MP3.com has a new and extremely powerful music business adversary - former Beatle Paul McCartney. His MPL Communications publishing company is suing MP3.com for copyright infringement involving its My.MP3.com service. McCartney isn't suing personally, but his firm's joining of the battle hikes the profile of the case, which began when the Recording Industry Association of America hit MP3.com. Joining the MPL lawsuit was Peer International, whose catalog ranges from country pioneer Jimmie Rodgers to murdered Tejano star Selena. MPL owns the rights to McCartney's post-Beatles music and the entire song catalog of one of the Beatles' major influences, Buddy Holly, as well as those of Hoagy Carmichael and Sammy Cahn. Observers say the case is split between whether MP3.com's database of downloadable albums equals copyright infringement and whether litigation will crimp innovative technology.
BOSTON - Two software experts sued over their cphack filtering end-run by Microsystems Software have agreed not to tamper with CyberPatrol any longer. Company attorney Irwin Schwartz says this means the Mattel subsidiary succeeded in protecting CyberPatrol customers and Microsystems's intellectual property. Cphack was created by Matthew Skala and Eddy Jansson and made available online. The program enables people, and mostly of concern, children, to beat CyberPatrol's blocks on porn and other "questionable" sites. It also shows a list of sites CyberPatrol blocks. Earlier in March, a federal judge handed down an order to stop distributing cphack. Schwartz also says two Internet service providers Skala and Jansson used were dropped from the suit. The federal judge, however, is expected to rule later on how broad a cease-and-desist order should be.
WASHINGTON - Families of victims of Net stalkers have asked a Senate committee mulling legislation on the matter to help other families and victims. Witnesses included the family of Amy Boyer, an honors student who was shot to death by a loner who had shadowed her online, obtained her Social Security number, and tracked her work schedule and routine - even writing fantasies of her death on Websites he created. The Senate is expected to bring up an overall Internet Security Act very soon, according to the Associated Press. One possible amendment would make it illegal to sell someone's Social Security number online without their permission. "Today's kids may be technically savvy, but they are still children," says Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, who asked to be a co-sponsor and thus made the coming legislation bipartisan. "They may understand computers, but they are years away from understanding the harsh realities of the adult world." Another witness was a girl lured from home by a 40-something man who met her in a chat room and held her for four days of sexual terror before she was rescued. "I was 15, you know, airheaded," she told the Senate committee. "You need a high maturity level."
WASHINGTON - Saying the February spam-bomb denial-of-service attacks against high-profile Web sites were "the tip of the iceberg," FBI director Louis Freeh told a Senate subcommittee reviewing cybercrime that cybercrime has doubled over the past year. Freeh suggested his bureau is working with the Justice Department to propose legislation bringing changes in law to help hunt cybercriminals down. He insisted he wanted no "extraordinary powers," but he added that problems include court orders that are "a needless waste of time and resources, and a number of important investigations are either hampered or derailed entirely in those instances." But other problems, as some committee members said, include companies reluctant to report cybercrime for fear of stock prices being harmed.
LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has ruled Internet companies can offer links to rival Websites legally, something many new e-firms use to draw new users. The case involved an upstart ticket seller, Tickets.com, which was sued by Ticketmaster Online, who claimed hyperlinking should be banned. Linking to a competitor's Website boosts traffic to smaller companies, the Associated Press says, but the links often lead directly to pages deep within rival sites - letting users bypass the front-page areas showing ads Web companies rely on for revenues. Ticketmaster claimed Tickets.com was in effect profiting on the backs "of our hard work." U.S. District Judge Harry Hupp, however, ruled deep linking "does not necessarily involve unfair competition." Ticketmaster plans an amended complaint to reinstate their claims.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
