From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Dec 14 21:48:20 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iBF2mJ206415; Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:48:20 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:48:20 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412150248.iBF2mJ206415@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #598 TELECOM Digest Tue, 14 Dec 2004 21:48:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 598 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Software Should Not Be Copyrighted -- Lawsuit (Lisa Minter) Holiday Shoppers Encounter Glitches at Amazon.com (Lisa Minter) Scams Could Alter Holiday Web Shopping - Analysts (Lisa Minter) Google Announces Search Deal with Seven Libraries (Lisa Minter) Re: Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now (AES/newspost) Re: Calling Card Needed -- Short Interaction Sequence (DevilsPGD) Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? (Clark Griswold) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Software Should Not Be Copyrighted -- Lawsuit Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:01:12 EST By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Computer software should not be protected by copyright laws designed for music, literature and other creative works, according to a lawsuit filed in a U.S. court in San Francisco. Intellectual-property consultant Greg Aharonian hopes to convince the court that software makers can protect their products adequately through patents, which provide more comprehensive protection, but are difficult to obtain and expire in a shorter period of time. The case seeks to clarify which laws the $100 billion U.S. software industry uses to protect its products. Currently, software makers like Microsoft Corp. use both copyright and patent laws to protect their creations, as well as "clickwrap" agreements that stipulate terms of use. An official with a software-industry trade group said not every software product is protected by patents. "If you eliminated the ability to sue somebody for copyright infringement, you would eviscerate our ability to go against pirates," said Emory Simon, counselor for the Business Software Alliance, which estimates that U.S. businesses lost $6.5 billion last year to piracy. Aharonian argues in his complaint that software copyright laws violate the right to due process enshrined in the U.S. Constitution because they do not provide clear boundaries for appropriate use. That means industry players and courts do not have a clear idea of the rules. "Until you're sued and a judge makes up his mind about what is the idea and expression (at stake), no one knows," Aharonian said in an interview. In one well-known case, Lexmark International Inc. invoked copyright laws to prevent a competitor from making computer circuits that allow cheaper inkjet cartridges to work on its printers. One court ruled in Lexmark's favor in 2002, but an appeals court in October overturned that decision and allowed rival Static Control Components to sell its inkjet cartridge parts. Aharonian said in his complaint he does not know if he personally has run afoul of copyright laws because he has set up a database of thousands of computer programs to help software companies figure out if their products infringe on existing material. If the owner of any of those programs decides to sue, he could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties and possible jail time. While patents protect an idea -- say, a way to direct traffic on the Internet -- copyrights only protect the expression of that idea, usually the written code that tells the computer what to do. Inventors applying for a patent have to prove their idea is new and original, a process that typically takes years and costs thousands of dollars. Patents expire after 20 years. Anybody who scribbles a poem on the back of a cocktail napkin, by contrast, is protected by copyright laws for 70 years after their death, or 95 years if the work is owned by a corporation.

Both the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office began accepting applications for computer programs in the 1960s. Congress included software in copyright law in 1976. An official with the U.S. Copyright Office declined to comment on the case, but said copyright protection was vital for U.S. software makers. "I think it is fair to say it is the primary means of protecting U.S.-based software," said Kent Dunlap, principal legal advisor to the Copyright Office's general counsel. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Holiday Shoppers Encounter Glitches at Amazon.com Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:03:52 -0500 (EST) NEW YORK (Reuters) - Recent technical glitches have stopped some holiday shoppers from completing purchases at Amazon.com Inc. but the Web retailer's sales are unlikely to be hurt unless the problem persists, analysts said. The biggest problem occurred last week, when the popular Web retailer had an outage that lasted for more than half a day and made its site virtually unavailable to one in five users, according to Keynote Systems Inc. Gomez Inc., which tracks Internet shopping, said it found sporadic outages at Amazon the week after Thanksgiving and last week. Last week, Gomez found it was unable to complete a transaction on Amazon about 12 percent of the time it tried, according to the firm's data. "There have been a number of glitches," said Donna Hoffman, a management professor at Vanderbilt University and co-director of its Sloan Center for Internet Retailing. Amazon is considered "the gold standard in the industry. The concern is that if they're having problems, then what does that mean for the rest of the industry?" she said. Hoffman said, however, that even if Amazon shoppers have encountered technical problems, most of them would be likely to come back to the site and complete their shopping after the glitches are resolved. The site experienced an outage a week ago, Amazon spokesman Craig Berman said. "We have very sophisticated complex systems that have problems from time to time." However, no further problems have come up since then, he said. Berman declined to comment on whether sales were affected by the outage. Stock analyst Martin Pyykkonen, of Janco Partners, said the recent outages have "probably been more than just insignificant" but that he does not see the problem as being a drag on the company's overall sales at this point. "Obviously the whole volume still remains to be seen," he said of the holiday shopping season. Another analyst, David Garrity of Caris & Co., said he is not surprised that Amazon would encounter some "stresses on the system" during the busy holiday shopping season. He said the problems suggest many people are using the Web site. "It indicates very strong demand on the part of consumers," he said. "These are the growing pains of the Internet." Industrywide, online holiday spending so far this season is on track to meet estimates, according to comScore Networks, an Internet research firm. The Internet retail tracker said last week that holiday shopping on the Web, excluding travel and auctions, totaled $8.41 billion between Nov. 1 and Dec. 5, up 23 percent from a year ago. Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has said that the online retailer is poised for record holiday sales, with MP3 players and digital cameras leading the way as this year's hot gift items. Amazon shares rose 78 cents, or 2 percent, to close at $39.83 on Nasdaq. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Scams Could Alter Holiday Web Shopping - Analysts Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:06:36 PST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - While holiday shoppers are purchasing more presents on the Internet, fears of identity theft and online fraud are making them more careful about using the Web, analysts said on Monday. Online scammers are getting more sophisticated and aggressive, and "It's starting to affect (consumer) behavior," said Jonathan Penn, an analyst at technology research company Forrester. "People are less willing to give out information. "We are seeing a lot of them curb their behavior and scale back purchases of good and services online," said Penn. Some consumers are rejecting obscure sites with rock-bottom prices and sticking with more established Web retailers they have used before, he said, adding that the impact on online retailing is difficult to measure. In one survey, conducted by a unit of market research group TNS for anti-fraud services company MarkMonitor, 10 percent of respondents said fears of online fraud would lead them to do less online holiday shopping than they had planned. Nearly 25 percent of the 1,015 adults polled said they had no plans to shop online this season. The findings follow a survey of 1,071 people released in November by TNS and online privacy watchdog TRUSTe, which showed that almost 6 in 10 consumers -- about 49 percent more than in 2003 -- said they planned to cut their online shopping because of identity theft and other privacy concerns. Phishing attacks -- spam e-mails that attempt to lure people to spoof Web sites that ask for personal or financial information that could be used to drain bank balances or fraudulently open credit card accounts -- are on the rise. Phishers, who in the last year had posed almost exclusively as financial services companies such as Citibank or PayPal, have begun tailoring their attacks to the holiday season. In recent incidents, phishers have pretended to be companies looking to confirm online purchases or to verify shipping information, with the aim of hitting people where they are susceptible. "Our sense is that the bank kind of phishing is really the tip of the iceberg," said Mark Shull, president and chief executive of MarkMonitor, also a Web domain registrar. While sellers of counterfeit or gray-market goods -- from luxury items to prescription drugs -- fall into a different category than phishers, they may use credit card information to steal money from unwitting buyers or sell that information to groups that pass it on to underground crime networks, analysts said. Nevertheless, Shull said the MarkMonitor survey showed that some consumers willingly do business with them anyway. To that end, almost 28 percent of respondents said they would throw caution to the wind and knowingly buy a low-priced, good fake of a popular item on the Web for their own use. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Google Announces Search Deal with Seven Libraries Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 11:08:24 EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Web search leader Google Inc. said late on Monday it is working on a project to digitally scan the collections at seven libraries and will make the pages available to Google users over the coming years. oogle, which is putting up a sample of the new information on Tuesday, said it will help scan the entire collections of such partners as the University of Michigan. It also is undertaking pilot programs at places like Harvard University and the New York Public Library. "The goal of the project is to unlock the wealth of information that is offline and bring it online," said Susan Wojcicki, director of product management at Google. When search results yield pages from scanned library books, Google will provide links to search and advertising partner Amazon.com and to libraries where the books can be borrowed. Google will get no compensation for the links. Google is not immediately serving ads on library material, Wojcicki said. The move comes as other search companies like Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft's MSN Internet unit and privately held Grokker also are working to expand their reach beyond just the Web to encyclopedias, library collections and other sources. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: USATODAY.com - Airborne Cell-Phone Ban Likely to Remain For Now Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:05:25 -0800 In article , Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Airlines, rival wireless companies and aircraft maker Boeing are > salivating at the prospect of more in-flight communications services, > including high-speed Internet, or broadband, to meet travelers' > demands. > "Today the high cost of wireless when flying has kept the users low," > telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan said. "But once the cost drops > or once you can use your own phone on board, the quiet air cabin may > be a thing of the past." > Kagan, who does a lot of traveling, said he loves and hates the idea > of making and receiving calls during a flight. > "We should be very careful before opening this up," he said. "Just > think how annoying it is to hear the person behind you shouting to his > neighbor when you are trying to work or read or sleep." I've read news stories in the past about cellphone jammers or blockers for use in restaurants, theaters, library reading rooms, etc. Anyone have any leads on portable, battery-powered versions? ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Calling Card Needed -- Short Interaction Sequence Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 15:10:23 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote: >> When the second call answers the second call starts. > And the more technical response would be "when the call supervises". Sure, but from the payphone's point of view, that happens once: When you dial the calling card access number. Anything after that is still considered one call from the payphone's point of view. ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Is 'Transitional Fair Use' The Wave Of The Future? Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 16:20:34 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com John Bartley wrote: > My Dishplayer just had another new feature pushed to it over the > weekend, without my consent. Dishplayer or one of the newer DVRs? What was the feature? ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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