PGWeekly_May_14.txt ****The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, May 14, 2003**** *****eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Nearly 32 Years****** Last Month We Reached 1,000 eBooks for 2003! This Month We Should Reach A Grand Total of 8,000! Today We Passed 7,900!!!!!!! 18 Months Ago We Had Only 4100!!! In The Last 18 Months, 3,800 eBooks!!!!!!! [The Newsletter is now being sent in three sections, so you can directly go to the portions you find most interesting: 1. Founder's Comments, 2. News, Notes & Queries, and 3. Weekly eBook Update Listing.] Note: This Newsletter is going out at least 2 hour later than usual, as we are waiting for official confirmation on one more eBook, which is replacing on we accidentally counted twice. Sorry for the delay. This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter Over Our 31 3/4 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 200 Ebooks/Year-- And Last Year Averaged About That Same 200 eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!! This year we are averaging over 275 per month!!! *** Our newest site is from xmission.com ftp://mirrors.xmission.com/gutenberg http://mirrors.xmission.com/gutenberg rsync://mirrors.xmission.com/gutenberg *** http://www.lisnews.com./article.php3?sid=20030501211246 "Tech book publisher O'Reilly & Associates have announced they are adopting the Founders Copyright program, putting a maximum 28-year copyright term on their titles." *** Request: 'The Story of my experiments with truth' by M. K. Gandhi. *** Please Note The Startup of Project Gutenberg--Canada [Below] and Project Gutenberg of Mexico >> Gabriela Valencia <zane@axtel.net> *** In the first 4 months of this year, we produced 1174 new eBooks. It took us from 1971 to 1998 to produce our first 1,173 eBooks! That's 19 WEEKS as Compared to 27 Years! 64 New eBooks This Week 49 New eBooks Last Week 64 New eBooks This Month [May] 276 Average Per Month in 2003 <<< 203 Average Per Month in 2002 <<< 103 Average Per Month in 2001 <<< 1173 New eBooks in 2003 <<< 2441 New eBooks in 2002 1240 New eBooks in 2001 7,916 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks 5,219 eBooks This Week Last Year 2,680 New eBooks In The Last 12 Months 230 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia ***Week 43 Of The 32nd Year Of Project Gutenberg eBooks*** *Main URL is promo.net Webmaster is Pietro di Miceli of Rome, Italy* Check out our Websites at promo.net/pg & gutenberg.net, and see below to learn how you can get INSTANT access to our eBooks via FTP servers even before the new eBooks listed below appear in our catalogue. The eBooks are posted throughout the week. You can even get daily lists. *** FLASHBACK!!! 1173 New eBooks So Far in 2003 It took us 27 years for the first 1173! That's the 19 WEEKS of 2003 as Compared to 27 YEARS!!! Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #1173 Feb 1998 Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francis Rabelais [ggpntxxx.xxx]1200 Feb 1998 An Anthology of Australian Verse, Bertram Stevens [ozvrsxxx.xxx]1199 Feb 1998 Robbery Under Arms, by Rolf Boldrewood[T.A.Browne][robryxxx.xxx]1198 Feb 1998 Taras Bulba, et. al, by Nikolai Gogol [Gogol #2-7][tarasxxx.xxx]1197 [Author: Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol][Variant spelling: Nicolay Gogol] Contents: Taras Bulba [#2] St John's Eve [#3] The Cloak [#4] How the Two Ivans Quarrelled [#5] The Mysterious Portrait [#6] The Calash [#7] Feb 1998 The Purse, by Honore' de Balzac [Balzac #3] [pursexxx.xxx]1196 Feb 1998 Glasses, by Henry James [Henry James #19][glsesxxx.xxx]1195 Feb 1998 Adventures of Louis de Rougemont, by de Rougemont [advlrxxx.xxx]1194 Feb 1998 The Coxon Fund, by Henry James [Henry James #18][coxonxxx.xxx]1193 Feb 1998 The Old Bachelor, by William Congreve [Congreve#2][oldbaxxx.xxx]1192 Feb 1998 The Double-Dealer, by William Congreve[Congreve#1][dbdlrxxx.xxx]1191 Feb 1998 The Jolly Corner, by Henry James [Henry James #17][jllycxxx.xxx]1190 Feb 1998 The Message, by Honore' de Balzac [Balzac #2] [msagexxx.xxx]1189 Feb 1998 Lair of the White Worm, by Bram Stoker [Stoker #2][lrwhwxxx.xxx]1188 Feb 1998 War of the Classes, by Jack London[Jack London#40][wrclsxxx.xxx]1187 Feb 1998 Poems by Alice Meynell [Alice Meynell #1] [pomamxxx.xxx]1186 Feb 1998 Conflict Between Religion and Science, by Draper [hcbrsxxx.xxx]1185 Jan 1998 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas[Pere][crstoxxx.xxx]1184 Jan 1998 The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer[Rohmer4][rfumnxxx.xxx]1183 Jan 1998 Dope, by Sax Rohmer [Sax Rohmer #3] [dopexxxx.xxx]1182 Jan 1998 The Symposium by Xenophon, trans. by Dakyns [#13][sympmxxx.xxx]1181 Jan 1998 The Sportsman, by Xenophon trans. by Dakyns [#12][sportxxx.xxx]1180 Jan 1998 On Revenues by Xenophon, translated by Dakyns[#11][rvnuexxx.xxx]1179 Jan 1998 Polity Athenians and Lacedaemonians, Xenophon[#10][pltisxxx.xxx]1178 Jan 1998 The Memorabilia by Xenophon, trans. by Dakyns [#9][mmrbixxx.xxx]1177 Jan 1998 On Horsemanship by Xenophon, trans. by Dakyns [#8][hrsmnxxx.xxx]1176 Jan 1998 Hiero, by Xenophon, translation by H.G. Dakyns[#7][hieroxxx.xxx]1175 Jan 1998 Hellenica, by Xenophon, translation by Dakyns [#6][hllncxxx.xxx]1174 Jan 1998 The Economist, by Xenophon, Dakyns translation[#5][econmxxx.xxx]1173 Jan 1998 The Cavalry General by Xenophon, trans. Dakyns[#4][cvlryxxx.xxx]1172 Jan 1998 The Apology by Xenophon, translation by Dakyns[#3][aplgyxxx.xxx]1171 Jan 1998 Anabasis, by Xenophon, translation by Dakyns [#2][anbssxxx.xxx]1170 Jan 1998 Agesilaus, by Xenophon, translation by Dakyns [#1][agslsxxx.xxx]1169 Jan 1998 The Pool in the Desert, Sara Jeannette Duncan [pldstxxx.xxx]1168 Jan 1998 A Strange Disappearance, by Anna Katharine Green [sdsprxxx.xxx]1167 Jan 1998 The Second Book of Modern Verse, Ed. Rittenhouse [sbkmvxxx.xxx]1166 Jan 1998 The Little Book of Modern Verse, Ed. Rittenhouse [lbkmvxxx.xxx]1165 Jan 1998 The Iron Heel, by Jack London [Jack London #39] [irnhlxxx.xxx]1164 Jan 1998 Adventure, by Jack London [Jack London #38] [advntxxx.xxx]1163 Jan 1998 The Jacket (Star-Rover) by Jack London [London#37][jaketxxx.xxx]1162 Jan 1998 Jerry of the Islands, by Jack London [London #36] [jrislxxx.xxx]1161 Jan 1998 The Game, by Jack London [Jack London #35] [tgamexxx.xxx]1160 Jan 1998 Fire-Tongue, by Sax Rohmer [Sax Rohmer #2] [firtgxxx.xxx]1159 Jan 1998 Penrod and Sam by Booth Tarkington [Tarkington #6][pnrdsxxx.xxx]1158 Jan 1998 Penrod and Sam by Booth Tarkington [Tarkington #6][pnrdsxxx.xxx]1158 Jan 1998 Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair from "Les Avaries"[dmgdsxxx.xxx]1157 Jan 1998 Babbit, by Sinclair Lewis [Sinclair Lewis #2] [babitxxx.xxx]1156 Jan 1998 Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie [Christie #2][secadxxx.xxx]1155 Jan 1998 Voyages of Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting[Lofting2][vdrdlxxx.xxx]1154 Jan 1998 The Chessman of Mars, Edgar R. Burroughs [Mars #5][cmarsxxx.xxx]1153 Dec 1997 The Story of the Volsungs [re: Wagner's "Ring"] [vlsngxxx.xxx]1152 Dec 1997 The Nibelungenlied [Another Source for The Ring] [nblngxxx.xxx]1151 Dec 1997 The Danish History/Books I-IX, by Saxo Grammaticus[dnhstxxx.xxx]1150 Dec 1997 From London to Land's End, by Daniel Defoe [DD #6][lndlexxx.xxx]1149 Dec 1997 Itineray of Baldwin in Wales, Giraldus Cambrensis [itwlsxxx.xxx]1148 Dec 1997 From This World to the Next, by Henry Fielding #2[jtwtnxxx.xxx]1147 Dec 1997 Journal of A Voyage to Lisbon by Henry Fielding #1[jlsbnxxx.xxx]1146 Dec 1997 Rupert of Hentzau, by Anthony Hope [See Zenda] [rprhnxxx.xxx]1145 *** Today Is Day #133 of 2003 This Completes Week #19 237 Days/34 Weeks To Go [Our production year begins/ends 1st Wednesday of the month/year] Week #55 Of Our SECOND 5,000 eBooks Perhaps Our 10,000th eBook By The End of 2003! 62 Weekly Average in 2003 47 Weekly Average in 2002 24 Weekly Average in 2001 39 Only 39 Numbers Left On Our Reserved Numbers list [Used to be well over 100] *** In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter: - Intro (above) - Requests For Assistance - Making Donations - Access To The Collection - Information About Mirror Sites - Weekly eBook update: Updates/corrections in separate section 2 New From PG Australia 62 New U.S. eBooks - Headline News from Newsscan and Edupage - Information about mailing lists *** Requests For Assistance: Project Gutenberg--Canada will be starting up soon, please let us know if you would like to volunteer! 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If you have a book that has been scanned but have not yet run through OCR (optical character recognition) please email pg@aldarondo.net with information -- they'd be happy work on it. Also, DP is seeking public domain books not already in the Project Gutenberg collection. To see what is already online, visit http://ibiblio.org/gutenberg/GUTINDEX.ALL (a text file), since the online database doesn't reflect recent additions. Please email charlz@lvcablemodem.com if you have books to send, or simply send them (note that DP generally chops books to scan them, and usually does not return scanned books). More. . . . Do you have Public Domain books your would like to see in the archive? Can they be destructively scanned? If so send them to the Distributed Proofreading Team! Charles Franks 9030 W. Sahara Ave. #195 Las Vegas, NV 89117 We will also have this new address in Chicago! 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January 1st was was the first Wednesday of 2003, and thus ended the production year of 2002 and began the production year of 2003. With 7,916 eBooks online as of May 14, 2003 it now takes an average of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $1.26 from each book, for Project Gutenberg to have currently given away $1,000,000,000,000 [One Trillion Dollars] in books. 100,000,000 readers is only about 1.59 percent of the world's population! This "cost" is down from about $1.92 when we had 5219 eBooks A Year Ago Can you imagine 7,000 books each costing $.66 less a year later??? Or. . .would this say it better? Can you imagine 7,000 books each costing 1/3 less a year later??? At 7916 eBooks in ~31 3/4 Years We Averaged 249 Per Year [About how many we do per month these days!] 21 Per Month .7 Per Day At 1173 eBooks Done In 2003 We Averaged 9 Per Day 62 Per Week 276 Per Month ***Headline News*** From Newsscan "An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous." Henry Ford "There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them. The education system in this country is just terrible, and we're not doing anything about it." (Ray Bradbury) ALL EYES ON iTUNES The success of Apple's newly launched iTunes Music Store has drawn the attention of potential rivals, who will go head-to-head with the popular service when Apple extends it to Microsoft-based PCs at the end of this year. Among the contenders are pressplay and MusicNet, backed by the major record labels; Listen.com's Rhapsody; Musicmatch; FullAudio; and Echo, a music venture backed by Best Buy, Borders Group, Virgin Entertainment Group and others. In addition, AOL plans to introduce a pay-per-download service late this year and Amazon and MSN also are exploring the possibility. "Everyone in the music industry, and the film industry, and others, are looking at Apple and saying, 'Oh my God,'" says Warner Music Group executive VP Paul Vidich. "There's no question it has sparked new interest." Part of the allure of Apple's iTunes is the flexible arrangements CEO Steve Jobs negotiated with the record labels, which enable users to move their 99-cent songs to an unlimited number of portable iPod players, and burn as many as 10 identical CDs containing the same playlist. It's anticipated that many of the competing services will try to duplicate this flexibility, although Apple concedes it will be difficult to match the simplicity and elegance it's achieved with its own hardware and operating system. Meanwhile, several potential online-music players are staying on the sidelines for now. "Apple's success in the Mac environment hasn't yet proven that this is a real business with decent margins," says Yahoo VP Dave Goldberg. "If it is, a lot of major players will get into the space." (Wall Street Journal 9 May 2003) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105242637442964300.djm,00.html (sub req'd) SWAPPERS BOOST MUSIC SALES A Nielsen/NetRatings survey of 36,000 Internet users found that Web surfers who download music from song-swapping sites are more likely to buy music online and in stores, than non-swappers. The research indicates that in the past three months, online music enthusiasts (defined as people who'd downloaded music in the past 30 days) were 111% more likely to buy rap music than the average Internet user. They were also 106% more likely to have purchased dance and club music and 77% more likely to have bought alternative rock than their average online counterparts. R&B, soul music and rock rounded out the top five genres favored by music fans. Greg Bloom, a senior analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings, says that understanding the preferences of online music enthusiasts may help recording executives in their attempts to promote their own, legitimate services: "The de facto standard may be a few years away, but understanding the genres of music that sell well online and offline will be crucial to generating revenue along the way." (Reuters/CNet News.com 7 May 2003) http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-1000420.html?tag=fd_nbs_emed TIVO LICENSES ITS TECHNOLOGY FOR DVD PLAYERS TiVo, maker of set-top devices that enable television viewers to pause and replay live shows, is licensing a bare-bones version of its service to makers of DVD players. The TiVo Basic service will be free, and will allow buyers of the enhanced DVDs to pause live TV shows and record programs selected by time and date, but will not include TiVo's more advanced features, such as the ability to save every Atlanta Braves game played during a set period. However, buyers will be able to upgrade to TiVo's full service for about $13 a month or a one-time fee of $299. Toshiba will be the first company to produce a DVD player equipped with TiVo Basic service, which will be available in retail stores later this year. (Reuters 8 May 2003) http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&ncid=581&e=5&u=/nm/20030508/ tc_nm/tech_tivo_dc EARTHLINK AWARDED $16M IN SPAMAGES A federal judge awarded Earthlink $16.4 million in damages and instituted a permanent injunction against a Buffalo, NY, man identified as the ringleader of a group that used Earthlink's network to send 825 million spam messages over the past year. Earthlink said Howard Carmack and his cronies used Internet accounts opened with stolen identities and credit cards to send junk e-mail. The ruling is the latest in a series of legal actions taken by ISPs against bulk spammers. Last year Earthlink won $25 million in damages in a suit against another bulk e-mailer, Kahn C. Smith of Tennessee, but it hasn't collected the award. The company also has several other lawsuits pending. Meanwhile, last December, America Online won a $6.9 million judgment against a now-defunct Illinois company that specialized in p*rnographic spam. Over the last few years, AOL has won 25 spam-related lawsuits against more than 100 companies and individuals, says a company spokesman. (AP 7 May 2003) http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030507/D7QSJOQ80.html [This Is The Same Process That Elminated Telephone Operators, hee hee!] ACTORS WITH ZERO-AND-ONE TALENTS In the new movie "The Matrix Reloaded," scenes were created by photographing real people and then manipulating them digitally. Producer Joel Silver says: "This is going to change the way people make movies. It's not 'Shrek' or 'Toy Story.' You're seeing reality-based scenes dealing with human characters, and it's designed so you really can't distinguish between the real actor and the ones and zeros. And you're talking about shots that are close-ups on faces, and emotion coming through. There are some really remarkable scenes that the audience will never know were constructed in a computer, or that there's nobody actually in it." (San Jose Mercury News 13 May 2003) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5844940.htm TV-SHOW SWAPPING CATCHES HOLLYWOOD BY SURPRISE The proliferation in European broadband Internet access is fueling a new trend -- TV-show swapping -- which enables European viewers to catch the latest U.S. sitcoms just days after they first air, rather than waiting months for a local network to broadcast them. Jacqueline Hurt, a lawyer specializing in media law, says, "Until now, the effect of the Internet on TV and film has been small because of the speed issues involved in downloading. But with the increased uptake of broadband, and if the quality was acceptable, then this could be a big issue for broadcasters and program-makers^E The value of a program to broadcasters will go down if the program is readily available on the Internet." But broadcasters remain largely unaware of the threat. Yinka Adegoke, deputy editor of New Media Age magazine, says: "No one I know in the industry is aware of it and it is just not on the agenda^E If this goes from being a niche activity to the mainstream it will be virtually impossible to stop. This is exactly what happened to the music industry. Once the genie is out of the bottle you can't put it back in." The range of shows available for downloading currently is focused on the most popular U.S. programs, such as "Friends" and "The West Wing," and programs with loyal fan bases, such as science fiction. (BBC News 7 May 2003) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3006619.stm INTERNET TOILET A HOAX The iLoo, described in a press release last week as a portable toilet with wireless keyboard and an extending height-adjustable plasma screen in front of the seat, doesn't exist: it was just a joke. Microsoft says the hoax press release came from the company's MSN division in the U.K. and was not a "Microsoft-sanctioned communication." It all just goes to show that you can't believe what you read anymore, not even the toilet jokes. (CBS News 13 May 2003) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/13/tech/main553567.shtml [But. . .Will It Read eBooks???] SONY TOUTS 'THE WALKMAN OF THE 21ST CENTURY' Sony announced its latest salvo in the videogame wars: a small, lightweight videogame device called PlayStation Portable (PSP for short), which will hit the shelves toward the end of 2004 and will feature a 4.5-inch screen and a high-end processor for running games. The PSP will be capable of linking by wire to other PSPs, cell phones, PCs and Sony's PlayStation 2. Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi says the PSP will be "the Walkman of the 21st century." (Wall Street Journal 14 May 2003) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105286804328403600.djm,00.html (sub req'd) ALTERNATIVES TO MICROSOFT ARE GETTING WORLDWIDE ATTENTION In a new report called "A Look at Alternatives to Microsoft," the Gartner research firm says that governments throughout the world are encouraging departments and businesses to consider alternatives to support Linux, an increasingly popular alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system. This development is taking place in China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and several European and South American countries. Gartner says the attractiveness of Linux seems to be attributable to widespread perceptions that Microsoft insists on unattractive licensing arrangements and offers inadequate software protections against security breaches. (Information Week 13 May 2003) http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=9901246 SOUTH KOREA'S 'CITIZEN REPORTERS' The increasingly popular South Korean online news site ohmynews.com has more than 26,300 of its readers registered as "citizen reporters" who account for about 80% of the site news coverage (the rest of which is written by ohmynews's 38 professional writers and editors). The mainstream press is critical of ohmynews's journalistic methods, but senior editor and founder Oh Yeon-ho says that his intention is to "say goodbye to 20th century journalism," by showing that every citizen can be a reporter. "We put everything out there and people judge the truth for themselves." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 14 May 2003) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5858507.htm MICROSOFT TOILET PROJECT WASN'T HOAX Microsoft and its public relations firm are now saying that what they themselves thought was a hoax (the development of the iLoo, a portable toilet complete with wireless keyboard and Internet access) actually was a real project of the company's MSN group in the UK. The original press release indicated that the iLoo would offer its users "a unique experience." An MSN product manager now says: " "We jumped the gun basically yesterday in confirming that it was a hoax and in fact it was not," said Lisa Gurry, MSN group product manager. "Definitely we're going to be taking a good look at our communication processes internally. It's definitely not how we like to do PR at Microsoft." In any event, whether really a hoax or really real, the project is now dead -- flushed, as it were. (AP/USA Today 14 May 2003) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-14-iloo-hoax-retract_x.htm You have been reading excerpts from NewsScan NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making significant and sustained contributions to the effective management and appropriate use of information technology. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the text, html, or handheld versions of NewsScan Daily, send the appropriate subscribe or unsubscribe messages (i.e., with the word 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the subject line) to: Text version: Send message to NewsScan@NewsScan.com Html version: Send mail to NewsScan-html@NewsScan.com NewsScan-To-Go: http://www.newsscan.com/handheld/current.html *** From Edupage [White Collar Crime. . .What If This Were Just Plain Robbery???] SEC FILES FRAUD CHARGES The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against K. C. Smith in a U.S. District Court in Tennessee. Mr. Smith, a 20-year-old Kentucky resident, was charged with raising $102,554 through two fake Web sites and millions of spam e-mail messages between May 2002 and February 2003. SEC regulators allege that Mr. Smith's Web site for a fake company, Kryer Financial, offered double-digit monthly returns. Mr. Smith also invented the United States Deposit Insurance Corporation to insure Kryer Financial investments against loss, with a Web site that featured the SEC's official seal. Mr. Smith allegedly used the money he collected for living expenses and neither invested nor insured it. Mr. Smith agreed to a settlement that requires him to return $107,510 of gains and interest. Wall Street Journal, 12 May 2003 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105275277289057500,00.html INTEL DISCLOSES FLAW IN ITANIUM 2 Intel recently announced that an electrical problem can cause computers that use its Itanium 2 processor to behave strangely or crash. While the problem affects only some chips and can be circumvented by setting the processor to run at a lower speed, Intel will replace the processor at customers' request. According to analysts, the problem is uncommon because the machines have been on the market for a year and only recently have problems surfaced. The Itanium line was designed to handle chips from Sun Microsystems and IBM to be used in high-end servers with dozens of processors. The problem has created a ripple effect through the computer industry, with IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell addressing the issue in different ways. Sales of Itanium 2 servers are expected to suffer because the more powerful Itanium 2 6M processor, soon to be released, is unaffected by the glitch. CNET, 12 May 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1006_3-1001010.html GOP SENATORS DROP EFFORT TO EXTEND PATRIOT ACT In a highly negotiated deal this week, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch withdrew a proposal to make the expanded law-enforcement powers of the USA Patriot Act permanent. Civil liberties groups, many Democrats, and a few Republicans strongly opposed extending the surveillance powers, which are scheduled to expire in 2005. Timothy Edgar of the American Civil Liberties Union called the withdrawal a "major victory" and suggested that many believe that "the government has already gone too far with the Patriot Act." As part of the compromise not to extend the Patriot Act, the Senate voted 90 to 4 supporting a bill that gives government officials broader authority to obtain warrants for surveillance. Some argue that such authority could have prevented the September 11 attacks. The Senate bill now moves to the House, where the level of support is uncertain. New York Times, 9 May 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/09/international/worldspecial/09TERR.html FISA WIRETAPS JUMP 30 PERCENT Privacy advocates and civil liberties groups report that the FBI increasingly submits wiretap requests to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which was created in 1978 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), rather than to state and federal courts. Warrants granted under FISA give broader authority for searches than Title III wiretaps, granted by the courts, and receive less scrutiny. Despite a report last year that the FBI had misled FISA on 75 occasions, FISA has never rejected a wiretap request. Last year the number of wiretap applications to FISA jumped 30 percent, from 934 to 1,228, while the number of wiretaps approved by state and federal judges dropped from 1,491 to 1,359. Critics of the system point out that the FISA court meets privately and all records from the court's proceedings are sealed, even to those prosecuted by FISA orders. Beryl Howell, who served as general counsel for the Senate judiciary committee from 1993 to 2003, said, "When it comes to FISA, there are virtually no reporting requirements." Wired News, 9 May 2003 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,58774,00.html SPAMMER FINED, BARRED FROM SENDING UNSOLICITED E-MAIL Internet service provider EarthLink has won a lawsuit against Howard Carmack for sending as many as 825 million spam e-mails to EarthLink subscribers. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. ruled that Carmack must pay EarthLink $16.4 million and is permanently prohibited from sending, or helping anyone else send, unwanted e-mail. Carmack allegedly used stolen credit cards, identity theft, and banking fraud to set up e-mail accounts to send spam and help others send spam. Neither Carmack nor an attorney representing him appeared in court. Last year EarthLink won damages of $25 million in a case against another spammer, though the company said it has not collected that money. An attorney for EarthLink said the injunction against Carmack is much more significant than the damages. Washington Post, 7 May 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26343-2003May7.html You have been reading excerpts from Edupage: If you have questions or comments about Edupage, http://news.com.com/2100-1040-958352.html or send e-mail to: edupage@educause.edu To SUBSCRIBE to Edupage, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU and in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName *** About the Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter: [Goes out approximately first Wednesday of each month. 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pgweekly_2003_05_14_part_1.txt
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