Week in review: Revenge of the feds

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Netcraft toolbar blocks phishing Web sites that have been reported by other users. A version of the plug-in for Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has been available since December.

The Netcraft toolbar includes other features, too, to help people stay more security-aware when surfing. For example, it includes a risk rating for Web sites, as well as information about the popularity of a site and the country in which the site is hosted, according to the Netcraft site.

In the chips
Processors are in season as chipmakers harvest new crops.

Advanced Micro Devices is turning its attention to the consumer electronics market with a line of Geode chips for gadgets. The new Geode LX800 is an energy-efficient processor for small computers, set-top boxes, TVs and handhelds. The chip runs at 533MHz and is said to provide the equivalent performance of an 800MHz processor from Via Technologies.

Although that's far less oomph than comes with notebook and desktop chips, the processor only consumes about 0.9 watts and does not require heat sinks or fans. This lowers both cost and the overall volume of devices. At the same time, it's an x86 chip, so all the conventional software produced for desktops will run on it.

		News.blog The 'Halley's Comet of rumors'? Find out what Paul Otellini thinks about talk of Apple dumping IBM.

Meanwhile, Intel is keeping busy with its Pentium line. The chipmaker launched new dual-core Pentium D processors and supporting chipsets designed for home and business desktop PCs.

The chips are part of the second dual-core Pentium line Intel has unveiled in as many months. Intel's Pentium 4 Extreme Edition chips were released in April. Now, Intel will offer new 800-series desktop Pentiums in three speeds: 3.2GHz, 3GHz and 2.8GHz.

The initiative is part of the chipmaker's Professional Business Platform, or PBP, and the so-called "platform-ization" of its products--or Intel's effort to market chips based on capabilities other than simply clock speed and to sell supporting technologies along with them.

Intel is also reportedly in talks with Apple Computer to supply chips to the Mac maker. While the idea has been floated for years, this time there appears to be a little more impetus for Apple to convert.

Apple also needs a low-power chip, similar to the processor in Intel's Centrino bundle, for the growing laptop market. IBM currently supplies processors for Apple's G5 desktops, but the chip runs on a maximum of 100 watts--quite a bit of power--and dissipates so much heat that laptops with the chip haven't emerged.

But now comes the tough part. If Apple did port its OS and other applications so that the software would run on Intel chips, it opens the possibility that hackers and clone manufacturers could assemble their own Mac PCs with cheap, generic hardware and store-bought copies of Apple's software.

Coming attractions
Nokia has unveiled a pocket-size Web browser for wireless broadband networks, the Finnish company's first Linux-based device and its first portable product without a built-in mobile phone.

Nokia's tiny tablet
(click to view)

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is designed for browsing and e-mail functions, the phone maker said. The gizmo has a 4-inch horizontal touch screen with zoom and an on-screen keyboard. It can be connected to the Net either from a hot spot or using Bluetooth via a compatible mobile phone.

The tablet runs on the Linux-based Nokia Internet Tablet 2005 edition, which includes desktop Linux and other open-source tools.

The device includes software such as Internet radio, an RSS news reader, image viewer and media players for selected types of media. The company will provide tools to developers using the Maemo platform to work on future versions and OS releases.

For those with dingy kitchen floors, the makers of the Roomba will unleash later this year the Scooba, a robotic floor cleaner designed for hard floors made of materials such as tile and linoleum. It vacuums up loose particles and applies cleaner to soak up dirt, then dries the floor, which also makes it safe for wood.

Scooba tidies up
(click to view)

As with the Roomba and other projects, iRobot teamed up with an industrial giant to develop the Scooba. This time, it was Clorox. One of the big engineering challenges was creating the cleaning fluid. Most such fluids are slippery and would throw off a robot's steering systems.

Storage company Iomega is looking to clean up by increasing the capacity of DVDs up to 100 times, meaning it could, conceivably, create 800GB discs. The company has been issued a patent that covers a method of encoding data on the surface of a DVD so more data--on the order of 40 to 100 times that of current capacities--can be stored. Current DVDs can hold up to about 8.5GB of data. Data transfer speeds would also jump five to 30 times, according to the company.

Also of note
In a new type of online attack, extortionists remotely encrypt user files and then demand money for the key to decode the information...The U.S. House of Representatives approved a pair of bills supporters say will safeguard Internet users from spyware...PalmOne, which makes handhelds bearing the same name, plans to change its name to Palm later this year.

RE: The Elite Torrent fiasco (Likely to be long)

Firstly, I have to say I'm almost shocked it's taken as long as it has been before federal action of this scale. Considering BT is nearly as centralized as Napster was - the only difference being you don't need special software to browse torrent links (just to download them) - I honestly expected there would have been large federal involvement well before this. On the whole, I'm not shocked that they've done what they did.

However, I have a problem with the disclaimer they've put on the Elite Torrents site which reads, in part: "Individuals who willfully distribute or download copyrighted material risk criminal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. 2319."

This is wholly misleading due to the inclusion of the phrase "or download" in the disclaimer.

If we look at 18 USC 2319, it provides the guidelines for punishment for violation of 17 USC 506a - the section regarding criminal copyright infringement. If we turn to 17 USC 506a, we find that "criminal" infringement is (copying the US Code, verbatim):

(a) Criminal Infringement. - Any person who infringes a copyright willfully either -
(1) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, or
(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000,
shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, United States Code. For purposes of this subsection, evidence of reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work, by itself, shall not be sufficient to establish willful infringement.

In other words, simply downloading copyrighted material cannot be deemed "criminal" infringement unless it meets the second of the two requirements. However, the second requirement has a retail value minimum of $1,000 - so while one could argue that copying a blockbuster release movie such as Star Wars Episode 3 might meet that requirement as it has no declared "retail" value as of yet - the cap makes it nearly impossible to actually prosecute someone who occasionally downloads a game or cd mp3 rip or two.

I will say, however, that it does get a bit muddled when dealing with torrents because, typically, someone downloading via a BT client is also sharing what they have downloaded thus far - the backbone of the BT system. But if, hypothetically, you downloaded games from a website or a P2P program, there's no way you can be prosecuted for criminal infringement until you have copied over $1000.00 in retail value.

Let's look at this realisitically: At an ARV of $50.00 a game, it would take you TWENTY full game downloads before hitting the criminal infringement cap; at an ARV of $16.00 for a CD, it would take you 63 full CD rips to reach the criminal infringment cap.

In the case of Elite Torrents, yeah, they can prosecute them under the letter of the law, but the disclaimer is wholly misleading.

[Andrew J Glina]

Thanks

I didn't know that US law said that. That changes a lot.

[George Cole]

Criminal Infringement

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