AOL will not be supporting Microsoft\'s Sender ID technology, and other news ...
Publish date: 22 September 2004
Issue Number: 1048
Diary: Legalbrief eLaw
Category: Corruption
* America Online has announced that it will not be supporting Microsoft\'s Sender ID technology that seeks to cut down on junk mail by making it difficult for spammers to forge e-mail headers and addresses, reports Wired News. Internet engineers recently rejected a preliminary proposal from Microsoft to introduce its technology as an Internet standard, due to the software giant\'s patent claims. AOL said that its objections had nothing to do with Microsoft\'s patent but rather it had been concerned at the \'lack of acceptance for Sender ID among the free and open source online community\', according to spokesperson Nicholas Graham. Full Wired News report
* Amazon.com is preparing its entry into the competitive search market with the introduction of an advanced technology that the company says will take searches beyond the mere retrieval of Web pages to let users more fully manage the information they find, reports the New York Times. Amazon\'s A9.com will offer users the ability to store and edit bookmarks on a central server computer, keep track of each link clicked on previous visits to a Web page, and even make personal \'diary\' notes on those pages for viewing on subsequent visits. Full New York Times report * The US Federal Trade Commission has given its endorsement to a plan that would reward insiders for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people or companies that produce spam, reports eWeek. The FTC said it is important to reward only what it calls \'high-value\' information and is suggesting rewards ranging from $100 000 to $250 000. Full eWeek report * IBM plans to start shipping its PCs with a new chip - the National Semiconductor\'s SafeKeeper Trusted I/O Device - designed to thwart hackers by safeguarding passwords and other sensitive information, according to CNET News. The chip stores a computer\'s identity in the hardware making it harder for outsiders to access. Full CNET News report * VeriSign has announced that domain names registration hit a record high of 64.5 million, which is a 7% increase from 2003, report iMediaConnection. According to a report by VeriSign, 4.6 million new domain names were registered in the second quarter of 2004. Full iMediaConnection report * Microsoft is expanding its \'shared source\' program to give government organisations access to some of its proprietary source code for the latest version of its Office software. The move comes as an increasing number of governments and companies are looking at switching to \'open source\' alternatives such as Linux, reports Wired News. Full Wired News report