October 31, 2003

Palestinians employed in Israel will be getting a little bit extra, a little early in their pay checks this week. [InContext - "HORRORS OF THE OCCUPATION"] 12:28:20 PM

Arrest over 'Nigerian' email scam NEWS.com.au - A 39-year-old Sydney man will face court today charged with 17 offences relating to a multi-million-dollar internet scam based in Australia. The so-called Nigerian or West African scam involved fraudsters sending a flood of spam emails telling people they could claim millions of dollars of lottery winnings, an inheritance, or a business opportunity - so long as they first sent money for expenses. NSW police said yesterday's arrest came after a four-month investigation, and was the first arrest of a key Australian allegedly involved in the global scam. 9:59:16 AM

Seven suicide bombings thwarted in 10 days Jerusalem Post - In the past 10 days, the Shin Bet and IDF troops thwarted seven potential suicide bombings, including a double suicide bombing that was planned for Beit She'an and a car bombing in Israel. 7:36:11 AM

SCO introduces 'resume download' feature The Register - In a move likely to antagonize the free software community even further, the SCO Group is to resume distributing Linux, but only if you agree to a new "IP license" which implicitly supports SCO's intellectual property claims. 7:21:10 AM

Red Hat: Unix is dead The Star - Red Hat Inc, the top Linux vendor, is stealing market share away from Unix users operating on Sun Solaris and other platforms, according said Gus Robertson, vice-president of its South Asia Pacific operations. 7:19:37 AM

Boucher Calls Copyright Office 'Misguided' InternetNews.com - US Rep. Rick Boucher (D.-Va.), a longtime champion of fair use rights, said Thursday the Copyright Office's ruling earlier this week denying consumers the right to make "fair use" copies of digitally recorded material except in very narrowly defined cases, was a "misguided decision." On Tuesday, the Copyright Office announced four classes of work that will be exempt from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) specific prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. The exemptions were granted for (1.) decoding lists of Web pages or directories blocked by Internet filtering software, also known as censorware; (2.) circumventing obsolete digital rights management devices called "dongles" that prevent access due to malfunction or damage; (3.) accessing computer programs and video games distributed in obsolete formats; and (4.) accessing e-books for which the publisher has disabled the read-aloud function or the ability to use screen readers to render the text into a specialized format, such as Braille for access by the blind. 7:17:55 AM

Microsoft's new best friends CNET News.com - When the Department of Justice hauled Microsoft into court on antitrust charges in 1998, Silicon Valley was awash in schadenfreude. For years, Microsoft's Windows desktop monopoly had inspired equal doses of fear and distrust. It was time for payback, courtesy of Uncle Sam and your hard-earned taxpayer dollars at work. But all it took was a heretofore obscure patent to ignite a controversy to turn Microsoft into the people's choice.  The Eolas case raises the prospect of millions of Web pages winding up being incompatible with Microsoft's Internet browser.  7:15:04 AM

Saddam playing role in Iraq attacks? MSNBC - THE OFFICIALS CITED intelligence reports showing Saddam was acting as a catalyst or a leader in the armed resistance, probably from somewhere near his hometown Tikrit, it said. 7:11:40 AM