Not even Stephen King is safe from computer hacking - hackers have cracked the software used to encrypt Riding the Bullet, the King novella which made an e-splash when it was released to cyberspace earlier in March. Spokespersons for Glassbook, which made the software, told CNET that hackers downloaded the program from the company website onto personal computers and cracked the encryption code. That breach could well put the publishing industry on its guard, CNET says, as it begins studying the future of Web distribution for its content - and how to protect intellectual property rights in hand. The King novella was encrypted by a software based on an open platform called the Electronic Book Exchange, developed to limit book downloads to one user, one copy. King's publisher, Simon and Schuster, says over 400,000 copies of Riding the Bullet, were downloaded within its first 24 hours online.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Would you like to get into bed with Adult Cyberspace? You can do it tonight, March 31, at 8 p.m. PST - if you download the free software and/or webcam at ww1.adultcyberspace.com/acs/inbed.html. "It's a new addition to the Adult Cyberspace site," says spokeswoman Jackie Barnard. "I think it'll be fun and a great traffic generator for webmasters." It's a new program called In Bed With ACS Live! Tonight's guest will include Steve Sweet and the Starnet boys - you may recall Starnet has withdrawn from adult entertainment to concentrate on online gambling. Future shows are planned as a potpourri of adult entertainment, from porn star interviews to erotic cookery. Visit the Adult Cyberspace Website for more information and to download.
DALLAS - The infamous leader of the globalHell hacking gang had an unexpected diversion on his way to court to plead guilty in two high-profile and embarrassing computer cracking cases: Patrick W. Gregory, 19, a.k.a. MostHateD, was jailed for breaking into a home and stealing a car, thus postponing his March 29 arraignment. Gregory already faced five years behind bars and restitution for his leadership of globalHell, accused of defacing the White House and U.S. Army websites. But now he's looking at a likely more severe sentence because of the burglary and car theft charges.
WASHINGTON - Will it depend on what your definition of e-mail is? The White House says it didn't hide thousands of e-mail messages related to campaign finance and the Monica Lewinsky scandals. White House counsel Beth Nolan told a Congressional committee March 30 that a sworn affidavit showed e-mail was "archived" while some wasn't "captured" - but Wired says the exact definition of "archived" could be the difference between freedom and the calaboose for Daniel Barry. He's the White House tech who signed the July 1999 affidavit. Barry's alleged to have known about the capture problems long before, the magazine says. At issue was whether or not the White House failed to hand over particular e-mails under subpoena from various investigators even though it knew the problem, and whether the White House threatened computer workers to silence the problem. And the chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Dan Burton, has told a federal judge he'll ask for criminal charges, accusing Barry's statement of being false and deceptive intentionally. The controversy started when a former White House computer contractor accused the Clinton Administration of covering up the e-mails case.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
