NewsScan Daily, 28 May 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 28 May 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        eBay Loses Patent-Infringement Lawsuit
        Sprint to Convert Phone Network to Packet Technology
        RealNetworks Rolls Out 79-Cent Music Downloads
        Virus Writing 101
        Dell Seeks Larger Piece of the Services Market
        German Software Group Threatens SCO Over Linux

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Juan Luis Vives

EBAY LOSES PATENT-INFRINGEMENT LAWSUIT
A federal jury in Virginia has concluded that online auction eBay and its 
Half.com unit intentionally infringed on patents belonging to MercExchange. 
MercExchange is also seeking an injunction prohibiting eBay from continuing 
its current "Buy it now" program, which allows eBay customers to make 
fixed-priced purchases rather than participating in auctions. EBay is 
asking the judge to reverse the $35-million judgment against it, whereas 
MercExchange is saying that the judgment should be tripled, because the 
jury's verdict was that the patent infringement was deliberate rather than 
accidental. (Bloomberg/New York Times 28 May 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/05/28/technology/28EBAY.html

SPRINT TO CONVERT PHONE NETWORK TO PACKET TECHNOLOGY
Beginning a project that will take between 12 to 15 years for full 
implementation, Sprint has started replacing its conventional telephone 
network with packet-switching technology. In the traditional network, a 
dedicated circuit is established for a phone call, whereas with 
packet-switching technology the call is broken into multiple data "packets" 
which are sent over the network separately and reassembled at the other end 
of the transmission. The new approach will be cheaper and more efficient, 
and will allow a person to use the same phone number at multiple locations. 
(AP/San Jose Mercury News 27 May 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5952744.htm

REALNETWORKS ROLLS OUT 79 CENT MUSIC DOWNLOADS
Spurred on by the overnight success of Apple's iTunes Music Store, 
RealNetworks has revamped its own online music service to offer single 
downloads for 79 cents a track. "We want to draft off the attention they've 
gotten before they come out with a Windows service," says RealNetworks 
marketing VP Dan Sheeran, referring to Apple's current concentration on the 
Macintosh market. RealNetworks' new offering is based on the Rhapsody 
service from Listen.com, which RealNetworks agreed to acquire last month. 
The company also owns a 40% share of MusicNet, the online music venture it 
launched with EMI Group and AOL Time Warner, but has said it will no longer 
promote that service and instead will be competing vigorously for MusicNet 
customers. (Wall Street Journal 28 May 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105407898712518500.djm,00.html (sub req'd)

VIRUS WRITING 101
The University of Calgary is drawing fire for its decision to offer a class 
next fall in "Computer Viruses and Malware," giving students the 
opportunity to perfect their virus-writing skills. Ken Barker, head of 
Calgary's computer science department, defends the decision, saying the 
class will enable students to better understand the motivations of crackers 
who are responsible for the proliferation of malicious attacks against 
corporate networks and personal computers. "Somebody who is suggesting we 
are doing enough really has their head in the sand," says Barker. In 
response to concerns that the students' work could lead to more cracking 
incidents, school officials say they've taken extra precautions, with plans 
to use a closed network and prohibitions on students removing disks from 
the lab, which will be secured 24 hours a day. But it's the financial 
consideration that likely will keep students focused on preventing viruses 
rather than proliferating them, says Barker. "They are not really 
employable as virus writers," he notes. (CNet News.com 27 May 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-1010538.html?tag=fd_top

DELL SEEKS LARGER PIECE OF THE SERVICES MARKET
Dell Computer (which plans to ask shareholder permission to drop the word 
"computer" from its name) is hoping to double its overall sales to $60 
billion in five years -- a goal that could be reached if the company made 
substantial inroads on the services market. Founder and chief executive 
Michael Dell explains, "We're not interested in competing with EDS or 
Accenture at the very high end of the consulting world, but we're providing 
the services that go along with the product." In other words, the Dell 
strategy is to use its own computer sales as a calling card to gain access 
to companies that buy standardized computers and need services and software 
to support them. (Reuters/USA Today 27 May 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2003-05-27-dell-talks_x.htm

GERMAN SOFTWARE GROUP THREATENS SCO OVER LINUX
German software alliance Linuxtag, which backs the Linux operating system, 
has issued an ultimatum to SCO Group: prove your claims that Linux 
infringes on your Unix technology patents by May 30 or we'll see you in 
court. "SCO is massively unsettling our members and the companies that are 
potential exhibitors at the fair with those claims," says a Linuxtag 
spokesman. "It they don't stop that, or present proof for the intellectual 
property rights they are claiming, we are going to apply for a preliminary 
injunction at the court on Friday." SCO's German unit says it's received 
Linuxtag's motion and is considering whether to respond before SCO's case 
against IBM, a major Linux promoter, goes to court. Some of Germany's 
largest companies, including Siemens AG, the Deutsche Bundesbahn and 
Volkswagen, have received letter from SCO notifying them their use of Linux 
may be in violation of its rights. (Reuters 28 May 2003)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&ncid=581&e=3&u=/nm/20030528/tc_nm/tech_sco_linux_dc

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Painting, like flipping burgers or shearing sheep, is physical 
labor. It is enough nowadays to declare yourself an artist and then to 
declare some artifact in the vast world of found objects to be *your* work 
of art." (Thomas M. Disch)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JUAN LUIS VIVES
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the philosopher and humanist Juan Luis 
Vives (1492-1540), who was a friend of Erasmus and a thinker with ideas 
well in advance of his age.
      Vives was a prolific writer. At first his writings consisted for the 
most part of commentaries on a wide variety of classical authors through 
whom he sought to introduce his readers to the Greco-Latin world. Later, as 
he emerged as a thinker, he wrote voluminous works on philosophy, 
psychology, morals, social policy and education. In education he put forth 
workable theories and school practices. Novel for his time, he devoted a 
special work on the education of women.
      The twentieth-century Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset has said 
that "for four centuries, without interruption or dissent, Vives has 
enjoyed the high esteem of the most outstanding minds."
      Vives was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1492 or 1493. He was brought up 
speaking Valencian and Spanish, though he was to acquire Greek, French, 
Flemish, English and Italian. Latin, of course, was the language of learned 
communication, and he would demonstrate outstanding proficiency in it in 
his works. He belonged to a family of converted Jewish cloth merchants, who 
were repeatedly placed on trial by the Inquisition between 1491, when his 
mother renounced Judaism, and 1524, when his parents and paternal 
grandmother were convicted. He completed his primary studies at the age of 
12, and then attended a two-year grammar course and a three-year arts 
course in the University of Valencia.
      In 1517 he moved to Paris to study at the Faculty of Arts until he 
was appointed professor of humanities at Louvain in 1519. He went to live 
in England at the invitation of Henry VIII, who appointed him tutor to 
Mary, princess of Wales. He enjoyed a close relationship with Thomas More 
and Erasmus, who was also staying in England at the time. He also lectured 
in philosophy at Oxford. In 1527 he fell out of favor with Henry by 
opposing the royal divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and was imprisoned for 
six weeks, after which he left England for the Netherlands to devote 
himself to writing. He remained in Bruges for the rest of his life.
      Some understanding of the importance of Vives in the intellectual 
history of the past is found in the praise he received from Erasmus when he 
wrote "We have with us Juan Luis Vives, a Valencian, only 26 years of age 
but already well versed in all the philosophical subjects, who has made 
such strides in belles-lettres, eloquence, oratory and writing that I 
hardly know of anyone to compare with him."

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/087169882X/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for "The Theater of Man: J.L. Vives on Society" -- or look for it in your 
favorite library. [We donate all revenues from our book recommendations to 
adult literacy programs.]

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