Piracy Ho!: Remember the Software Publishers Association? (See "The Software Police," Wired 3.05, page 88.) Just in time for the WIPO wipeout - the imminent vote by international delegates for restrictive copyright measures in cyberspace - our friends at The World's Largest Software Companies have come up with "guidelines" they would like all ISPs and Usenet server sites to follow. These include "naming someone responsible to use their best efforts to ensure that the unauthorized reproduction and/or distribution of copyrighted computer programs does not occur on or through its servers." The SPA also suggests that sites monitor all links in case they lead to pirate nests. Neat! An officer for every node! After hearing no end of it from ISPs, the SPA relented, now arguing that ISPs should at least run Java scripts chastising would-be warez traders. Hey SPA, what's that looming large in your rearview mirror? Could it be ... the New Economy? Low Security: The wonderfully named WarRoom Research LLC recently surveyed 200 of the Fortune 1,000 and found that nearly half have experienced computer break-ins this past year. Of those, about one-third claimed losses of more than US$500,000. Sounds ominous, no? Indeed. Had us reaching for the phone to call in the computer security experts until we noticed the survey was sponsored by ... the computer security experts, including those interested in selling you computer security - IBM and Symantec. Wow! That Sucked! Poor CompuServe. It must be hard to watch America Online noisily eat your lunch. Earlier this winter, CompuServe cried uncle and killed Wow!, its pathetic attempt at an AOL killer. On a press release ingenuously titled "CompuServe Reports Expected Q2 Loss and Other Charges," CompuServe announced the death of Wow! and the launch of a more narrowly targeted service for business (read: high-margin) users. Seems CompuServe finally caught the clue that there's barely room for one mass McMarketed online service, let alone two or three. Black Copters at Microsoft: Bill devotee Bob Loblaw has been staring at his Windows 95 start-up screen a bit too long. An excerpt from his homepage, Subliminal Messages In Windows 95? (tcp.ca/gsb/PC/Win95-subliminals.html): "If you imagine that the upper-right corner of the Windows logo points to the back of a guitarist's neck, you can see that the guitarist has curly hair, a mustache, a clearly visible frilly collar, and is playing with his head back and his elbow at approximately the area where the green and the yellow rectangles meet. With a little more effort, it's not hard to imagine that this afro-haired, mustachioed guitar hero could be none other than Seattle-area rock legend, Jimi Hendrix." No Glory: Anyone who's read Japanese pulp novels about WWII knows that country's predilection for, er, bending the facts when it comes to military success. But Chinese authorities would have none of it when such tendencies spilled into a software game, Governor's Decision from Glory Software Co. Ltd. Seems the Chinese took offense at Glory's distortion of history and glorification of Japanese military aggression against China. Besides seizing all discs, the authorities have fined the company more than US$50,000 and forced it to submit a "self-criticism." We'd love to read a copy of that.
ELECTRIC WORD
Piracy Ho!
