Software 'Robin Hoods' Get Prison Time
Friday, four members of the international piracy ring "DrinkorDie" were convicted of software theft in the United Kingdom. In total, 70 suspects were rounded up in 12 separate countries. The group's activities spanned over a decade, culminating in an operation that extended into some of the world's largest software companies.
Alex Bell, Steven Dowd, Mark Vent and Andrew Eardley were each sentenced to prison for two and a half years, two years, 18 months and an 18-month suspended sentence, respectively. According to Reuters, Dowd and Bell tried to beat the rap, pleading innocent, but were found guilty. Eardley and Vent submitted a guilty plea in advance of trial.
Interview: Napster CTO Bill Pence, Part 1
Following an interview with Virgin Digital's Zack Zalon, BetaNews sat down with Napster Chief Technology Officer Bill Pence to discuss a variety of topics related to digital music and to learn more about the future directions of Napster. Pence shares his perspective about Apple's unwillingness to open up the iPod, the "benefits" that DRM presents, rival RealNetworks "imitating Napster," and whether or not Napster has "sold out."
BetaNews: iTunes hit 250 million downloads in January. How many downloads and song sales has Napster had to date?
Non-Legit Windows Users Get Amnesty
UPDATED Expanding its Windows Genuine Advantage program, Microsoft will now compensate customers in the United States that unknowingly purchased counterfeit versions of Windows XP with complimentary genuine Windows copies. There is one catch, however: customers must first file a report on the unscrupulous reseller.
Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is a carrot and stick initiative that requires users to validate their Windows license in exchange for special perks at the Microsoft Download Center and full access to updates. Microsoft asserts that WGA protects customers by ensuring the security and integrity of Windows installations, and protects resellers by reducing the number of competitors that practice counterfeiting.
Microsoft Gives Startups Tech Boost
Microsoft is betting that its extensive IP portfolio is an intellectual greenhouse that can sow the seeds of entrepreneurship. Wednesday, at a gathering of venture capitalists, Microsoft announced a new program targeting technology startups called Microsoft Intellectual Property (IP) Ventures.
Microsoft IP Ventures will license out twenty different Microsoft technologies from a variety of internal disciplines including artificial intelligence, usability, graphics, security, gaming, multimedia and databases. The number of available technologies will grow in step with the program.
OASIS Pushes Communication Standard
OASIS, a not-for-profit consortium that seeks to drive the adoption of e-business standards, has established a new technical committee to form a reference model for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). In essence, an SOA is a collection of services that communicate with one another.
Under some scenarios, however, developers may have a diverging understanding of what makes up an SOA.
Panda Looks at AI to Stop Virus Attacks
Declaring that heuristics and rules are the trappings of a bygone era of antivirus scanning, Panda Software has freed itself of those generally accepted methods and turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to detect "zero day attacks". Panda's TruPrevent 2.0 technology uses AI to recognize unknown malware without requiring updated signature files that inoculate systems against those threats.
Panda has deemed its approach "neural scanning." Neural scanning uses AI to attempt to distinguish between code that is safe and code that has malicious intent, or if a computer is being controlled remotely. This, says the vendor, protects systems during the "attack gap" that occurs between when there is an outbreak of malicious software and when security patches are distributed to protect against those threats.
AIM Update Adds Bundled AOL Browser
Before it migrates to the next generation of AOL Instant Messenger, AOL has said that it will issue a minor update to AIM 5.9. But BetaNews has learned that the software will be much more than a maintenance release, bundling a full installation of the AOL Browser along with AOL's SpyZapper anti-spyware tool.
The new AIM, currently in the beta phase of development, refines the AIM Today page with browsing and security enhancements, and updates the AIM Tools panel while removing all existing third party add-ons.
Longhorn UI Meets Social Computing
Microsoft is concentrating social-computing experts from Microsoft Research onto the Windows user interface team, Microsoft Watch has reported. This happening has led some Longhorn insiders to speculate that the "Aero" user interface will assimilate interactive elements including blogs, RSS feeds and wikis.
In late April, Microsoft tapped social-computing group research project manager Lili Cheng to join the Windows Shell interface team, said Microsoft Watch. Cheng has been employed by Microsoft since 1995, and, prior to that, worked with Apple Computer's human interface research group.
Macromedia Extends Breeze 5 with VoIP
Macromedia has cast its Breeze 5 Web communications and collaboration software into the marketplace. Notably, Breeze 5 now has voice over IP (VoIP) Internet telephony on top of its existing on-demand-video and real-time conferencing capabilities.
The upgrade arrives just as rival Microsoft debuts Service Pack 1 for Live Communication Server (LCS) 2005.
Georgia County Outfits Students with iBooks
The time-honored tradition of a teacher with an Apple on their desk has met the 21st century in Cobb County, Georgia. The Cobb County School District has given the go ahead to procure up to 63,000 iBooks for teachers and students in a largest ever one-to-one computer learning initiative called "Power To Learn."
The first phase will begin as a pilot program this fall with the deployment of 17,000 iBook G4 laptop computers at four high schools. With continued school board approval, the program will be extended to all Cobb County high school and middle school students. All teachers K-12 will be provided with the laptops.
Google Adds 14 Channels to TV Search
Turning its Internet search prowess to television, Google has added 14 new channels to its Google Video service. Although Google will not release a full lineup, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, and CNN are among the new channels covered by the service.
Google Video archives television content by capturing the closed captioning text of TV programs. The text is enriched with still frame images uploaded from each show. Google cannot provide full transcripts or video clips as a result of unsettled licensing terms.
BSA, Intel Back Apple Trade Secret Suit
Earlier this week, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Genentech and Intel filed briefs in support of Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg's preliminary ruling that journalists' Internet service providers can be obligated to identify confidential sources to Apple's legal counsel in civil discovery.
The legal wrangling stems from a "John Doe" lawsuit filed by Apple against Web sites, including Sean O'Grady's PowerPage, which provoked Apple after it disclosed the company's designs for a FireWire-based interface for GarageBand code-named "Asteroid".
Server Group Lifts Microsoft Revenue
Microsoft has released its quarterly financial statements, reporting $9.62 billion in revenue and $3.33 billion in operating income. Net income was $1.32 billion and earnings per share are listed as $0.12. Microsoft credits growth in its Servers and Tools business for its quarterly growth.
The Server and Tools segment grew 12 percent when compared to the same period last year, namely the SQL Server and Exchange Server product lines. Revenue from Mobile and Embedded Devices rose 31 percent.
Verizon Switches Off Free Wi-Fi in NYC
Verizon is discontinuing complementary wireless Internet access for its DSL customers in New York City. Instead, Verizon will accelerate the deployment of paid Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) network services throughout the region. EV-DO is operated by Verizon Wireless and provides a wider range of access than Wi-Fi.
Despite its relatively low operating cost, the Wi-Fi hot spot service will be phased out, beginning in areas where it's less frequently used. As this is happening, Verizon Wireless will shift its focus toward promoting EV-DO based VCAST and BroadbandAccess services that are already available in Manhattan, parts of Northern New Jersey, as well as JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty Airports.
Grid Community Reaches New Milestone
The World Community Grid, a network of volunteer computers connected together in a grid system to solve scientific problems, has reached a milestone today by surpassing its 100,000th contributor. In other news, Marist College has signed on as the project's first university partner.
World Community Grid's mission is to provide the necessary computing muscle to complete humanitarian projects.
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