Developments of Note

In the first prosecution of its kind in the nation, a well known member of the “botmaster underground” was indicted recently by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges of profiting from the use of “botnets” ' armies of computers that are under the control of the botmaster and are used to launch destructive attacks or to send huge quantities of spam across the Internet. The 17-count indictment allges that the defendant wrote malicious computer code, spread that code to assemble armies of infected computers, and sold access to the infected computers for the purpose of launching distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks and sending spam. The defendant also allegedly used the botnets to generate income from the surreptitious installation of adware on the infected computers. The complete press release is available at www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pr2005/149.html.

An operation that used the lure of free lyric files, browser upgrades, and ring tones to download spyware and adware on consumers' computers was recently ordered to halt its illegal downloads by a U.S. District Court at the request of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The court also halted the deceptive downloads of an affiliate who helped spread the malicious software by offering blogs free background music. The music code downloaded by the blogs was bundled with a program that flashed warnings to consumers who visited the blog sites about the security of their computer systems. Consumers who opted to upgrade by clicking downloaded the spyware onto their computers. The court has frozen the organization's assets pending a hearing. The FTC will seek to bar the deceptive and unfair practices permanently, and require the operators to give up their ill-gotten gains. The complete press release, which includes steps the public can take to reduce the risk of infecting computers with spyware, is available at: www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/11/enternet.htm.

A U.S. District Court judge recently halted the deceptive ads of a Web operation that claimed that membership in MP3DownloadCity.com would allow users of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing programs to transfer copyrighted materials without violating the law. The FTC will seek to permanently bar the deceptive claims, redress for consumers and a requirement that the defendant notify consumers who signed up for membership that the programs he promotes to share copyrighted files may subject them to civil or criminal liability. The complete press release is available at www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/10/mp3.htm.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced in mid-November that Net telephone companies that had not achieved full 911 compliance by November 28 would not be required to discontinue the provision of interconnected VoIP service to existing customers. They will, however, be expected to discontinue marketing VoIP service, and accepting new customers for their service, in all areas where they are not transmitting 911 calls to the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) in full compliance with the Commission's rules. The complete public notice is available at: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-2945A1.pdf.