In yet another milestone victory for the record industry over peer-to-peer networks, an Australian court has ruled that Kazaa is violating copyrights and gave the service two months to eliminate further piracy by its users.

Six of the 10 defendants were found guilty of infringing copyrights, including Sharman Networks, company CEO Nikki Hemming and Altnet, the company which created the software that powers Kazaa. They were ordered to pay 90 percent of the record industry's legal fees and a hearing will be scheduled to determine damages.

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It's no secret that the widespread destruction of Hurricane Katrina was exacerbated by delayed relief efforts, but the latest victims of bureaucracy are those individuals simply trying to help out. Humor site Something Awful raised almost $28,000 in less than 9 hours - right up until PayPal froze the funds.

Something Awful's dedicated community may call themselves "goons," but they have historically been quick to respond when needed. The site previously raised $22,000 to fund armor plating for soldiers in Iraq. And the disaster unfolding in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf coast was no exception.

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Microsoft has won the right to appeal the remaining charges in its antitrust suit with Novell. The company successfully had half of the charges against it thrown out in mid-June, and U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz has ruled that there is sufficient evidence for Microsoft to challenge the remaining two charges.

Motz said that while he still believed his previous ruling was sufficient, and that Novell's claims were not without merit, he would be willing to hear Microsoft's appeal. Motz also says that Novell had agreed to consider the appeal and that it was in the public's interest to hear Microsoft's concern. No date was announced to begin the appeal process.

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Apple enthusiast site ThinkSecret on Friday reported that Apple is planning to make significant changes to its iPod Mini line and introduce larger iPod Shuffles in the coming weeks. The announcements are expected at Apple Expo Paris on September 20.

Apple has scheduled a press event next Wednesday, however it is widely expected that the Cupertino company will use the event to announce the oft-delayed Motorola iTunes phone.

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Symantec acknowledged on Friday that a vulnerability in a corporate version of its antivirus software could expose server username and password information. The company said it is investigating the report.

The hole exists in Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition version 9. Either an attacker or regular user would be able to obtain the login information, says Symantec. In order to expose the sensitive data, a user would have to be running a LiveUpdate server.

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The Associated Press has released an online tool for viewing satellite images of the situation in New Orleans. Users can zoom in on specific neighborhoods and streets, and view the destruction caused by hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding throughout the city.

The high-definition satellite imagery was taken on Wednesday by DigitalGlobe; resolution is at 2.4 meters per pixel. Viewers can see what areas are still submerged in water and potentially whether their house still exists. The AP says it will be updating the tool as new images become available.

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Intel and Philips have announced that they will work together to bring new entertainment systems to the market built on the chipmaker's platform. Intel will provide the software, processor and chipset for Philips devices that will allow the user to store and share multimedia content.

The units will run on Windows software and at first will closely resemble a standard PC. However, in an interview on Friday, Intel's Don MacDonald said the company expects that to change over time.

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Mozilla has announced its beta schedule for the upcoming release of Firefox 1.5, according to a posting on its developer news Web site. Beta 1 will be released on September 8, followed by a second beta on October 5.

Furthermore, the first release candidate of the browser is expected on October 28, which indicates the final version of Firefox 1.5 would likely come sometime during the month of November.

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Microsoft is expanding its Windows OneCare beta program, opening the door for more testers to trial the company's comprehensive PC protection and maintenance package. Initially OneCare will include antivirus and firewall protection, an automated PC tune-up, and backup and restore functionality.

"We have made excellent progress fixing bugs and adding new features. We are now at a point where we would like to begin expanding our group of beta testers, and invite you extend Windows OneCare beta invitations to your friends and family," Microsoft wrote in an e-mail. Those interested can apply for the beta program by visiting Windows Beta with the guest ID: OneCare.

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Microsoft earlier this week confirmed a flaw exists in the way the user interface for its Windows Firewall handles bad entries in the Windows Registry, but said the problem was not a security vulnerability.

According to the advisory, an exception could be created that would open a hole in the Windows Firewall, allowing an attacker access to the computer. Administrator privileges are required in order to access the necessary section of the Windows Registry.

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In response to confusion surrounding a free variant of the company's desktop Linux operating system, Linspire is giving away digital copies of its OS until September 6. The move is in response to the emergence of Freespire, which used the source code from Linspire but removed licensed third party and copyrighted content.

Developer Andrew Betts had put together Freespire as a side project, but the distribution was submitted to distrowatch.com as a bona-fide release. After discussions with representatives from Linspire, Betts agreed to change the name of his package and temporarily settled on Squiggle.

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Intel fired back at AMD in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Delaware, refuting AMD's claims that its business practices stifle competition and saying that it has broken no laws.

AMD sued Intel on June 28, accusing its rival of using illegal scare tactics and coercion to keep computer manufacturers from buying AMD processors. It also said that rebates Intel gave computer manufacturers for using its chips exclusively were unlawful since Intel has a monopoly on the processor market.

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MSN on Thursday took the wraps off a new version of its Start.com customizable portal. The new version includes support to indicate what feeds have been read or unread, automatic updates, as well as capabilities to show more or fewer headlines based on a user's preference.

"It's now available without puzzles or obfuscation, at http://www.start.com (although still a "preview")," developers wrote on the project's Web log. The group is asking people to send their comments to startfb@microsoft.com.

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In the wake of hurricane Katrina, several online scams have begun to circulate the Internet, according to several security firms. Sophos warned users on Thursday not to open a malware-Infected e-mail posing as news on the disaster.

Possible subject lines of the e-mail could be "Re: g8 Tropical storm flooded New Orleans", "Re: g7 80 percent of our city underwater", and
"Re: q1 Katrina killed as many as 80 people". The group said there could be additional variants.

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A computer system that assists lifeguards in preventing drowning is being credited with saving the life of a 10-year-oldz North Wales girl on August 24. The system alerted lifeguards and within 40 seconds the child was pulled from the pool and resuscitated.

Called Poseidon, the system was installed by local officials two years ago at a cost of $118,000 USD. The pool is one of the deepest in Wales, with a top depth of 12.5 feet.

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