NewsScan Daily, 29 December 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 29 December 2003 ("Above The Fold")
***********************************************************
NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization
making significant and sustained contributions to the effective
management and appropriate use of information technology. NSD is
written by John Gehl and Suzanne Douglas, [email protected].
***********************************************************

"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Copyright Acquittal Could Spur Changes in Law
        Cybercrime More Than Doubled in 2003
        Cyber Blackmail Shakedown Targets Office Workers
        'Not Your Father's Fingerprint'
        Domain Name Market Heats Up

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: 'Do as I Say At Once, but Not Yet!'
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

COPYRIGHT ACQUITTAL COULD SPUR CHANGES IN LAW
A Norwegian court's recent acquittal of Jon Johansen on charges of writing 
a software tool that can be used to circumvent DVD anticopying technology 
may spark a wave of tougher copyright law enactment in Europe, Canada, 
Australia and Central and South America, where such legislation is 
proposed. Critics of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) say 
the DCMA's tendency to protect content owners at the expense of consumers 
is flawed and the Norwegian court's action should serve as the basis for 
further debate over the shortcomings of the U.S. law. "The acquittal is a 
great development. The whole notion of prohibiting acts of circumvention or 
circumvention devices when it's not directly tied to infringing conduct is 
the wrong approach. The point is, there may be lawful reasons why someone 
would want to circumvent a technology," says intellectual property attorney 
Jonathan Band. Meanwhile, Hollywood has mounted an aggressive drive to win 
greater global conformity in copyright law, using the precepts of the DCMA 
as a bargaining chip with potential trade partners. The European Union has 
begun implementing such legislation and U.S. negotiators are pushing for 
similar laws as part of the pending Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) 
treaty, which would encompass most of North, Central and South America. 
Meanwhile, foot-dragging on the part of South Korea and Canada has 
irritated the U.S. entertainment industry: "The (WIPO) treaty was 
effectively negotiated a decade ago, and for a country like Korea, or 
Canada, to say now that they need to start examining these issues is 
crazy," says Neil Turkewitz, executive VP for international issues at the 
Recording Industry Association of America. (CNet News.com 24 Dec 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5133152.html?tag=nefd_pop

CYBERCRIME MORE THAN DOUBLED IN 2003
This past year the Internet proved a lucrative haven for phishers, online 
auction scammers and Nigerians proffering cash-sharing partnerships, 
according to statistics from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, which 
reports it received more than 120,000 online fraud complaints in 2003. That 
translates to an increase of 60% since 2002, when 75,000 complaints were 
processed. The Center provides cybercrime victims with a convenient process 
for filing complaints, which it then analyzes and routes to the appropriate 
FBI field office or local law enforcement agency for further action. (The 
Register 29 Dec 2003)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34667.html

CYBER BLACKMAIL SHAKEDOWN TARGETS OFFICE WORKERS
Office workers are the target of a blackmail scheme that threatens to 
delete computer files or install pornographic images on their computers 
unless they pay up, according to police and security experts in the U.K. 
The e-mail extortion typically starts with a modest demand for $20 or $30, 
but law enforcement officials warn the amounts could escalate: "If a person 
pays up, say it's just 20 euros, then they have identified a soft target. 
They may come back for more, next time demanding more money," says a 
British cybercrime detective, who acknowledged the racket has been 
difficult to crack because most victims tend to pay up and keep quiet. 
"They prey on the nice secretary who wouldn't do anything wrong. When she 
gets one of these e-mails she thinks 'Oh my goodness, what am I going to 
do?' So she puts it on her credit card and transfers the funds to the 
(suspect's online bank) account and hopes it goes away." (Reuters 29 Dec 2003)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JJTSUIWG5GX0OCRBAEOCFEY?type=technologyNews&storyID=4052663

'NOT YOUR FATHER'S FINGERPRINT'
The biometrics industry -- spurred on by heightened terrorist concerns -- 
has rolled out a variety of new ways to identify people, ranging from 
retina and iris scans to mapping voice patterns or walking styles, but 
there's a clear winner among the competing technologies -- the 
old-fashioned fingerprint. "They are looking for proven technology that's 
stable and familiar," says Joseph J. Atick, CEO of biometric firm Identix. 
"It's not about technology. It's about lowering your deployment risk." But 
these aren't your father's fingerprints -- today's equipment does away with 
messy ink in favor of digital records, created by software when fingers are 
pressed against an electronic pad or sensitive photoplate. And often as 
not, the fingerprints are then combined with some other form of biometric 
ID, such as facial recognition. Meanwhile, growing use of passports, 
drivers' licenses and employment ID cards embedded with ID-data microchips 
is spawning a new business for data processing giants such as IBM, Unisys 
and Siemens. "The technology (to integrate ID data with public records) is 
advancing rapidly. The big growth will be in 2005 and 2006," says a Unisys 
official. (New York Times 29 Dec 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/12/29/business/media/29face.html

DOMAIN NAME MARKET HEATS UP
The market for catchy Internet domain names is heating up again, says Monte 
Cahn, CEO of Moniker Online Services, which last week brokered the sale of 
"men.com" for $1.3 million. "In the last couple of years, the domain names 
were selling for significantly less than what they did in '99, 2000." The 
seven-figure price tag for men.com "is a big indicator of what's yet to 
come." Meanwhile, the seller, who owns more than 4,000 other domain names, 
says he could have gotten much more if he'd hung on a little longer, but he 
wanted to pocket his profit now so that he'd have cash to buy up more names 
before prices really skyrocket. (AP 25 Dec 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20031225/D7VLMAM80.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks." (Herodotus)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: 'DO AS I SAY AT ONCE, BUT NOT YET!'
      Programmers eventually learn to be careful about the instructions 
they give. A good example of the unintended consequences of a careless 
instructions is provided in this brief account of the Turkish commander 
Enver Pasha's experience at the beginning of World War I:
      "Enver had assumed that the war would be short, and that it would be 
decided in a few lightning campaigns. He had neither a plan for a war of 
attrition nor an understanding of what such a war might entail. He had no 
gift for organization, no head for logistics, and no patience for 
administration. As War Minister he thoughtlessly led his country into chaos.
      "He began by ordering all eligible men throughout the imperial 
domains to report for induction into the army immediately, bringing with 
them enough food for three days. When they reported as ordered -- which is 
to say, all at the same time -- their numbers dwarfed the conscription 
offices, which could not deal with so many at once. Having flooded in from 
the countryside, the draftees ate up their three days' supply of food and 
then had nothing to eat. Soon they began to drift away, labeled as 
deserters, afraid to return either to the conscription offices or to their 
homes."
                    ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805068848/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for the excellent book "A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman 
Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East," by David Fromkin -- or 
look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book 
recommendations to literacy action programs.)

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

ESCHER
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=733
      I'm sure you're going to get a lot of feedback on Honorary Subscriber 
M.C. Escher. By what I know he is kind of an idol among IT professionals. 
My contribution is the following site, which I think is simple but 
representative:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~davemc/Pic/Escher/ (Luiz Cláudio)

SERIOUS ABOUT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9784
      The SCO chief executive think Linus Torvalds is careless with 
intellectual property? The Linux kernel is one of the open-source projects 
most obsessively picky about such issues. (Paolo Amoroso)

A BASTION OF SANITY IN THE SEA OF HYPE (USUALLY) Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9751
      It's great that Intel is getting into the TV game, but the 
predictions of the analyst who talked about 50" $1,000 TVs by the end of 
2004 is highly speculative at best, pure unadulterated marketing hype at 
worst. This article was picked up an all the news services I subscribe to, 
yet the fact that Intel has said _nothing_ publicly about its TV plans. 
Please don't pass speculation along as fact! You both are usually a bastion 
of sanity in the sea of hype, keep up the good work, and the critical eye! 
(Jill VanDewoestine)

YAHOO VS. SPAM
      A lot of us have been wondering why the e-mail system doesn't use an 
authentication system to prevent spam. It looks like Yahoo is working on 
just such as system:
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5116528.html?tag=nefd_hed (Jon Cohen)

IN PRAISE OF EDWARD TUFTE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9738
      As a former strategic planner, I think PowerPoint sank a lot of 
complex ideas, and represents a dumbing down in corporate information. 
Think about it in Annual Report season.  Edward Tufte's books were 
self-published to his own high standards. They include "Envisioning 
Information" which sold well over 100,000 copies and "The Visual Display of 
Quantitative Information" which was influential on designs of computer-user 
interfaces. It contains 400 illustrations that are wonderful displays of 
information in maps, charts, courtroom exhibits, diagrams, guidebooks, etc. 
Tufte consulted for some large corporations in the computer industry (if 
not Microsoft). Both books are a pleasure to hold -- beautiful examples of 
classy publishing. The illustrations alone are worth the price of the 
books. (Ellen M. Poler)

IN PRAISE OF NEWSSCAN
      Thank you so much for the effort you put into NewsScan, and the 
product that is the result of your efforts. NewsScan is probably the most 
useful Internet subscription I have. I can't fathom what it takes to 
produce it, but quality shines through issue after issue after issue. You 
have never failed to impress, and often caused me to take a step back, and 
reflect on some position or other that I may hold (or have held) dear. (J. 
Robert Swanson)

MOTIVATION PLUS ASSISTANCE EQUALS SUCCESS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9776
      At a time when we are all thinking the warm thoughts of Christmas, 
the story by Dr. Mike Litrel struck a chord. Thanks Mike and to you all at 
NewsScan for your great service and relevant messages. It reinforced what I 
have come to believe about those that are disadvantaged. It is amazing what 
they can accomplish when they get a little motivation and assistance! 
(Keith Cowan)

BEING 'ONLY HUMAN' IS A WONDERFUL THING
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9776
      Normally, I mostly bypass Dr Mike's little bon mots. There's 
something a wee bit too sugary about them for my somewhat acerbic tastes 
and lack of faith in humanity, a little too Christian in tone for one 
well-lapsed Catholic, but this one I kinda liked. A good picture to have & 
to hold at any time of the year, not just this overwrought peculiar time 
that seems more nostalgic than truly felt, more commercial than truly 
giving. This ancient festival with its layers and layers of meanings does 
appear to continually inspire the most basic of human emotions  --  stress 
along with the odd helping of unexpected compassion and the humanity found 
in all humans, when being 'only human' is a rather wonderful thing. This 
little reverie illustrates both. (Keira McKenzie)

RAZZBERRIES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9776
      Thank you for the Kuran site, I had been looking for a good place to 
get further information and had not yet found that one. THANKS! also for 
the return of Dr Mike Litrel. I know you'll probably get lots of whiners 
who say that 'feel good' stories have no place in NewsScan. Razzberries to 
them. Good News belongs everywhere! If we refuse to see or hear it, we 
(they) might just turn into Scrooge forever. I thoroughly enjoy Dr Litrel's 
points and attitudes. And I have kept a file of all his previous essays. 
Proof to me that scientists/doctors with intelligence enough to realize 
that miracles do happen and there is no other explanation for them. (Gloria 
Bryant)

WHAT ACTIONS ARE MOST EXCELLENT?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9775
      Thanks for including your excerpt from the Qur'an. It's a fascinating 
and wonderful book in many ways, especially for those of us who come from a 
different religious tradition. One of my favorite passages is "What actions 
are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the 
hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and 
to remove the wrongs of the injured." I don't remember the exact location 
of these words within the Qur'an, but my family has been including this 
passage among its weekly observances for many years. (Linda Fleit)

OFF THE MARK ON SEVERAL COUNTS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9775
      In the past, I have written in praise of your publication, but 
yesterday's issue invites negative comment as it was not up to your usually 
high standards. Though your intentions probably were good when you featured 
the sacred text of Islam as Worth Thinking About, what followed was off the 
mark on several counts:
   1. Your introduction "Very few in the West..." underscores a notion that 
Islam is somehow a "non-Western" religion, whereas in fact it is one of the 
three closely related monotheistic faiths that emerged from the same 
geographic area. It is at least as "western" in origin as Judaism and 
Christianity if you choose to divide the world up that way.
   2. The transliteration you chose to represent the title of this text, 
"Kuran", is a non-standard one. Although the Library of Congress still uses 
the increasingly outmoded "Koran", most contemporary scholars, Muslim or 
not, now use "Qur'an".
   3. The weblink you supplied for the full text begins with the heading 
"The Holy Quran (by Shakir)", an indication of authorship to the unwary. 
Most Muslims deem the Qur'an of divine origin. Some Europeans and Americans 
in earlier centuries attributed its authorship to Muhammad, the prophet to 
whom it was revealed. While there is debate among contemporary scholars 
about its origin and recording, virtually no one believes it is the work of 
an individual.
   4. The rendering you presented (most Muslims believe the Qur'an cannot 
really be translated), is just one of many in English. It would have been 
better to link your readers to the multiple renderings (including Shakir's) 
at the Muslim Students' Association's website 
(http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran) or another of the websites maintained 
by other Muslim organizations or universities.
   5. The passage which you chose is particularly fierce--much more so than 
the passage from Psalms that you published to represent the Old Testament 
of the Bible. Wouldn't it have been more in keeping with the spirit of the 
season to quote one of the passages about Jesus appearing in nine different 
chapters of the Qur'an, especially the one recounting his birth, which 
begins at 3:45? (M. Lesley Wilkins)
      [Lesley is at Harvard University, where she is bibliographer for Law 
of the Islamic World, Harvard Law School Library]

REINFORCING NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9775
      I grew up in the Middle East, so I'm kind of sensitive about the 
stereotyping of peoples from that region, which has been particularly bad 
in recent years.  When I saw the quote from the Kuran, I thought "That's a 
somewhat unfortunate choice of passages, since it will probably reinforce 
negative stereotypes" but I also felt that since it is an accurate 
quotation, and a reflection of how some fundamentalists feel, on its own it 
wasn't really more than an unfortunate choice.  But when it was followed up 
immediately by a contrasting quote from the Psalms, the juxtaposition began 
to seem like an inflammatory political statement. Even though I suspected 
that it wasn't intended that way, I wouldn't be surprised to find that 
others also read it similarly, although they may not be moved to write 
about it (especially if they agree with the implication). (John Prusinski)

ONE GOD WITH DIFFERENT NAMES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9775
      I have particularly enjoyed your "Worth Thinking About" items for the 
past few days, on the Kuran, the Psalms, and the New Testament. I must say 
my friends and I from around the world adhere to different religions, but 
we all agree that we are just traveling parallel paths to the same goal, 
and it is the same God, whether called Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah,... (John 
McNulty, Dalhousie)

'BELIEVE' LESS, 'QUESTION' MORE
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9775
      Thank you for quoting the brief excerpt from the Kuran. As in all 
other religions in our world, the request for the followers to "believe" is 
paramount. If only we can put aside our "belief" just for a moment, and 
"question and observe" the consequences of our actions, maybe we too can 
learn to see that it is really us who have created our world of hatred and 
violence. If there is a devil, then it is probably our inability to take 
responsibility for our own actions, and instead blame the problem on 
others: other beliefs, other country, other race etc., while "believing" 
that we are the "just" ones. Maybe our gateway to a better world is not to 
"believe," but to "question" more. (Jim Chu)

BEARERS OF GRACE AND TRUTH
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9791
      Just a brief quote to thank you for the passage from Luke. May we too 
be handmaidens this year, thus to be fitter bearers of grace and truth. 
Peace of the Season. (Scott Cameron)

HEAR NOW!
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=9783
      The quest for balance is appreciated, but couldn't you have 
referenced an actual Jewish web site to represent the Psalms rather than 
some sort of cult-like web site? Hear Now! http://www.hearnow.org (Pierre)

NEVER PAROCHIAL, OCCASIONALLY INVALUABLE
      As this year ends, I just wanted to say thanks for the past year's 
NewsScan. It is always interesting, never parochial, and occasionally 
invaluable. Thanks once again, and have a good holiday break. (Peter 
Neville, Senior Tutor, Swansea University)

SUBSCRIPTION INFO FOR NEWSSCAN DAILY:
      To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions 
of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages 
(i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to 
the addresses shown below:
      Text version: Send message to [email protected]
      HTML version: Send mail to [email protected]
      NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html

TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT NEWSSCAN DAILY! Send them our little frog: 
http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html

***********************************************************
Please visit the site of RLG, the great organization that makes NewsScan 
Daily possible. (RLG has no influence over, nor any responsibility for, our 
editorial content.) Created in 1974 as the Research Libraries Group, RLG is 
a not-for-profit membership corporation of more than 160 universities, 
national libraries, archives, museums -- and other institutions with 
remarkable collections for research and learning. Its major initiatives are 
long-term retention of digital materials, resource sharing among member 
institutions, and improvement of researcher access to primary source 
material. RLG supplies online research resources worldwide. Visit RLG at 
http://www.rlg.org.

*********

To subscribe or unsubscribe to the TEXT version of NewsScan Daily, send an 
e-mail message to [email protected] with 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' 
in the subject line. To subscribe to our HTML version of NewsScan Daily, 
send mail to [email protected], with the word 'subscribe' as the 
subject. (Subscribing to the HTML version won't automatically unsubscribe 
you from the text version; please unsubscribe yourself as explained above.) 
Please note: To unsubscribe from an account to which you no longer have 
access, send mail to at [email protected].

*********

We call our news section "Above The Fold" to honor the tradition of the 
great "broadsheet" newspapers in which editors must decide which news 
stories are of such importance that they should be placed "above the fold" 
on the front page. The NewsScan Credo: Be informative, have fun, and get to 
the point! See http://www.newsscan.com/, and send us mail: John Gehl 
<[email protected]> and Suzanne Douglas <[email protected]>, or call 
770-704-7517.

*********

Get a free 6-week trial subscription to Innovation Weekly, an executive 
summary of trends, strategies and innovations in business and technology. 
Send mail to [email protected] with the word 'subscribe' in the 
subject line.

What customized news and information services do you need for your company? 
Get in touch with us at [email protected] or call 770-704-7517 to talk 
over the possibilities.

Copyright 2003. NewsScan Daily (R) is a publication of NewsScan Inc.
***********************************************************