset exploit or on the security of the company's Web site despite repeated requests. In an e-mail statement attributed to Sue Swenson, Chief Operating Officer of T-Mobile USA Inc., the company said that it cares about protecting the security and privacy of its customers, and that the company is "aggressively investigating the illegal dissemination of information over the Internet of T-Mobile customers' personal data."
Rumors about what was responsible for the hack on Hilton's Sidekick have been in abundance since her account was posted for public review on Web sites around the world on Feb. 20. Leading theories on the hack's source suggest that it may have been linked to a 2003 hack by Nicolas Jacobsen, the 22-year-old who pleaded guilty on Feb. 15 to compromising the accounts of 400 T-Mobile customers, or the result of an easy-to-guess password on Hilton's account.
But the hack on Hilton's account and those of other T-Mobile account holders may in fact be fallout from a technical analysis of the company's Web site based on information in an affidavit filed in the Jacobsen case by U.S. Secret Service agent Matthew Ferrante.
In a Feb. 17 blog posting, Jack Koziol, a senior instructor at InfoSec Institute, used information in the affidavit and publicly available information on T-Mobile's site to discuss the strategy that Jacobsen used to compromise T-Mobile's servers in 2003, including a hack of Hilton's account.
Koziol speculated that Jacobsen used a SQL (Structured Query Language) injection attack to compromise T-Mobile's servers and noted that, as of his posting, there were "literally hundreds of injection vulnerabilities littered throughout the T-Mobile website," according to his blog, "Ethical Hacking and Computer Forensics." (See: http://www.infosecinstitute.com/)
In a SQL injection attack, attackers use a SQL database query to send, or "inject," unexpected commands into a SQL database, allowing them to manipulate the database's contents.
In the early morning of Feb. 19, Koziol received an e-mail from a reader complimenting him on his blog. The e-mail contained an exploit for a T-Mobile Web site hole that allowed anyone to gain access to a T-Mobile account from the T-mobile.com Web site, as long as they knew the account holder's T-Mobile phone number. In the e-mail message, the exploit was attributed to a hacking group called "DFNCTSC Team."
"I know you said you cant exploit stuff, cause you are all white hat and work in the industry, but i am not legal age yet to go to jail, so i can," the message reads, in part.
Hilton's address book first appeared on the Internet on Feb. 20. Posts of the information were accompanied by a message that claimed credit for the hack for DFNCTSC.
The exploit described in the e-mail to Koziol takes advantage of a flaw in a password reset feature in T-Mobile's Web site. Visitors who have a valid T-Mobile phone number can use the feature to receive a unique token to reset their passwords. A flaw in the design of the reset feature allows Internet users who know the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the password reset page to bypass a user authentication page and change an account's password without having to provide information that proves they are the account's owner, according to Koziol.
"It's a session management problem. (T-Mobile) fails to properly keep track of where users are," Koziol told IDG News Service. "It's not an earth-shattering vulnerability that takes a Ph.D in computer science to figure out. It's something a couple curious kids could do."
Koziol strongly encouraged the e-mail's author, who uses the online name "luckstr4w," not to attempt to hack T-Mobile's site, citing Nicholas Jacobsen's case as an example of serious consequences that could result.
Contacted by e-mail by IDG News Service, luckstr4w took credit for discovering the vulnerability and writing the exploit after reading Koziol's blog. Luckstr4w denied responsibility for the Hilton hack, saying an acquaintance, who knew Hilton's phone number, used it to change her account password and access her account.
However, in the same e-mail message, luckstr4w also claimed to have changed Hilton's account password to his handle, "luckstr4w," when he and his acquaintances took control of her account.
Luckstr4w insisted on communicating solely through an anonymous e-mail account, citing fears that phone conversations or other kinds of communications would be monitored.
However, the exploit luckstr4w takes credit for writing appears to have been around for much longer. An identical version of it is included in a ZIP file called "tMobile exploit tools" was posted in October on the illmob.org Web site, in a section reserved for "zero day," or previously unknown exploits, according to an Illmob member who uses the online name "Pingywon."
Illmob.org was one of the first Web sites to display the Hilton address book information, though the group denies any involvement in the hack or any knowledge of how the address book was stolen, said Pingywon, who described himself as a news poster for Illmob.org, but not the person who posted the Hilton address book.
Sources within the hacking community said that both luckstr4w and the DFNCTSC are unknown. However, whether or not luckstr4w was the author of the password reset exploit, the hole it took advantage of -- if left unpatched by T-Mobile -- was big enough that even inexperienced hackers, or "script kiddies," could use it, provided they knew where to look, experts agree.
Hilton's phone number, which is needed to carry out the hack, was also circulated widely within phone hacking (or "phone phreaking") circles prior to the hack, according to lucky225, a self-described phone phreaker, or hacker, who declined to use his real name.
Phone phreakers took advantage of loose security on T-Mobile's voice mail system and a flaw in Caller ID technology to peruse Hilton's voice mailbox and that of her sister, Nicky, and other celebrities. The Hilton sisters' T-Mobile phone numbers were widely shared on multiuser party lines that are popular meeting places in the phone phreaking community, he said.
The ready availability of Hilton's number and of an exploit that could be used, with it, to give Internet users access to her T-Mobile accounts means that the potential list of suspects for the hack is very long.
However, if luckstr4w's account of the T-Mobile hack is true, it casts doubt on other leading theories of how Hilton's Sidekick was compromised. Observers have theorized that her address book was taken by Jacobsen, over a year ago and only recently surfaced, or that the heiress had an easy-to-guess password.
Regardless of who is responsible for the hack, the bigger problem is with T-Mobile and its public-facing Web sites, experts agree.
The company's Web site is a tangle of hundreds or thousands of large and small security holes that would appear on even a routine scan of the company's Web site using any vulnerability scanning tool, Koziol said.
He expressed shock that the company had apparently fixed the hole Jacobsen used in 2003, without doing a larger security review of their site that would have turned up other problems.
Koziol said the problems facing T-Mobile's Web site are common to companies that move quickly to open their corporate networks to the Internet through Web based applications, but added that T-Mobile's case is extreme.
"They haven't done Web Security 101. I see many mistakes that they make over and over again. They're mostly injection vulnerabilities -- people being able to insert (malicious) code where they shouldn't," he said.
The hack of T-Mobile's Web site may be an inevitable consequence of companies, including mobile phone providers, adding new features that put more power into the hands of their customers, said Justin Bingham, chief technology officer at Intrusic Inc.
"This (Web site) code may or may not have been properly reviewed. This isn't that technically sophisticated attack, but it has far reaching implications," he said.
Hilton's account was well publicized, but may not have been the first such compromise of T-Mobile's customer accounts, either, Bingham said.
"This is happening much more than we hear about. If it were my account that got hacked, nobody would post my information online, because 'Who cares?'" he said. "This underscores the fact that T-Mobile has a huge network and is servicing a huge chunk of customers, and that their network is wide open and could be completely hacked," Bingham said.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 05:44 PM
Yahoo opens up search platform to external developers
By Juan Carlos PerezYahoo Inc. is for the first time opening up its search platform so that external developers can create search applications that tap the vendor's search infrastructure, Yahoo is announcing Tuesday. Yahoo is also expanding access to the Overture ad network to more developers. With the launch on Tuesday of the Yahoo Developer Network, Yahoo is providing access to application programming interfaces (APIs) for a variety of its search services, including Web, image, video, news and local search.
Meanwhile, Yahoo is also broadening access to the Overture APIs, which have been available to high-volume advertisers for several years. Now, other types of Overture users, such as search-engine marketers and smaller advertisers, will be allowed access to the APIs.
"Yahoo can't be everything to everybody," said Eckart Walther, head of product management for Yahoo Search. "This is the first time we're providing formal APIs to developers to write new search applications that run on top of our infrastructure. There are hundreds of ideas (for search applications) we haven't thought of that will be enabled by these APIs."
For example, a developer could create a tool that allows users to display Yahoo search results in a different way, he said. Or the webmaster of a site focused on a particular area or city could use the APIs to build functionality into the site that delivers either automatically or on demand a list of local restaurants obtained from the Yahoo Local service, he said.
The Yahoo Developer Network, available at http://developer.yahoo.com, offers registered developers a variety of features, such as access to the APIs, sample code, discussion groups, mailing lists and a section that showcases applications created by developers.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:36 PM
Firefox gains market share at slower pace
By Joris EversAfter an initial surge in market share gains that followed the release of Firefox 1.0 in November, the pace at which the open-source Web browser is winning market share has slowed down, new research shows. At the same time, Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Internet Explorer (IE) browser has dipped below the 90 percent level in market share, according to two tracking surveys released on Monday, .
As of Feb. 18, Firefox held a 5.7 percent share of the U.S. browser market and IE stood at 89.9 percent, according to San Diego-based Web analytics firm WebSideStory Inc. In November, right before the Firefox 1.0 launch, IE held 92.9 percent of the market and earlier versions of Firefox held 3.03 percent, according to WebSideStory.
According to OneStat.com, an Amsterdam-based Web metrics firm, Firefox now holds 8.45 percent of the browser market on a worldwide basis, while Microsoft's IE continues to dominate with an 87.28 percent share, down 1.62 percent compared with the end of November.
However, the speed at which Firefox is gaining market share has slowed down, WebSideStory said. Firefox's market share grew 15 percent over the last five weeks, compared to growth of 22 percent in the period between Dec. 3 and Jan. 14. From Nov. 5 to Dec.3, right after the launch of Firefox 1.0 on Nov. 9, the browser's market share grew 34 percent, it said.
The initial high adoption rate had Firefox on a path to reach a 10 percent market share by mid-2005, according to WebSideStory. With the slower growth, the browser may reach that milestone by the end of the year, WebSideStory set. That achievement would be in line with the goal set by the Mozilla Foundation.
"Growth in Firefox’s usage has slowed slightly since its big surge in November. This is probably to be expected as we move beyond the early-adopter segment," WebSideStory Chief Executive Office Jeff Lunsford said in a statement. "Growing concern over potential security holes in the browser might be another factor to consider."
The Mozilla Foundation, the distributor of Firefox, last week warned of serious security flaws in the browser and released an update. In an about face two weeks ago, Microsoft said it would release a test version of IE 7.0 in mid-2005. Previously, Microsoft had said it would not offer a browser upgrade until the next version of Windows ships in late 2006.
Both WebSideStory and OneStat.com measure browser market share by tracking what Web browsers are used when visiting certain Web sites.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:35 PM
Omron offers face recognition security for phones, PDAs
By Martyn WilliamsOmron Corp. has developed a face-recognition technology for use as a security system in camera-enabled cell phones and other handheld devices, the company said Monday. The system is intended to provide an alternative to a password or fingerprint scanner for controlling access to the device, Omron said in a statement.
Users first register their own face with the system by taking a picture of themselves. The company's "Okao Vision" engine converts the picture into a face-print that takes up about 1.5K bytes of storage space. To verify identity, users must take a picture of themselves again.
Omron said the system takes about one second to process the image and has a more than 99 percent success rate in determining whether the image is that of the authorized user.
It requires no additional hardware and works with image sensors already fitted into cell phones, so long as they are 100,000-pixel resolution or higher, said Takayuki Nakamura, a spokesman for Omron in Tokyo. Higher resolution sensors will not have any effect on the accuracy of the system, he said.
Versions of the software are available for the Symbian, BREW, embedded Linux and ITRON OS (operating system) platforms, according to the statement. The application occupies about 450K bytes of the device's ROM and 370K bytes of RAM.
Cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) featuring fingerprint sensors are already available from several vendors. Fujitsu Ltd. offers a 3G (third-generation) cell phone in Japan with such a function and some models of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s iPaq PDAs also feature a fingerprint sensor.
With such devices holding more personal information and offering the ability to perform wireless commerce, the need for secure access is increasing.
Omron will demonstrate the system later this week at the Security Show 2005, which takes place at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center from March 2 until March 4. The company did not provide an estimate for how much the system would add to the manufacturing cost of a cell phone.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:35 PM
Fast Search readies search application for publishers
By Juan Carlos PerezFast Search & Transfer ASA has developed an enterprise search application tailored to professional and corporate electronic publishers, the company is expected to announce Tuesday. The application, called Fast ProPublish, is designed for end-to-end electronic publishing. It lets publishers grab information from a variety of data sources, such as file systems, content-management platforms and databases, and process and package the information. It then allows publishers to deliver the information both online, such as in Web sites, and offline, such as in CD-ROMs. More importantly, the application lets publishers build advanced search and navigation capabilities into the electronic publications.
Fast ProPublish also contains features for publishers to protect the content by establishing granular access and rights levels to publications, managing licenses, implementing subscription models and providing document-level security. The application is based on the NXT electronic publishing product that Fast acquired when it bought NextPage Inc.'s Publishing Applications Business Unit last year. Fast ProPublish mixes the electronic publishing capabilities of NXT with Fast's enterprise search technology.
Fast ProPublish is aimed at two main markets. The first is the professional reference publishers market, or companies such as Reed Elsevier and The Thomson Corp. that generate books, journals, articles and documents to clients in industries such as finance, law and health care. "These publishers' clients are typically lawyers preparing for a case, insurance underwriters (assessing claims) and doctors doing research," said Todd Mickelsen, vice president of publishing applications at Fast, based in Oslo, Norway.
The second group of targets for the new product are corporations such as investment banks, insurance carriers and accounting firms that have large publishing units that generate a variety of publications for their employees and clients. "These are companies that act as quasi-publishers, creating manuals and books and the like to deliver to employees, partners and customers," Mickelsen said. "In many cases, these companies have to marry internal information with external information they get from professional publishers."
One customer who is eager to get his hands on Fast ProPublish is Phillip Claiborne, chief information officer at Municipal Code Corp., in Tallahassee, Florida. Municipal Code is a legal publishing company that codifies ordinances for municipal governments and publishes them in print and on the Web. The company has used the NXT application for about two years and Claiborne is excited about migrating to ProPublish to take advantage of its improved search and navigation functionality.
"NXT just has basic search capabilities. It doesn't have the taxonomy, the hit highlighting and other features Fast can bring to the table. We'll have some really robust search capabilities with ProPublish, so users can engage in a discovery process and drill down to the content they need instead of having to browse through the whole book," said Claiborne, who has seen two demos of the new product.
Mixing the search functionality from Fast with the publishing capabilities from the NextPage product is a good move because there is increasing demand for improving the search and navigation features in electronic publications, an analyst said. "What the major, large directory, reference and professional journal publishers have typically not provided is state-of-the-art search technology with their products. There's a lot of pressure on those publishers now to offer a much more modern search facility," said Hadley Reynolds, an analyst with Delphi Group.
The demand for better search technology is coming from subscribers to these publications, who in many cases are corporate researchers and librarians working under increasingly tight deadline pressure, Reynolds said. "The time frames under which the information professionals are now working have been dramatically compressed. They don't have 3 or 4 days to go research something in the corporate library. Now it's a matter of minutes or hours to search both online information, internal information and the professionally published journals," he said. The ultimate goal is "streamlining the job of the information professional or librarian so they can process more questions and do more research in a given amount of time."
ProPublish seems fairly distinctive in the market right now as an application that address the full gamut of what a professional publisher needs to gather, process and distribute its information along with advanced search capabilities, Reynolds said. "To my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has offered that full suite of things in a pre-packaged product," he said.
Fast ProPublish will be available as of Tuesday and starts at around US$100,000.
Posted by Chad Dickerson at 04:35 PM