PGWeekly_September_24.txt
*The Project Gutenberg Weekly Newsletter For Wednesday, September 24, 2003*
******eBooks Readable By Both Humans and Computers For Over 32 Years*******
eBook Milestones
This Week Last Year We Passed 6,000 eBooks !!!
Now We Have Passed 1/2 Of The Way From 9,000 to 10,000 !!!
9583 Books Done. . .417 To Go. . . !
We're Over 19/20 Of The Way To 10,000!!!
For those who were expecting more: we have about 30 more in the works,
but the files are so large that it's been taking longer than we expected
to get them moved around, headers added, and placed for download. Other
than this, we are still pretty close to right on schedule to try #10,000
on October 15th, thus keeping up with Moore's Law. . .if the new eBooks
keeping coming in at the rate we are hoping for!!!
[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.]
This is Michael Hart's "Founder's Comments" section of the Newsletter
Over Our 32 12/53 Year History, We Have Now Averaged About 297 Ebooks/Yr
And This Year Averaged Over That Same New eBook Level. . .PER MONTH!!!!!
By The Way, It's Been About 1 Billion Seconds Since The First eBook!!!
We Are Averaging About 334 Per Month This Year!!!
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In this issue of the Project Gutenberg Weekly newsletter:
- Intro (above)
- Requests For Assistance
- Progress Report
- Flashback
- Continuing Requests For Assistance
- Making Donations
- Access To The Collection
- Information About Mirror Sites
- Have We Given Away A Trillion Yet?
- Weekly eBook update:
Updates/corrections in separate section
3 New From PG Australia [Australian, Canadian Copyright Etc.]
75 New Public Domain eBooks Under US Copyright
- Headline News from Newsscan and Edupage
- Information about mailing lists
*** Requests For Assistance
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***
!!!
I need a copy of zip for AIX that can do the "-9" high compression,
and still unzip via the standard unzip programs!!!
***
I am working on trying to collect and convert some public domain folk tunes
to ABC notation. Could use some help tracking down public domain versions
of the melodies or proof that these songs are in the public domain. Songs
I'm working on at present include:
I Know Where I'm Going
Simple Gifts
She Moved Throught The Fair
A Sailor Courted a Farmer's Daughter (aka Constant Lovers)
The Fisher Who Died in His Bed
Ufros Alienu
If anyone's interesting in converting folk songs to a digital public
domain format and would like to help or if you want to contact me, you can
do so through the mailing list at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pdsongs
***
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*** Progress Report
In the first 8.50 months of this year, we produced 2840 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our first 2,840 eBooks!
That's 38 WEEKS as Compared to ~30 Years!
78 New eBooks This Week
77 New eBooks Last Week
155 New eBooks This Month [September]
334 Average Per Month in 2003 <<<
203 Average Per Month in 2002 <<<
103 Average Per Month in 2001 <<<
2840 New eBooks in 2003
2441 New eBooks in 2002
1240 New eBooks in 2001
====
6501 New eBooks Since Start Of 2001
That's Only 33 Months! ~200/mo
9,583 Total Project Gutenberg eBooks
6,015 eBooks This Week Last Year
3,417 New eBooks In The Last 12 Months [98.56%]
3,569 Would Have Been Exactly Moore's Law[100%]
4,683 New eBooks in the last 18 months [95.59%]
4,900 Would Have Been Exactly Moore's Law[100%]
276 eBooks From Project Gutenberg of Australia
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***
FLASHBACK!!!
2840 New eBooks So Far in 2003
It took us 30 years for the first 2840 !
That's the 38 WEEKS of 2003 as Compared to ~30 YEARS!!!
Here Is A Sample Of What Books Were Being Done Around #2840
Oct 2001 The Wars of The Jews, by Flavius Josephus [warjexxx.xxx] 2850
[FT: "The Wars of The Jews or the History of the Destruction of Jerusalem"]
Oct 2001 Against Apion, by Flavius Josephus[Tr. Wm. Whiston[agaapxxx.xxx] 2849
Oct 2001 The Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus [taofjxxx.xxx] 2848
Oct 2001 Josephus' Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades[hadesxxx.xxx] 2847
[FT: "An Extract out of Josephus's Discourse to The Greeks Concerning Hades"]
Oct 2001 The Life of Flavius Josephus, Tr. by Wm. Whiston [lfjosxxx.xxx] 2846
Oct 2001 Sir Nigel, by Arthur Conan Doyle [A. C. Doyle #24][nigelxxx.xxx] 2845
Oct 2001 Fatal Boots, by William Makepeace Thackeray [#25][fbootxxx.xxx] 2844
Oct 2001 Little Travels and Roadside Sketches, by Thackeray[ltarsxxx.xxx] 2843
Oct 2001 Black Heart and White Heart, by H. R. Haggard[#24][bwhrtxxx.xxx] 2842
Oct 2001 The Ivory Child, by H. Rider Haggard [Haggard #23][ivoryxxx.xxx] 2841
Sep 2001 De Franse Pers, Heinrich Heine [#3/Flemish/Dutch][fpersxxx.xxx] 2840
Sep 2001 Franse Toestanden, Heinrich Heine[2/Flemish/Dutch][ftoesxxx.xxx] 2839
Sep 2001 De Beurs lacht, Heinrich Heine [#1/Flemish/Dutch][fbeurxxx.xxx] 2838
Sep 2001 Lendas do Sul, by J. Somoes Lopes Netto[Portuguese[lendaxxx.xxx] 2837
Sep 2001 Abraham Lincoln and the Union, Nath'l W Stephenson[alatuxxx.xxx] 2836
Sep 2001 The Canadian Dominion, by Oscar D. Skelton [cndndxxx.xxx] 2835
Sep 2001 The Portrait of a Lady, Vol 2, by Henry James[#37][2pldyxxx.xxx] 2834
Sep 2001 The Portrait of a Lady, Vol 1, by Henry James[#36][1pldyxxx.xxx] 2833
Sep 2001 Myth, Ritual, and Religion, V1, by Andrew Lang #28[1mrarxxx.xxx] 2832
Sep 2001 A Bundle of Ballads, by Henry Morley [bndbaxxx.xxx] 2831
Sep 2001 Reginald, by Saki (H. H. Munro) [Saki HH Munro #5][rgnldxxx.xxx] 2830
Sep 2001 Fanny and the Servant Problem, by Jerome K. Jerome[fnyspxxx.xxx] 2829
Sep 2001 Under the Deodars, by Rudyard Kipling[Kipling #19][undeoxxx.xxx] 2828
Sep 2001 Aslauga's Knight by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque 4[slkntxxx.xxx] 2827
Sep 2001 The Two Captains by Friedrich de la Motte-Fouque 3[2cpnsxxx.xxx] 2826
Sep 2001 Undine, by Friedrich de la Motte Fouque[Fouque #2][undinxxx.xxx] 2825
Sep 2001 Sintram and His Companions, by Friedrich Fouque #1[sntrmxxx.xxx] 2824
Sep 2001 The Fitz-Boodle Papers/William Makepeace Thackeray[fitzbxxx.xxx] 2823
Sep 2001 London in 1731, Don Manoel Gonzales [londnxxx.xxx] 2822
Sep 2001 The Story of the Gadsby, by Rudyard Kipling[RK#18][tsotgxxx.xxx] 2821
Sep 2001 La Fin des Livres by Octave Uzanne & Albert Robida[endbkxxh.zip] 2820
[English Title: The End of Books]
Sep 2001 Barrack-Room Ballads, by Rudyard Kipling [RK #17][barbaxxx.xxx] 2819
Sep 2001 Beautiful Joe, by Marshall Saunders [beajoxxx.xxx] 2818
Sep 2001 Chamber Music, by James Joyce [James Joyce #2][chamuxxx.xxx] 2817
Sep 2001 The City of the Sun, by Tommaso Campanells [tcotsxxx.xxx] 2816
Sep 2001 Democracy An American Novel, by Henry Adams[HA #2][demamxxx.xxx] 2815
Sep 2001 Dubliners, by James Joyce [James Joyce #1] [dblnrxxx.xxx] 2814
Sep 2001 The Grand Babylon Hotel, by Arnold Bennett [grbahxxx.xxx] 2813
Sep 2001 Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero [Cicero #2][letcixxx.xxx] 2812
Sep 2001 Letters of Pliny the Younger, Tr. William Melmoth [ltplnxxx.xxx] 2811
Sep 2001 Plunkitt of Tammany Hall, by Plunkitt and Riordan [plnthxxx.xxx] 2810
Sep 2001 Main-Travelled Roads, by Hamlin Garland [matraxxx.xxx] 2809
Sep 2001 Treatises on Friendship and Old Age, by Cicero [tfroaxxx.xxx] 2808
Sep 2001 To Have and To Hold: by Mary Johnston [thathxxx.xxx] 2807
Sep 2001 Phantom 'Rickshaw & Other Ghost Stories by Kipling[phricxxx.xxx] 2806
Sep 2001 With Lee in Virginia [US Civil War], by G.A. Henty[leeivxxx.xxx] 2805
Sep 2001 Rose in Bloom, by Louisa May Alcott [Alcott #7] [rsblmxxx.xxx] 2804
[This is the sequel to Eight Cousins, [Alcott #3][8csnsxxx.xxx]2726]
Sep 2001 The Rise of David Levinsky, by Abraham Cahan [lvnskxxx.xxx] 2803
Sep 2001 Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson [rmonaxxx.xxx] 2802
Sep 2001 The Commonwealth of Oceana, by James Harrington [oceanxxx.xxx] 2801
Sep 2001 The Koran/The Q'uran, by Mohammed/Mohammad . . . [koranxxx.xxx] 2800
***
Today Is Day #266 of 2003
This Completes Week #38
112 Days/15 Weeks To Go [We get 53 Wednesdays this year]
417 Books To Go To #10,000
[Our production year begins/ends
1st Wednesday of the month/year]
Week #72 Of Our *SECOND* 5,000 eBooks
75 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]
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*** Have We Given Away A Trillion Books/Dollars Yet???
Statistical Review
In the 38 weeks of this year, we have produced 2840 new eBooks.
It took us from 1971 to 2000 to produce our FIRST 2840 eBooks!!!
That's 38 WEEKS as Compared to ~30 YEARS!!!
With 9,583 eBooks online as of September 24, 2003 it now takes an average
of 100,000,000 readers gaining a nominal value of $1.04 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 1.5% of the world's population!
This "cost" is down from about $1.66 when we had 6015 eBooks A Year Ago
Can you imagine 9,583 books each costing $.61 less a year later???
Or. . .would this say it better?
Can you imagine 9,583 books each costing 1/3 less a year later???
At 9583 eBooks in 32 Years and 3.50 Months We Averaged
297 Per Year [We do more per month these days!]
25 Per Month
.80 Per Day
At 2840 eBooks Done In The 266 Days Of 2003 We Averaged
10.7 Per Day
74.8 Per Week
334.2 Per Month
The production statistics are calculated based on full weeks'
production; each production-week starts/ends Wednesday noon,
starts with the first Wednesday of January. January 1st was
the first Wednesday of 2003, and thus ended PG's production
year of 2002 and began the production year of 2003 at noon.
This year there will be 53 Wednesdays, thus one extra week.
***Headline News***
[PG Editor's Comments In Brackets]
From Newsscan:
[We Had A Reply To The Following]
VERISIGN'S SITE FINDER PROFITS FROM TYPOS
Internet registrar VeriSign has launched a new service, Site Finder, that
offers users who mistype a URL a list of alternative Web sites that they
might be trying to reach. Several ISPs do the same thing -- most notably
AOL and MSN -- but critics say that because VeriSign controls the directory
computers for ".com" and ".net" names, they could easily reroute all
queries to Site Finder. "We put so much of our research into developing
this AOL search result page," says an AOL spokesman. "We are reviewing our
potential options. We are strongly opposed to them interjecting themselves
into our members' search experience." Site Finder's suggestions include
both standard search results and pay-for-placement advertisements, which
are identified as such. But while VeriSign VP Ben Turner says the new
service is designed to "improve overall usability of the Internet," Danny
Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, warns that Site Finder's
capabilities could also be abused -- by directing users only to
pay-for-placement sites, for instance. Meanwhile, the new service provides
a much-needed new revenue stream for the Internet registrar. "Right now,
VeriSign's business is not a growing business, and anything that they do to
add the slightest amount of growth is going to be positive," says an
analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. (AP 15 Sep 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030915/D7TJ2U5O0.html
[Here Is The Reply]
Remember the other group of quotes: "The Internet interprets <insert
approriate bad thing here> as damage and routes around it".
The Internet Software Consortium ("In response to high demand from our users")
has already issued a patch to BIND (the software which carries out domain
name resolution on 80% of the worlds computers) which has an option to
detect and bypass Verisign's action and return the *right* result.
Technically: the root servers for .com and .net should *never* directly
return an IP address, but should "delegate" the resolution of the domain name
to another name server. The new BIND software enforces this:
if a "delegation only" name server returns an IP address, the software
ignores this and returns the NXDOMAIN error message.
I just installed this software and it works!
Note: there are an estimated 20 million "hits" per day to mistyped URLs:
Verisign is abusing their position of control over the .com and .net
domains to get 20 million free eyeballs per day. BUT: Verisign is
supposed to be a "trust company": they sell SSL certificates
and "DNS Assurance Solutions". They have just lost the trust of
a huge number of sysadmins around the world: I think they are
about to find out "The Value of Trust"!
Martin Ward <Martin.Ward@durham.ac.uk>
[Anyone Remember DIVX From Circuit City?]
BMG INTRODUCES 'SMART' CDs
BMG Entertainment is launching a new generation of "smart" CDs aimed at
thwarting file-sharing while at the same time allowing CD buyers to make a
few copies for themselves and friends. The technology will make its debut
next week with the release of "Comin' From Where I'm From" by Anthony
Hamilton. Buyers of that CD will be able to burn three copies per computer
and will be able to e-mail songs to a limited number of people, each of
whom can then listen to the song 10 times before it becomes unavailable.
The MediaMax CD-3 antipiracy technology is made by SunnComm Technologies in
Phoenix. SunnComm rival Macrovision has also developed protective
technology that allows limited copying, and the record labels are watching
closely to gauge fans' reactions. Meanwhile, civil liberties advocates say
the technology is good in principle, but is still too restrictive. "It is
inconsistent with how fair use has always been applied," says Cindy Cohn,
legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (AP/Wall Street
Journal 18 Sep 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106392548180994200,00.html (sub req'd)
UK MAKES SPAM A CRIMINAL OFFENSE
A new law introduced by U.K. Communications Minister Stephen Timms means
spammers could face fines of #5,000 in a magistrates court or an unlimited
penalty from a jury. "These regulations will help combat the global
nuisance of unsolicited e-mails and texts by enshrining in law rights that
give consumers more say over who can use their personal details," says
Timms. The law, which takes effect December 11, follows similar steps taken
by the Italian government, which recently imposed fines of up to 90,000
euros and a maximum sentence of three years in prison for sending spam.
Meanwhile, EU legislation banning unsolicited junk e-mail will be enforced
beginning on October 31, but officials say it may have little effect
because most spam originates in the U.S. and Asia, and thus will be out of
its reach. (BBC News 18 Sep 2003)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3120628.stm
ICANN ASKS VERISIGN TO SHELVE SITE FINDER SERVICE
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has issued a
statement voicing "widespread expressions of concern" over the technical
repercussions possible from VeriSign's recently launched Site Finder
service. Site Finder steers Web users who make typographical errors while
entering URLs to a site operated by VeriSign. Critics say the technical
process by which VeriSign "hijacks" users could disrupt e-mail delivery as
well as impair the ability of ISPs to block "spam" sent from non-existent
Internet addresses -- a common technique for reducing the volume of junk
e-mail. In self-defense, some ISPs and software groups have developed
patches that prevent the Site Finder software from working on their
networks. (Wall Street Journal 22 Sep 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106418646915190300,00.html (sub req'd)
VERISIGN REFUSES TO BACK DOWN
Despite a flood of criticism, VeriSign has told ICANN in a letter that it
won't disable its Site Finder service. ICANN had asked VeriSign to
voluntarily suspend the service until the technical ramifications could be
studied. The controversial service diverts Web users who enter invalid URLs
because of careless typing to VeriSign's own Web site. The Internet
registrar's refusal to back down potentially puts it on a collision course
with ICANN, which oversees its contract with the U.S. Department of
Commerce to manage the master list of .com and .net Web addresses. But
former ICANN board member Karl Auerbach says ICANN has a history of weak
contracts: "I suspect that we're going to discover that VeriSign just might
get away with it." Meanwhile, VeriSign is also facing lawsuits filed by
Popular Enterprises, a Florida firm with a competing Site-Finder-type
service, and by Go Daddy, another Internet registrar that has accused
VeriSign of engaging in unfair business practices.
(San Francisco Chronicle 23 Sep 2003)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/23/BUG
TC1SB8M1.DTL&type=tech
U.S. SLASHES NUMBER OF H-1B VISAS
After bowing to pressure from the high-tech industry to increase the number
of H-1B visas offered to highly qualified foreign workers, the U.S.
government is planning to sharply cut the number from 195,000 to 65,000 for
the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The three-year visas have been used to
bring highly skilled workers, mostly from the Indian sub-continent, to the
U.S. to fill jobs in the computer industry. "Given the weakness of our
current economy, and the rising unemployment we have experienced under
President Bush's stewardship, many who supported the increase in 2000 now
believe that 65,000 visas are sufficient," says Sen. Patrick Leahy
(D-Vermont). Immigration attorneys say the new restrictions will set off a
scramble by companies to fill their slots before the ceiling is reached.
(Reuters/CNet 23 Sep 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1036_3-5080288.html
LANDLINE NUMBERS CAN GO MOBILE
Most of the publicity surrounding the upcoming implementation of new cell
phone number portability rules has focused on the ability of cell phone
subscribers to take their numbers with them when they switch carriers. But
in addition to that provision, the new rules will enable phone customers to
switch their landline phone number over to a cell phone and vice versa. And
although it's unclear how many customers will take advantage of the new
flexibility, research firm Gartner Dataquest recently estimated that nearly
10% of residential phone customers would convert their home telephones to
wireless if they could keep their numbers. However, there is one wrinkle
that still needs to be ironed out. While the Bell companies agree that
there's no problem if a residential customer wants to move a home phone
number to a wireless carrier that already has phone numbers in that
person's "rate center" (the first three digits after the area code that
correspond to a specific neighborhood), both landline and wireless carriers
have asked the FCC to clarify whether local phone companies must also hand
over numbers to a cellular company that doesn't already "own" similar
numbers from the same rate center. The complexity of the issue may prove
frustrating for consumers, warns an industry consultant for Cap Gemini
Ernst & Young. "Customers aren't going to understand the issue of rate
centers -- they're just going to know they were denied." The FCC says it
will clarify the rules, but hasn't said whether it will do so before the
Nov. 24 number portability deadline. (AP 19 Sep 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030919/D7TLKDT00.html
PUTTING A CAP ON BROADBAND USE
Some Internet broadband "heavy users" are receiving notices from their
providers that they're abusing their contracts. Since late summer, Comcast
has been quietly asking its highest-volume subscribers to scale back their
Internet habits, and in some cases even suspending their service after the
first warning. But the biggest frustration for these subscribers is the
perception that these warnings are not triggered by any "predetermined
bandwidth usage threshold," admits a Comcast spokeswoman. The company says
it's not imposing usage caps per se, but rather is trying to reduce stress
on its network as it works to provide ever-increasing download speeds for
all its users. "The industry is leery of explicit caps, because even people
who don't come anywhere near the caps feel like something is being taken
away from them," says a Jupiter Research analyst. But as consumers flock to
broadband services, companies "can't claim their service is unlimited if
there is some kind of informal limit." Meanwhile, Cox Communications has
taken a more hardline approach, limiting subscribers to 2 gigabytes of
downloading per day -- the equivalent of two compressed feature-length
movies or about 400 MP3 songs. AOL Time Warner's Road Runner service has no
cap yet, but the idea is being discussed internally. On the DSL side, phone
companies say they have no limits on their subscribers' usage. "The
customers buy the lines. We make whatever bandwidth they need available to
them," says an SBC spokesman. (CNet News.com 22 Sep 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1034_3-5079624.html?tag=fd_lede
TERRORISM INFORMATION AWARENESS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE STATES
Remember the "Terrorism Information Awareness" database controversy? That
project would have allowed the Pentagon to assemble a huge collection of
information on all U.S. citizens, including driver's license, credit card
and financial records, etc., but Congress responded to citizens' privacy
concerns by refusing to fund it. Now a similar project is take shape in
more than a dozen states, fueled by $12 million in federal funds. Dubbed
Matrix (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange), the database is
being compiled and housed in a private company, but will be open to state
and federal law officials, and perhaps even U.S. intelligence agencies. The
project ostensibly is aimed at identifying and tracking terrorists, but
privacy advocates and others say the use of Seisint Inc., a Boca Raton,
Fl., company founded by a millionaire who police say made his money flying
planeloads of drugs back in the '80s, puts millions of Americans' personal
data at risk. "It's federally funded, it's guarded by state police, but
it's on private property? That's very interesting," says University of
Florida law professor Christopher Slobogin, an expert in privacy issues.
"If it's federally funded, the federal government obviously has a huge
interest in it." Already California and Texas have backed away from the
project, citing security concerns, and Florida officials acknowledge that
Matrix appears to skirt the federal laws barring the U.S. government from
collecting routine information on "innocent citizens." "The CIA doesn't
have this now," says Phil Ramer, special agent in charge of the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement's intelligence office. "That's a major
political issue we'll have to cross." (New York Times 24 Sep 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Terror-Database.html
MSN MUZZLES CHAT ROOMS
Microsoft MSN is closing down Internet chat services in most of its 34
markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia, and is limiting service in the
U.S., citing concerns over use of the online forums for pornography scams
and pedophile and sexual predator activities. "We recognize that it's a
common industry-wide problem," says an MSN spokeswoman. "We've taken a look
at our service and how can we make efforts to step up our efforts to
provide a safe environment." In the U.S., MSN will now require chat room
users to subscribe to at least one other paid MSN service, so that it will
have credit card numbers that it can use to track down those who violate
MSN's terms of use. In Canada, Brazil, New Zealand and Japan, MSN will
offer some moderated chat rooms and discussions. The move to restrict chat
use will probably turn out to be a good thing for the company, says one
Microsoft watcher, by allowing it to shed a number of freeloaders. "I think
this change will have welcome side effects, like keeping spammers out of
the chat rooms. But fundamentally I believe this is a move to make MSN more
profitable. It will allow the company to get rid of some infrastructure
that was supporting chat, and to make money on what it leaves in place."
(AP 24 Sep 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030924/D7TON5BG2.html
CALIFORNIA BANS SPAM
California Governor Gray Davis has signed into law a measure that makes it
illegal to send unsolicited e-mail to California residents, unless the
recipient has a prior business relationship with the sender. Violators will
be subject to fines of $1,000 for each message and up to $1 million for
blitz campaigns. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City),
will go into effect January 1, and Murray notes it's the first in the U.S.
to hold an advertiser accountable along with the spammer. "We think it's
going to be the toughest bill in the nation. The beauty of this is you go
after the advertisers. They are fineable and attachable," says Murray.
California lawmakers generally agree that it will be relatively easy to win
judgments against spam merchants and their advertisers in state courts, but
actually recovering damages from out-of-state or overseas perpetrators is
more problematic. "It fails to address the core issue about spam. It
totally fails to be able to reach the offshore criminals who are sending
Viagra ads," says Ray Schultz, editorial director of a publication on
direct marketing. (Los Angeles Times 24 Sep 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-privacy24sep24000427,1,4373634.story?col
l=la-headlines-technology
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From Edupage
U.K. MAKES SPAM A CRIMINAL OFFENSE
Britain has passed a law making the sending of unsolicited e-mail a
criminal offense. Those found guilty of violating the new law, which
goes into effect December 11, can be fined up to 5,000 pounds by a
magistrate or an unlimited amount by a jury, though they cannot be
sentenced to prison. The law will require anyone sending a commercial
e-mail or text message to obtain permission first from recipients. The
loophole, however, which has many fuming, is that the law does not
apply to business e-mail addresses. The anti-spam group Spamhaus
characterized the law as a de facto legalization of spam sent to
computer users at work. A statement from the group said, "Britain's
firms will continue to suffer the onslaught of ever more spam, now from
spammers claiming legality." Italy recently passed a similar, though
tougher, anti-spam law. In Italy, a spammer can be fined 90,000 euros
and sentenced to three years in prison.
BBC, 18 September 2003
BROADBAND PROVIDERS CONSIDER USAGE CAPS
Several leading providers of broadband Internet service have begun
instituting usage caps and notifying abusers that their service could
be suspended unless they cut back the amount of bandwidth they use.
Some companies offer stated caps, such as Cox Communications, which
allows customers to download 2 gigabytes per day. Other companies,
including Comcast, do not have explicit limits but have begun notifying
those of its customers who use disproportionate amounts of bandwidth.
The company said 28 percent of its available bandwidth is used by the
top 1 percent of its customers, and those customers have begun
receiving notes from Comcast indicating that they are in violation of
their terms of service. Verizon Communications and SBC Communications
said their services remain unlimited. Usage caps are seen as one of the
variables in the ongoing battle for customers among broadband providers
and between DSL and cable-modem service.
ZDNet, 22 September 2003
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5079624.html
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