News : House Bill Seeks to Exempt Backups from DMCA Violation

In an announcement Tuesday afternoon prior to the publication of the bill by the Library of Congress, Reps. Rick Boucher (D - VA) and John Doolittle (R - CA) introduced a bill that apparently would grant a new exemption for private, non-commercial copies of digital content, from violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act - technically creating a new class of "Section 1201 exemptions."

"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public's right to fair use," reads a prepared statement from Rep. Boucher's office. With a seasoned lawmaker's skill at creating acronyms, the statement continues, "The FAIR USE Act [Freedom And Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007] will assure that consumers who purchase digital media can enjoy a broad range of uses of the media for their own convenience in a way which does not infringe the copyright in the work."

On Wednesday, we learned the new bill would be assigned the same number as a previous bill sponsored by Boucher in the 109th Congress, that ended up going nowhere. So the "Boucher Bill" is still H.R. 1201 - ironically, the same number as the section of US code that the DMCA supplements. (Never let it be said that Congress is immune from numerological superstitions.)

There will likely be other purposes for the new H.R. 1201, as evidenced by its title's reference to "entrepreneurship" -- we'll probably know more later Wednesday when the text of the introductory language is likely to be published. Boucher's office's statement acknowledges that the FAIR USE Act as introduced will differ substantively from the previous H.R. 1201.

But last year's bill's main purpose was to establish a labeling system for warning consumers when a compact disc includes copy protection. The Librarian of Congress has since allowed a 1201 exemption for copy protection circumvention in audio CDs, rendering another section of the old H.R. 1201 redundant.

More likely than Boucher's staffers may be aware, the FAIR USE Act is more likely to re-introduce language from another bill which stalled in the 109th Congress, introduced in December 2005 by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D - CA) - a co-sponsor of the new bill. That previous legislation would have amended US Code Section 1201 with this language:

"It is not an infringement of copyright for a person who lawfully obtains a copy or phonorecord of a digital work, or who lawfully receives a transmission of a digital work, to reproduce, store, adapt, or access the digital work: (1) for archival purposes, if all such archival copies are destroyed or rendered permanently inaccessible in the event that continued possession of the work should cease to be rightful; and (2) in order to perform or display the work, or an adaptation of the work, on a digital media device, if the work is not so performed or displayed publicly."

But Boucher's statement today also said the new bill would not establish a "fair use defense to the act of circumvention," which would have given consumers a legal shield in case of lawsuits. Instead, the new language will define "circumvention" as the bypassing of digital locks. It apparently will not make illegal the use of such digital locks - for instance, the multitude of keys cryptographically generated by AACS.

As lawmakers argued during prior debates, circumventing copy protection schemes is not a right that the law can guarantee. Apparently this new legislation recognizes that as a fact, and is adopting a new strategy that simply pares down the DMCA. Content producers would not be able to claim copyright infringement in lawsuits against alleged copy protection violators; whether they will remain capable of claiming they contribute to piracy - and would then be liable for damages - remains to be seen.

Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro voiced his support for the new bill Tuesday afternoon. In a prepared statement, Shapiro said, "This bill will reinforce the historical fair use protections of constitutionally-mandated copyright law that are reflected in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It ensures that consumers, libraries and educators will not be liable for otherwise legal conduct and it codifies the important principles of the Supreme Court's Betamax decision. H.R. 1201 provides much needed fair use protection at a time when some in the content industry are challenging consumer rights to make use of lawfully acquired content."

News : WSJ AOL to Acquire Mobile Ad Provider

AOL is rumored to be close to a deal with Third Screen Media, a mobile advertising startup, The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday. The company had previously been in talks with Microsoft over a possible deal, however negotiations fell apart. The AOL deal is said to be worth some $80 million, and is "fairly advanced," the paper reports.

The purchase of Third Screen would make sense for AOL, as it has transitioned away from a subscriber-based to an ad-supported business model. While at the current time the market for mobile advertising is small, it is expected to grow over the next several years. Neither AOL nor Third Screen would comment publicly on the latest rumors.

News : YouTube Launches NBA-branded Channel

A partnership between the NBA and YouTube will allow users of the popular site to view original content from the league, as well as post their own videos to share with others.

The most popular videos will then be featured on a weekly show on the NBA's cable network called "NBA Top 10 on YouTube. The feature was launched on Monday, the league said.

"NBA fans will be able to interact and share their passion for the game by posting their 'best moves'," Commissioner David Stern said. "YouTube's popularity and wide-reaching community of users provides the NBA with another unique way to reach our fans."

While the submission process may include the posting of copyrighted NBA content, the league appears to not be taking an aggressive stance against preventing it. Rather, it would use YouTube's "Claim Your Content" program to identify its programming and then decide to share in advertising revenue from the post or have it removed.

In addition, Google AdSense will syndicate NBA content through its network, giving publishers the ability to use the league's content on their site.

"We are thrilled to partner with the NBA to give them access to an amazing platform to further engage their fans around the world," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said of the deal in a statement.

The NBA is not the only professional sports league to syndicate their content through the social video site, the NHL has a somewhat similar agreement. The NFL and Major League Baseball currently do not have any type of syndication program with the site.

News : Three-year-old JavaScript Bug Continues to Plague IE7

Last Friday, Polish researcher Michal Zalewski reported discovering an interesting little JavaScript trick that keeps a user stuck on a Web page even though he's trying to navigate somewhere else. His discovery involves the simple use of a JavaScript event to make it appear as though a browser is displaying any particular URL, when it's not.

When the exploit works, the onunload() event triggers the execution of JavaScript code the moment the user exits a Web page - which is how this JavaScript event is designed to work. But from there, the exploit would write information to the Web page without changing the contents of the address bar, potentially enabling a phisher to drop genuine-looking contents into a page to fool the user into thinking he's on a legitimate site.

Of course, the code itself would need to be attached to a page whose authenticity can't be questioned even though the event code hasn't been run yet. That's a tricky maneuver unless the HTML framework is being run by an e-mail client whose JavaScript interpreter is enabled.

In BetaNews tests of Zalewski's test page in IE7 on multiple Windows machines, including two XP-based systems and one Vista-based Virtual PC-driven environment, the test page failed to spoof a Web site effectively when the user attempts to exit the page by clicking on a link in IE7's Links toolbar or Favorites list. While the user is still stuck on the test page, the address bar continues to read the test page's address.

However, when an address is typed manually into the IE7 address bar, the user remains stuck on the Web page while the address bar continues to read what the user typed. If the user tries clicking Links or Favorites again, the page remains stuck, and the address bar continues to show what the user typed. Apparently, when IE7 allows JavaScript to process the onunload() event, it does not change the contents of the address bar - it continues to show whatever it did before.

Master Plan (Google Introduction) - videos

Google - The Best Place To Work - videos

News : Charter Debuts SiteFinder-like Service

Charter has apparently implemented a feature that is similar to that which both VeriSign and EarthLink have instituted in the past to redirect unused domains to a company-produced page with advertising, its customers report.

According to users of the Web site broadbandreports.com, customers are sent to a search page that includes several advertisements across the top half of the page, with a search results page powered by Yahoo! Search.

The page is similar to one implemented by EarthLink in September of 2006, however it does not include suggestions on possible matches for the domain the user may be attempting to navigate to.

Verisign in 2003 also attempted to redirect unused domains to a site called "SiteFinder," however opposition to the program was so strong that it was forced to take the service down after ISPs threatened to block it and ICANN ordered it to stop redirecting unused domains.

Similarly, Charter's users are not happy. "While some may refer to his as "404 Hijacking", the underlying problem is the corruption of a core Internet Protocol/RFC which states unknown hosts MUST return SERVFAIL," one user wrote.

By returning SERVFAIL, the browser will know that a page does not exist. Since the response is received on the DNS server end, it means that the 404 errors never make it to the user's browser.

A user may opt out of the feature, customers report, but that merely changes the server redirect to search.msn.com.

Charter had not commented publicly on the change, and according to reports, its technical support was telling users that it was not aware of the new redirection policy.

News : Google Desktop Flaw Disclosed, Fixed

A flaw discovered in Google Desktop Search last year could have opened up users to the risk of having their personal data compromised. However, the issue was fixed within weeks of its discovery.

Google says that it had no evidence the vulnerability was ever exploited. According to a statement by Massachusetts-based Watchfire, the security firm that discovered the flaw, an attacker would be able to gain access to sensitive data, and in some cases full system control.

Watchfire says the problem is due to the way Google Desktop fails to encode output that contains malicious or unexpected characters. The company also said that the issue can be found in about four out of every five Web applications.

"Application security vulnerabilities need to be taken seriously," Watchfire CTO Michael Weider said. "As the potential damage of a Cross Site Scripting attack against a desktop application with a Web interface is enormous, Web application security must be comprehensively evaluated and continually monitored."

Vulnerable PCs could be infected in several ways, including through e-mail attachments. Once in, the attacker could use Google Desktop search itself in order to find and access sensitive data.

Google Desktop automatically updates itself, and the flaw had been repaired as of February 1, according to Watchfire. However, there could be other attempts on cracking data within the application, including one for the link that Google places between Web and desktop information.

But the search company denied that any risk was present, as it had taken all steps necessary to remedy the issues brought up by the security firm.

News : The Story of Sergey Brin - shares the space with his Google cofounder

How the Moscow-born entrepreneur cofounded and changed the way the world searches

Mark Malseed

It takes a bit of searching to find Sergey Brin’s office at the Googleplex. Tucked away in a corner of Building #43 on this sprawling campus near the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, past rows of colorfully decorated cubicles and dorm-like meeting spaces, Office 211 has a nondescript exterior and sits far from the public eye. Although it takes several twists and turns to get there, his office is not protected—as you would expect for the cofounder of a $150-billion company—by a Russian nesting doll’s worth of doors and gatekeepers.

Sergey, 33, shares the space with his Google cofounder, fellow Stanford Ph.D. dropout and billionaire pal, 34-year-old Larry Page, an arrangement that began eight years ago in the company’s first humble headquarters in a Menlo Park, California, garage. Since then, Google has grown from just another Silicon Valley startup into the world’s largest media corporation; in fact, based on its recent stock price of $513 per share, Google, which has made searching the Web easy and even fun, is larger than Disney, General Motors and McDonald’s combined. It achieved these lofty heights by revolutionizing how people surf the Internet: Before Sergey and Larry analyzed the links between web pages to deliver search results speedily based on relevance, looking up information on the Web was a shot in the dark.

Stepping through the sliding glass door into their office is like walking into a playroom for tech-savvy adults. A row of sleek flat-screen monitors lining one wall displays critical information: email, calendars, documents and, naturally, the Google search engine. Assorted green plants and an air purifier keep the oxygen flowing, while medicine balls provide appropriately kinetic seating. Upstairs, a private mezzanine with Astroturf carpeting and an electric massage chair afford Sergey and Larry a comfortable perch from which to entertain visitors and survey the carnival of innovation going on below. And there is ample space for walking around, which is absolutely essential for Sergey, who just can’t seem to sit still.

Trim and boyishly handsome, with low sloping shoulders that give him a perpetually relaxed appearance, Sergey bounces around the Googleplex with apparently endless energy. He has dark hair, penetrating eyes and a puckish sense of humor that often catches people off guard. A typical workday finds him in jeans, sneakers and a fitted black T-shirt, though his casual manner belies a serious, even aggressive sense of purpose. This intensity emerges during weekly strategy meetings, where Sergey and Larry—who share the title of president—command the last word on approving new products, reviewing new hires and funding long-term research. Sergey also holds sway over the unscientific but all-important realms of people, policy and politics. Google’s workers enjoy such family-friendly perks as three free meals a day, free home food delivery for new parents, designated private spaces for nursing mothers, and full on-site medical care, all of which recently led Fortune magazine to rank the company as the #1 place to work in the country.

The co-presidents share management duties with Eric Schmidt, a seasoned software executive whom they hired as chief executive officer in 2001 to oversee the day-to-day aspects of Google’s business—in short, to be the “adult” in the playroom. But they have no intention of ceding control. Since day one, they have resisted outside meddling, preferring to do everything their own way, from opting to piece together computers on the cheap (and build a computer casing out of Lego blocks) to flouting Wall Street in an unconventional initial public offering.
Blazing one’s own trail comes naturally to Sergey. The Moscow-born entrepreneur and his parents have been doing it their entire lives.

Read more

News : Vonage, Verizon in Court Over VoIP

Vonage is set this week to appear in court to face charges that it has infringed on patents owned by telecommunications giant Verizon. Altogether, the nation's largest VoIP provider is accused of violating seven patents covering telephone features and the use of Wi-Fi to place telephone calls. If Vonage loses the case, it could put in jeopardy what has become one of the fastest growing Internet services, and force a lot of smaller providers out of business.

While Vonage disputes Verizon's claims, judges have so far seemed to side with the Baby Bell, saying there was enough evidence to allow all of the company's claims to go to trial. Verizon is seeking unspecified damages, and would likely seek and injunction as well to prevent Vonage from using the services.

News : Vista Hardware Assessment Tool Addresses Upgrade Dilemmas

Perhaps the most oft-asked question by consumers with regard to whether they should adopt Windows Vista is whether their six-month-old or older hardware is too obsolete for Vista to make good use of it. Users have already been told to expect to say, "Wow!" but is this necessarily a good kind of "Wow?" This morning, Microsoft released for free download the XP version of its Vista Hardware assessment tool, whose aim is to tell consumers what they may need to upgrade in order to put the best polish on those heavily anticipated exclamations.

As a "bonus," the Windows Hardware Assessment tool installs SQL Server 2005 Express, which is its database tool built on the .NET Framework. It isn't SQL Server 2005; if you've already installed that, Express will still need to be installed separately.

Of course, since you need SQLS '05 Express, you need .NET Framework 2.0, which means by the time consumers have installed the Assessment tool, they're already partway to Vista. The Assessment tool uses SQL Server Express to build a local database of systems throughout your network, scanning their capabilities remotely if necessary, so you don't have to install the tool on every system.

What's most impressive about this tool is its remote access capability. It prefers to use Active Directory to contact the installed systems in your network, but for peer-to-peer networks where no AD is installed, the tool tries using NetBIOS - not the preferred method for networking in the Windows Server era, mind you, but this tool will probably be assessing a few Windows for Workgroups networks.

One interesting problem - if you can call it that - that we observed during our tests was that the Assessment tool could not peer through an active firewall. For the tool to work properly on our test network, which included three remote computers, we would have had to have turned off our ZoneAlarm Pro firewalls - which we might do sometime if we truly feel like a downgrade.

Last year, Microsoft introduced a concept called the Windows System Performance Rating (WSPR), which is a five-point scale that characterizes the relative capability of users' computers, in a similar way that "Yellow" characterizes the US' terrorism readiness state. At that time, graphics card producer ATI (which has since been absorbed into AMD) touted the WSPR rating as essential to buyers' ability to match system hardware with the games and high-end applications they want to run in Windows. ATI's hope was that software manufacturers, especially in the gaming categories, would advertise their wares with the appropriate WSPR rating for hardware to take full advantage of them.

Since that time, Microsoft has throttled back its WSPR promotion, which during the Vista beta period seemed as though it would be one of the new operating system's defining elements. The Vista Assessment tool now outputs its results as a Word document and an Excel database (the latter of which requires Office 2007). The spreadsheet only lists the systems requiring upgrades, rather than logging the specific tests performed, which might have been more adequate.

According to the report, there are now three plateaus to which the Vista user may want to ascend: Vista Ready, which simply enables the operating system to run and to run programs; Vista Capable, which is described by Microsoft as capable of running Vista but not likely the 3D Aero environment; and Vista Premium Ready, which Microsoft describes as enabling Aero.

In our initial test, the only system the tool was able to scan without firewalls was the local one on which the tool was run: an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600-based system using a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 motherboard with an Intel P965 Express northbridge, 2 GB of DDR2 DRAM, and an XFX graphics card with an nVidia 7900 GT GPU and 512 MB of GDDR, a top-of-the-line Asus DRW DVD burner, and an 80 GB and 160 GB hard drive, all running Windows XP SP2.

Certainly no slouch of a system, though I was surprised to find that the Assessment tool doesn't think it's ready for prime time as far as Vista is concerned. The tool declared it "Vista Ready," though "Not Vista Capable." The graphics card was fine, though for hardware upgrade recommendations, the tool said it didn't like our hard drive capacity. Whether it tested the two drives in combination was not clear. For the full Premium experience, the tool recommended we upgrade our optical disc drive, though it did not say how or to what level.

If there was a lesson learned here, it's that Microsoft appears to be assessing a computer's relative Vista worthiness not on its ability to run applications but instead to stream video from hard drives. Streaming video is typically more data-intensive than other categories of applications. If you're an XP user, we'd like to hear what Microsoft says you need to buy, versus the level of performance you've already invested in.

News : Russian MS Software Piracy Case Thrown Out

A highly publicized piracy case against a schoolteacher in Russia was dismissed on Thursday, with a Russian District Court saying the case against the man was "trivial."

Alexandar Ponosov's plight was high profile enough to move former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to step in and plead with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of the man, saying he did not know he was committing a crime.

However, Microsoft responded by saying that it had no intention of making a civil case against Ponosov, adding the Russian prosecutors office initiated the court case. Gorbachev later said he was satisfied with Microsoft's response.

Even Russian president Vladmir Putin disagreed with prosecutor's actions, noting that manufacturers of pirated discs should be targeted, and not consumer.

Ponosov claims that the computers he bought for the school he managed came with the pirated software already installed, but prosecutors argued that he had knowledge that the software was illegitimate.

The prosecutor had claimed that Ponosov caused up to 267,000 rubles ($10,000 USD) in damages. However, he instead asked for a 3,000 ruble fine, equivalent to $110 USD, in lieu of the standard prison term.

When asked for his reaction to the judgment by the Associated Press, Ponosov replied, "We're off to drink champagne now...Of course it was trivial."

Neither Microsoft nor the prosecutor involved in the case were available for comment

News : Microsoft Fixes Zero-Day Word Flaws

Microsoft on Tuesday released a bevy of patches, including three critical patches for the Microsoft Windows operating system, two for Office, and a critical patch for its antivirus and anti-malware software products.

Altogether, twelve patches were released, and the Redmond company finally addressed the issues within Microsoft Word and Office that were being exploited in zero-day attacks. Both Office patches dealt with code execution issues.

The first patch dealt with a total of six vulnerabilities within Word, including malformed string, data structure, drawing object, and function issues, as well as issues with Word Count and Word macros. The patch is intended for Word 2000, 2002, and 2003, as well as Works Suites 2004 through 2006 and Office for Mac.

Also patched in a separate fix were flaws within PowerPoint and Excel. Both concern malformed record issues that could put users at risk of a code execution attack, Microsoft said.

Of the Windows patches, a fix has been released for the HTML Help ActiveX control which could allow an attack to execute arbitrary code by visiting a specially crafted webpage.

Flaws within Microsoft's Data Access Components were also remedied, as well as a new cumulative security update for Internet Explorer. That patch fixes two issues with the COM object, as well as an issue with FTP server usage.

The last of the critical issues fixes an issue within Microsoft's antivirus software. According to an advisory, the flaw exists in how the Malware Protection Engine processes PDF files. If a specially crafted file is sent through, it could open up a code execution risk.

The remaining patches were all rated important: four remote code execution vulnerabilities in Step-by-Step Interactive Training, Microsoft OLE Dialog, Microsoft MFC, and RichEdit. All, however require user interaction in order to be exploited.

Two elevation of privilege risks were also remedied, which existed in the Windows Shell and Image Acquisition.

Of the patches, security firm PatchLink put the highest priority on the fix for Microsoft's Data Access Components, saying the vulnerability could put at risk secure databases.

"An attacker successfully exploiting this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system to install programs to view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights," vice presdent of security Technologies Chris Andrew said.

"Organizations should review the specifics of this security bulletin and to ascertain level of risk, especially for organizations that are dealing with mission critical or customer data," he continued.

News : StumbleUpon Ports Web Video to Wii

Web site recommendation service StumbleUpon said that along with the redesigned version of its video section that debuted Tuesday, it will begin offering a version of that portion of the site compatible with the Nintendo Wii's integrated Opera browser. Navigation of the site will be done through the controller, the company said, and will allow the user to search, view, rate, and recommend videos.

"Sending video from the web to the TV is something that no shortage of companies are doing or are seeking to do," technology pundit Michael Arrington said of the new service. "I've thought for some time that establishing content deals with hardware makers was the way to do this - but the more ways we see it happen, the more convinced I am that total openness is inevitable."

News : Yahoo Integrates IM into Web E-Mail Client

Following the lead of Google, which has integrated its instant messaging application within Gmail since February of last year, Yahoo on Monday added similar functionality to allow both functions within its web e-mail interface.

Similar to Google Talk within Gmail, conversations would take place in conversation windows within the interface. The feature would be rolled out slowly over the next several months to all users, said Ryan Kennedy, Yahoo Mail Beta Evangelist.

"Aside from the obvious of being able to instantly connect with 73 million Yahoo! Messenger users worldwide, you also get a seamless experience melding instant messaging with email," Kennedy said.

The need to download separate messaging software for the computer is eliminated, which Yahoo says will remove a large barrier to instant messaging to those who may be technically challenged.

Microsoft is now the only one of the big three to not mesh its instant messaging and e-mal services together. While Hotmail will alert a user if a contact is online, the feature requires the Windows Live Messenger application to work, and to launch IM sessions.

Newa : iTunes Starts Selling Lionsgate Movies

Movie studio Lionsgate has agreed to begin selling its movies on Apple's iTunes Store, joining Disney and Paramount and bringing the number of available films up to 400. "Terminator 2," "LA Story," "Total Recall," and "The Blair Witch Project" are among the 150 movies being offered by Lionsgate this month for $9.99.

Lionsgate is a top independent movie studio, and holds a library of over 10,000 films. "We're delighted to offer these incredibly popular Lionsgate films on iTunes, and look forward to adding even more films in the future," remarked Steve Beeks, president of Lionsgate. "iTunes lets users download these wonderful films to watch on their computer, TV or iPod."

News : MP3tunes Storage Service Now Free

MP3tunes, the company started in 2005 by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, is dropping the yearly fee for its Oboe digital music locker service that offers unlimited storage and high-quality streaming over the Web.

The service is designed to rid users of having to carry around their music around wherever they go. "It makes more sense to safely store your music online and sync it or stream it to all the places you listen to music, which is exactly what Oboe makes possible," Robertson said when Oboe launched in November 2005.

However, with the ubiquity of portable music players like Apple's iPod, many users already carry their music around with them and most balked at the $39.95 yearly fee for Oboe. A free version of the service did exist, but it limited song storage and streaming quality to 56kbps - far below CD quality.

Now, Oboe users will receive unlimited storage and Oboe Sync software to automatically upload music to the service free of charge. Customers can then log into the Oboe Locker Web site, which features an AJAX enabled application-like interface, to stream music at 192kbps.

Robertson credited the lessening cost of storage as one of the reasons behind the move. Google, for example, offers over 2.8GB of storage for its Gmail webmail users.

"Oboe gives people access to their own music everywhere -- not just a closed device or PC," stated Robertson. "And we're moving to a world where storage is as cheap as water so we can offer Oboe with unlimited storage for free."

Oboe will now be supported through advertising on the Web site, although a premium service will be offered for the $39.95 yearly fee that raises the individual file size limit from 10MB to 50MB and removes the ads.The Oboe Premium Locker also enables users to access their account through a number of wireless and home entertainment devices, MP3tunes says.

Back when he was the CEO of MP3.com, Robertson launched an online music service that enabled users to stream music from the Web after confirming they owned the CD. The RIAA sued MP3.com shortly thereafter, alleging it was "in reckless disregard of the law" and had no license for the music it was storing.

This time around, Robertson has made a few changes thanks to the ubiquity of broadband. Because users do all the uploading, he says MP3tunes is not responsible for making sure the content is legal. In addition, customers can only listen to their own songs, meaning Oboe is simply serving as a storage provider just like Google's Gmail service or AOL's Xdrive.

News : Final Version of GPLv3 Likely Delayed

Under the Free Software Foundation's previous roadmap, a so-called "last call" draft of the third GPL revision was due by now, with final release set for March. However, recent comments in the tech press indicate that is no longer the case.

Executive Director Peter Brown has indicated that the FSF is still working on release of the final draft of the specification, and would no longer hold itself to the March deadline. However, the organization's Web site has not been updated to indicate a new date.

In comments to CNET News.com, Brown said that FSF has not "made any decision about the final release date," although offered that the organization hoped to make the final draft available within two to three weeks.

GPLv3 has seen its share of controversy, with several open source luminaries attempting to put their two cents into the licensing standard. The most notable of these was Linux creator Linus Torvalds, who threatened to not support GPLv3 over disagreements with its policies on digital rights management.

The next version of the GPL would also make illegal deals like the one struck between Microsoft and Novell for the cross-licensing of patents, which would protect customers of the companies as well. While the license prevents Microsoft from suing Novell, it does not do the same for Novell's customers.

"We're going to say not just that if you receive the patent license, but if you have arranged any sort of patent licensing that is prejudicial among the downstream recipients, that that's not allowed," FSF Founder Richard Stallman recently said.

When GPLv3 is finally completed, it would be the first revision of the open-source license in over 15 years, and would update the license to cover many modern-day uses not considered at that time.

Google history and some pictures

 The original garage google started from!

The garage which has been taken to this photograph, the founder of Google most the garage which first is borrowed probably will put out 8 years ago, is. As for place California state in Menlo Park. It is the case that everything starts from here.

This garage was used for the first 5 months. Address of this garage has not been announced.
So, various enterprises most first have started from the garage. For example in 1938, Hewlett Packard starts from capital of 538 dollars with the small garage in Palo Alto, CA. Steve Wozniak of the Apple in 1976 started with the garage of his parents’ home. And Google started from the garage in the same way, with….

It is 1994, Amazon founder started from the Seattle garage….

In addition, Yahoo stated from a trailer house, not a garage… hard at first…
 

News : Super Size Patch Tuesday No Valentine

 Just one day before Valentine's Day, Microsoft plans to release twelve patches fixing a variety of issues in Windows, Office, Visual Studio, and several other applications. At least five of these patches will be rated "critical."

There could be an easy explanation for the unusually large size of Patch Tuesday this month. Four patches slated for release last month were dropped at the last hour, including a Windows-Visual Studio update that appeared in the advanced notification but never appeared.

If all patches were delivered as expected, it would tie a record for most patches issued in a single month. The last time Microsoft issued this many patches was in August 2006, when ten patches fixed Windows issues, and another two fixed Office problems.

It is fairly likely that one of the Office updates will fix holes now being exploited by a range of zero-day attacks, most of which have appeared since December of last year. At least four unpatched issues exist, according to security researchers.

However, not all of them would be fixed, unless they are bundled into a single patch - only two fixes for Office are due, of which the highest rating would be "critical," and another for both Windows and Office, which has been rated "important."

Most of the patches will come for Windows -- five in total - with at least one being rated "critical." It is possible that the first confirmed flaw in Windows Vista could be fixed, which involves a memory buffer issue in the Win32 library.

BetaNews tests have shown the issue to also affect XP and older versions of Windows.

Of the rest of the patches, one each is expected for the following: an important patch for Windows and Visual Studio; an important patch for Step-by-Step Interactive Training; a critical patch for Microsoft Data Access Components; and a critical patch concern the company's OneCare, Antigen, Windows Defender, and Forefront security tools.

As is standard practice, Microsoft has not released any details of the issues to be fixed by Tuesday's release.

News : YouTube Creators Split $650 Million

The two co-founders behind YouTube received Google stock valued at about $650 million, according to a regulatory filing made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday, while Sequoia Capital, the VC firm that backed YouTube walked away with around $450 million based on Google's current share price.

Google for the first time detailed the $1.65 billion acquisition in the filing, saying YouTube CEO Chad Hurley received 694,087 shares of Google common stock, while co-founder Steve Chen received 625,366 shares and another 68,721 shares held in a trust.

The other big winners in the Google buyout were YouTube's investors, which besides Sequoia included the endowments of Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Oxford and other universities, along with the families behind the Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Getty fortunes.

Jawed Karim, who played an early role in YouTube's development but ended up returning to Stanford University, received around $65 million in stock.

Despite the financial windfall, Google's purchase of YouTube hasn't come without without difficulties. In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google admitted the YouTube acquisition may lead to additional liabilities.

"In addition, our planned acquisition of YouTube may also subject us to additional copyright claims upon the closing of the transaction," Google said. The company warned that any action could cause a loss of revenue.

YouTube has been a popular target for copyright infringement lawsuits, and from the Mountain View, Calif. search company's comments, Google Video is not immune to the same problems. Both allow unmoderated posting of videos, which often includes copyrighted material.

Viacom recently demanded that YouTube pull 100,000 videos that included its content without permission, and new NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker wasted no time taking a stand against YouTube, recently taking the video sharing site and NBCU partner to task for failing to implement copyright protections.

News : Mozilla, Kodak Offer Photo Gallery Tool

 Kodak said Thursday that it had created a new extension in conjunction with Mozilla that would make it easier for users of the popular alternative browser Firefox to upload and share their digital photos. The application supports drag and drop functionality, photo albums, and the ability to add captions directly in the browser window for use when the album is uploaded to Kodak's online gallery.

"We want to provide consumers with easy and convenient ways to do more with their pictures and thanks to the Firefox Companion for KODAK, they can now upload and share faster than ever before," said Madhav Mehra, general manager, KODAK Gallery. The extension is available for download from the Firefox Web site.

News : Microsoft to Share Game Ad Revenue

Casual game developers will soon be able to share in some of the revenue from MSN Games thanks to a new system developed by Microsoft. The new option is available immediately, and could mean as much as $250,000 in shared revenue for the five most popular titles. 

Two levels of participation would be provided. The first level would require little or no change in the development process and would share ten percent of generated ad revenues. The second option would share 20 percent, but would require the developer to add more functionality to their games.

Examples of this added functionality would be localization, Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings, and the creation of a "deluxe" game experience that offers players at least 10 hours of engaging free Web-based gameplay.

Microsoft says this would enhance the overall experience for users, as it gives developers an added incentive to produce more in-depth and engaging games. In turn, this would generate more revenue for both Microsoft and the developer.

"By sharing in-game advertising revenue, we're allowing a more diversified business model that gives our partners more resources to create new, innovative titles for the 13 million people we see every month on MSN Games," Microsoft Casual Games studio manager Chris Early said.

Interested developers should contact their Microsoft distributor to participate in the program. Independent developers can contact Microsoft at MCG@microsoft.com for more details.

News : Wal-Mart Tests Movie Download Service with All Major Studios

 This morning, the US' leading retailer is rolling out what it calls a "beta" of its pay-per-download video service, though the "pay" part is clearly turned on. What immediately differentiates Wal-Mart's Video Downloads Store from its competition -- other than undercutting their prices by about 11 cents -- is that it features new and recent releases from every major Hollywood studio, including Sony (Columbia, Screen Gems, MGM), Warner Bros., 20th Century-Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Lionsgate.

Netflix, Amazon's Unbox, and Apple's iTunes, holding firm on their retail price "suggestions," it behooves them to not risk alienating themselves from their principal retail outlet, which analysts estimate is responsible for at least 40% of all DVD sales to US customers.

Wal-Mart launched this morning with titles such as Warner's Superman Returns downloadable at $14.88, compared with $14.99 at Unbox. Wal-Mart is notorious, even in its retail outlets, for never pricing anything with the classic "99-cent suffix," to help give the appearance of deeper discounts.

While Wal-Mart wrestles with some minor technical issues dealing with its HP Digital Media Platform (a few of which we noticed this morning, such as losing track of the customer ID in sessions lasting longer than five minutes), competitors such as Netflix that were hoping as far back as early 2004 to conquer the broadband download market find themselves playing catch up.

Last month, Netflix announced it was resuming the countdown for its broadband video service, but this time only as a streaming video system rather than downloadable video. Subscribers there could pay $5.99 per month for six hours of online viewing, or subscribe to the full movies-by-mail service for $17.99 per month to receive 18 hours of streaming.

Netflix settled for this deal after negotiations with major studios bogged down in late 2005, after it found itself unable to secure distribution licenses from studios after having announced a distribution partnership with television industry nemesis TiVo.

But ironically, the entry of Wal-Mart into the video market could alleviate one of Netflix' and others' major obstacles to starting or boosting their downloadable services, analysts are saying today. Up to this point, studios have avoided setting their asking price too low for downloadable video, for fear of creating too enticing a price tier for bargain hunters, and in so doing upsetting Wal-Mart, whose relationship must be attended to carefully.

Now, the Wal-Mart price could potentially set a benchmark for the rest of the industry to follow: roughly $15 per first-run title downloaded (subtract 22 cents if you're Wal-Mart).

Ironically, though, for Netflix and potential competitors like Blockbuster to have this roadblock lifted, they may want Wal-Mart's efforts to succeed, in order that the industry and consumers alike will start to perceive $15 as the benchmark movie download price. So any technical support they may be willing to offer at this point to help Wal-Mart get over the initial glitches, may be much appreciated.

News : Apple's Steve Jobs Calls for End of DRM

 Apple CEO Steve Jobs has made a surprise call for the end of digital rights management technology, which is designed to stop copyrighted music from being shared illicitly. Jobs says Apple would sell only DRM-free music on iTunes if it could.

The revelation came in an open letter published on Apple's Web site, which largely responds to concerns over DRM that have come from European countries such as Norway and France. Jobs offers three possible outcomes for the future, but highlights the abandonment of DRM by record companies as the best possible solution for consumers.

Because Apple leads the digital music market by a huge margin in both song downloads and hardware players with the iPod, legislators have told the company it needs to make iTunes compatible with competitors. Norway went so far as to declare the iPod illegal last month, as it locks users into buying music only from iTunes.

Jobs explains in the letter that Apple has determined it cannot open up its FairPlay DRM technology to others, because doing so would open the door for hackers. When negotiating terms with record labels, Jobs says, Apple was forced to stipulate that FairPlay would remain secure or the labels could pull their music from iTunes immediately.

The FairPlay DRM has been cracked in the past, but Apple has been quick to issue updates that close any loophole. "There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still “hide” the keys which unlock the music on the user’s computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation," Jobs writes.

If Apple were to open FairPlay to third party manufacturers and music stores, controlling those secrets would be impossible, he adds. Referring to the Zune, Jobs adds, "Perhaps this same conclusion contributed to Microsoft’s recent decision to switch their emphasis from an “open” model of licensing their DRM to others to a “closed” model of offering a proprietary music store, proprietary jukebox software and proprietary players."

Another solution moving forward is to continue on the same path, where companies sell music designed for specific players and protected by closed DRM systems. Microsoft, Sony and Apple all do this Jobs notes. He downplays "lock-in" concerns by explaining that only 22 songs are purchased from iTunes for every iPod sold, which indicates that the vast majority of iPods are filled with non-DRM music.

But the most controversial idea for the future is one Jobs says would create the best environment for both the marketplace and consumers alike: "abolish DRMs entirely."

"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat," Jobs writes. "If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store."

He explains that most music is still sold on CDs, which have no built-in DRM technologies and can be freely copied and shared over the Internet. "So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none."

Jobs concludes his letter with a swipe at European regulators, noting that two and a half of the big four music labels are located in Europe, and says, "those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free...Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly."

News : Apple, Beatles Settle Trademark Spat

Apple said Monday that it had reached an agreement with The Beatles' Apple Corps Ltd., which settles any trademark issues between the two companies. It is not immediately clear, however, if the settlement includes putting the band's music on iTunes.

It would likely not be known until Tuesday whether the agreement contained such a provision, as that is the day Apple updates its iTunes Store. But the appearance of Beatle music at the Macworld keynote has nevertheless started the rumor mill.

This latest agreement replaces a 1991 pact between the two parties, and would permit Apple to continue using all its trademarks without the threat of legal action. Apple would in turn license some of its trademarks back to Apple Corps.

iTunes would also be permitted to continue operation, a sticking point that brought on this latest round of legal wrangling. However, Apple Corps lost a legal battle with Apple in London's High Court in May, which put the label at a bargaining disadvantage.

"We love the Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. "It feels great to resolve this in a positive manner, and in a way that should remove the potential of further disagreements in the future."

This latest spat was the third time the two companies have been at odds. The first in 1980 was over the Apple name, which was settled for a small sum and with the agreement that Apple would stay out of the music business.

The second involved music software produced by Apple that allowed the computers to play and edit music tracks. This latest suit, specifically over iTunes, began in 2003.

News : iPod, iTunes Have Problems with Vista

If you have an iPod, and plan to install Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, Apple has one word of advice for you: don't.

That's because issues with iTunes 7.0.2 and the next-generation operating system are creating havoc for some users, Apple disclosed on Friday. The problems include issues with purchased music tracks playing, syncing issues, and even incidents where the device becomes corrupted.

Apple advised consumers in an advisory to hold off on upgrading Windows until the next version of iTunes is available, which the company expects to release within a few weeks.

However, those who already have installed Vista, or received a computer with the operating system are advised to take several steps to improve the experience while the company works on a fix.

First, the user should deauthorize all iTunes Store accounts, followed by the enabling of the Disk Use feature on all of their iPods. From there, iTunes should be uninstalled. Apple recommends also reinstalling Vista using a "clean install," although that is not required.

Reinstalling iTunes and reauthorizing the computer should improve the situation, Apple says. But if problems still exist, the company has released a repair tool to assist in the process.

Neither Apple nor Microsoft have had any further public comment on the situation.

News : Google Growth Continues with $1 Billion Profit

 You sometimes know the news isn’t all good about a company’s earnings when it casts a bright spotlight on its revenues; a company can make a lot of money without necessarily earning it. Google is the antithesis of such a company, earning an astonishing one-third of its revenues while still sharing nearly a billion dollars with its traffic generation partners.

Google closed out its fiscal year 2006 having reaped just over $3.2 billion in revenues for the final quarter, a gain of two thirds over the fourth quarter of 2005. Of that $3.2 billion, just over $1 billion of that is net earnings, an 86% annual gain – meaning Google is even more efficient now than it was last year.

Just what does this mean relative to other software giants in the same space? Take a look at the end-of-year quarterly numbers from last week from Microsoft - certainly a healthy company by most standards: Of $12.5 billion in earnings, Microsoft earned $2.6 million (counting a deferral of early Vista sales) – about 21%. By contrast, Google earns 32% of its revenue, a few points down from earlier quarters but still admirable.

Yet it accomplishes this while maintaining a unique business model that allows for revenue sharing with partners in its AdSense and other programs. Google calls these “traffic acquisition costs,” and this last quarter, they were doled out to partners to the tune of $976 million. In the previous quarter, the TAC amount was $825 million, but the news there is that TAC stayed flat as a percentage of revenue: 31%.

In other words, Google is generally controlling its costs, although other costs of revenue did tick up slightly, from 8% in Q3 2006 to 10% in Q4. So while costs are rising –- and some analysts touted that fact this afternoon –- they are more or less rising in proportion with revenue, which is a mark of a well-tuned corporation.

But analysts, whose calculators may still be on the blink even after mis-reporting Microsoft’s numbers from last week, seem to be compelling investors to sell, even though revenues officially exceeded their expectations. Over-emphasis on the fact that costs rose, even though sales rose in tandem, drove Google stock to lose 3% of value in after-hours trading

News : Flickr Users in Uproar Over Login Policy

Flickr owner Yahoo has decided to phase out the separate login for the popular photo sharing site, instead opting to use its own system. While the search engine says the change is intended to make it easier for Yahoo to integrate Flickr into other services, some diehard users just aren't having it.

Yahoo further justifies its decision by mentioning the fact that only one out of every 20 users still uses a non-Yahoo ID. The company originally intended to support both authentication options when it acquired Flickr in March 2005, but changed that policy later in the year.

The old system will be discontinued on March 15, 2007. After that day, all account holders will be forced to use a Yahoo ID in order to sign into Flickr.

"We're making this change now to simplify the sign in process in advance of several large projects launching this year," Yahoo explained in an alert to Flickr users.

That won't be a problem for many. Most users have since adopted the Yahoo ID login process. However, a small but vocal minority refuses to do so. Some of the holdouts hold several Flickr accounts, and under the new policy, they would be required to register for a separate Yahoo account to access each account.

Over 1,366 replies have since been posted to a Flickr Forum topic asking for comments on the move, many of them have been negative.

"Flickr and Yahoo could and should grandfather people into their system who have been here for a while and created the reason that Flickr even got bought in the first place," a user who used the handle 'girltim' complained.

"The experimental, alternative vibe it had in the days before Yahoo is long gone," user 'flickrthrope' lamented. "It's been a slow death, one accomplished through a thousand cuts. So it's on to pastures new."

Yahoo has remained fairly tight-lipped in responding to criticisms, only offering that the changes simplified the sign-in process, and the company would continue to focus on innovation and new functionality for the site. 

News : Verizon Wireless Turns on EV-DO Upgrade

Verizon Wireless said Thursday that it had begun its rollout of its next generation wireless broadband technology, based on the CDMA EV-DO Revision A standard. The technology will give users a slight speed increase in areas equipped with the service. The network will first launch in Massachusetts, including the city of Boston, as well as Richmond and Hampton Roads, Va., Chicago, Ill. and its suburbs, Salt Lake City, Utah, and throughout the state of Florida.

Users will notice the biggest difference in file upload times, which will increase to 300-400 kbps. Download speeds will also increase, with up to 800kbps of downstream bandwidth available, Verizon said. No timetable has been given for the rollout of services to the rest of Verizon's coverage area.

 

News : Zune Executive Leaves Microsoft

One of the executives responsible for the launch of Microsoft's answer to the ubiquitous iPod is leaving the company, it was announced Wednesday. Entertainment and Device corporate vice president Bryan Lee will leave to pursue personal interests. Replacing him will be J Allard, who was responsible with running the company's Xbox business. Microsoft gave no further details as to why Lee had made the decision to leave.

Lee does not leave the Zune division without some success. 10.2 percent of players shipped in December with hard disk drives were Zunes, although overall the Zune was only able to grab a 2.5 percent share. Microsoft expects to sell about one million units by June.