Digital Trends
The worldwide economy might be in a sharp downturn, but chipmaker Intel is still looking to the future, announcing today it plans to invest $7 billion in its U.S. manufacturing facilities over the next two years. The most will roll out the company’s 32-nanometer technology to more facilities, enabling the company to produce more processors and semiconductor products that are smaller, faster, and use less energy.
Arizona judger David G. Campbell has ruled ruled that popular World of Warcraft bot Glider qualified as a “circumvention device” under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), potentially setting a legal precedent that could enable software companies to pursue copyright infringement cases against individuals who violate terms of service or end-user license agreements.
Computer maker Dell has agreed to pay some $3.35 million to settle 34 states’ allegations that the company’s warranty, financing, and rebate offers were deceptive and misled consumers. The agreement has Dell paying $1.5 million into a restitution account; impacted consumers will be able to submit claims for compensation. The other $1.85 million will go towards the states’ legal costs.
“More than the money, this agreement provides profoundly important business practice reforms,” said Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal, in a statement. “No more bait-and-switch financing—offers touting zero-interest that become surprise high-interest charges or astounding late penalties. Our strong coalition of states will closely monitor and enforce this agreement, which has been reached with Dell’s cooperation.”
World of Warcraft makers Blizzard Entertainment has been awarded a $6 million judgement against MDY Industries, the makers of MMOGlider, a program that can automate the actions of players in the popular online game, enabling them to perform repetitive tasks—and do things like "farm gold"——without the player actually having to go through all the motions. The case has been going on since 2006; MDY Industries sells the MMOGlider program for $25, although there’s no consistent information regarding how many copies have been sold.
If you want to get rich quickly in World of Warcraft, you can be like many others and use MMOglider, a program from MDY Industries that automates killing and looting. But you might not be able to do it for much longer, because an Arizona judge has decreed that MMOglider infringes on World of Warcraft’s copyright.
However, it’s not in the way that Blizzard, WoW’s maker, claimed when they brought the case to court. According to US District Judge David Campbell, using MMOglider breaks the terms players agree to abide by when the use World of Warcraft. But he didn’t find for Blizzard in the claim that the software violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
A federal grand jury in Detroit has returned an indicted against so-called "spam king" Alan Ralsky and ten other on charges of international spamming and engaging in pump-and-dump stock fraud schemes. Other individuals included in the indictment include Ralsky’s son-in-law and citizens of Russia, Canada, Hong Kong, California, and Arizona, along with one dual national from Hong Kong and Canada.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) hasn’t won many friends in the public sphere lately, what with filing tens of thousands of lawsuits against music fans believed to be distributing music online in violation of copyright, sending letters to college students and others threatening legal action unless they pay a settlement, and (of course) falsely targeting many individuals in these actions.
But in an unusual move in a file-sharing case the RIAA is brining against Arizona resident Jeffrey Howell, RIAA attorney Ira Schwartz characterizes MP3 files Howell allegedly shared via the Internet as "unauthorized copies." (PDF) The catch? These are MP3 files Howell created from music CDs he legally purchased.
While geeks around the world eagerly await the release of Intel’s 45nm Penyrn processors, the company has, up until now, had only one facility in Oregon working to produce them. Not anymore. On Thursday, Intel celebrated the opening of its $3 billion dollar “Fab 32” facility in Chandler, Arizona, which will take over mass production of the new chips.
The enormous new facility spans 1 million square feet – enough to swallow 17 football fields – and has 184,000 square feet of clean room alone. Once it is fully up to speed, it will employ 1,000 people.
In the first case prosecuted under the United States’ CAN-SPAM Act to be tried before a jury, spammers Jeffrey Kilbride of Venice, California, and James Schaffer of Paradise Valley, Arizona, were sentenced to five and a quarter and six years in federal prison, respectively, for sending pornographic spam, as well as engaging in fraud, and money laundering. Each defendant was also fined $100,000 and ordered to pay AOL $77,500 in restitution; the U.S. government is also seizing $1.1 million in revenues earned by the operation.
Google’s inexorable march toward world domination continues. It’s moved into the university market, and institutions are switching their e-mail services to Google. The latest is Ireland’s venerable Trinity College in Dublin, where the entire e-mail network is being replaced by Google’s system. Although there will be no changes on the surface, with the e-mail addresses and domain name remaining exactly as they were, the engine will be Google. The idea, says the search engine giant, is to develop a long-term relationship with students, who will be able to continue using their e-mail addresses after graduation, a major change from the present system. Arizona State has already adopted the Google system, as has Linköpings University in Sweden, along with colleges in Africa, with several others in the U.S. and Europe reportedly considering switching. However, the e-mail change is just the tip of the iceberg. The package includes free online tools – powered by Google, of course – allowing students to access files from any Internet connection, anywhere, making collaborative work in real-time much easier. Although there was debate about privacy issues at Trinity (the announcement came just as a report ranked Google worst on privacy), but Director of Information Systems, Michael Nowlan, said, “The digital natives will find their own way, make their own discoveries.”
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