Thunderbird 1.5 flies the Mozilla nest

Mozilla has released Thunderbird 1.5, the latest version of its email client and companion to its Firefox Web browser. The release integrates Mozilla's new software update technology, with more prominent notification of new updates and improved support for extensions. ...more

Thomson tracks content copying with DRM watermarks

Thomson, the French-owned electronics company, has announced two new implementations of its NexGuard DRM technology that will encode digital content with the specific identity of the device to which it is downloaded. The process, known as watermarking or fingerprinting, ties the downloaded content to a specific device. One advantage of this to the provider is that if the content is copied for unauthorised use, it is possible to identify the device, and thereby the person, that made the copy. ...more

Five on the critical list in Microsoft's security update

As Microsoft warned in its advance notification, this month's bundle of security bulletins contains seven patches, five of which are critical. Two of the critical flaws relate to Windows and involve the possibility of remote code execution. The first, MS06-035, addresses two problems: a Mailslot Heap Overflow vulnerability and a SMB Information Disclosure vulnerability. ...more

Buffalo spammer faces seven years in jail

A New York spammer, dubbed the 'buffalo spammer', has been given a maximum sentence of up to seven years on charges of identity theft and forgery. Howard Carmack was found guilty last month of 14 charges under New York's new identity-theft laws for sending 825mn email messages using other people's names and addresses. His emailing antics are also illegal under the national Can-Spam Act that came into law in the US at the beginning of the year. ...more

One in the eye for Napster

New technology developed by EMusic Inc is designed to stop people distributing its files via song-swapping application Napster. The EMusic site sells digital music and the company has come up with a way of embedding an invisible watermark into its files. When EMusic searches for its files on the Napster service, it searches out this watermark and further action can be taken if anything inappropriate is found. ...more