Illinois Court
Puts Spamhaus
in the Doghouse
with ICANN
There’s nothing new about Internet
companies running afoul of interna-
tional law. But when a Chicago-based
spammer won a default judgment
against UK-based, nonprofit, anti-spam
company Spamhaus.org in September,
it raised new questions of international
importance. Here’s the background:
The spammer filed a bogus lawsuit
against Spamhaus in a U.S. court.
Spamhaus ignored the U.S. court action
because the company is based entirely
outside the U.S. Now, Spamhaus could
lose its domain as the court pres-
sures the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
to enforce its bidding. Why does this
apply to you? Spamhaus filters about
50 billion spam emails a day.
While it wasn’t clear at press time
whether ICANN would comply, the
organization’s decision will undoubt-
edly have an impact on the future
of cross-border Internet disputes.
If ICANN follows the court’s order, it
could spark international calls for
an alternative, underground domain
registry system, and the rise of a new
world (wide web) order.USB Missile Launcher
You could spend hours and hours engaged in
virtual warfare with your colleagues in Defcon,
or you can realize your conflict in the real
world with PC-fired artillery. This USB Missile
launcher features a Windows-based control
interface that lets you position your turret and
fire your rockets up to eight feet. We wish the
rockets could soar a little further (and more
accurately), and that the turret would allow
more than 180 degrees of rotation, but this
weapon handily brings Nerf warfare into the
21st century, so you can shoot out a whole
new generation of eyeballs.
$55, http://www.kleargear.comNext time you try sneaking thousands
of bootleg DVDs into the country from
overseas, you might want to spray
them with a generous coat of air fresh-
ener—or maybe pack a few Scooby
Snacks to mask the scent. That’s right.
In its ongoing effort to combat interna-
tional movie piracy, the Motion Picture
Association of America is barking up a
new tree: canine detectives. By train-
ing dogs to detect the sweet, sweet
aroma of freshly manufactured DVDs,
the MPAA hopes to put a stop to large-
scale movie smuggling operations. We
just hope they don’t inadvertently sniffout our massive collection of boot-
legged Yanni CDs.Piracy Gone to the Dogs
The MPAA sniffs out movie pirates the old-fashioned way—you know... with noses
Watch out, bootleggers. Ol’ Trouble
here has a nose for, um, well, trouble.HP Buys VOOdOO
In an effort to acquire boutique expertise,
HP has purchased Canadian gaming-PC
maker Voodoo. The latter will lend its DNA
to HP’s entire product line while continuing
to build and sell high-end rigs out of its
Northern fortress.segWay Takes a Fall
Looks like George W. Bush isn’t the only
one who can’t keep his Segway upright.
The company has issued a massive
recall—affecting all of the 23,500-plus
scooters ever sold—due to a software
glitch that makes some of the vehicles
spontaneously reverse direction and tip
over. While the problem has so far only
knocked loose a few teeth, the company
isn’t taking any chances.game OVer, Flunky
You probably don’t need a scientific study
to tell you that sitting up all night whacking
Orcs in WoW is a good way to flunk class-
es. But in case you do, here goes: A study
in the October issue of Pediatrics magazine
clearly demonstrates that any amount of
gaming on a school night—even for just
a half-hour or so—is likely to keep your
zombie-fragging ass off the dean’s list.
Gaming on weekends, however, showed no
impact on academic performance.gOOgle BlOg Hacked (again)
We’re not sure what’s up with the folks
at Google these days, but the company’s
official blog has fallen prey to its second
hack attack in six months. Unlike the
March attack, which took advantage of
the company’s accidental cancellation
of its own blog account, the new attack
in October exploited a weakness in the
company’s Blogger service, resulting in an
unauthorized post falsely announcing the
company’s plan to terminate an upcoming
joint venture with eBay because it would
be too “monopolistic.”funsizeneWs
quickstart The beginning of The magazine, where arTicles are small
&12 MAXIMUMPC december 2006