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Hackers re-open stolen code store

By Damian Clarkson, ITWeb junior journalist
Johannesburg, 04 Nov 2004

Hackers re-open stolen code store

An anonymous group of malicious hackers has reopened an online store that sells the stolen source code of prominent software products.

According to messages posted in online discussion groups, the store is offering the code for Cisco`s PIX firewall software for $24 000 (R146 000).

The Source Code Club resurfaced on Monday, using e-mail and messages posted in a Usenet group to communicate with customers and take orders for the source code of several security products, reports Computerworld.

Cisco was not immediately available for comment.

Napster phone downloads available - with a catch

Music service Napster yesterday announced a deal with AT&T wireless that will see the Napster To Go portable music service available to owners of the cellular provider`s new phone.

According to Portable Entertainment, the service will allow users to download an unlimited number of full-length songs directly at a cost of around $15 (R91) a month, but will only be available on the Audiovox SMT 5600 Smartphone.

The service uses Windows Media Player 10 Digital Rights Management, meaning songs cannot be shared and if the owner of the phone stops subscribing to the service, songs downloaded will become unavailable.

The phone has 28.5MB of internal flash memory - or enough to hold about six songs - but there is an option to add miniSD memory chips, offering up to 256MB of space.

NHS signs Microsoft licensing deal

The British National Health Service (NHS) has signed a software licensing deal worth $625 million (R3.8 billion) with Microsoft, reports eBCVG.

The NHS has invested heavily in Microsoft technologies. The new arrangement allows the NHS to use up to 900 000 licences for the same cost as the current deal, which allows up to 500 000 licences.

The contract will likely anger open source advocates and software companies the world over, but mainly follows through on existing plans and technologies that leverage existing infrastructure.

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