IBM faces mainframe antitrust investigation

In today's podcast: IBM faces mainframe antitrust investigation; Clickfraud scheme steals from Google; and UFO hacker appeal rejected.

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IBM is facing an antitrust inquiry from the U.S. Department of Justice for recent actions the company has taken in the mainframe computer market, according to the trade group that filed the complaint. The DOJ has begun issuing formal requests for information related to a complaint filed against IBM in September, the Computer and Communications Industry Association said. The association alleges that IBM has refused to issue licenses for its mainframe OS to competitors, as required in a series of actions the DOJ took against IBM dating back to the 1970s and earlier. In some cases, IBM has yanked the OS license from customers trying to switch from IBM mainframe hardware to a competitor's, the CCIA said.

The Bahama botnet, a sophisticated network of compromised computers that is wreaking click-fraud havoc among advertisers, is also snatching away Web traffic and revenue right from under the nose of mighty Google, Click Forensics said Thursday. As part of its design, the Bahama botnet takes search engine users to a fake page hosted in Canada that looks just like the real Google page and even returns results for queries entered into its search box. However, the results aren't direct links to their destinations but are instead masked cost-per-click (CPC) ads that get routed through other ad networks or parked domains, some of which are in on the scam and some of which aren't.

Wikileaks.org, the online clearinghouse for leaked documents, will soon let newspapers, human rights organizations, criminal investigators and others to embed an "upload a disclosure to me via Wikileaks" form onto their Web sites. The upload system will give potential whistleblowers around the world the ability to leak sensitive documents to an organization or journalist they trust over a secure connection, while giving the receiver legal protection they might not otherwise enjoy.

The U.K.'s High Court ruled Friday that British hacker Gary McKinnon cannot appeal to the country's Supreme Court against his extradition to the U.S., narrowing the Londoner's legal options. McKinnon's lawyer sought to join his case to an appeal against extradition filed by the lawyer of another Briton, businessman Ian Norris, who faces charges in the U.S. for alleged involvement in a cartel. McKinnon may now take his case to the European Court of Human Rights, although that court has already refused one request to stop his extradition. McKinnon has been indicted by U.S. authorities for hacking into 97 military and NASA computers between February 2001 and March 2002. If extradited and found guilty, he could face up to 60 years in prison.

And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Peter Sayer in Paris. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.