The popular file-sharing service Kazaa has been put on notice. Sharman Networks, the Australian company that purchased the Kazaa network and software in 2002, has been told by an Australian judge that they have until December 5 to either filter copyrighted music from its system or shut down their operations entirely.

To avoid complete shutdown, Sharman Networks must, as a "first step," implement a keyword-filtering system for the Kazaa network within 10 days. This would remove the links to many copyrighted files already being shared over the network, but obviously it would be easy for users to add intentional misspellings to their files in order to bypass the filters. There has been no comment about whether or not the fake, static-filled music files hosted on high-speed connections by the music industry themselves would be subject to these same keyword filters.

The chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organization that represents the recording industry in over 75 countries, issued this statement:

It's time for services like Kazaa to move on—to filter, go legal or make way for others who are trying to build a digital music business the correct and legal way.

A finnish computer hacker is going to break into the Diebold Election System with the blessing of California's secretary of state.

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has already refused Diebold certification after 20 percent of the new, voting machines malfunctioned during a July test, however now he wants to make sure that the machines are secure.

Last May, Hursti tested a Diebold system and changed the voting results. He also inserted a new program that flashed the message "Are we having fun yet?" on the computer screens.

He confirmed that if someone has the same access as an employee of the election office it was possible to enter the computer, alter election results and exit the system without any physical record. Now McPherson wants to see this test for himself.

Hursti will use a randomly selected voting machine from one of the 17 counties that use a Diebold system. Diebold wanted it to use a machine that it provided, however that idea was vetoed by the state, we assume because it didn't want a machine designed to cheat the test.

Maxell will ship its first holographic storage system late next year, the company has pledged.

The storage specialist will initially offer a removable system based on 300GB media and capable of transfering data at a rate of 20MBps, Maxell said. However, the company said the technology, designed by InPhase Technologies, is capable of achieving 1.6TB per disk - and that's uncompressed capacity - with a 120MBps bandwidth.

InPhase was founded in December 2000 by Lucent, and has been working on holographic storage - in which data is encoded as a 3D pattern written and read by laser beam - ever since. In addition to the colossal storage capacity, InPhase promises a data archive life of over 50 years, not much different to the longevity claimed by most optical media makers - a CD-RW for instance will typically retain data for 20-100 years, depending on which manufacturer you speak to.

Controversial Miami-based attorney Jack Thompson has been removed from a lawsuit filed by the families of two slain police officers and a police dispatcher against Sony, Rockstar Games, and game retailers. Furthermore, the judge in the case revoked Thompson's license to practice law in the state of Alabama citing Thompson's behavior as the cause of the sanction.

In our previous coverage of the trial, we reported that Thompson had voluntarily withdrawn from the case because he felt that the "other side [meaning the trial defendents] wants to make me the issue." However, Judge Moore, the case's presiding jurist, issued a stinging 18-page report in which the judge rejected Thompson's claim of voluntary removal and stated that Thompson was effectively thrown off the case for actions "before this Court [that] suggest that he is unable to conduct himself in a manner befitting practice in this state." Furthermore, Moore has referred Thompson's conduct to Disciplinary Commission of the Alabama Bar for "appropriate action." Such actions could potentially include complete permanent disbarrment from the practice of law in the state of Alabama.

Sony's DRM technology was a waste of time because it could be defeated by a bit of sticky tape.

According to the bean counters at Gartner, the stealth technology which has got Sony in such deep trouble was easily defeated by low tech means.

The big G says that all you have to do is stick a fingernail-sized piece of opaque tape to the outer edge of the disc, rendering session 2 - which contains the self-loading DRM software, unreadable. The PC then treats the CD as a single-session music CD, and CD "rip" programs continue to work.

Of course the big G does not recommend that users try this, although we are curious to know if the suits there have tested it.

Of course if rules that the RIAA want accepted by congress get through, it will be possible for Sony to sue the makers of sticky tape for knowingly creating a tool for music piracy.

Diebold never seems to think the law applies to it. The maker of electronic voting machines, has a long history of questionable activity when it comes to those machines. After it was discovered that internal documents proved that the company knew about security flaws in their own software, they sued, claiming copyright infringement -- basically confessing that the documents were legit. There were additional stories about Diebold illegally changing their software at the last minute, leaving default passwords, threatening extortionate prices to add a paper trail, and mostly hiding the fact that the main person who wrote most of the voting machine software had been jailed for fraud in the past. With all that in mind, you would think that (1) the company's e-voting machines would deserve extra scrutiny and (2) the company would bend over backwards to assist in that scrutiny to prove their systems were fine. It appears that's not the case. Over in North Carolina, where a new law says e-voting companies need to hand over their source code, Diebold somehow convinced a judge to exempt it from obeying that law. The EFF is now suing Diebold for evading the law in North Carolina. They may have a tough case, but it still should be scary for anyone still using electronic voting machines that this is still happening. It's entirely possible that Diebold has a legitimate reason for getting the exemption -- but it would seem like they should be pretty forthcoming in explaining just what that is.

RIAA president Cary Sherman has backed Sony's use of spyware rootkits and claims that other companies do it all the time.

Sherman said that music corporations have the same right to protection as movie studios, video game makers, or software companies.

He said that there was nothing unusual about technology being used to protect intellectual property. He said that you can't make an extra copy of Windows or virtually any other software. Why should CDs be any different?

The new Sprint Music Store is the first legal music downloading service you can access right from a cellphone, and Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg gives high marks to the interface, download speed and playback quality. But he criticizes the 'stratospheric new price for the legal download of a single song: $2.50.' Sprint justifies the price because of the convenience and usability of its store. Mossberg responds, 'I believe something else is at work here: a lethal combination of two industries many consumers believe typically charge too much. One is the bumbling record industry, which has been seeking to raise prices in the fledgling legal downloading market even as it continues to bleed from free, illegal downloading. The other is the cellphone carriers, or, as I like to call them, "the Soviet ministries," which too often treat their customers as captive and refuse to allow open competition for services they offer over their networks.'

Bruce Perens posts in his blog about an amusing encounter between Richard Stallman and United Nations security at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. It seems that RFID technology, which Stallman opposes for privacy reasons, was used in the identification badges for the conference. From the blog: 'You can't give Richard a visible RF ID strip without expecting him to protest. Richard acquired an entire roll of aluminum foil and wore his foil-shielded pass prominently.' During a keynote speech, Stallman also passed around the tinfoil for other to use as well. It seems that UN security was not amused, however, as they would not let him leave the room for some time.

ZDNet reported earlier this week that Microsoft was thinking of offering an Ad-Supported version of Windows. A blog post by John Carroll offers some reasons why Ad-Supported Windows makes sense. From the article: '4. More revenue through targeted marketing: The holy grail of marketing is to target an audience with the sort of ads that most appeal to them. Sending a bunch of male programmers advertisements for breast enlargement isn't terribly useful. Sending a bunch of male programmers advertisements for a four hour extended version of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan is useful.' Is there any situation where you can see yourself open to the possibility of using an Ad-Supported operating system?