NewsScan Daily, 6 January 2005 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 6 January 2005 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Beware Tsunami Internet Frauds
       To Protect Its "DNA," Apple Sues Thinksecret.com
       Software Group Wants to Change Copyright Act
       Intel Turns Sand Into Light
       Kodak Camera Is All About Sharing
       Canada Considers Ban of Internet Drug Sales

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: What Happened at the Times?

BEWARE TSUNAMI INTERNET FRAUDS
     The FBI has issued a warning about online frauds that try to capitalize
on the recent tsunami disaster by offering to help tsunami victims or
relatives for a fee. Audri Lanford of ScamBusters.org comments: "Within
hours of 9/11 we had the 9/11 scams. We've seen them for every major
disaster." (New York Times 6 Jan 2005)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/international/worldspecial4/06fbi.html?oref=login>

TO PROTECT ITS "DNA," APPLE SUES THINKSECRET.COM
     Apple Computer is suing the Web site thinksecret.com for allegedly
distributing Apple trade secrets by leaking details of upcoming products.
The suit alleges that Think Secret owner Nick dePlume and other unnamed
individuals posted information on thinksecret.com that could only have been
obtained by someone who had signed a confidentiality agreement with Apple. A
statement from Apple says: "Apple's DNA is innovation, and the protection of
our trade secrets is crucial to our success." But dePlume says he's
confident that Think Secret's reporting is consistent with the rights and
privileges granted by the First Amendment. (Reuters 6 Jan 2005)
<http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=7250030&section=news&src=rss/uk/internetNews>

SOFTWARE GROUP WANTS TO CHANGE COPYRIGHT ACT
     The Business Software Alliance, whose members include Microsoft, IBM,
Intel, Adobe, and other high-tech giants, wants Congress to clamp down on
Internet service providers who allow their users who swap copyrighted
software, music or video files online through services such as Kazaa,
Grokster and Morpheus. The group wants Congress to amend the 1998 Digital
Millennium Copyright Act but has so far offered no specifics on how that law
should be changed -- except to suggest that Internet service providers
should no longer enjoy blanket immunity from liability for piracy by users.
However, the BSA approach has a number of critics, such as Mike Godwin of
the group Public Knowledge, who calls the approach a "terribly bad idea,"
and Verizon attorney Sarah B. Deutsch, who warns: "The best policy is not to
have the service provider become Big Brother. BSA wants its own shortcut, at
the expense of consumer privacy and the ISPs." (Washington Post 5 Jan 2005)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51966-2005Jan5.html>

INTEL TURNS SAND INTO LIGHT
     Intel researchers have developed an all-silicon laser -- a development
that could revolutionize the field of photonics. Mario Paniccia, director of
Intel's photonics lab, says: "You can imagine starting to siliconize
photonic devices, and maybe integrate photonics and electronics." The next
research breakthrough will be to produce a device that emits a continuous
beam, an advance that would be more useful for communications than the light
pulses that have been generated up to this point. (AP/San Jose Mercury News
6 Jan 2005)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10580384.htm>

KODAK CAMERA IS ALL ABOUT SHARING
     Kodak new EasyShare-One digital camera, which allows users to send
images directly from the back of the camera itself, is billed as the first
camera to allow consumers to transmit or print images without first
connecting to a personal computer, digital imaging kiosk or printer. The
camera also provides new levels of on-board photo storage, the largest LCD
screen of any digital camera on the market, and high-speed connections to
Kodak's online photo service. A Kodak executive says, "This is much more
than just another camera introduction. It's about giving consumers the
ability to instantly share a picture while they're still in the moment."
Michael Miller, editor of PC Magazine, says: "I think the concept is
terrific. Connectivity is part of way of future. All of these devices are
going to talk to each other. The fact that we're moving ahead in doing that
is terrific."
(USA Today 5 Jan 2005)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/gear/2005-01-05-easy-one-review_x.htm>

CANADA CONSIDERS BAN OF INTERNET DRUG SALES
     Canadian health officials have drafted a proposal that would ban
Internet sales of prescription drugs to U.S. consumers and effectively
destroy a $700 million industry that has become increasingly popular with
patients in search of cheaper medicine. Within Canada's socialized medical
system, the Canadian government sets drug prices lower than those charged in
the U.S., and Canadian doctors now co-sign prescriptions for U.S. patients
without examining them in person. The new proposal would prohibit
prescriptions for foreigners who are not present in Canada. (AP/Los Angeles
Times 6 Jan 2005) 
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology16jan06,1,5069557.story?coll=sns-ap-toptechnology>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel
myself infinitely the happier for it." (Thomas Jefferson)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: WHAT HAPPENED AT THE TIMES?
     In a book highly critical of the way the New York Times has evolved in
recent years, attorney Bob Kohn examines the issue of opinion and bias in
news reporting:
     "Today, it seems, newspapers are in the business of identifying
solutions to society's problems and influencing public opinion to agree with
those solutions. News gathering and reporting are no longer the ends of the
newspaper; they have become merely a means to an end.
     "Over the course of the past fifty years, the line between the
editorial opinion and the news article has become increasingly blurred.
Today, the two are nearly indistinguishable. Though maintaining some
stylistic differences, the editorial opinion and the news article have the
same purpose and often work in tandem to maximize the newspaper publisher's
influence over public opinion.
     "The profession has become very open about these changes. In 1975, when
the American Society of Newspaper Editors assembled to rewrite the code of
ethics that served them for nearly fifty years, they took their original
canon -- 'News reports should be free from opinion or bias of any kind' --
and turned it on its ear with the following: 'Distinguish between advocacy
and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not
misrepresent fact or context.'
     "No longer did the society stress that news be free from opinion or
bias of any kind. The focus shifted away from how news reports should be
written to how 'analysis and commentary' should be labeled. The
straightforward canon established in the 1920s was replaced with the rather
vague, 'Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting.'
     "Those in the profession -- whose day-to-day tools of trade are words
and their meaning -- fully understood the future they were forging. The
message they sent to their fellow editors and reporters was now clear:
straight news articles need no longer be 'free from opinion or bias of any
kind.' And while the new ethics code elsewhere demands that the deliberate
distortion of facts is 'never permissible,' it merely recommends that
analysis and commentary 'should be labeled.'"
                             ***
[To purchase a copy of Bob Kohn's "Journalistic Fraud: How The New YorkTimes
Distorts the News and Why It Can No Longer Be Trusted," go to <
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0785261044/newsscancom/ref=nos
im>
-- or to find a library copy of Harrison Salisbury's (more favorable) 1981
book about the Times called "Without Fear or Favor: The New York Times and
Its Times," purchase a copy go to:
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=22835268&"Note:Wedonateallrevenuefromourbookrecommendationstoadultliteracyprograms.]SUBSCRIPTIONINFOFORNEWSSCANDAILY:Tosubscribeorunsubscribetothetext,html,orhandheldversionsofNewsScanDaily,sendtheappropriatesubscribeorunsubscribemessages(i.e.,withtheword'subscribe'or'unsubscribe'inthesubjectline)totheaddressesshownbelow:Textversion:[email protected]:[email protected]:http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.htmlTELLYOURFRIENDSABOUTNEWSSCANDAILY!Sendthemourlittlefrog:http://www.newsscan.com/newsscan/newscup.html***********************************************************PleasevisitthesiteofRLG,thegreatorganizationthatmakesNewsScanDailypossible.(RLGhasnoinfluenceover,noranyresponsibilityfor,oureditorialcontent.)Createdin1974astheResearc
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