According to MacMinute, A California judge ruled Thursday that Apple can force three Mac sites--Powerpage.org, AppleInsider and Think Secret--to disclose where they got confidential information about an unreleased Apple product. "Judge James Kleinberg of state court in San Jose, California, refused to shield the publishers from Apple's inquiries," reports Bloomberg. "Lawyers for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that seeks to protect civil liberties related to technology, sought the order on behalf of the publishers. 'We're disappointed that the tentative ruling was a denial,' said Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer for the foundation. He said he would appeal the ruling." In December, Apple filed a suit seeking to force the three sites to turn over information about the person who leaked details on an unreleased product code named "Asteroid."
For years criminals have been able to set up fake websites in the hopes to lure customers of those sites to enter their usernames and passwords, or other private information. These “phisher” sites would then take that information and use it to empty Paypal accounts, or Debit card accounts, or access Ebay accounts to sell non-existent high price products. Finally Democrat Patrick Leahy, has introduced a new federal anti-phishing bill that would impose jail terms up to five years and fines up to $250,000 for criminals creating fake web site designed to con consumers in to giving them their personal information.
Did you ever wonder what information was on the magnetic strip on the back of your credit card? Well you’re not alone, many folks would love to find that out. Now a Sourceforge project has begun that gives you the tools to capture, modify, validate, analyses, and shares data from your magnetic stripes. “The data is captured through different hardware interfaces (or stdin), the contents decoded into the correct character set, and then a CDDB-like database attempts to figure out what the contents mean”
Starting today, many users of new, unregistered copies of Microsoft Windows will have to make a phone call in order to activate the software's license. In a move to curb piracy of its flagship operating system, Microsoft has disabled the Internet activation alternative, now requiring these users to orally confirm their use of the product.
How would you like to have the power to write about any company you liked at put the spin on it in a way that made them look like the only Podcasting company in the whole world. This smells of journalistic abuse. Great analysis of the article here. [www.thetwowayweb.com]
A new day brings another Class Action Lawsuit to the technology front. This time Dell is being named by a California firm for a bait and switch tactic on their low price systems and for allegedly replacing parts that you order with cheaper parts. Dell was accused of advertising a high profile, low price system and when you call to purchase it, they tell you it’s no longer available at that price, or just no longer available at any price.