Traffic Drop in Hitbox Dashboard?

This is quite a unique story, and it deserves all of your attention if you are a web site owner or manager, utilizing WebSideStory Hitbox to live track your site visitors. If you are one such person and have been experiencing a sudden drop of visitors to your site according to your Hitbox dashboard, breathe again. What you are looking at is not true!

If you are not a Hitbox Professional user you may skip this story unless you want to learn what are the customer support issues that may alienate a large portion of any company client base from one day to the next.

Robin Good investigated this "technical problem" and has some answers for what is going on. Read the full article at Lost Your Web Traffic? Ask Hitbox Customer Love

Forgent Sues Over JPEG Patent

Forgent Networks said Friday it sued 31 major hardware and software vendors, including Dell and Apple Computers, for allegedly infringing on its claim to an algorithm used in the popular JPEG picture file format.

If the suits are successful, they could lead to an increase in prices for tools and software used to create and modify images -- or even lead the industry to abandon the JPEG format altogether.

See story in Wired News : Forgent Sues Over JPEG Patent

Update - JPEG Patent Could Impact The Gimp

I was reading a post by Timothy at Slashdot in which he states that Gimp may be affected by the patent.

A Newsforge article gets into some of the details and asks whether open source tools like the Gimp could be liable as well. To add fuel to the fire, the Joint Photographic Experts Group's committee thinks that some of the patent may be invalid. The p2pnet.net story mentions that the FTC has some skepticism as well.

Read timothy's post at Slashdot : JPEG Patent Could Impact The Gimp

Discuss the patent lawsuit at Band of Gonzos Forum : Forgent Sues over JPEG Patent

eWeek Exclusive Interview : Google's Brin Talks on Gmail Future

Gmail, Google's new Web-based e-mail service, has sparked commentary, controversy and even calls for congressional action. eWEEK's Steve Gillmor explored the perils and possibilities of the free software-as-service in an exclusive conversation with Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

The interview at eWeek : Google's Brin Talks on Gmail Future

'Operation Fastlink' nets arrests in Fairlight piracy organization

Multinational swoop on Fairlight pirates

Police in 11 countries have carried out a total of 120 searches and numerous arrests to crack a piracy organisation called Fairlight.

More than 200 computers were seized worldwide, including 30 servers used as storage and distribution hubs. One of the servers seized in the US contained an estimated 65,000 pirated titles and police estimate that hundreds of thousands of illegally copied titles are held on the seized machines.

'Operation Fastlink' was coordinated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which carried out raids in 27 states in the US.

In the UK, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit worked with the Business Software Alliance and the Federation Against Copyright Theft to provide information for search warrants.

More on the story at Silicon.com : Multinational swoop on Fairlight pirates

'Operation Fastlink' Is The Largest Global Enforcement Action Ever Undertaken Against Online Piracy

Washington -- Attorney General John Ashcroft has announced the most far-reaching and aggressive enforcement action ever undertaken against organizations involved in illegal intellectual property piracy over the Internet. Beginning yesterday morning, law enforcement from 10 countries and the United States conducted over 120 searches worldwide to dismantle some of the most well-known and prolific online piracy organizations.

More on the story at LinuxElectrons

Local newspapers account for how far-reaching the raids were

I started to look into the local news reports for 'Operation Fastlink' and found many references to the raids that were carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies. Each news agency put their local twist on the raids.

The University of Maryland's independant student newspaper, 'The Diamondback', reported a frat house being raided. FBI agents with a search warrant entered a boarder's room in the Kappa Alpha fraternity house at 1 Fraternity Row and confiscated a computer and PlayStation 2.

Early Wednesday morning, FBI agents executed a search warrant at a Deer Valley Unified School District administrative building in Arizona and two other sites in the State. Although no computer equipment was confiscated, about 20 Deer Valley employees were questioned Wednesday when FBI agents appeared at the district's technology center with a sealed warrant.

Google Adjusting PR

Google is updating the PR and backlinks at it's datacenters. I have noticed them fluctuating over the past couple of days. Now it appears to have settled down and at it's final resting place.

Discuss at Band of Gonzos Forum - Google Adjusting PR

Apache Foundation Adds XML Encryption to Java Library

The Apache Foundation announced Version 1.1 of its Java library has been released, which includes a beta implementation of XML Encryption.

The XML Security Project is a volunteer group within the Apache Foundation dedicated to implementing W3C security standards in XML. This latest beta release of the library includes implementation of pluggable algorithm handlers plus support for encryption and decryption of XML-based messages. The release also includes bug fixes to the Digital Signature implementation released in a previous version of the Java Library A C++ library is also available from the XML Security Project.

For further information on this release, contact the XML Security Project of the Apache Foundation.

Internet Tax Ban Moratorium of 1998 Expires this Fall; Goes back to US Senate

The U.S. Senate is slated to vote this week whether or not to renew a ban that keeps state and local governments from taxing Internet access. But Internet services, particularly VOIP, are likely to get snared in the debate as a potential tax target not to be covered by the ban.

The Internet access tax moratorium, first enacted in 1998, expired in the fall. As senators look to renew the ban, they have to consider the changes in broadband technology that have made high-speed access affordable to small and midsize businesses.

See story at eWeek : Senate Mulls Internet Tax Ban

Google Gmail Privacy Debate

Speakers at this year's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference said privacy concerns about Google's upcoming Gmail service are mostly overblown, but they said the controversy over the free Web-based e-mail service has forced the industry to address several murky legal questions about e-mail scanning and storage.

These include questions about why communications providers have the right to scan for spam, but not for ad triggers; whether Gmail's scanning sets a precedent for government initiatives to search all e-mail for incriminating keywords; and whether corporations have the responsibility to tell their customers that their stored e-mails have little protection from law enforcement.

See story in Wired News : Gmail Still Sparking Debates


Google Defends Scanning E-mail for Ad Links

A Google Inc. executive on Friday told a conference of privacy advocates here that the company's plan to electronically scan messages sent through its new Gmail service so it can link advertising to message content is a necessary tradeoff.

"To have free e-mail, you have to have ads," Nicole Wong, senior compliance counsel for Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, told attendees at the 2004 Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy here. "Ads are a great way to support free e-mail," she said.

Privacy advocates peppered Wong with questions about whether it is right to scan e-mail that comes to Gmail subscribers from other mail systems and whether the very act of scanning e-mail compromises users' privacy.

See story in eWeek : Google Defends Scanning E-Mail for Ad Links