Tech Law Prof Blog

OOXML Is Now a Standard

The ISO rejected appeals to reconsider making Microsoft's Open Office XML format a standard.  More in Information Week.  [MG]

Friday Fun

Check Out IT World's Lame and Lamer:  10 Dumbest Viral Marketing Campaigns.  Some of them are downright painful in their conception.  Find it here.  [MG]

Appeals Court Upholds Open Source Licensing

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals upholds open source licensing for software.  The analysis is in BetaNews, with links to the opinion and other litigation documents.  [MG]

More Fake Spam

Those fake CNN Alerts mentioned in Monday's blog posts are now joined by fake MSNBC Alerts.  Be advised.  [MG]

Google (yawn) Tops Lastest Search Market Share Figures

July search market share is in.  Hitwise says Google is up to 70.77%, Microsoft is down to 5.36%, and Yahoo declined to 18.65%.  Note to Steve Ballmer, keep those investments coming.  Microsoft's share of search might increase a few hundredths of a percent for the $2 or $3 billion the company is pouring into the effort.  [MG]

MBTA to MIT Student Hackers: Let's Talk

Here's the latest on the tiff between the MIT students who have discovered vulnerabilities in the Mass Bay Transportation Authority's fare cards and the MBTA.  There's a lot of gnashing of teeth over the prior restraint and First Amendment issues.  The MBTA is trying the "arbitration" angle, which would help them not lose the case on Constitutional grounds.  That is not appealing to the EFF, which is representing the students.  Declan McCullagh has a thorough analysis at CNET, and links to relevant documents in the case.  [MG]

Another Patch Tuesday from MS

It's patch Tuesday for Microsoft, and today it's a big one.  There are 26 vulnerabilities to correct, including two with exploits in the wild.  More details from Computerworld.  [MG]

Fake CNN Alerts Spread Malware Via Fake Flash

Are CNN Alerts showing up in your mailbox lately?  Unless you actually signed up for Alerts, they are fake and clicking on a link to a story will install malware on your machine.  You may see a message that asks you to install an updated Flash client.  Don't do it.  That client is a fake as well.  Details are in PC World, and Information Week.

iPhone Has A Kill Switch

Steve Jobs confirms the existence of a kill switch in the iPhone.  He justifies it in case of a rogue application that can steal a customer's personal data.  He hopes Apple never has to use it.  And if Apple does use it, and depending on the circumstances, what would the customer base think?  More in the Wall Street Journal.

DNS Software Flaws

It seems as though the patch for the flaws in DNS software has flaws of its own.  Read about it in the New York Times.