News

TechTree: Google has announced that it is expanding its Google Books Library Project (e-book) catalog by adding more than a million books from the University of Texas in Austin.

The university’s collection of books and manuscripts, including that which covers early Latin American history, will be converted into digital format and added to e-book.

The Google Book Search project was initiated in 2004 with the aim of scanning every literary work, transforming into digital format, and making it available online.

Apart from the University of Texas, the other institutions that are a part of this initiative are the New York Public Library Harvard, Oxford, Complutense of Madrid, and the University of California.

The kind of work stored on Google’s searchable database includes classic works in the public domain, and copyrighted books. However, in a modification of the e-book, Google has decided to offer only summaries of copyrighted works along with information regarding where to buy or borrow the books.

Presently, Google e-book favors English but it has reportedly promised to come out with a French version.

According to reports, the library project has put Google into a spot. The company is being sued by some institutions like the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers over its deal with major libraries to scan their collections. The publishers are of the view that the deal violates the copyright act, and that the company should seek permission before scanning the works.
 

TechTree: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and Vodafone have signed an agreement with online activists, human rights groups, and press freedom groups to draw up an Internet code of conduct to protect free speech and privacy of Web users.

These four companies will together develop a code of conduct with a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to promote freedom of expression and privacy rights. Besides, they will establish a set of rules that will govern how they deal with censorship and other restrictions on human rights.

In a joint statement, the companies said that they aim to come up with a code of conduct by the end of this year that would counter such trends as the increased jailing of Internet journalists, monitoring of legitimate online activity, and censorship. They would also develop a framework that would hold signatories accountable for their actions in the areas of freedom of expression and privacy rights.

According to a Google spokesman, Google has helped initiate this process as part of their commitment to protecting human rights and privacy of their users around the world. And, they look forward to working with all the parties in an effort to arrive at global principles that can help them protect Internet users in countries that seek to curtail free expression.

As per the latest reports, talks are being led by the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, and the San Francisco-based Business for Social Responsibility. Both the organizations are trying to craft a code to hold companies accountable if they cooperate with governments to suppress free speech or violate human rights.

TechTree: The Open Source Development Labs and the Free Standards Group, two major forces behind the drive for commercialization of Linux, will merge to form a new all-embracing group.

Due for announcement today, the new group is called Linux Foundation, which is being backed by major vendors, including IBM, HP, Oracle, Novell, and Intel. The group will have 70 vendor sponsors in all, with members, including Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC.

In this way, two groups committed to the business adoption of Linux will merge to streamline operations, and represent Linux versus its challengers with one voice. And the main mission of the new organization is to help the Linux community compete more effectively against its closed source opponent, Microsoft.

In a statement, James Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, said that it is really a two-horse race now, with computing dominated by two operating-system platforms, Linux and Windows. There are things that Microsoft does well in terms of promoting Windows, providing legal protection, and standardizing Windows. And the things that Microsoft does well are things they need to do well that is to promote, protect, and standardize Linux.

Linux Foundation will also provide jobs for key developers of the Linux kernel, including the original Linux creator, Linus Torvalds, who previously worked for Open Source Development Labs. Another major goal of the Linux Foundation will be to ensure consistency across all main Linux distributions to prevent forking, as was the case with Unix in the 1980s.

TechTree: Close-on-the-heels of winds of over 200 kph that tore through Eastern Europe late last week, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction, the World Wide Web now has a new worm doing the rounds - disguised as news about the European storm.

The e-mail with the subject line, “230 dead as storm batters Europe” contains a malicious virus, and according to F-secure, this “Storm Worm” is almost as large as some of the big attacks in 2006.

In addition to the headline, “230 dead as storm batters Europe”, the spam uses a number of other provocative headlines. Attachments may be with the following filenames: “Full Clip.exe”; “Full Story.exe”; “Read More.exe”; and “Video.exe”.

The new virus, called “Small.DAM,” is a Trojan, a program, or message that looks benign but contains malicious code, which is installed in the users’ PC when he/she opens the e-mail, and clicks on an attachment. Once inside the machine, the Trojan creates a backdoor that can be exploited later by the malware author.

According to Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer of F-Secure, “Trojan assaults of this scale are an unfortunate and increasingly common event. What is significant here though is the timely nature of this assault in relation to the European storm. Malware gangs are clearly using every technique, and even tragedies like this to gain access to vulnerable machines.”