Just when you thought software licensing enforcement couldn't get any more fun, the copyright cops at the Business Software Alliance have enlivened the process with a spunky cartoon ferret.

The comic will feature the droopy-drawers ferret, who for now is referred to as the "Copyright Crusader." Kids are urged to help select his final name by submitting votes next month through the BSA's Web site.

The ferret, by the way, does seem to be an odd mascot choice for an organization devoted to strict legal adherence, given that the weasel-like mammals are outlawed in California and several other states.

"Microsoft is starting to make deep strategic changes to increase security in the OS and not just fix a security bug here and there," says Chris Wysopal, a security expert with US company @Stake. "Some of the improvements have been a long time coming."

Other enhancements are aimed at preventing "buffer overflow" attacks, which involve breaking into supposedly protected regions of a computer's memory by inputting excess data.

HTML content in received emails will also be switched off. This is because spammers can use HTML to detect when a recipient has viewed an email to identify the most responsive targets.

Although the software will be free to authorised users, Microsoft plans to stop those running unauthorised copies of its software from receiving the new upgrade. Those using serial codes associated with pirated versions of the operating system will be unable to download the new software.

The decision to block these versions of Windows from receiving the update has alarmed some experts who worry that they will remain vulnerable to computer viruses, worms and other forms of attack and will therefore be a threat to other computers.

"Microsoft was granted a patent Tuesday for the Delayed Uploading of User Registration Data, which covers storing information collected from a user locally and transmitting it to a remote system once a connection is established." How is this possibly non-obvious to anyone with at least a tenth of a brain? Looks like more of the same where engineers are being pushed to patent anything, just because that's what companies do these days.

Apparently Ziff Davis is threatening pocketpctools.com with legal action for posting a snippet from and link to a Ziff Davis story. Is it just me, or is this sort of the IDEA of the internet? From pocketpctools.com: 'We are currently being threatened with legal action by a large organization that produces news stories (I am trying to find out if I am "allowed" to post the emails they have sent me).

Matthew Rothenberg of eWEEK writes with a clarification (below); it seems like this is just a tempest in a teapot, and linkers can breathe easy.

While I haven't gotten all the details about what happened, this legal warning to PocketPCTools seems to be a result of miscommunication within our company. We understand and embrace the principles under which sites such as PocketPCTools link to and excerpt our content. There are plenty of occasions when a professional media company needs to question the wholesale appropriation of its content or the use of its marks. From everything I understand about the PocketPCTools case so far, this is NOT one of those occasions!

We're moving to correct the situation now ... PocketPCTools was apparently acting within the appropriate bounds of Web etiquette -- actually, doing us a favor by sending us the traffic -- and Ziff Davis was apparently mistaken in issuing this warning.

My personal apologies to anyone inconvenienced by this error. We're investigating the situation now and will act accordingly.

The Congressional chatter about 'canning spam', in the CAN-SPAM law since January, has turned out to really mean 'they can still spam'. TechWeb News reports that 'In July, compliance fell for the first time under one percent to a measly 0.54 percent', from its 3% max. The researchers claim the ball has been dropped by 'law enforcement'. Those police are probably too busy deleting the 80% spam from their email, like everyone else.

SCO claims that Linux users need to buy the licences because Linux contains some of its intellectual property, placed there without consent.

He admitted that only 20 to 30 organisations have now bought an SCO Linux licence since it was launched.

Sontag blamed action by Novell, which has claimed ownership of the Unix copyrights, for slowing down licence sales. "Some people have used that as an excuse to wait," he said.

Sontag claimed that licence sales are slowly increasing, but "not as fast as I would like".

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved the use of Video Content Protection System (VCPS), the DVD+RW Alliance's preferred copy-protection system.

The idea is that pirates will not be able to use digital broadcasts as a source of material for illicit DVDs, but quite clearly it has the potential to stop fans recording and archiving their favourite shows.

The FCC's Broadcast Flag rule comes into force on 1 July 2005, and all digital TV receivers must be capable of supporting the DRM technology from that date onwards. The technology is not mandatory for recorders, but equipment and discs without VCPS capability will be unable to record or play TV broadcast in the US that is protected with the Broadcast Flag.

Protected and un-protected content can be recorded on the same disc, Philips says.

A group of 46 state attorneys general sent a deeply critical letter to file-sharing companies Thursday, asking them to take stronger action on privacy and intellectual-property violations.

In Washington, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is sponsoring a bill that would hold file-sharing companies liable for the illegal actions of their users, a measure that could push the existing commercial networks out of business.

The letter specifically asks that file-sharing companies stop encrypting network transmissions in ways that make it difficult for law enforcement to investigate and enforce the law.

"This appears to be a case of contempt prior to investigation," StreamCast Networks CEO Michael Weiss said. "This appears to be a continuation of the lies and deceit being perpetrated by the entertainment industry against P2P companies to Congress, the American public and now the offices of the attorneys general."

"The FCC has unanimously approved the U.S. Justice Department's bid to expand CALEA to broadband and VoIP networks, according to reports from SecurityFocus and News.com. This means, following a mandatory public comment period, service providers will have to wire their networks for easy law enforcement surveillance, the way phone companies do now. The feds have wanted this for a long time." Ebon Praetor adds a link to Reuters' version, writing "In addition, the FCC has decided that the push-to-talk, or walkie-talkie, functions available on phones from Nextel should also be subject to the same tapping regulations that regular phones are."

Pfizer, the maker of Viagra, has launched a legal battle against dozens of online pharmacies that sell counterfeit or illegal generic versions of its drug.

The company on Tuesday also announced an advertising campaign to educate consumers on how to avoid deceptive Web sites, safely purchase Viagra online, and minimize Viagra-related spam.

The drug giant is suing five companies and individuals--Oriontech, You Save RX, CNR International, Charles William Naron and Doug Hollenbeck--alleging violation of state and federal trademark rules and unfair competition laws.

The company is working with the Department of Justice, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the FBI and the Food and Drug Administration to prosecute counterfeiters. Pfizer said that while some Web sites sell generic Viagra, the FDA has not approved a generic version of the drug.