Spamhaus Domain Shutdown Request Denied
The U.S. Judge presiding over the lawsuit between Spamhaus and marketing company e360insight denied a motion to have the spam-fighting organization's domain suspended, saying the shuttering of the site does "not correspond to the gravity of the offending conduct."
e360insight asked the court earlier this month to order ICANN and Tucows to suspend the group's domain name pending payment of the judgement against it. While ICANN said it did not have jurisdiction to make such a move, it was successful in getting Spamhaus into the courtroom.
Lik-Sang Loses Sony PSP Import Battle
Sony said Thursday that it had prevailed in a so-called "gray importing" case against a Hong Kong-based company who was selling PlayStation Portable gaming systems intended for the Japanese market in Europe. The company, Lik-Sang, sold the systems before the PSP officially launched in the region last September.
At the time, Lik-Sang defended its actions by accusing Sony of attempting to "cut hardcore gamers away from items released in Japan or anywhere else outside their own country," adding "a very active part of the gaming community has been enjoying Japanese gaming culture for over two decades, and that's what the Empire is now willing to destroy."
AOL Extends Open AIM to the Web
AOL said Thursday at the WebGuild Developers Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. that it would be expanding its Open AIM program to include web-based APIs and widgets. With the new functionality, developers would be able to build AIM functionality into Web sites and online communities.
"These Web-based APIs offer users the convenience of access to the AIM service from any computer," an AOL spokesperson told BetaNews.
Three Indicted in DRAM Price Fixing
Three more executives from two memory chip makers were indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in San Francisco on charges of price fixing and related crimes. Two were from Samsung, and the third from a U.S. subsidiary of Hynix.
Altogether, 16 executives across four companies have been charged in relation to the price fixing of DRAM chips. This includes four Hynix and four Samsung executives who plead guilty earlier this year, plus four Infineon executives. Jail terms have ranged anywhere from four to eight months.
Sony: Batteries, PS3 Will Cut into Profits
Sony's financial problems became a bit clearer on Thursday as the company warned that its yearly profit would be about 62 percent lower than previously forecast, both due to the massive laptop battery recall and price adjustments to the PlayStation 3.
The company also gave a better idea of the total cost of the battery recall to date. Sony will set aside 51 billion yen ($429 million USD) for costs associated with the issues, which would appear in last quarter's financial reports. The end result would be a much less profitable Sony.
AOL Lays Off 1,400 Customer Service Reps
As part of its cost-cutting measures, AOL gave pink slips to 1,400 call center workers in Albuquerque, N.M. and Tucson, Ariz., notifying them that the ISP plans to close those facilities down. Additionally, 400 people in an Ogden, Utah call center were notified that AOL would sell that location.
The closures are scheduled to occur in mid-December, while the Utah facility would be sold "in the coming months," the company said. It is not clear how many would retain their positions in a new company, as AOL did not give specifics on the sale.
Apple Ships Record Number of Macs
While the story for Apple over much of the past five years has been the strength of its iPod music player, this time its Macintosh computer line took center stage, posting its best numbers in the 22-year history of the product.
For the Cupertino, Calif. company's fiscal fourth quarter ending September 30, Apple reported a $546 million profit on revenues of $4.84 billion, up from revenue of $3.68 billion and net profit of $430 million in the year-ago quarter.
Nielsen to Track Video Game Usage
Media audience research firm Nielsen said Wednesday that it would begin to provide a service that would give advertisers a better idea of the demographics for various video games. The firm says that the information would help companies to make better decisions regarding in-game advertising.
Called GamePlay Metrics, the offering will be the first from Neilsen's Wireless and Interactive Division. The new arm of the company focuses on measuring the audience of games and wireless, with plans to offer research data to wireless carriers, handset and gaming console manufacturers, as well as application developers.
AllofMP3 Fights Critics, Loses Visa
After months of being criticized both in the press and among music industry executives, Russian music service AllofMP3.com shot back Tuesday, saying its business is legitimate. It charged that it has attempted to compensate the record industry, but has been turned down.
AllofMP3's owner Mediaservices pays the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society a 15 percent cut of its sales, it claims. RMIS has attempted to pay the record companies the royalties, but the record companies have refused to take the money.
1/3 of Workers Write Down Passwords
A new study released Tuesday indicates that corporate employees are compromising security through poor password practices. Over one-third either electronically record or write down their passwords, and methods aimed at keeping data safe through complex password security strategies may be a waste of time.
Because so many are writing down passwords rather than committing them to memory, "it's like leaving the key under the mat or in the flower box," Nucleus Research senior analyst David O'Connell said. "Companies looking to ensure security should look beyond passwords to other authentication strategies."
Microsoft Signs New Book Search Deals
A university and a maker of scanners and digitization software said Tuesday that they had signed deals with Microsoft to support its Windows Live Book Search Project. The offering is the Redmond company's answer to Google Book Search, announced in late 2004.
Microsoft has brought on board Kirtas Technologies, whose robotic scanners can scan at a rate of 2,400 pages per hour. Books scanned by the company would be available in mid-2007.
McAfee: MS Failing to Provide Code
McAfee said Wednesday that Microsoft has failed to keep its promises, and has not delivered the necessary code and instructions to access the core of the Windows Vista operating system. Microsoft promised the European Commission it would do so last week.
The company is the second in as many days to claim Microsoft is not providing the APIs needed by its security partners. On Tuesday, Sunbelt Software called the company's announcement about sharing APIs was a "red herring" to fool the press.
Spamhaus Agrees to Fight Court Case
It took a threat of domain seizure, but spam-fighting organization Spamhaus will appeal an Illinois court ruling against it. Late last week, lawyers for the group filed documents with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois saying they intended to appeal.
According to the brief, Spamhaus contends that it should not be forced to pay the $11.7 million judgment against it to e360insight, and should not be forced to shut down if it does not comply. The move comes after the group previously claimed the U.S. court had no jurisdiction over it.
Sun Unveils 'Portable' Datacenter
You could call it a network on wheels, and you wouldn't be too far off. Sun on Tuesday introduced "Project Blackbox," which is essentially a datacenter enclosed in a shipping container. Its portability would allow for quick setup in situations where a fixed location is not feasible.
Computing, storage and networking components are included in the package, along with power and cooling systems. The result, Sun says, is a "pre-configured, fully contained datacenter, optimized for maximum density, performance and efficiency, as well as complete recyclability."
Universal Sues Two Video Sharing Sites
Universal said it had filed suit against two video sites, announcing legal action against Grouper and Bolt.com Tuesday for hosting pirated versions of its videos. The label is seeking $150,000 per occurrence of copyright infringement, expected to be in the thousands.
Both lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. They allege that Bolt and Grouper actively participate in the infringement by copying, formatting and distributing material from Universal artists.
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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