Daily News Brief: Hackers Declare War on Pirates

Posted 01/09/2008 at 5:19pm | by Paul Lilly

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Civil War Amongst Pirates

Hackers are sending a strong, albeit ironic message to parts of the BitTorrent and P2P community: Don't steal. The hackers have targeted private BitTorrent tracker Feedthe.Net, releasing a text file containing personal details about one of the site's administrators along with promises of more attacks to come. The file appears to have originated from the same person(s) responsible for attacking SuperTorrents late last year, which resulted in the theft of $2,000 from the site's PayPal account. More details can be found here.

XBox 360 May Support Blu-ray (UPDATED)

Microsoft's XBox 360 gaming console has been entrenched in the HD-DVD camp, but that could change if Blu-ray continues to pick up momentum. Albert Penello, group marketing manager for XBox hardware, said "It should be consumer choice; and if that's the way they vote, that's something we'll have to consider." Penello's comments came just days after Warner Bros. announced they're dropping support for HD-DVD and exclusively backing the Blu-ray format.

Update: Microsoft has categorically denied any upcoming support for Blu-ray.

Apple Faces Class Action Suit

It's been a banner year for Apple, who enjoyed a record financial quarter as iPhones and iPods became must-have items and Leopard roared onto the scene. But they've also been the target of numerous lawsuits, the latest of which is a class action suit that takes issue with Apple's dominance in the MP3 player market. Specifically, the suit alleges that Apple's iTunes dominance is in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act based on an estimated 75% control of the online video market, 83% control of the online music market, over 90% control of the hard drive based music player market, and 70% of the Flash based music player market. The suit goes on to point out the lack of WMA support, which Apple previously attributed to licensing fees.

DRAM Pricing Going Up?

Hynix thinks so. Kim Jong-kap, CEO of the No. 2 memory-chip maker, stated there's a "likelihood of a rebound in the second quarter." DRAM pricing has hit what appears to be rock bottom this past year, falling more than 85 percent according to data provided by DRAMeXchange, and in some cases has even fell below the cost of production. Kits of memory that have previously sold for between $200 and $300 can now be had for under a C-note, but Hynix remains confident pricing will soon rise based on the "huge number of new products" they saw at CES that require memory. Hynix plans to invest less than the $5.12 billion they spent in 2007.

Skype Hops on PSP

Sony announced they are introducing Skype features to its recently refreshed Playstation Portable. The partnership will give gamers free voice calls between Skype users along with other standard Skype features. This marks the first time the VoIP service has moved from the desktop and merged with an entertainment device, which falls in line with Sony's hope to make the PSP a fully fledged media player. A Skype icon will be added to the PSP's Network category following an update to the PSP's system software.

Best Buy Has Nerves

Not everyone is excited about the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, which is set to take place by February 17, 2009. Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson indicated that they're "very nervous about the potential risk" of having to supply millions of digital TV converter boxes before analog transmissions are shut down. According to data from the Nielson Co. roughly 14.3 million households rely on over-the-air broadcasts for TV programming, all of which would need a converter box to continue to receive signals.