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   From: pedro1940@progression.net   
      
                     August 17, 2005 -- 2:20 p.m. EDT   
                           Ex-AOL Employee Gets Jail in Spam Case   
      
                           A former AOL engineer was sentenced to 15 months in   
   prison in connection with the theft of millions of AOL customer email   
   addresses, which were sold to spammers.   
                     full story below   TODAY'S MARKETS   
      
      
      
                             STOCKS LAST CHANGE   
      
                             Dow Jones Industrials 10576.18 62.73   
      
                             Nasdaq Composite 2152.02 14.96   
      
                             MS Hi-Tech 502.05 6.12   
      
                             CBOE Tech 195.37 1.65   
      
                           Source: Reuters and Dow Jones * At close   
                           Note: Closing quotes are preliminary   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
                           (Wall Street Journal Online subscription required)   
      
      
                                 H-P's Strong Quarter Boosts Techs   
      
                                 The Nasdaq nudged into positive territory   
   Wednesday as investors cheered better-than-expected results from H-P. Shares   
   of H-P and Applied Materials surged.   
      
      
                                 Microsoft Sets Price for Xbox 360   
      
                                 Microsoft set pricing for its upcoming Xbox   
   360 videogame console. A fully loaded system including a hard drive and   
   wireless controller will sell for $399, while a more basic version will be   
   priced at $299.   
      
      
                                 Sprint to Use Appraisal for Nextel Affiliate   
      
                                 Sprint Nextel plans to use a complex appraisal   
   process to determine how much to pay for Nextel Partners, rather than   
   negotiate a price for the wireless affiliate.   
      
      
                                 Dueling Hackers Hit Firms' Computers   
      
                                 Rival computer hackers exploited a flaw in   
   Microsoft's Windows operating system to attack dozens of companies,   
   including some media outlets.   
      
      
                                 Big Private-Equity Funds Circle TDC   
      
                                 Denmark's TDC has been approached by two   
   groups of private-equity funds about a potential deal to buy the Danish   
   telecom company.   
      
      
                                 Qwest, Union Agree to 3-Year Contract   
      
                                 Qwest reached a tentative agreement with the   
   union representing its 25,000 workers for a 7.5% salary hike over three   
   years.   
      
      
                                 China's Netease Halts Music Searches   
      
                                 Chinese Internet portal Netease suspended its   
   online music-search service amid an antipiracy drive.   
      
      
                                 Profits Fall 16% at Applied Materials   
      
                                 Applied Materials' profit fell 16%, but the   
   maker of chip-making machines said business conditions appeared to be   
   improving.   
      
      
                                 IPod Sparks Demand for NAND Chips   
      
                                 Expectations that Apple will introduce a   
   flash-memory-based iPod are fueling stronger-than-expected demand for NAND   
   flash-memory chips.   
      
      
                                 EMC to Buy Storage Software Vendor   
      
                                 EMC agreed to acquire Rainfinity, a closely   
   held vendor of storage-virtualization software, the companies' executives   
   said.   
      
      
      
      
      
                 FULL STORY  Ex-AOL Engineer Sentenced   
                     To 15 Months in Spam Case   
      
                     By CHAD BRAY   
                     DOW JONES NEWSWIRES   
      
      
                     NEW YORK -- A former America Online software engineer was   
   sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison in connection with the theft of   
   millions of AOL customer email addresses, which were sold to Internet   
   spammers.   
      
                     At a hearing in federal court in Manhattan, U.S. District   
   Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein also sentenced Jason Smathers, of Harpers Ferry,   
   W. Va., to three years supervised release, but that will be shortened to two   
   years if he pays at least half of the restitution ordered in the case within   
   two years.   
      
                     The judge has indicated he would like to order restitution   
   of $84,000 in the case. However, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL is being given 10   
   days to decide whether it will challenge that amount. Prosecutors had   
   initially sought $300,000 restitution.   
      
                     "I know I've done something very wrong and I've tried to   
   find why and it's something I've not come up with an answer for," Mr.   
   Smathers said prior to his sentencing.   
      
                     Mr. Smathers pleaded guilty in February to charges of   
   conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen property. He was one of the   
   first people to be prosecuted under a new federal antispam law. He had faced   
   as much as 10 years in prison.   
      
                     However, Judge Hellerstein initially declined in December   
   2004 to take Mr. Smathers' guilty plea, saying he wasn't sure Mr. Smathers   
   had committed a deceptive or misleading act -- a key element of the antispam   
   law -- and wanted more information from the government before accepting his   
   plea. The judge later accepted Mr. Smathers' plea after receiving additional   
   written arguments by federal prosecutors.   
      
                     Prosecutors said that Mr. Smathers, who at one time worked   
   in AOL's Dulles, Va., office, used the computerized identification code of   
   another employee to gain access to a secure database of AOL customers and   
   stole 93 million email addresses.   
      
                     The government said he then sold those "screen names" for   
   about $28,000 to a Las Vegas spammer, who sold the list to other spammers   
   and used it to promote an Internet gambling site.   
      
                     Write to Chad Bray at chad.bray@dowjones.com   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
                     (Wall Street Journal Online subscription required)   
      
      
      
                           PC and Mac, Joined at the Switch   
      
                           The Mossberg Solution, by Walter S. Mossberg: Walt   
   offers a guide to KVM switches, which allow users to operate two computers   
   using a single shared monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer and set of speakers.   
      
      
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