NewsScan Daily, 1 March 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 1 March 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Memo to Copyright Enforcers: Slow Down, Take a Breath
       Keeping Online Games Honest
       Vandals: Better at Lying Than at Hacking
       Cheap Fares Down Jetstar Site
       Telstra Mail Server Blacklisted by Spamcop
       Forensic Video

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: The Price of Hope

MEMO TO COPYRIGHT ENFORCERS: SLOW DOWN, TAKE A BREATH
     A report from the policy group called Committee for Economic
Development warns against efforts to support copyrights by preventing
digital TV from being transmitted online. Called "Promoting Innovation and
Economic Growth: The Special Problems of Digital Intellectual Property," the
report concludes: "We are sympathetic to the problems confronting the
content distribution industry. But these problems -- perfect copies of
high-value digital works being transmitted instantly around the world at
almost no cost -- require clear, concentrated thinking, rather than quick
legislative or regulatory action." Not everyone is likely to agree with that
recommendation. Jack Valenti, the president of the Motion Picture
Association of America, has been highly critical of the notion that his
industry is trying to place unfair burdens on consumers. "They say it will
stifle innovation -- that's malarkey. If all of this digital property is
free, who is going to invest 50 to 60 million dollars to make a movie?" The
report from the Committee for Economic Development has called for a two-year
moratorium on changes to copyright laws and regulations: "Our first concern
should be to 'do no harm.'" (New York Times 1 Mar 2004)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2004/03/01/technology/01rights.html

KEEPING ONLINE GAMES HONEST
     IT GlobalSecure sells software that prevents network vandals and
dishonest players from manipulating online gambling. The company's chief
executive says: "If you look online, there are whole Web sites either
complaining about cheating or sharing ways to cheat. We've had people who
are even just playing gin rummy online saying, 'We think we're being
cheated, but we don't know what to do.'" The firm's software is based on
encryption technology that can be applied to any network gaming system to
validate the randomness of events in games of chance, verify player
identities and create audits of each game. (Washington Post 1 Mar 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17983-2004Feb29.html

VANDALS: BETTER AT LYING THAN AT HACKING
     At a security conference last week sponsored by the security firm RSA,
10,000 computer security experts showed up --  and chances were good that
some of them were vandals. Ira Winkler, an expert on corporate espionage,
said: "They're definitely here," in a disdainful reference to hackers whose
technical skills are as meager as their personal ethics: "All you have to do
is be a good liar." Some lie by stealing passwords or PIN numbers simply by
looking over a user's shoulder ("shoulder surfing," it's called); others by
creating spam that purposely uses misspelled words to evade spam filters.
Winkler says: "They think what they're doing is special," even though it's
"more difficult to learn how to protect a computer than to break into one."
(San Jose Mercury News 20 Feb 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8064789.htm

CHEAP FARES DOWN JETSTAR SITE
     New Australian discount airline Jetstar has been forced to quadruple
the capacity of its Web site, which has been stretched to breaking point by
millions of page views from users looking for discount tickets from the new
airline. In a short period of time, Jetstar's site had received more than
three million page impressions, takien more than 30,000 bookings, and
averaged around 200,000 page impressions per hour. Around 200 bookings per
minute were being taken. The airline's first flight is May 25. An
unprecedented demand for tickets has led to the Jetstar site being "highly
stretched," with customers facing lengthy delays trying to book a ticket
through the Jetstar site.
The Australian, 25 February 2004
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8796298%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,
00.html (Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin University, Australia

TELSTRA MAIL SERVER BLACKLISTED BY SPAMCOP
     One of the mail servers of Australian major telecommunications company
Telstra's has been blacklisted by SpamCop, a spam blocking service which can
be used to block email from a server suspected of being used for
transmitting spam. The listing goes back to November last year. A report
from SpamCop says that, since the database began keeping count, the Telstra
mailserver had been reported about 350 times by about 110 users. Telstra has
been blocked by other ISPs in the past, because spam was said to be being
sent using its mailservers. AOL and Compuserve blocked mail from BigPond
users in April last year. The Age, 25 February 2004
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/25/1077594874566.html (Rec'd  from
John Lamp, Deakin University, Australia)

FORENSIC VIDEO
     In Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, a police forensics lab is able to
separate individual feeds from dozens of cameras that record on the same
tape or disc and can stabilize images from shaky cameras and adjust the
brightness and contrast. The techniques are similar to ones used by
authorities in Florida to examine videotape from a car wash in Sarasota and
help track down a man accused of abducting and killing an 11-year-old girl.
But one of the officers in the Allegheny County lab cautions: "This is not a
magic wand. There's a lot we can do with video and digital images, but there
are still limitations." For example, although a surveillance camera outside
a Pittsburgh job center captured the perpetration of a murder, police were
unable to enhance the images enough to get a clear picture of the killer,
causing one of the police offers to complain: "Frustrating isn't the word.
You can see some facial features, his shoes, his distinct clothing, but it's
just not enough." (AP/USA Today 1 Mar 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2004-03-01-forensic-camera
work_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice." (Henry Ford)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE PRICE OF HOPE
     In the introduction to his novel about the threat of biological weapons
of mass destruction, Richard Preston writes:
     "For many years the scientific community told itself and the public
that biological weapons were not much of a problem, but recently there has
been a painful shift in thinking. Many scientists have come to believe that
biological weapons are a serious threat that has not been reckoned with.
People close to this process have described it to me as an opening of the
eyes. Even so, some experts are reluctant to talk too freely about
biological weapons, for fear that the information could spark bioterrorism
or might encourage countries to cross the threshold into biological
weaponry. Other experts say that the problem has become so bad that the
public simply must be told. I say that problems that aren't moved into the
light of general public discussion become less manageable as time goes by.
Public awareness can help shape a constructive response from governments and
scientists around the world far more effectively than the lone warnings of a
few experts.
     "In case anyone should accuse me of being 'anti-science,' let me say
that I am exactly the opposite of that. Open, peer-reviewed biological
research can reap great benefits. Genetic engineering is a process, like
metallurgy. Steel can be used for ploughshares or swords. What is dangerous
is human intent. The next emerging virus may not come from a tropical rain
forest; it may come from a bioreactor. In a deeper sense it will come from
the human Blind. To think that the power of the genetic code is not being
bent toward weapons is to ignore the growing body of evidence, the lessons
of history, and the reality of human nature. As Thucydides pointed out, hope
is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared."
                           ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345409973/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for Richard Preston's "The Cobra Event"-- or look for it in your favorite
library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult
literacy programs.)

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