Flood of junk e-mail possible, group warns
The anti-spam group Spamhaus Project warned that more junk e-mail could be on the way as it prepares to lose its domain name thanks to a company it has accused of sending spam.
Executives at the United Kingdom-based Spamhaus Project said Monday they expect a federal judge in Chicago will sign an order soon that would suspend the domain spamhaus.org because the group has refused to recognize the U.S. court and comply with a $11.7 million judgment.
Spamhaus warned that the order could unleash up to 50 billion pieces of junk e-mail a day on computer users worldwide, though many legal and technology experts are skeptical the effect would lead to millions of clogged in-boxes.
According to Spamhaus, more than 650 million Internet users – including those at the White House, the U.S. Army and the European Parliament – benefit from Spamhaus’ “blacklist” of spammers to help identify which messages to block, send to a “junk” folder or accept. Losing the domain name would make it more difficult for service providers and others to obtain the lists.
Los Angeles
Retailers seeking better deal on DVDs
National retailers that control the lucrative DVD market are pressuring Hollywood studios to give them the same favorable deals being offered to Web-based download services such as Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes.
The latest expression of concern by retailers was a letter sent to studios by the president of Target Corp.
The letter warned that Target might have to reconsider the amount of shelf space allocated for movies if studios undercut the wholesale price of DVDs by giving online services a better deal on digital offerings, said a studio executive who saw the letter but asked to remain anonymous because he had not been authorized to publicly discuss its contents.
Similar concerns have been expressed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other retailers.
“Clearly, there is some concern that there is some erosion by downloading,” Judith McCourt, market research director at Home Media Retailing, said Monday.
Target declined to provide a copy of the letter sent last month.
Salt Lake City
Network computing pioneer dies at age 82
Ray Noorda, the Novell Inc. founder who battled Microsoft Corp. in the early years of network computers, died Monday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 82.
Noorda, the so-called “Father of Network Computing,” had suffered from Alzheimer’s for years and died at his modest home in Orem, Utah, 35 miles south of Salt Lake City, according to a statement from family members.
Noorda became chief executive of Novell in 1983 and made it a software powerhouse, dominating the market for products that manage corporate networks and let individual computers share files and printers. But Microsoft caught up by the mid-1990s.