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Now that they’ve vandalized a thousand U.S. web sites, Chinese hackers have declared peace. Both U.S. and Chinese hackers have been defacing web sites as a way to express anger over the April 1 collision of a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet. The collision killed the fighter pilot, Wang Wei. The hacker group, which calls itself the Honker Union of China, claims that it is ending the hack attacks because its members reached their goal of disfiguring 1,000 U.S. web sites. "Any attacks from this point on have no connection to the Honker Union," said a Honker Union statement. U.S. hackers have issued no similar statements thus far. The Chinese hackers hit sites belonging to agencies such as the U.S. Department of Labor. Graffiti typically included nationalist Chinese statements and photos of the dead pilot. U.S. hackers aimed at Chinese educational, government and commercial sites, saying things such as, "We will hate China forever."
Songwriters sue MP3.com over copyrights
Randy Newman, Tom Waits and the rock band Heart have little in common stylistically speaking. Yet since they all own the rights to their own songs, they’ve joined forces against music site MP3.com. Waits, Newman and Heart members have sued the company for $40.5 million. In all, the artists say that MP3 has about 270 of their songs illegally, and they want MP3 to pay them $150,000 per tune. The artists allege that their songs were downloaded onto MP3.com’s computers without their permission. From there, any MP3 user can access the music files if he or she can demonstrate ownership of a CD on which the songs appear by inserting it into the computer. MP3 has faced copyright suits in the past, one from the major record labels and another from the National Music Publishers’ Association. In both cases, the company ended up paying the plaintiffs tens of millions of dollars.
Porn ad virus scoots across the web
A fast-moving virus known as the "homepage worm" streaked across the web Tuesday and Wednesday but did little actual damage. The homepage worm, like the Anna Kournikova virus that circulated in February, was not innately harmful. But the speed with which it spread jammed up corporate computer networks. Perhaps more maliciously, it opened up four web sites when users clicked on the attachment the virus delivered. One of the sites was a pornographic site called Pornbillboard.net, leading some observers to wonder if the virus was nothing but a very aggressive marketing ploy. The virus first appeared in Asia Tuesday; by Wednesday morning, it had spread to North America and then petered out. Three teenagers in the Netherlands take credit for creating it. Also like the Kournikova worm, it emailed itself to all email addresses in the recipients’ Microsoft Outlook address books. The homepage worm had the word "homepage" as its subject, and the message, "Hi! You’ve got to see this page. It’s really cool. ;0)."
Study: Net beats print as information source
Once people go online, they begin to prefer the web to other sources of data for both their personal and business information needs, according to a recent survey by Lyra Research’s Content Intelligence Group. Sixty-three percent of the survey respondents report that they turn to the web first for personal and special-interest information. Just 18 percent said they looked to magazines first. About 48 percent said the web was their favorite source for work- or business-related information, compared to just 7 percent that reported a preference for magazines as a source of data for work or business. The longer people use the web, the more likely they are to say it is their favorite overall information source. Among web users who had been online for six or more years, 21 percent consider it their favorite information source, compared to 5 percent of people who have been online for a year or less. The study also noted that 64 percent of internet users have no problem with using content that is available for free. But at the same time, roughly 25 percent of the respondents strongly agreed that the creators of content should get paid for their efforts.
Man ordered to erase URL from gravestone
The internet has emerged as a place to honor the dead, and a German man is catching flak, albeit indirectly, for having done so. Bernd Bruns, who is 53 years old, created a web site for his dear Mutter--and emblazoned the URL on her headstone, right beside her name. Cemetery officials in the city of Gladbeck have ordered Bruns to strike the web address from her gravesite. St. Lamberti Cemetery authorities consider the URL to be tacky and say it looks like an advertisement. Also, many cemetery visitors have spoken against the presence of the URL, saying that it trivializes a solemn place. So far, Bruns has not caved in to the officials’ demands. Bruns complains that the cemetery’s standards are too strict and that they have imposed a numbing uniformity upon the bereaved and that grieving relatives should be able to grieve how they see fit.
May 10, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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