December 08, 2000, 5:03 PM — Programmers' art recognized -- A three-judge panel of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, based in Ohio, has overturned the July 1998
ruling of a federal district judge who held that computer programming languages were
more functional than expressive and thus did not merit First Amendment protection. The
unanimous decision comes after four years of litigation in Junger v. Daley, a
case filed in August 1996 on behalf of Peter Junger, a law professor at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland. Junger teaches a class on computers and the law, which
includes instruction on encryption, the encoding and decoding of messages and data.
SEC defends its Internet snooping plan -- Securities and Exchange
Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt issued a statement defending the SEC's plans to
electronically monitor Internet sites to uncover cases of stock fraud. "These concerns
appear to be based on a misunderstanding about what we seek to do. The SEC has never
had any intention of intercepting or monitoring private transmissions, including
conversations taking place in chat rooms or on e-mail, in the pursuit of Internet
fraud," Levitt wrote. The controversy arose after the SEC sent out an RFP (Request for
Proposals) for an automated Internet search system. The RFP was carefully drafted to
require that the contractor chosen respect the privacy of non-public communications
conducted over the Internet, Levitt said.
What price free Forte? -- While Sun Microsystems at one time
discussed opening up its Forte application server software, a recent release appears to
adhere to a traditional pricing model. Sun announced the Forte Fusion 2.0 product suite
this week. This release includes support for integration at the business process level,
rules-based message brokering and point-to-point integration. It supports eXtensible
Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT). Pricing is dependent on options and
configurations. A single Forte Fusion Adapter is priced at $10,000; a Forte Fusion
solution that includes the business process engine starts at $150,000.
Linux firm buys Alpha shop -- Linux house Atipa Linux Solutions has
acquired DCG Computer Corp., a provider of Alpha and Intel computing solutions on
multiple platforms. DCG's professional staff will be integrated into Atipa's R&D,
sales, and marketing operations and will continue working out of Londonberry, N.H.,
Atipa representatives said. DCG's addition to the Atipa product line includes custom
Alpha and Intel workstations in Linux Beowulf clustering configurations. DCG was the
first Digital Alpha partner to support Linux running on Alpha.
