EarthLink Continues Spam Legal Battle
EarthLink continued its legal battle against spammers on Friday, announcing that evidence it provided federal authorities had led to a one-year prison sentence for one spammer, and that it had won a multi-million dollar judgment in another case.
The ISP provided evidence in the suit against Peter Moshou, known as the "Timeshare Spammer." EarthLink claimed that in 2004 and 2005, Moshou sent millions of e-mails seeking personal information by offering brokerage services for timeshare owners.
NYT: Cisco Acquiring Scientific-Atlanta
Networking equipment manufacturer Cisco Systems is expected to announce Friday that it has acquired cable set-top box manufacturer Scientific-Atlanta for $7 billion, the New York Times reports. The deal would give Cisco a foothold in the burgeoning digital television industry.
According to reports, the company's management would remain intact. No details were provided as to whether Scientific-Atlanta would stay in its Lawrenceville, Ga. headquarters.
EMI, Apple Disagree on Copy Protection
EMI said Thursday that its copy-protected music CDs would soon play on Apple iPods, but the maker of the best-selling portable player denied that was the case.
Copy-protected CDs are the industry's latest move towards combating music piracy, however the technology employed often makes discs only compatible with Windows-based computers and players. The industry has attempted to push Apple to support Windows Media DRM on the iPod, but to no avail.
Kazaa CEO's Assets to be Examined
If you believe the ruling of the Australian Court, Nikki Hemming made her money by taking advantage of thousands of Internet users' apparent careless attitude towards piracy.
On Thursday, an Australian judge ordered Hemming, the Sharman Networks CEO, to face cross-examination on her assets from record industry lawyers.
PUBPAT Fights Against JPEG Patent
The Public Patent Foundation has set its sights on a compression patent owned by Forgent Networks, saying it has proof of prior art that would invalidate the company's rights to the technology. The group has asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to revoke the patent.
Forgent acquired the rights to the data compression patent through a 1997 purchase of Compression Labs. It did not start enforcing the patent until about a year ago. At that time, it filed several lawsuits against various companies including Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Sun, RIM and Google.
Cingular Aims to Simplify Wireless Web
Cingular on Thursday announced that it would be introducing a handset with Motorola's SCREEN3 technology, which allows access to information from the home screen of a phone. The service is part of a larger effort by Cingular to allow more personalization of its MEdia Net data service.
The feature will first become available on the Motorola V557 handset, and Cingular said the service would also be included on other handsets to debut in 2006. Information such as news, weather, sports, and entertainment will scroll across the home screen without any user interaction.
Microsoft Enhances Anti-Phishing in IE
Microsoft said on Thursday that it had signed three new providers to supply information on confirmed phishing Web sites for the company's Phishing Filter and SmartScreen technology products. A final version of Microsoft's anti-phishing IE plug-in was also released.
The Phishing Filter is offered as an add-in for the MSN Toolbar, which will be built into the next version of Internet Explorer. Microsoft's SmartScreen technology is used to detect phishing e-mails for the company's Hotmail and Windows Live Mail services.
HP Threatens to Drop Blu-ray Backing
The Blu-ray Disc Association on Wednesday rebuffed requests by member Hewlett-Packard to include iHD in the next-generation DVD format, which would provide new interactive features. iHD is already slated to be part of both rival standard HD DVD and Windows Vista.
The development has spurred HP to suggest that if Blu-ray would not change its stance, the company may take a more neutral position and support rival HD DVD as well.
Sony Debuts Consumer Video Calling
Sony released the consumer version of its Instant Video Everywhere (IVE) product on Wednesday, hoping to gain a foothold in the fast-growing VoIP market by allowing its users to place unlimited free video and voice calls to other subscribers of the service.
IVE users can also place video and voice calls to traditional video or audio conferencing systems, as well as cell and landline phones for an extra charge.
AOL Revamps Photo Service with AJAX
In the face of competition from Yahoo's Flickr, AOL on Thursday rebranded its You've Got Pictures service into AOL Pictures, adding an interactive AJAX-enabled interface and opening the doors to both AOL members and non-members alike.
The service will offer users unlimited digital photo storage that will host photos in their original resolution. Also included will be a photo album tool, as well as tools to create calendars and other personalized gifts from a user's photo collection.
IBM Nabs Former HP Itanium Customer
Scoring a major win against competitor Hewlett Packard, IBM on Thursday announced that it had struck a deal with the China State Tax Administration to replace its HP Itanium servers with IBM Power5-based UNIX systems. But HP is disputing the significance of the announcement.
According to IBM, the Chinese government was one of HP's largest customers for Intel's Itanium processor line.
US to Keep Control of Internet from UN
Effectively heading off any looming showdown with the international community, the United States government signed an agreement with other nations over future management of the Internet hours before a meeting in Tunisia.
While U.S. detractors did not gain United Nations control of the Internet, the agreement will create an body called the Internet Governance Forum that would convene in 2006 to discuss "public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance."
iPod, iTunes Beat Sony in Japan Market
Apple on Wednesday said both its iPod music player and iTunes Music Store have toppled Japan native Sony to become number one in the Japanese music market. Sony had led as recently as July, but Apple's fortunes turned a corner with the introduction of iTunes in the country.
Within four days of launch, iTunes Japan sold more than one million tracks, the fastest start of any of the company's twenty regionalized stores. Apple credited the iPod's success to that response, which analysts initially doubted would succeed due to the intricacies of the Japanese marketplace.
Media Center PCs to Support HD Cable
Microsoft announced Wednesday that it had reached an agreement that would make high-definition Media Center PCs a reality by around the time Windows Vista is slated to ship in the holiday 2006 timeframe.
Users of Windows Media Center Edition with a CableCARD module would be able to view digital cable and HD content without the need to connect an external set-top box as is necessary now. That content could then be streamed to devices throughout the home, including the Xbox 360, Microsoft said.
iTunes Tracks May Increase in Price
For several months now, the record industry has become more and more vocal over the issue of pricing on the iTunes Music Store. On Wednesday, the first indications of a possible variable pricing structure coming to iTunes became apparent.
The Wall Street Journal reported that EMI Music CEO Alain Levy told attendees of a London press conference that he had held talks with Apple CEO Steve Jobs over the issue.
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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