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A college student working for a shop that made copies for DirecTV’s law firm faces possible jail time for illegally disseminating the satellite company's technical secrets. Igor Serebryany, a University of Chicago sophomore, allegedly stole some duplicates detailing DirecTV’s smart card technology while copying images for a civil lawsuit. The documents contained details of the latest DirecTV technology, which Serebryany allegedly forwarded to three pirate web sites during the fall. Serebryany has been charged in Los Angeles with stealing documents, violating the 1996 Economic Espionage Act, which bans release of private information to benefit others. Serebryany himself did not profit from the alleged law-breaking. He faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Three previous versions of the DirecTV smart card have been hacked, and so the company was particularly perturbed to discover that its top-secret Period 4 design had been compromised. The documents allegedly stolen pertained to a DirecTV lawsuit against encrypted satellite card producer NDS, which made the cards for DirecTV. The cards allow for decryption of satellite signals through computer chips. Hacked cards can override the technology, giving users DirecTV channels for free. Analysts estimate that 1 million households steal DirecTV signals, in addition to the 11 million legitimate customers.
Tech spending outlook gloomy for 2003
While the forecast for advertising has brightened for 2003, tech spending will remain down. In fact, it could slip even farther than it has already. A new survey from Goldman Sachs forecasts that U.S. corporations will not increase their hardware or software purchases in the new year, sending tech spending down by another 2 to 3 percent. Goldman Sachs found that technology buyers got more frugal as the year went on, spending less in the second half of 2002 than in the first. Analysts warn that although the forecast is by no means a sure thing, it could prevent technology companies from meeting their first-quarter earnings estimates. Two-thirds of technology managers surveyed said that they expected budgets to be tightened in 2003, with nearly half expecting no budget increases until ’04. Companies in the business-to-business sector are projected to be at the highest risk.
Poll: Internet users want spam outlawed
A new Harris Poll shows that internet users are more frustrated than ever with the increasing proliferation of spam. Eighty percent of those surveyed, up from 49 percent two and a half years ago, say that they are “very annoyed” by unsolicited bulk emails. Seventy-four percent of those polled say they’d support a law making spam illegal, with just 12 percent opposed to the ban. Email filtering company Brightmail found that spam attacks, representing a mass mailing of commercial emails, have more than doubled in the past year, reaching about 5.5 million in November 2002. The good news found by the Harris Poll was that, although consumers have had it with spam, they’re lightening up about other internet annoyances. Those bothered by how long it takes to surf to the right web site dropped by half to 10 percent. Pollsters say that broadband internet usage and faster modems have made customers more tolerant as download times decrease.
Ask Jeeves waves bye-bye to banners
Ask Jeeves became one of several sites to drop pop-up ads during a bout of customer sympathy last year. This year, it’s become the first major site to boot banner ads. The search site says it’s moving toward more targeted advertising, such as ad links that dovetail with search results from ask.com. Branded response and premier listings products will become Ask Jeeves’ primary ad revenue generators. In another bid to increase revenues, Ask Jeeves unveiled a new search site in April called Teoma. The search engine market has become more crowded, although also more specialized, over the past few years. Industry leader Google continues to outpace the rest, averaging more than 8 million unique users per day in November, according to comScore Networks. Ask Jeeves got about 1 million per day, according to comScore.
January 7, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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