March 2001 Archives

March 31, 2001

Augusta Chronicle: Fax ruling puts spam in hot seat

March 30, 2001

Declan McCullagh’s Politechbot.com: A censorhappy syadmin, a clueless spammer, and a “no joke” rule

Verio is censoring John Gilmore’s email under pressure from anti-spammers (if this page is down, see the mirror at Cryptome)

March 27, 2001

CNET News.com: EU asked to tone down privacy standards (also see Reuters) (let’s see here … several years ago the European Union enacted a directive to protect the privacy of Europeans, and now American companies are suddenly upset that they may not be able to invade the privacy of European citizens as they do with Americans … what’s wrong with this picture?)

March 26, 2001

Reuters: Bozo the Clown bows out

Newsbytes: Lawmakers try to seal officials’ e-mail, net records (Indiana General Assembly considers legislation to bar public access to public officials’ e-mail) (also see Indianapolis Star)

March 24, 2001

SatireWire: Foot-and-mouth first virus unable to spread through Microsoft Outlook (scientists confirm that the disease cannot be spread by Microsoft’s e-mail application, marking the first time that Outlook has ever failed to propagate a major virus)

Reuters: Chubby Teletubbies to release fitness video

Ananova: New baby clothes feature swear words

BBSpot: Mir destroys Taco Bell, kills four

Chronicle of Higher Education: Judge halts effort by Bates College to prevent disclosure of student e-mail messages

March 23, 2001

MSNBC: Cell phone jammers defy law

CNET News.com: Hardwiring copyrights

Los Angeles Times: After spam, baloney to swallow

March 22, 2001

Augusta Chronicle: Hooters faces hefty fine after losing fax lawsuit

Ananova: AOL to ban time at work (company will try to reduce stress by prohibiting employees from wearing watches or looking at clocks)

The Onion: Everything in entire world now collectible

CNET News.com: House panel votes against spam

March 21, 2001

AP: Surveillance cameras in nursing homes?

University Business: Owning Thought (who owns faculty-generated web content?)

March 20, 2001

Ananova: Cat dies two weeks after bequest secures its future

Reuters: Lawmaker punished for fake radio interview (Canadian M.P. suspended from committee post after his assistant impersonated him on air)

CNET News.com: NCAA fan loses $10 million game online

RGTonline.com: U.S. judge backs Visa, MasterCard in Internet gambling ruling

Ananova: Shopkeeper puts thief’s photo on website

USA Today: AOL deletes EarthLink e-mail, by mistake (also see AP, AP)

March 18, 2001

The Tennessean: Plane hits ‘Arrive Unhurt’ sign during crash landing

WXII NewsChannel 12 (Piedmont, N.C.): Fast-food restaurant makes X-rated mistake (Chick-Fil-A distributes kids activity book containing link to explicit web site)

March 16, 2001

BBC News: Larry Potter returns to print (author of ’80s Larry Potter books sues author of Harry Potter series, citing numerous instances of alleged plagiarism)

SecurityFocus: Verio gags EFF founder over spam

March 15, 2001

Washington Post: The address you leave behind (startup change-of-email-address company Re-Route.com says it will forward e-mail for $10 per person per month)

… gee, $10 a month seems a bit steep to me, especially since they’re going to send spam to each sender whose message they forward. (Worse yet, unless your old ISP has accepted a payoff from Re-Route.com to keep forwarding your mail, you’ll still have to keep paying that ISP’s monthly fees.) How about $0.01 per person per month, and no spam? Uh, wait, I can do this myself for free, and not risk having someone at Re-Route.com read my e-mail, spam my correspondents, market my new e-mail address or other personal info, or lose my e-mail while they’re bouncing it across the country and back.

The Onion: Starbucks to begin sinister ‘Phase Two’ of operation

SecurityPortal: URL, URL, little do we know thee (an interesting article about URL spoofing)

Ananova: Everest climber breaks toe in home fall

March 13, 2001

SatireWire: Debt-ridden unemployed relieved to learn U.S. not in recession

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego men face felony counts, a rarity, in e-mail ‘spamming’

Wired News: Want info? Feds happy to share

March 12, 2001

Newsbytes: RIAA gives Napster 135,000 reminders to stop the swaps

Washington Post: Warrant issued for Leif Garrett

March 10, 2001

Ananova: Gardener sings Elvis to create ‘King’-sized veg

March 09, 2001

Chicago Sun-Times: Should women get twice number of men’s toilets? (also see Chicago Tribune)

CNET News.com: Three indicted in sale of fake painting on eBay (also see New York Times, AP)

Techweb News: EU privacy law puts United States in bind

March 08, 2001

AP: Bob Knight intends to sue IU for firing (also see Indiana Daily Student)

AP: Wiretap charges dropped against student taper (17-year-old high school student was charged with audiotaping a chemistry lecture)

Ananova: Children to test Murphy’s Law with buttered toast

March 07, 2001

Reuters: Aimster says Pig Latin code can circumvent Napster injunction (federal copyright law makes it illegal to reverse-engineer the simple encryption performed by its Aimster Pig Encoder, according to Aimster’s CEO)

LawBlog is gay (thanks to FARK for the reference)

ISP-Planet: Three ISPs team up with controversial registrar (following launch of idealab!’s New.net registry for non-ICANN-approved top-level domains, Earthlink and other ISPs agree to configure their name servers to recognize New.net domains)

March 06, 2001

Ananova: Eagle-eyed viewer spots repeat sitcom ‘flasher’ (Nickelodeon says it will edit “Three’s Company” episode)

Privacy.org: AOL supports anonymous web posters

March 05, 2001

CNET News.com: File-swapping services seek refuge overseas (Canadian plans to set up Napster-like service in Sealand, off the coast of Britain)

The Register: Australia outlaws e-mail forwarding (also see Sunday Telegraph)

March 03, 2001

AmLaw Tech: Lexis-Nexis and West battle online

SecurityFocus: DeCSS in the funny pages (comic strip “The Boondocks” criticizes judge in DVD descrambling case)

March 02, 2001

Wired News: Napster clone’s curious terms (Aimster’s new terms of service prevent copyright holders from searching for infringements)

Washington Post: Breaking it open, making it better (hackers upgrade their ReplayTV and TiVo digital video recorders)

Wired News: Do marketers know you’re sick? (proposed health privacy regulations include loophole for marketers)

Ananova: Re-trial ‘possible’ after bored juror e-mails hundreds

March 01, 2001

The Recorder: Ground zero: Prosecutors in Silicon Valley are awash in requests for warrants to search e-mail servers (officials are flooded with complaints about anonymous Yahoo and Hotmail users)

Reuters: Eggs scrambled in truck crash (a truck carrying 10 tons of eggs crashed into another truck, scrambling breakfast-time traffic)

Reuters: Travel sites in free fall (stock prices plunge after Northwest Airlines says it will no longer pay commissions to travel web sites)