Jeffrey Lee Parson, the teen convicted of writing a variant of the MSBlast worm, won't have to pay $500,000 in restitution.
The damages were to be paid to Microsoft for the teen's actions, which piggybacked on a worm that temporarily downed the software giant's Web site in 2003. The tech behemoth has asked that the 19-year-old's punishment be converted from the fine to 225 hours of community service.
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The damages were to be paid to Microsoft for the teen's actions, which piggybacked on a worm that temporarily downed the software giant's Web site in 2003. The tech behemoth has asked that the 19-year-old's punishment be converted from the fine to 225 hours of community service.
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iPOD’s secret is marketing. iPOD won its first battle in 2002 when it surpassed Creative’s hard-disk based MP3 player which even had a smaller price. The secret weapon? The marketing team behind iPOD managed to promote the idea that iPOD is not just an equipment for playing music, but a whole concept. In December 2002, iPOD launches models that bear the signatures of stars like Madonna, Beck, Tony Hawk and No Doubt. All the celebrities fell in love with the little player, which made a career in video clips, music magazine, even at Oprah’s shows. Where could you get a better marketing?
iPOD’s second secret was Microsoft’s Windows. The first iPOD models launched in October 2001 only worked with Macs and iTunes program which copied CDs and then transferred to iPOD. Apple thought then that this combination will be enough to ensure the player’s success. By July 2002, 150,000 units had been sold. People were not ready to buy a Mac fro the sake o a MP3 player.
In July 2002 realized that and launched Windows compatible models which used as transfer software MusicMatch. In less than two years, iPod sales reached 2 million units. Microsoft found out too late what had happened and HP declared that is too late to think about an alternative and prefers to launch an iPOD version together with Apple. iTunes Music Store and the download revolution owe iPOD their celebrity and not the other way around.
have been portrayed. 225 hours of service doesn't amount to $500,000
in my book. The kid should thank heaven and Microsoft for the break.
I wonder how much Microsoft donates to charities every year?
Good guys, Microsoft.
225 hours @ $2,222 per hour = $500,000, his initial fine. He's "making" $2,222 an hour because after 225 hours he has re-paid his 1/2 mil debt to society.
Wish I could get a job like that!
...C_Guy
Uh, no. He is not paying off his fine by doing community service. There is no fine now, it's gone. The community service he's doing is to pay for the crime he commited.
Last edited by 3601 on 31 Mar 2005 - 04:26
I'll admit that I am one to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt usually, but the fact is that they have done a great deal of development - DirectX (those who knew what PC games were like pre-DX would know what I mean), the Sidewinder hardware line (although sadly discontinued
Just that for every good thing that Microsoft makes, there's usually something made that has a considerable problem - Windows is stable for the more simpler users, outside of that there's a 50% chance of it becoming less stable than home-made napalm. IE is the main target for many internet ****tards making it the most unsafe browser to use*, although it is intergrated down to the system. WMP is a decent media player, but even if I want to use something else I'm stuck with it on my system when I could use the space for something else. And the Palladium plan** doesn't really need to be said.
Hating parts of Microsoft is having your own opinion - Hating all of Microsoft is most likely climbing on the bandwagon. Hell, even Blake Ross, who led the Firefox effort, didn't do it to spite Microsoft.
*Disclaimer: For those who don't know how to lock it down properly.
** which for some reason has come back to my brain - Probably an old forum post
The space that WMP takes up (and has always taken up since Windows 3.1) is negligible. The "wmplayer.exe" app is only the interface to the Windows Media platform, much as IE is only one shell for a similar platform. Countless developers employ Windows Media (and IE) functionality into their code. It's much easier to tell Windows that you want to play a sound (and telling it which file), than to write your own code to decode the file and send PCM data directly to the soundcard.
As for Palladium, it's kind of stupid to hate them for something they haven't done. The Palladium design was dropped or put on hold, for the most part. And there was also a significant degree of misunderstanding. Despite some obvious gripes with the Palladium proposal that many of us had, there were significant benefits to it. And I do hope those get employed soon.
Anyway, I did believe for the most part that it was extinct - Just that after hearing of it again on another forum made me have that annoying thought in the back of my head *swats it*
'trusted computing' is the latest version IIRC
Here's an example where Microsoft makes it clear that "Palladium" was a code name for NGSCB.
Community service hours will teach him a lesson. He'll be just as sorry doing community service hours as he would've been paying the $500,000. The difference is... You aren't ruining his life (and his family's life) in this process.
Although, I would've preferred a little more community service time. 1,000+ hours seems a lot more reasonable.
In fact, I would not even be surprised if Microsoft decides to hire that kid in the future. It is not the first time MS hires a hacker or virus writer to improve its system security anyway.
</sarcasm>
^ god, he IS a fatass n00b
I do.
Ah well, I'd rather do 225 hours of C.S. then pay a 500 grand fine.
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