NewsScan Daily, 25 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 25 August 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Some Victories Against Spammers and Other Online Criminals
       Microsoft/Time Warner DRM Plans Questioned in Europe
       Universities Praised for Anti-Piracy Efforts
       E-Jamaica

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Hiram Bingham
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It

SOME VICTORIES AGAINST SPAMMERS AND OTHER ONLINE CRIMINALS
     Attorney General John Ashcroft will announce today that federal and
state law enforcement agencies have arrested or charged dozens of people for
crimes related to spam, identity theft, online credit card fraud, and other
criminal uses of computers and networks. Much of the funding for the
operation came from the Direct Marketing Association, whose former president
says: "We felt that the key to the new law was enforcement. We want spammers
to realize that spam is not a free game for them and that they face real
penalties if they continue." Steve Linford, director of the U.K.-based
anti-spam organization called Spamhaus Project, is cautiously optimistic:
"Spammers believe that they will never be caught. If they [law enforcement
officials] get 10, 20, 30 well-known spammers, the rest of the spam
community will start to notice. Any spammers who can be made to give up
because they think the F.B.I. is getting too close is very good for us." On
the other hand, Linford fears that a victory in one place just sets up a new
challenge somewhere else: "Next year and the year after we are going to see
Russia as the main spam problem."  (New York Times 25 Aug 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/25/technology/25spam.html>

MICROSOFT/TIME WARNER DRM PLANS QUESTIONED IN EUROPE
     The European Commission is examining a proposed agreement by Microsoft
and Time Warner to acquire joint control of the U.S. firm ContentGuard, a
company that develops digital rights management (DRM) technology. The
purpose of DRM software is to protect digital files (including movies and
music files) from illegal copying and use. (Reuters/USA Today 24 Aug 2004)
<http://tinyurl.com/6ymrx>

UNIVERSITIES PRAISED FOR ANTI-PIRACY EFFORTS
     Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of
America (RIAA), says he's pleased with recent efforts by academic
institutions to curb illegal copying of copyrighted material: "It's quite
clear that every university has gotten the message that this is a serious
issue and they're all doing something." At least 20 universities (including
Penn State, the University of Miami, and Northern Illinois University) have
signed deals with such licensed download services such as Napster 2.0,
Ruckus, and RealNetworks to provide students with discounted downloading of
free music streaming. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 24 Aug 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9484951.htm>

E-JAMAICA
     The Jamaican government, with help from the Inter-American Development
Bank, is initiating a $5 million program called "e-Jamaica" to establish 60
free Internet-access centers for poor people in that island country. The
project will also provide Internet training scholarships for 900 people. The
centers will make it possible for Jamaicans to conduct online transactions
such as paying traffic fines and making national insurance payments. The
government hopes to have all 60 centers in place by 2010. (Los Angeles Times
24 Aug 2004)
<http://tinyurl.com/3lbwl>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Everything is compared to what.' (Henry Geller)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: HIRAM BINGHAM
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the American archaeologist and
politician Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956), who achieved worldwide fame for
his expedition to a nearly inaccessible part of the Peruvian Andes, where he
discovered Machu Picchu, the "lost city of the Incas."
     From 1909 until 1924 Bingham was a member of the history faculty at
Yale University, and in 1911 he led a Yale organized archaeological
expedition with the express purpose of locating Machu Picchu, the mountain
fortress the Incas had built four centuries earlier to hide from the Spanish
conquistadors. Prospects of success were not very high. Early Inca
chronicles suggested only that Machu Picchu was situated in the high Andes,
somewhere near Cuzco, Peru, so well-hidden that the Spanish had never found
it. But on July 24, 1911, with almost blind luck, Bingham's expedition
stumbled upon the amazingly well-preserved stonework ruins of the Inca
fortress, now completely obscured from aerial view by dense forest
overgrowth. 
     Perched in a narrow saddle between two sharp peaks, at an altitude of
7,710 feet, the site is literally carved out of the mountainside, and
includes impressive stone buildings with extensive agricultural terraces.
Machu Picchu was probably a refuge for the Inca royal family when they were
away from Cuzco. Today Machu Picchu is one of Peru's chief tourist
attractions, and the government sponsors research and reconstruction
projects at the site.
     Bingham told the story of his Machu Picchu expedition and his other
South American explorations in several books: "Inca Land," "Machu Picchu,"
and 'Lost City of the Incas."
     Bingham was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, a third-generation descendent of
a prominent missionary family serving in several Pacific Islands as
ministers and Bible translators. His love of mountaineering was stimulated
early on by climbs he took as a boy with his father. Bingham earned college
(Yale) and graduate degrees (University of California, Harvard) in Latin
American History, which he then taught at Yale University from 1907 until
1923. To deepen his knowledge of Latin America, Bingham trekked across the
same Andes trails from Venezuela to Colombia taken in 1819 by Simón Bolívar,
and on second journey he traversed the Spanish trade route from Buenos Aires
to Lima. This experience with the Andes made him a fit choice to lead the
Yale University Peruvian Expeditions.
     Bingham learned to fly in 1917, and he headed the Air Service's
Personnel Division during World War I, going to France with the Allied
Expeditionary Forces. In the early 1920s he left academia for politics. He
was elected lieutenant governor of Connecticut (1922-24). After winning the
governorship in 1924, he almost immediately resigned to fill a vacancy in
the U.S. Senate. He was reelected to a full term in 1926, and while in the
Senate he served on the President's Aircraft Board and drafted the Air
Commerce Act, the first attempt at federal regulation of civil aviation.
When he left the Senate in 1933, Bingham stayed active politically, but
primarily pursued business interests.

See 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0792261941/newsscancom/ref=nosim>
for Hiram Bingham's "Inca Land: Explorations in the Highland of Peru" -- or
look for it in your favorite library. [Note: We donate all revenue from our
book recommendations to adult literacy programs.]


MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

DUELING QUOTATIONS
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11190>
     Your Flash Card quote by Alfred Korzybski ("There are two ways to slide
easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways
save us from thinking.") seemed all too similar to one in the novel
"Lucifer's Hammer" (1977 Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle) which they
attributed to Henri Poincarè and which goes: "To doubt everything or to
believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with
the necessity of reflection."
     I also found a 1901 version also attributed to Henri Poincarè that has
a slightly different twist: "Doubting everything and believing everything
are two equally convenient solutions that guard us from having to think." ?
Henri Poincarè, Of Science and Hypotheses, 1901. The lives of Henri Poincarè
1854-1912 and Alfred Korzybski 1879-1950 did overlap. Although going by the
1901 quote I would have to credit Henri Poincarè with the original and
Alfred Korzybski with a hint of plagiarism. (Wayne Neff)

P2P
Re: < http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11215>
     On the P2P Issue, you say: "Whereas the same appeals court ruled
against file-sharing service Napster in 2001 because it stored illegally
copied files on its central computers..." This is incorrect. You may wish to
disseminate a clarification of fact. Napster never stored infringing files
or material. The facts that led to the court's opinion were that they: 1)
offered a directory service, 2) were notified of infringing material and 3)
failed to remove such material from their directory service. For these
reasons Napster was found to contribute to infringement (contributory
infringement). 
     Here are relevant excerpts from the decision of the 9th circuit court
of appeals: "We find no error in the district court's determination that
plaintiffs will likely succeed in establishing that Napster users do not
have a fair use defense. Accordingly, we next address whether Napster is
secondarily liable for the direct infringement under two doctrines of
copyright law: contributory copyright infringement and vicarious copyright
infringement..."
     Read the full opinion here:
http://www.ce9.uscourts.gov/web/newopinions.nsf/0/c4f204f69c2538f6882569f100
616b06?OpenDocument
     (Robert Guess)

ILLEGAL COPYING IS STILL ILLEGAL
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11215>
     Your article ³Court On File-Swapping: Get Used To It² was misleading --
the court ruled that file sharing companies are not doing anything illegal
by producing programs that can be used for copying files, but did not say
that copying copyrighted files is legal (see
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5316570.html). Companies can continue to
(try to) use "... copyright law to block online piracy of songs and movies."
They just cannot do it by attacking the P2P software suppliers. The
distinction is important. This ruling would protect people who are
developing interesting new technologies (Kazaa, etc.) from liability if
their creations are used for illegal purposes. The individual who uses it
for illegal activities (sharing copyrighted music) might still be held
liable. Yes -- the entertainment industry is going to have to adapt. I don¹t
think they can win this war. And, I¹m glad the court decided in favor of
continued development of new technologies. But the rights of individuals who
create digital content need to be protected, also. The attitude that "I have
a right to a free copy of a song or movie, just because it exists and I can
make it easily" is wrong, and is not supported by this court ruling...
Thanks for you informative and useful publication. (Ray West)

MONOPOLISTIC ARROGANCE
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11226>
     Regarding XP SP2: With 7% forced to reinstall their whole system, the
odds are I will never install this on my machine!!! If the whole world
refused to do it, maybe MS would start testing their stuff before releasing
it! This is a classic case of the arrogance of a monopoly run amok... (Keith
Cowan)

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO BE AN ENGINEER THESE DAYS?
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11214>
     Many engineering jobs require specialized knowledge which isn't easily
translatable to other subindustries, or maybe managers and HR departments
just see it that way. Whichever, normal boom-and-bust cycles cause layoffs
for everyone, but these engineers can't find a job with comparable salary
until the next boom. Why would a financially prudent individual pick such a
career? (Jim McGee)

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