eWEEK Editorial Board

Five years into the new millennium, the questions of right and wrong in cyberspace are coming into clearer focus. This year, eWEEKs Editorial Board has turned its attention repeatedly to this broad topic, taking positions that we believe are in the best interests of you, our readers, and indeed of all cyber-citizens, present and future. […]

Its perhaps an overhyped claim that cyber-crime is more lucrative than illicit drugs, as supposedly became the case last year according to an adviser to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Even so, the mere comparison should be a wake-up call for anyone involved in offering, adopting, deploying, managing or using IT. Watching failed attempts […]

How do you compete with free? Open-source alternatives to cash-cow software products such as Microsofts Office and Windows are quickly maturing, and the darling of the tech world, Google, is raking in advertising profits while giving its services away. Both business models have to be keeping executives from Microsoft and other license-fee-supported software makers awake […]

Sony BMG Music Entertainments use of a rootkit to hide its digital rights management software deep and undetectably within the operating system of users computers was wrong on many levels. The fact that the Sony BMG rootkit is virtually uninstallable is a clear violation of Californias Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act, and as such, […]

The governments stance on VOIP is creating uncertainty for many network providers heading into 2006. Protesting that new federal wiretapping rules will stifle innovation and require re-engineering of private IP networks at a huge expense, universities, ISPs, libraries and privacy organizations, along with Sun Microsystems Inc., are going to court to overturn the rules. /zimages/5/28571.gifClick […]

Whats the best way to run the worlds information highway? This is a question to which all nations must give careful consideration. Indeed, during the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society last week in Tunis, Tunisia, much of the discussion was focused on the question of how to govern the Internet. /zimages/3/28571.gifTo read […]

Copyright laws and their place on the Internet have been the subject of fierce debate since Napster first came on the scene. But while the courts found music “sharing” was, in fact, “unauthorized copying,” Google Print seems to honor the copyright rather than exploit it. Copyright laws provide copyright holders with a means to profit […]

Among the most unloved quirks of the enterprise IT market is that software is licensed, not sold. Its a business model that dates back to when software was an accessory to a mainframe that was itself leased rather than owned. But buyers are beginning to question the practice of licensing software and in some cases, […]

One company makes the Blackberry, the most popular mobile device this side of the iPod. Another is a little-known Virginia holding company with a product line that begins and ends with its wireless e-mail patent portfolio. We think the former is a better example of “the progress of science and useful arts,” which is the […]

Despite the recent emergence of anti-phishing legislation, IT managers and consumers would be foolish not to continue implementing their own stringent technology measures against this persistent strain of online fraud. On the heels of similar legislation in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, and with federal legislation pending, Californias Anti-Phishing Act of 2005 criminalizes phishing, with […]

Theres a lot of work still to be done in defining the rules of stewardship for digital identities. We agree with the San Francisco Superior Court that it is not the duty of Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International to warn credit-card customers that their personal information may have been breached by third-party negligence; wed argue, […]

While much has been said about Microsofts recent corporate reorganization, we would rather turn our attention toward the open, albeit stormy, horizons that await the companys customers, rather than focus on Redmonds deck-chair rearrangements. The enterprise IT scene when Vista ships next year will differ greatly from the one that greeted Microsofts Windows XP upgrade […]