The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

20th December 2004 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • US ISP wins $1bn damages from spammers

    More chance of winning the Lottery than collecting

    A small US ISP has been awarded damages of $1bn against three spammers by an Iowa judge. The surreal size of the award was arrived at under an Iowa law which fines spammers $10 for each unsolicited emai they send. CIS Internet Services supplies email services for 5,000 customers in and around Clinton, Iowa. At one point in 2000 …

    Spam 20 Dec 2004, 09:26

  • Dutch companies fined €7k for eBay typosquatting

    WIPO ruling

    Dutch graphic design company JustDesign and customer J. van Dalen have been ordered by The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to pay a fine of €7000 for registering the domain name e-bay.nl. The name was used for a website with information on Van Dalen, a company which inspects buildings. Although the site didn't …

    Financial News 20 Dec 2004, 09:55

  • We were sold into porn slavery, cry African islands

    Sao Tome and Principe denounce own Internet domain

    The government of the tiny African islands Sao Tome and Principe has made a terrible discovery - it has been sold into porn slavery. The country' infrastructure minister, Deolindo Costa de Boa Esperanca, was intrigued to find out what this Internet thing was when the Net's overseeing organisation ICANN held its annual meeting …

    Financial News 20 Dec 2004, 10:28

  • BT connects 4m to broadband

    Wholesale division goes into overdrive

    BT has now connected more than four million wholesale broadband users. The latest million ADSL customers were added in just four months with around 60,000 people a week hooking up to broadband. Ben Verwaayen, BT's chief executive, said: "We are currently making a new broadband connection at least every ten seconds, 24 hours a …

    Telecoms 20 Dec 2004, 11:02

  • eBay India boss cuffed in porn vid scandal

    No bail for US national

    The boss of eBay's Indian subsidiary - Baazee.com - has been remanded in custody until 24 December after his arrest on charges of online trading in pornography. Police cuffed US national Avnish Bajaj following the revelation that an Indian college student had offered an MMS of two of his peers indulging in a sex act for sale on …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 11:03

  • Mugging the truth to spin Blunkett's comeback

    Analysis Would you buy an audit trail from this Government?

    David Blunkett, amnesiac, hadn't even left the stage last Wednesday night when David Blunkett, straight-talking, noble force for good, brought down by love and vindictive pygmies, began to re-emerge. With a little more work he could - if we are not careful - complete the fastest political rehabilitation in history and be ready …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 11:25

  • Dutch eDonkey site owners released

    Criminal procedures still pending

    Seven people arrested last week by Dutch law enforcement officials for offering links to allegedly copyright-infringing content have been released. The group shared thousands of movies, games and music files through eDonkey and BitTorrent files. Dutch lobby organisation BREIN remains likely to start criminal procedures against …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 11:32

  • Music biz threatens International Red Cross

    Demands freeze on cash from Kazaa-funded trust

    Australian anti-piracy operatives are seeking a freeze on funds donated to the International Red Cross by a Vanuatu-based trust fund run by Sharman Networks - maker of Kazaa P2P software. The recording industry is asking the Red Cross to voluntarily freeze the cash pending the outcome of an Australian court case brought against …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 11:46

  • Grid Computing: mainstream, or not?

    Opinion Analyst firm takes issue with IBM claims

    IBM has announced that Grid Computing is now a mainstream technology. In a press release just issued, it cited three of its customers’ applications as evidence of this. This claim of mainstream status is very bold given Grid Computing’s science and research heritage. One of the most widely reported Grid applications, for …

    Hardware 20 Dec 2004, 11:59

  • Trading Standards, ASA confirm BT 'Advent Calendar' probe

    Ding dong merrily on high

    Trading Standards officers and the Advertising Standards Authority are investigating BT concerning its "Advent Calendar" promotion on its "BT Shop" website. Customers complained that BT increased the price of items on sale immediately before introducing a discount of up to 30 per cent. BT has denied that it fiddled the prices …

    Financial News 20 Dec 2004, 12:01

  • Apple sues unnamed whistleblower

    Leak-plugging legal ploy

    Apple has filed a lawsuit in Santa Clara California Superior Court against an unidentified individual who has "recently misappropriated and disseminated confidential information". The move comes in advance of the forthcoming MacWorld conference in San Francisco, at which Apple aficionados speculate the company will unveil a new …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 12:04

  • Web inaccessibility 'creates net underclass'

    Access denied

    Companies and public bodies are still failing to take accessibility into account when designing their websites, despite the risk of legal action under the UK's disability discrimination laws. A SiteMorse test last week of central government websites uncovered errors on the vast majority of sites, and even the Disability and the …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 12:13

  • Harry Enfield fronts Madasafish broadband ad

    Oi! Einstein! Nooooooooooo!

    Comedian Harry Enfield has been named as the "pukka celebrity" fronting a new series of TV ads for ISP Madasafish. Described as "funny as f**k", the ads are due to appear this Christmas and use some of the colourful characters made famous by the TV funnyman. Written and directed by Enfield, one of the ads sees him having a pop …

    Telecoms 20 Dec 2004, 12:20

  • Destroy your old emails for Xmas, UK gov tells civil servants

    Bracing new 3 month policy

    Just weeks before the UK's Freedom of Information Act comes into force, the Cabinet Office has told staff to delete emails that are more than three months old, as of today (20th December). Could this possibly be the same Government that is pushing for a 12 month electronic data retention dragnet throughout Europe? Yes, it could …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 12:49

  • NASA hacker jailed for six months

    You've uploaded warez onto the wrong server, buddy

    A US man has been jailed for six months for a 2001 attack on the web systems of space agency NASA which cost $200,000 to fix. Gregory Aaron Herns, 21, from Portland, Oregon, hacked into the network at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to store movies he had downloaded. The intrusion caused systems to crash and took technicians …

    Enterprise Security 20 Dec 2004, 13:36

  • Sonic buys Roxio software biz

    But not Napster, which goes it alone

    Sonic Solutions today completed its acquisition of the consumer software division of Roxio, including the company's "industry-renowned CD and DVD burning, authoring, photo and video editing applications, notably Easy Media Creator, PhotoSuite, VideoWave, Easy DVD Copy and Toast". The deal, announced in August, sees Sonic pay $ …

    Applications 20 Dec 2004, 13:51

  • Government keeps the secrets on ID scheme legal advice

    'Trust us, it's OK on human rights'

    The Government is refusing to publish detailed legal advice on human rights and privacy aspects of the ID card scheme, according to a report in today's Guardian. The paper says that attorney general Lord Goldsmith has provided this to the Cabinet, but that it is not to be made public, nor will Parliament's Joint Committee on …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 14:01

  • Dissolute youth plan mass pillow fight

    London Pillow Fight Club II terrorises capital

    The dissolute ne'er-do-wells behind the recent London mobile clubbing event which terrorised one of the capital's mainline railway stations have organised a mass pillow fight to take place this evening outside The National Gallery. The so-called "London Pillow Fight Club II" will kick off at 18.09pm on the pedestrian area in …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 14:12

  • Punters warned over 'matrix' web scam

    Cheap trick turns sour

    UK consumers are being warned to be on their guard against a new scam offering "free" electronic gadgets in return for buying low-value products over the web. Described as "matrix schemes", shoppers are promised the chance of getting a valuable "free gift" - such as a mobile phone, ipod, or PDA - if they cough up, say, £20 for …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 14:47

  • EU fish ministers to vote on software patents

    A nice change from debating cod stocks

    The directive on software patents is slated to be rubberstamped at a meeting of the Agricultural and Fisheries Commission tomorrow. The vote will mean the directive has been formally accepted by the European Council of Ministers and will go back to the European Parliament for a second reading. This decision has caused …

    Developer 20 Dec 2004, 15:11

  • Hotmail ditches McAfee for Trend

    Turning up the frequency

    MSN Hotmail has dropped anti-virus scanning technology from McAfee in favour of rival Trend Micro. Hotmail's 187m email accounts are promised "automatic protection anytime they send and receive email attachments" via Trend Micro's scanning and detection services. The switchover was made on Friday (17 December). The McAfee virus …

    Malware 20 Dec 2004, 16:41

  • Watchdog groans as email hoax returns to life

    £50 a minute phone scam does not exist

    The premium rate telephone watchdog - ICSTIS - is warning punters not to fall for an email hoax that has been doing the rounds for more than two years. The email seems genuine enough since it is from PC Paul Toseland, Corby Business Anti-Crime Network Administrator, and warns that that users could get stung for £250 from a …

    Music and Media 20 Dec 2004, 16:58

  • The chip and PIN insecurity card

    Updated Point of sale theft

    A supposedly more secure method of authorising credit cards transactions in the UK may play into the hands of fraudsters, a leading IT security expert warns. A banking industry organisation says such fears are misplaced. Chip and PIN began in October 2003 and is designed to make credit and debit card purchases more secure. …

    Enterprise Security 20 Dec 2004, 16:59

  • Teenage British Trojan distributor escapes jail

    Randex worm used to launch DDoS attacks

    A 16 year-old Briton was convicted last week for releasing the Randex trojan, which was used to relay spam through infected PCs. The teenager had his six-month sentence suspended on probation by the South Cheshire juvenile court in Crewe. He belonged to a group of juveniles from the US and Canada, which offered spammers access …

    Malware 20 Dec 2004, 17:03

  • UK's biggest spammer charged with more offences

    Accused of blackmail, fraud and criminal damage

    The UK's biggest spammer, Peter Francis Clifford Macrae, has been charged with more offences, including blackmail, fraud and criminal damage. Macrae - who uses variations on his four names to provide a range of different pseudonyms - was arrested and charged at the end of November for threats to kill, threatening to burn down a …

    Spam 20 Dec 2004, 17:09

  • Major flaw found in Google Desktop

    Already fixed

    Computer scientists have discovered a potentially serious flaw in Google's desktop search utility that could allow attackers to steal information. Scientists at Rice University in Texas found a glitch in Google Desktop that could permit an attacker to search the contents of a PC from the internet, The New York Times reports. …

    Enterprise Security 20 Dec 2004, 19:44