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Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft threatens Halo 3 gamers with LIVE ban (pro-g.co.uk) 7

Submitted by
JamesO
JamesO writes: "When contacted by Pro-G a Microsoft rep confirmed rumours that gamers who play Halo 3 early will have their LIVE accounts banned. Simply not connecting to the internet doesn't appear to be a solution either. The rep also confirmed that Microsoft is able to ban accounts based on information collected by the console which shows when the game was played. This news is sure to come as a shock to some gamers who have already started playing the final chapter in the blockbuster Halo trilogy.

This appears to suggest that games who play Halo 3 before the official street date will only avoid a ban if they never access Xbox LIVE. Microsoft is preparing an official statement on the Halo 3 banning scandal. We'll give you more on this breaking news story as we get it."
Music

Canada's Copyright Cops Give Go-Ahead For iPod Tax 230

Posted by Zonk from the pay-for-your-piper dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist reports that the Canada's Copyright Board has given the go-ahead for a new copyright tax on iPods, despite an earlier court decision blocking the fee. The Board apparently ruled that not including iPods would make criminals of millions of Canadians and that the levy could conceivably be applied to cellphones and personal computers. 'If we're going to make P2P legal through a levy system, the system must (1) address both downloading and uploading; (2) consider addressing non-commercial use of content; (3) cover audio and video; and (4) more closely link the copying to those paying the levy. The government has yet to play its hand on this issue, but with the prospect of an unpopular levy and mounting pressure for a Canadian fair use provision, it will have to take a stand sometime soon.'"
Privacy

Submission + - Senators propose labels for adult Web Sites

Submitted by
gral
gral writes: "From the article:

Operators of Web sites with racy content must label their sites and register in a national directory or be fined, according to a new U.S. Senate proposal that represents the latest effort among politicians to crack down on Internet sex.

No to a red light district on the web, but code embedded in a page to designate content, that's OK.

ZDnet Story"
Businesses

Submission + - RIAA making the college rounds again

Submitted by
Sherrod
Sherrod writes: "Hi! I'm writing to let you know of an email that just went out across my school, the College of William & Mary. It said that the RIAA has done some investigating and discovered 12 IP addresses accused of "illegal use of copyrighted materials." I wasn't one of the 12 (thanks to iTunes), but it's scary nonetheless! The College has refused to give out names even under threat of subpoena, but has directly emailed those 12 in violation. What's interesting is I know WELL over 12 people "illegally using copyrighted materials", so I'm curious as to how exactly they only got 12. I have the full email on my site."
AMD

Submission + - AMD Donates Servers to Groklaw

Submitted by
Core 2 Duo
Core 2 Duo writes: "Apparently, someone at AMD noticed that Groklaw has been having trouble running on the old IBM servers ibiblio uses, so they donated two powerful AMD Opteron servers to ibiblio specifically for Groklaw's use. Let's hope this move indicates that they will pay more attention to open source and ATI graphics card driver issues in the future, in spite of the earlier discouraging news about their new DRM. Curiously, this means that Groklaw is no longer hosted by IBM's servers, but SCO's own investor relations website is. Perhaps SCO will go subpoena themselves for being an IBM "front"?"
Communications

Thousands of White House E-mails Deleted 799

Posted by Zonk from the they-have-also-misplaced-their-homework dept.
kidcharles writes "The Washington Post reports that in the midst of an investigation by the U.S. Congress into the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Department of Justice, numerous White House e-mails have been lost. Among them are communications from presidential adviser Karl Rove. Parallels are being drawn with the infamous '18 minutes' missing from the Nixon Watergate tapes. Also at issue is the use of Republican National Committee e-mail domains (such as gwb43.com and georgewbush.com) rather than the official White House domain. This is a violation of the Presidential Records Act."
Security

Submission + - Big Virus Outbreak Today - 60 Times Normal Levels

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Postini which processes more than 2 billion messages a day, is tracking a massive virus outbreak today that is set to be the largest attack on email in more than a year. Initial reports from Postini's global data centers indicate that today's attacks have driven virus levels 60 times higher than average daily levels on the Internet. Today's attack includes two variants. Emails with "love" related subject lines and an executable attachment that contains a Trojan virus, and emails with Worm Alert! in the headline containing an attached .zip file with an infected payload. Earlier in the week a similar attack took place with the subject lines focused on "missile attacks" starting World War III. These attacks are all variations of the same malware family as the "Storm Worm" attacks that plagued Email users around the world earlier in the year. When a user clicks on the attached executable, a rootkit is installed that attempts to hide its presence from virus scans as well as disable existing anti-virus applications. Then it will connect to a peer-to-peer network where it can upload data including personal information from the infected computer as well as download additional malware. The infected computer then becomes a bot-net zombie that can be used to send spam and issue other attacks. At the same time that it is connecting to the P2P network, the virus will search the computer's hard drive for email addresses and begin replicating itself by sending emails to the addresses that it finds. These attacks make this the most active week for Internet email attacks in more than a year.
Spam

Submission + - Spam-bot intrusion caught! Now what?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I've recently detected and halted an intrusion on my home computer, taken some actions to prevent further intrusions, and located the software that was running a bot agent. Cursory examination showed that the bot software is intended for acting as an agent for spamming. Configuration files distinctly point at the user/host/domain of several bot-herders — damning evidence. To whom should I disclose this information for appropriate investigation, follow up, and countermeasures? Nothing would please me more than to see this botnet to be caught and dissassembled, I'm sure much of the internet-using community would support this. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

IAU Rules Pluto Still a Planet 244

Posted by CmdrTaco from the we-can-all-rest-easy-now dept.
scottyscout writes "NPR reports that Pluto has dodged a bullet. An international panel has unanimously recommended that Pluto retain its title as a planet, and it may be joined by other undersized objects that revolve around the sun. Some astronomers had lobbied for reclassifying Pluto as its so tiny. And at least one major museum has excluded Pluto from its planetary display. But sources tell NPR that under the proposal, to be presented at a big meeting of astronomers in Prague next week for a vote, Pluto would become part of a new class of small planets and several more objects could be granted membership."

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