November 2004 - cypherpunks-legacy

IBM, Sony to detail 'Cell' PS3 CPU February 2005
by R.A. Hettinga 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/29/ibm_sony_cell_debut/print.html> The Register Biting the hand that feeds IT The Register ; Personal ; Consoles ; Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/29/ibm_sony_cell_debut/ IBM, Sony to detail 'Cell' PS3 CPU February 2005 By Tony Smith (tony.smith at theregister.co.uk) Published Monday 29th November 2004 11:17 GMT IBM, Sony and Toshiba - the three companies behind the 'Cell' microprocessor - will formally detail the chip's workings at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) on 6 February 2005, the trio said today. IBM and Sony also said they were now ready to announce the promised Cell-based workstation, which should enable software developers to begin coding for the PlayStation 3, itself set to be based on the new chip. The partners describe Cell as a 64-bit POWER-based "multi-core system" for computers and next-generation digital home appliances. Crucially, each core can run a single operating system, or run their own OS independently of the others. OS options include real-time support. With the confirmation that Cell is indeed derived from IBM's POWER architecture, and given they way the chip's designers discuss it more in terms of a general-purpose CPU than the more console-oriented Emotion Engine of the PS2, it's clearly going to raise the possibility that the part may be of interest to Apple. And since IBM is also working on the CPU for Xbox 2/Xbox Next, there's the chance of a certain degree of software compatibility there too, though clearly the use of different high-level APIs will limit games and application portability. The chip's makers note that Cell is not only a multi-core architecture - like the anticipated 'Antares' PowerPC 970MP - but multi-threaded too, though it's not yet clear whether support for multiple threads takes places within each core level, HyperThreading-style, or Sony and co. are simply talking about spreading threads across cores. IBM's POWER 5 architecture supports simultaneous multi-threading, so it seems likely Cell will too. IBM and Sony also talk about big memory and I/O bandwidth - no great surprise there, given it's a 64-bit processor and what IBM has demonstrated with existing POWER and PowerPC processors. More interesting is the integration of a security sub-system. The companies don't go into any detail, but it sounds not unlike VIA's PadLock technology with its hardware random number generator. Mention is made of "high-level media processing", which could be a reference to AltiVec, the PowerPC SIMD engine. There's also the suggestion that Cell will use a SpeedStep-style power conservation technology, allowing the chip to reduced its clock frequency. IBM's 90nm PowerPC 970 already has something along these lines. Contrary to past speculation that Cell would ship at 65nm, its makers today said it will debut as a 90nm part using IBM's SOI technology. As for the Cell-based workstation, it's clearly only at the prototype stage, IBM and Sony having come up with an "experimental model". Still, it packs 2 teraflops into a standard (presumably) rackmount box, apparently, with what sounds like multiple, multi-core chips operating as a kind of cluster-in-a-box configuration. . -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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RE: Oswald
by Trei, Peter 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

Steve Furlong wrote: > Major Variola (ret) wrote: > > Bill Stewart wrote: > > >Slsahdot reports that MSNBC reports > http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6549265/ > > >that there's a new video game "JFK Reloaded" > > http://www.jfkreloaded.com/start/ > > > > I'm waiting for Grand Theft Auto IV, Drunk Over the Bridge With the > > Secretary variant. Wonder what Teddie will say about that one. > > > > Oswald saved the world from nuclear conflict, thank the gods he > > offed the sex & drug crazed toothy one as soon as he (et al :-) did. > > > > And a hell of a shot as well. Gotta respect that, with a > bolt-action, > > no less. > > A piece-of-shit boltie. I don't believe the official story, myself. Hitting at a upper-body sized target at less than 90 yards, using a scoped rifle, is about as difficult shooting fish in a barrel. The slow steady movement of the car makes it slightly more interesting, but hardly challenging to a decent marksman. Check the Warren report: http://www.jfk-assassination.de/warren/wch/vol11/page309.php Peter

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Baltimore cleans house, plans de-listing
by R.A. Hettinga 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/26/baltimore-seeks_delisting/print.html> The Register Biting the hand that feeds IT Baltimore cleans house, plans de-listing By electricnews.net (feedback at theregister.co.uk) Published Friday 26th November 2004 11:50 GMT Baltimore Technologies has embarked on a series of housekeeping exercises, but the former security firm has given no indication of its plans for the future. The company has organised a general meeting of shareholders for mid-December, to approve a plan to consolidate its share structure. The company currently has 40,000 shareholders, 24,000 of whom own less than 125 shares. At the current share price, 125 shares are worth around #22. To cut the cost of servicing these shareholders, old shares will be combined in a new share, at a ratio of 125 to one. Anybody who owns less than 125 shares will be paid the value of their shares and will cease to be a shareholder. American Depository Shares (ADS), which allow people to trade Baltimore's shares on the US markets, will be worth 1/625th of a share. The company will also cancel its stock market listing in London and remove itself from the US ADR system. A stock market listing might complicate potential plans to sell the company, it says. "The board does not believe that, in the company's current situation where it is essentially a cash shell, it is in the company's best interests to incur the costs involved in maintaining such a listing," Baltimore said in a statement. The announcements come after Baltimore's whole slate of directors - who were responsible for a painful asset sell-off process - were removed due the efforts of a outspoken shareholder, Acquisitor Holdings. The proxy battle between the two sides saw Acquisitor accuse Baltimore's caretakers of destroying shareholder value, while Baltimore's board complained that Acquisitor had no firm plans for the company's future. In other comments in Thursday's announcement, Baltimore said it is asking UK courts to force Earthport to lodge security to defray the legal costs arising from Earthport's #13m lawsuit against Baltimore, which was filed earlier this year. It is not backing down in face of Earthport's claims of fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misstatement and breach of contract, saying that they are "inadequately particularised" and "without merit." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Lycos screensaver to blitz spam servers
by R.A. Hettinga 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/26/lycos_europe_spam_blitz/print.html> The Register Biting the hand that feeds IT Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/26/lycos_europe_spam_blitz/ Lycos screensaver to blitz spam servers By Jan Libbenga (libbenga at yahoo.com) Published Friday 26th November 2004 16:31 GMT Lycos Europe has started to distribute a special screensaver (http://makelovenotspam.com/intl) in a controversial bid to battle spam. The program - titled Make Love Not Spam, and available for Windows and the Mac OS - sends a request to view a spam source site. When a large number of screensavers send their requests at the same time the spam web page becomes overloaded and slow. The servers targeted by the screensaver have been manually selected from various sources, including Spamcop, and verified to be spam advertising sites, Lycos claims. Several tests are performed to make sure that no server stops working. Flooding a server with requests so that the server is unable to respond to the volume of requests made - a process known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack - is considered to be illegal. Lycos believes the program will eventually hurt spammers. 'Spamvirtised' sites typically don't sell advertising, so they have to pay for bandwidth. Therefore more requests means higher bills, Lycos argues. A spokesman for Lycos in Germany told The Register he believed that the tool could generate 3.4MB in traffic on a daily basis. When 10m screensavers are downloaded and used, the numbers quickly add up, to 33TB of 'useless' IP traffic. Seems Lycos may hurt not just spammers. . -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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3D Biometric Facial Recognition Comes To UK
by Eugen Leitl 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

Link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/28/0155210 Posted by: timothy, on 2004-11-28 10:11:00 from the are-you-ready-for-your-closeup? dept. [1]Roland Piquepaille writes "In the UK, where the recent Queen's speech about national identity cards generated lots of -- mostly negative -- coverage, another potentially invasive technology is being tested with very few criticism. For example, several police departments are now testing a 3D biometric facial recognition software from [2]Aurora, a company based near Northampton. The use of facial recognition 'is rapidly becoming the third forensic science alongside fingerprints and DNA,' according to a police officer who talked to BBC News for '[3]How your face could open doors.'" (More below.) [4]Click Here "The company claims its software is so sophisticated it can make the distinction between identical twins. And if the civil liberties groups continue to be neutral, this technology could also be deployed in airports or by private companies. Even banks are thinking to put cameras in their ATM machines to identify you. The good thing is that you will not have to remember your PIN. On the other hand, as with every new technology, is it safe for your privacy and is it possible to hack the system? [5]Read more before making your decision." References 1. http://www.primidi.com/ 2. http://www.facerec.com/ 3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4035285.stm 4. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=5659&alloc_id=12309&site_id=1&request_id=6430161… p=click&page=%2farticle%2epl 5. http://www.primidi.com/2004/11/26.html ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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Re: Computerized war serves citizens virtual baloney
by Major Variola (ret) 28 Nov '04

28 Nov '04

At 12:52 PM 11/28/04 -0500, R.A. Hettinga wrote: > One group of loonies thinks anyone should be able to kill anything the >easiest way possible -- simply because we can. Neo-cons? > Instead, we have people who think it would be "sporting" to hunt and kill >animals by remote-control with their computer. That sort of thinking is >just plain sick. Except when its the US military doing it... > Where exactly is the "sport''? More importantly, where is the hunt? > > Webster's New World Dictionary defines "hunt'' this way: "1.) to go out to >kill or catch (game) for food or sport; 2. to search eagerly or carefully >for; try to find 3. a.) to pursue; chase; drive b) to hound; harry, >persecute 4. a) to go through (a woods, fields, etc.) in pursuit of game'' >and on and on in that vein. How do they define war? > Nowhere is there any mention of sitting in a home or office, watching a >computer-display screen and punching buttons. If that qualifies as hunting, >no one really need ever hunt again because we've then reduced the killing >of animals to the shooting of pictures. How does the author feel about rifled barrels? Chemical propellants in general? Is an atlatl moral? How about a 'net-connected atlatl? Just curious.

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[osint] CIA finds Arafat's $1.9bn fortune
by R.A. Hettinga 28 Nov '04

28 Nov '04

--- begin forwarded text To: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Thread-Index: AcTSpMVj5XG6vXZWTjG/IuLd8itgOwBF6nSQ From: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Mailing-List: list osint(a)yahoogroups.com; contact osint-owner(a)yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list osint(a)yahoogroups.com Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 08:51:40 -0500 Subject: [osint] CIA finds Arafat's $1.9bn fortune Reply-To: osint(a)yahoogroups.com CIA finds Arafat's $1.9bn fortune By PETER ANAV in Jerusalem 22nov04 THE late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat controlled a network of companies, investments and bank accounts with a value totalling at least $1.9 billion, according to the Austrian business magazine Format. Quoting a Central Intelligence Agency report, it said yesterday the CIA had conducted inquiries after receiving information that a holding company of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation had invested $11.6 million in a small pharmaceutical company in the Canadian town of Belleville, Ontario. Format said investigators had "stepped on an anthill" when they uncovered the stake held by the Palestinian Commercial Service Corporation in Bioniche Life Sciences. They uncovered a whole network of PLO funds such as Chalcedony, Onyx, Evergreen, SilverHaze and Avmax International, the latter based on the Caribbean island Aruba. The magazine said it had seen a file "detailing in concrete terms for the first time how much money was involved". The financial network was alleged to have been run by Arafat. Format said between 1998 and the Palestinian uprising of 2000, an Austrian bank and a group called Casino Austria financed a gambling casino frequented by Israelis at Jericho on the West Bank. It also alleged Arafat controlled $1.03 billion in bank accounts in Austria, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Arafat's nephew yesterday arrived in Paris from Cairo to pick up the deceased leader's medical records. Nasser al-Qidwa, who was accompanied by the Palestinian Authority's representative in France, Leila Shahid, did not make any statement. Arafat's death has caused speculation, controversy and continuing mystery. He was admitted to a Paris hospital on October 29 and died on November 11. However, his cause of death has not yet been revealed. Late on Friday, lawyers for Arafat's widow Suha said she had been given her husband's medical file and had left for her second home in Tunisia. Mrs Arafat, invoking French medical confidentiality laws, has kept a tight grip on information relating to her husband's treatment during his last days. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, discuss-osint(a)yahoogroups.com. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor bisoldi(a)intellnet.org http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint(a)yahoogroups.com Subscribe: osint-subscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: osint-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: osint-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Computerized outdoors idea serves users virtual baloney
by R.A. Hettinga 28 Nov '04

28 Nov '04

<http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/5849296p-5765085c.html> Computerized outdoors idea serves users virtual baloney (Published: November 28, 2004) A Texas businessman wants to rig a robotic, high-power rifle to a Webcam in a game park so people can punch buttons and "hunt'' from the comfort of their handiest Internet connection. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants everyone to stop eating fish because the slippery critters are, in their own way, as cute and cuddly as cats and dogs. Has the world gone nuts? The proponents of what has been labeled "remote-control hunting'' are, predictably, arguing that a sanitized, virtual slaughter would be a boon for the disabled. The leaders of the Fish Empathy Project are, with equal predictability, trying to convince everyone to spare the fish because they are sensitive, thinking creatures that travel in schools. One group of loonies thinks anyone should be able to kill anything the easiest way possible -- simply because we can. The other group thinks nobody should kill anything because we're all brother fauna. The flora are apparently exempt from the discussion because they're rooted in place. Were they able to move around and wag their leaves, PETA would likely argue we shouldn't eat them either. Whatever happened to the natural order of things? Instead, we have people who think it would be "sporting" to hunt and kill animals by remote-control with their computer. That sort of thinking is just plain sick. Where exactly is the "sport''? More importantly, where is the hunt? Webster's New World Dictionary defines "hunt'' this way: "1.) to go out to kill or catch (game) for food or sport; 2. to search eagerly or carefully for; try to find 3. a.) to pursue; chase; drive b) to hound; harry, persecute 4. a) to go through (a woods, fields, etc.) in pursuit of game'' and on and on in that vein. Nowhere is there any mention of sitting in a home or office, watching a computer-display screen and punching buttons. If that qualifies as hunting, no one really need ever hunt again because we've then reduced the killing of animals to the shooting of pictures. After all, a hunter who chose to engage in this sort of computer "sport" wouldn't really be shooting an animal. He'd be shooting a picture of an animal on his computer screen, thereby telling a piece of machinery in the middle of a field somewhere to do the actual execution. And if all you're really doing is shooting a picture, what differences does it make if the picture represents a real animal or a virtual one? For that matter, how would you even know for certain what you shot? Think how easy it would be to scam this sort of "hunting.'' Put up a Web site. Run a film of animals walking around in a field. Let the people who sign onto the Web site and pay their fee shoot the animals. Run some film of an animal dying. Then you ship the hunter 50 pounds of beef from the supermarket and tell her that's the animal she killed. Someone really creative might even be able to convince PETA to endorse an Internet hunting site that kills virtual animals. Look, PETA wants to save real animals from being killed. If shooting a virtual deer spares a real deer while satisfying someone's instinctive urge to hunt, isn't that a good thing? And if we can do this with hunting, why not fishing? Someone could rig a Webcam to a robotic fishing rod along the Russian River. You could sit at home and watch on your computer as the red salmon swarm up that stream, then maneuver a joy stick to make the rod cast a fly in front of them. Let it drift. Maybe even hear the computer going tappa-tappa-tappa to give you the feel of a lead weight bouncing along the river bottom. Feel the joystick jerk against your hand as a fish hits and then battle it across the table as the fight is on. Oh, the thrill, the excitement, the virtual adrenaline rush, until at last you bring that flapping salmon into view of the robotic net that scoops it up. A week later, salmon filets would arrive in the mail. Does it matter if any of this is real? Isn't the experience exactly the same if all you are seeing on your computer is virtual? Does a prerecorded film of salmon coming up the Russian really look any different than a live camera feed of salmon coming up the stream? Of course not. The only problem might come in producing a soy product that really tastes like salmon. But science can certainly solve that. Wouldn't that be perfect for just about everybody, except the poor, dead soybean plants? I hear they're quite sensitive, too. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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U.S.'s neighbors rap expanded border ID program
by R.A. Hettinga 28 Nov '04

28 Nov '04

<http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2920227> HoustonChronicle.com Nov. 28, 2004, 12:44AM U.S.'s neighbors rap expanded border ID program Fingerprinting and photographing at Canadian and Mexican crossings called divisive By DOUG STRUCK and KEVIN SULLIVAN Washington Post Andrea Schnekenburger pressed her two index fingers on a scanning pad at the U.S. border, becoming one of the first travelers to submit such data to a vast new bank of fingerprints and photographs that will be taken of millions of people who cross land borders to enter the United States. "At least they didn't use ink," said Schnekenburger, 42, a German resident of Canada en route to a U.S. business appointment on Nov. 18. "It was easier than I thought." Three U.S. border crossings - one from Canada, at Port Huron, and two from Mexico, at Laredo and Douglas, Ariz. - launched a program run by the Department of Homeland Security to collect fingerprints and photographs at U.S. borders. It will be expanded to the 50 busiest crossings by the end of next month, U.S. officials said. The requirements won't apply to U.S. or Canadian citizens or to travelers under age 14 or over 79. There are exceptions for Mexicans with special border-crossing cards known as laser visas, according to Homeland Security officials. Only 3 percent of an estimated 108 million people who enter the United States at legal land checkpoints annually will be affected, they said, while the program will increase security for the United States, catch criminals and speed processing at the border by computerizing some functions. But groups in Canada and Mexico complain that the new process will collect an Orwellian databank of personal information on law-abiding visitors, will unfairly target racial groups, might slow the border-crossing process and is unlikely to stop a terrorist from coming into the country. Mexican critics say the program is another step toward making the borders in America "a dividing line" and a sign of "distrust" of Mexicans. Canadian critics say files created on thousands of their residents will "criminalize" the border process. Those crossing the bridge with no Canadian passport, like Schnekenburger, are directed into a building where an agent takes digital photos of them and scans their index fingers. The system began operating at 130 airports and seaports in the United States in January, and fingerprints and photos already are required as part of the application for anyone needing a visa. But this expansion to land crossings particularly affects the busy daily commerce across the borders of the country's only contiguous neighbors. Canadian passport holders and Mexicans who work in the United States and have a laser visa card, which already carries the bearer's photo and fingerprint, are now exempt from the program. U.S. officials have sent mixed signals about whether the data collection eventually will include everyone. Critics in Canada say the exclusions mean the program unfairly targets an estimated 1 million Canadian residents who are classified as "landed immigrants" or permanent residents who have not obtained a Canadian passport. Critics also say the new process will exacerbate delays at the Mexican and Canadian borders, which already have considerable daily shuttling of trucks and workers. "This program could turn what has traditionally been a bottleneck into a complete blockage," said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, a leading international relations specialist in Mexico City. "This could be truly terrible. The border, instead of being a connecting bridge, is becoming a dividing line." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Actor Is Fined $600,000 For Role in Movie Piracy
by R.A. Hettinga 27 Nov '04

27 Nov '04

<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110128604066482889,00.html> The Wall Street Journal November 24, 2004 5:05 p.m. EST MEDIA & MARKETING Actor Is Fined $600,000 For Role in Movie Piracy A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP November 24, 2004 5:05 p.m. LOS ANGELES -- A federal court judge ordered actor Carmine Caridi to pay $600,000 to two movie studios to resolve allegations that he gave copies of their films to someone engaged in movie piracy. In an unrelated piracy case, the Motion Picture Association of America said a Malaysian man was fined for running a Web site that broadcast pirated movies. Mr. Caridi, who is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, was ordered by Judge Stephen Wilson to pay $150,000 per title for each of four movies he shared improperly, two each belonging to Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment and Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures. Earlier this year, Mr. Caridi told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that, as he received screeners -- copies of movies the Academy makes available to members as they consider which deserve Oscar awards -- he sent them to an acquaintance in Chicago. The acquaintance, Russell William Sprague, duplicated them on DVD. The movies -- hundreds, sent over the course of three years -- wound up on the Internet. In April he pleaded guilty to one charge of copyright infringement. Mr. Caridi, who formerly played a police officer on the TV show "NYPD Blue" and also appeared in the Godfather II and Godfather III movies, didn't return a phone call seeking comment. Separately, a Malaysian man was ordered to pay film studios $23.8 million for running a Web site that allowed paying members to watch pirated movies, according to the MPAA. A federal judge announced the decision against Tan Soo Leong at a hearing Monday, said John Malcolm, the association's director of world-wide anti-piracy operations. Mr. Leong ran the Web site film88.com and a company called MasterSurf Inc., which set up computer servers overseas to protect the business from liability, Mr. Malcolm said. The MPAA said Mr. Leong previously ran a similar Web site, movie88.com, which was shut down by officials in Taiwan. Dutch courts also shut down servers he later set up in Iran and the Netherlands, the association said. Mr. Malcolm said the judge also ordered Mr. Leong to destroy copies of copyrighted movies on his Web site. "This case shows that some people will go to extravagant lengths to profiteer from pirating movies," he said. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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