Google print services launches

Google opened the door to its online library late Thursdaywith the launch of a book-specific search page.Print.Google.Com makes official the search giant's projectto digitize the world's books.

The Government Accountability Office Report warns of Radio Frequency ID misuse

Radio frequency identification is becoming increasinglypopular inside the U.S. government, but agencies have notseriously considered the privacy risks, federal auditorssaid. In a report published Friday, the GovernmentAccountability Office said that 13 of the largest federalagencies are already using RFID or plan to use it. But onlyone of 23 agencies polled by the GAO had identified anylegal or privacy issues--even though three admitted RFIDwould let them track employee movements.

EU to fund global research on Open Source

The European Union is putting money toward research intoopen-source software and standards across the world. Thenewly approved funding of 660,00 euros is for the two-yearFLOSSWorld project, Europe's first initiative to supportinternational research and policy development on"free/libre/open source software."

Government lets go of encryption regulation powers

Digital rights activists are celebrating today with the expiry of powers in the UK's Electronic Communications Act of 2000 that gave the Government the right to regulate companies selling encryption services.

OECD releases latest national broadband stats

The OECD has released the latest national broadbandstatistics. As of December 2004, South Korea continues tolead the world in broadband penetration at 24.9 percent. Itis followed by the Netherlands, Denmark, Iceland, andCanada.

European parliament committee set to debate software patents

A proposal to extend patent protection in Europe couldthreaten the existence of open-source software unless theEuropean Parliament amends it, say advocates of freelydistributed programs such as Linux. However, companies suchas Microsoft and Apple Computer argue that they need broaderpatent protection to prevent open-source companies, whichgive away their software and make money through service,from effectively expropriating their development costs.A European Parliament committee will debate the issue thisweek and vote on it next month.

Morgan Stanley Case points to importance of email retention

The $1.45 billion judgment against Morgan Stanley fordeceiving billionaire Ronald Perelman over a business dealhas a lesson all companies should learn--keeping e-mails isnow a must, experts say. Banks and broker-dealers areobliged to retain e-mail and instant messaging documents forthree years under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissionrules. But similar requirements will apply to all publiccompanies from July 2006 under the Sarbanes-Oxley corporatereform measures.

Mastercard shuts down 1,400 Phishing sites

MasterCard International today said it had acted to shutdown 13 fraudulent financial Web sites based in Australiaunder an 11-month campaign that saw around 1,400 terminatedglobally. The credit card company last June launched aninternational campaign, called Operation Stop IT, in a bidto curb online identify theft.

Canning SPAM in Canada requires new Law

My weekly Law Bytes column takes a closer look at therelease last week of the Canadian National Task Force onSpam Report. The report calls for the creation of new lawthat features an opt-in regime by making failure to obtainappropriate consents before sending commercial email anoffence, thereby taking the pressure off the currentnational privacy statute, which is ill-equipped to deal withserious spam issues. Freely available hyperlinked version at

FTC to pressure ISPS to take action against zombies

CNET reports that the FTC will today pressure ISPs to takegreater action against zombie networks. The FTC and morethan 30 of its counterparts abroad are planning to contactInternet service providers and urge them to pay moreattention to what their customers are doing online. Requestsinclude identifying customers with suspicious e-mailingpatterns, quarantining those computers and offering help incleaning the zombie code off the infected PCs.

Study finds confusion over spyware

The 2005 National Spyware Study finds that 84% ofrespondents report that they have been spyware victims. Fromthis group, an overwhelming 97% do not remember viewing enduser licensing agreements (EULAs) before downloading spywaresoftware on their computers.

Study says 1 in 2 employers have fired worker for net abuse

A study by the American Management Association and theePolicy Institute finds that companies increasingly are"putting teeth in technology policies." The study revealedthat about a quarter of employers have fired workers formisusing the Internet and another 25 percent have terminatedemployees for e-mail misuse.

Test your own software code for infringement

Software houses can check whether the code they develop has copied even just one snippet of code from any of 38 million open source files, using a new product that relies on source code 'fingerprinting' to reduce the risk of getting sued.

Employers fail to manage instant messaging, says survey

One in five people now use instant messaging at work, but 62% of companies are totally unprotected from the threats arising from misuse of the communications tool, says a YouGov survey commissioned by Akonix Systems.