07/18/2002

By DOUG BEDELL / The Dallas Morning News

Some cable Internet services, apparently bowing to pressure from Hollywood and major music labels, are suspending the accounts of users found trading copyrighted material.

Customers of Cox Communications report receiving "take-down notices" that say "Cox will suspend your account and disable your connection to the Internet within 24 hours of your receipt of this e-mail if the offending material is not removed."

In Texas, users of Time Warner's Road Runner high-speed cable service in Houston, Austin and San Antonio are reporting that their ability to use KaZaA and iMesh file-sharing programs has been blocked or severely hampered.

A spokesman for Road Runner said it had no one available to comment on any policy changes that might affect peer-to-peer file-sharing.

On message boards at dslreports.com, Slashdot.org and Zeropaid.com, users complained that the restrictions on cable service negate the necessity for high-speed Net connections.

"If they start blocking all the programs that make high-speed access worthwhile, there's not much point in paying $40/month to use it," wrote one anonymous Road Runner customer.

Yahoo begins altering seven forbidden words

Out of security fears regarding HTML coding, Yahoo has begun changing wording inside postings to its group discussion boards and @yahoo e-mail addresses.

HTML-coded e-mail containing the word medieval, for example, is routinely changed to medireview to avoid the syntax "eval," which might be used in a malicious attack. Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako says Yahoo does some automated filtering, which is updated on an ongoing basis.

As a result, Google now shows more than 600 Web sites where "medireview" appears in discussions of ancient leather-working, history and art. Other words being changed include mocha (changed to expresso) and expression (changed to statement).

The word medireview has even started creeping into scholarly works, bibliographies and book reviews, sending many researchers spinning into vain searches for its origins.

A full list of the words being changed has been compiled by the Web site NTK.net.

Microsoft to offer wireless hardware

Microsoft is moving into the wireless networking hardware field with its own line of products planned for release later this year.

The unspecified hardware will be based on the popular Wi-Fi (802.11b) standard, said Randy Ringer, general manager for the Microsoft Hardware Division.

"We've done a lot of research, and it has shown that consumers want to be able to share their broadband Internet connections and they want more mobility – the ability to move about their house or set up a computer anywhere to connect to their information from wherever they are," Mr. Ringer said.

Right now, he said, company surveys show setting up wireless access points is too confusing for most users.

Net notes

Computer retailer Gateway Inc. plans to provide free classes to consumers on the dos and don'ts of online music, showing how to download music and burn CDs without violating copyrights. The three-hour classes will be held at all 274 Gateway Country retail stores. Gateway hopes the classes help deflect criticism by recording industry executives who argue that computer and electronics makers encourage piracy of music and movies online to boost sales of their products.

Compiled from staff and wire reports