Technology Vault - NewsBytes

Friday 28 May, 2004

Spammer sent to jail for up to 7 years by turnitonagain @ 12:31 pm

Thanks to forum member Obewan1st for pointing this one out :-)

The so-called "Buffalo spammer", responsible for sending hundreds of millions of forged spam mails, was sentenced to 3.5 to 7 years in jail yesterday, the New York state attorney general's office said.

Howard Carmack was found guilty on the 1st of April on 14 counts of forgery and identity fraud and also falsifying business records. It is interesting to note however, that he was not charged on any spam related offences as he was indicted before national anti-spam laws came into force.

Carmack stole the identities of two Buffalo residents to open Earthlink accounts. He also set up 300 accounts with false names, forged email headers of mail sent from the accounts and was responsible for sending approximately 825-million spam messages. That's a lorra lorra mail...

He received the maximum sentence for forgery and lesser sentences for the other charges, but it is expected that he could be out in 3.5 years with good behaviour.

Tuesday 25 May, 2004

RIAA continue onslaught by turnitonagain @ 9:22 am

The RIAA announced yesterday that another 493 illegal file sharers were to have lawsuits filed against them. They are using the "John Doe" litigation process, which is the same method that they have been using throughout the start of this year. This is where the name of the defendant is not known at the time of the lawsuit being filed.

In 24 of the John Doe cases that were filed earlier this year, the identities of the file sharers have now been found and named lawsuits have been brought against them. The 24 individuals were offered out of court settlements to settle before the case reached court, but all have refused or ignored this option.

The President of the RIAA, Cary Sherman, had this to say on the ongoing battle with illegal sharers "Our continuing objective is to send a message of deterrence, protect the rights of property owners, and foster environment where the legitimate marketplace, both online and at retail, can flourish."

In my opinion, the RIAA should have kept up with the times in the first place and encouraged legal download sites from the start, rather than looking for draconian ways to stop people. One only has to look at the popularity of the iTunes store and the recent launch of the UK Napster to see how quickly legal downloading has taken hold.

If there is a drop in illegal file sharing, then I think a large percentage of that will be people moving on the legal download sites because of their availability and not because of the lawsuit threat from the RIAA.

Tuesday 11 May, 2004

Games industry gears up for E3 by turnitonagain @ 12:39 pm

As we speak the great and the good of the games industry are amassing is Los Angeles for E3 2004.

E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) started in 1995 and has always been the seen as the platform for games companies to showcase their finest wares; this year looks to be no exception.

When the expo started, video games were based on 16-bit technology and 3D graphics were only a twinkle in the gamers' eye. Nowadays 3D is most definitely the norm, with ever more powerful graphics cards coming on the market, which are allowing more complex algorithms for rendering, texturing and movement to be used. These improvements in textures and movement, means we are seeing vastly improved interaction with other characters in games (be they humans, animals or demons from the wrong side of hell) and also more realistic environments. There is also the constantly improving AI behind in-game characters meaning they respond more closely to the gamer's actions rather than a single pre-defined movement; which all adds to the realism of the game.

We can expect to see all of the above elements in the big-name games released this year, giving us the potential for the most realistic, immersive environments and game play seen to date.

Some of the most anticipated games of the last few years will be showcased at E3:

• Halo 2


• Half-Life 2


• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes


• Doom 3


• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas


• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater


• Everquest II


• Final Fantasy XII