Mr Legoland Windsor sued over his Web site Humor/Amusing 9/3/2000; 9:49:36 PM 'The piss artist formerly known as Craig Cottrell has found himself on the end Danish toy company Lego's ire. It all started over a few beers with his mate. Inebriated, both of them decided to change their names by deed poll for a bet.' And it goes downhill from there... love the ending of this article. BTW, despite the way that sounds, this is a true story from The Register.

Ain't no network strong enough Misc.9/1/2000; 10:44:43 AM 'Master cryptographer Bruce Schneier's "Secrets and Lies" explains why computer security is an oxymoron.'His basic contention is that humans will always screw up, thus no (human-built) system will be secure. It's very hard to challenge that line of reasoning. The more real-world experience you have, the harder it gets to challenge.I'm going to be very contrary to what seems to be public opinion, and say I hope Bruce Schneier is correct.

Updated cookie-alert software released for IE 5.5 Privacy from Companies9/1/2000; 10:35:45 AM 'Microsoft issued a software patch to the public today for its latest Internet browser that tells customers when third-party Web sites try to place cookies on their computers for tracking purposes. ...'The software within IE 5.5 gives consumers detailed information about cookies and tells them whether the cookie is coming from the Web site they are visiting or from a third-party site such as advertising networks DoubleClick or Engage.

Amazon.com Revises Privacy Policy on Consumer Concern Privacy from Companies9/1/2000; 10:33:08 AM 'The new privacy policy on the company's Web site details what personal information Amazon.com gathers, why it collects it and how it is used. The company didn't say how the new policies specifically differ from the old ones.'You'd think the complete lack of details would make it hard to comment on, but the NYTimes manages to fill out a complete article.

MS fumbles Word privacy scare Privacy from Companies9/1/2000; 10:19:29 AM 'Microsoft was caught off-guard yesterday by a warning that Word documents could be tracked over the Internet without their readers' knowledge. 'A press release from a security consultant drew attention to the potential problem, by which embedded links to content on servers could be used to track the usage of documents as they're passed around multiple users on the Net.

Taking Sides in the Napster War Music & MP3 8/31/2000; 7:06:31 PM 'Napster and its kin can be viewed as sharing or stealing, as an innocent means of file sharing or an insidious way to infringe on copyright. There are plenty of sites on both sides of the issue.' My apologies for the delay today... it seems ETP.com is slow for me today.

Court Sets October Trial Date for Napster Case Music & MP3 8/30/2000; 12:02:31 PM A federal appeals court set the week of Oct. 2 for opening arguments in the trial pitting music song-swap company Napster Inc. against some of the giants of the recording industry.

TRUSTe admits to violating its own privacy policy Privacy from Companies 8/29/2000; 11:01:06 AM 'TRUSTe, perhaps the Internet's most-recognized nonprofit privacy watchdog organization, learned a jarring lesson on privacy itself, when it downloaded free visitor tracking software from Internet.com's subsidiary Web site TheCounter.com two weeks ago. 'The TRUSTe "trustmark" logo visible on a Web site tells surfers that their personal information is safe because the site follows TRUSTe's code of privacy conduct.

Universal, MP3.com Continue Legal Battle Music & MP38/29/2000; 10:54:59 AM 'Confounding those who had expected a settlement by now, Universal Music Group took MP3.com (MPPP) back to federal district court in Manhattan on Monday to argue the damages portion of its copyright-infringement case. 'The trial, which is expected to last most of the week, focuses on whether MP3.com "willfully" infringed upon Universal's copyrights when it transferred music on Universal CDs onto its servers for use in its now-suspended My.

Home-spying software prompts investigation Privacy from Companies8/29/2000; 10:49:56 AM 'The Florida Attorney General's office, in a civil investigation, is looking into whether a Vero Beach, Fla. company, SpectorSoft, is violating the law with its home-spying software....'SpectorSoft lets its installer monitor everything a person looks at on a computer screen, in a series of rapid snapshots....'But could such private surveillance be illegal? ''We are investigating and researching in an effort to determine if some of the software being manufactured by that company might violate Florida law,'' Assistant State Attorney General Stephen A.