In the prosecution of Mr. Aleynikov the US Government sought a sentence five times as high as the two-year sentencing guideline and they were nearly successful with an 8 year term. As the New York Times Reports, “It is unprecedented for the government to seek a sentence five times as high as probation recommends and for the court to impose a sentence four times as high,” said a defense attorney, Kevin H. Marino.

Let’s look at the facts of this crime against Goldman and the damages that Goldman suffered. It is clear that Mr. Aleynikov stole the code, this has been proven. However, this breach of security had no effect on Goldman or the American people. The FBI acted immediately and Teza was stopped from using the code. Plus Teza was already a strong player in this market. In 2009 Goldman’s HF Trading unit accounted for roughly $300 million of the $31 billion or %.00967 of Goldman’s profit. Even if Mr. Aleynikov’s crimes wiped out the profit from this business for three years it would have a negligible effect on Goldman’s earnings and would have no effect to ordinary Americans. Though Mr. Aleynikov’s actions are major civil and ethical problems there are no victims in this crime.

Let’s contrast the US Government’s actions in defending Goldman as victim as compared to how the US Government prosecuted Goldman for its role in the mortgage collapse of 2008 that victimized millions of Americans.

It has been widely reported that Goldman played a massive role in the mortgage collapse of 2008 via its Abacus fund. Michael Lewis outlined Goldman’s involvement in tremendous detail in his book “The Big Short.” The collapse of Abacus was a large contributor to the financial meltdown that forced a $70 billion tax payer funded bailout of the finance industry with $3 billion going to Goldman. While history has shown the US Government profited on the Goldman bailout, the millions of Americans of modest means who lost their homes, retirements and savings may never recover from these losses. The collective damage of the proven irresponsible acts of Goldman total into the trillions yet not a single employee of Goldman was ever imprisoned. Though the SEC launched the largest fraud case ever against Goldman in April 2010 Goldman settled in July 2010 for a toothless fine and no admittance of wrongdoing.

Perhaps there’s so much news going on between Libya and Japan that we aren’t paying attention to this important story but to me the silence is deafening. There is no more illustrative example of the what is wrong with America today than in the contrast of how the US government handled Goldman as victim and as defendant. As victim, in a victimless crime, Goldman prosecutes a father of three young children and has him locked away for 8 years, against the recommendations of Federal Probabtion Officials. As defendant in the SEC Fraud Case, where Goldman is proven to have deceptive and unethical business practices that led to the economic ruin of millions of American’s they receive a slap on the wrist. No one is imprisoned and Goldman is back to record earnings.

Judge Denise L. Cote of the Federal District Court in Manhattan summed it up quite nicely in this quote “he deserves a significant sentence because the scope of his theft was audacious — motivated solely by greed, and it was characterized by supreme disloyalty to his employer.”

Source:http://www.groundreport.com/US/Goldman-Sachs-and-US-Imprison-Software-Developer-f/2936984

Bad habits are hard to break, and the use of pirated software in Thailand is firmly entrenched and may take many years to overcome.

However, inroads have been made by the Thai software police.

The Washington-based Business Software Association once reported that 90% of the PCs in Thailand had illegal software installed. Last year, this had dropped to 75% as the Royal Thai Police’s Economic and Cyber Crime Division (ECD) continued its fight against counterfeit and unlicensed programs.

ECD officials last year raided 210 companies believed to be using unauthorised software and found about 472 million baht worth of pirated programmes installed on their computers, said Chainarong Chareonchaiyanon, ECD deputy commander.

Most of the raids took place in industrial areas of Ayutthaya and Samut Prakan.

Pol Col Chainarong said BSA representatives had underlined the problem of software piracy in a recent meeting with ECD staff, indicating that all sectors of Thai society – including the police – are using bootlegged titles.

This year, police have made 28 arrests while the software industry is said to have lost 10 million baht to pirates.

The ECD police pay special attention to companies or factories in the fields of manufacturing, architecture, design, construction and trading, because past arrests have often involved them.

The programs most often pirated are industry-standard office, design and entertainment titles, including Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, Catia, Autodesk and the Adobe range.

Software companies often hire law agencies to probe copyright violations.

One common tactic is to send spies to work in a suspected company, Pol Col Chainarong revealed.

Sometimes former employees of those companies make tip-offs, while online updates can automatically send details of trangressions to the copyright owner.

Still, the crime incurs relatively light penalties in Thailand.

According to the country’s copyright law, anyone found guilty of duplicating or modifying copyrighted computer software without permission would be subject to a fine of 100,000 to 800,000 baht, or a jail term of six months to four years, or both.

Most convicted wrongdoers choose to pay damages to the software owners, who assess their reimbursement amount based on the number of days of infringement plus interest.

Despite having years of experience in fighting software piracy, the ECD deputy chief takes no pride in the task.

“My perception is that working on this kind of case means the Thai police become tools for the United States and benefits are only yielded by the copyright holders,” he said.

“Thailand’s industrial sector still lags behind [developed countries] in terms of competitiveness, so it may not yet be ready to invest in costly software applications.

“I prefer to urge the government to seek alternatives by negotiating with the US over software trading.”

Pol Col Chainarong said the ECD staff were often seen as troublemakers by entrepreneurs.

The officers and the government did not gain any advantage from arresting bogus software users because in most cases, legal settlements are reached through the offenders’ payments, he said.

Thus, the only party that would benefit from the arrests is the companies which own the software copyright, he added.

Source:http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/227717/the-hard-line-on-software-piracy

City-based ERP software maker, PCSoft, has joined hands with Canada’s Taylor group to launch a low-cost production planning and scheduling software called Decision one APS software.

The software will empower SME manufacturers who have limited financial resources and technical expertise to optimise their plant floor operations. APS was till now used by large manufacturing corporations in the country only, said a press release. “SMEs need to optimise all factory resources in order to generate higher factory output,” said PCSoft managing director Sateesh Jain.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/City-firm-ties-up-with-Taylor-Group-of-Canada-for-scheduling-software/765065/

Federal investigators acting on a tip from Microsoft have raided the home of an Everett man suspected of selling counterfeit software.

According to recently unsealed documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Seattle, agents with a Homeland Security Department taskforce raided the man’s apartment on March 8 following a months-long investigation. Investigators claim the man sold illegal copies of various Microsoft programs through Craigslist after importing the bootlegs from China.

In October, Microsoft corporate security informed federal authorities that the man was selling counterfeit software online. According a statement filed in support of the search warrant, Microsoft investigators had purchased several items from the man and determined they were illegal copies.

Writing the court, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent noted that customs officers had seized a package apparently meant for the man on Oct. 18. That seizure prompted Microsoft to send a letter to the man warning his not to continue distributing the counterfeit software.

During the months that followed, the ICE agent purchased two items from the Everett man that later proved to be counterfeit. During each exchange, the man allegedly claimed the programs were authentic.

“(He) was evasive in response to questions about the authenticity of the product and stated that if customers complained, he would instruct them to go buy the products for much higher prices at retail establishments,” the special agent told the court.

The agent said the Everett man told undercover officers some customers wanted to “look a gift horse in the mouth” and “make a big deal about it.”

Having obtained a search warrant, agents raided the Everett home on the morning of March 8. According to court documents, they recovered 75 copies of Microsoft software and various electronics.

Charges have not yet been filed publicly in the case. The man has not been jailed.

Source:http://www.seattlepi.com/local/437218_search16.html

Hewlett-Packard fancies itself a software superpower-in-waiting. HP data center customers aren’t so sure.

A big piece of Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Leo Apotheker’s message at Monday’s HP Summit was that the company will boost its software portfolio significantly, either organically or through “disciplined” acquisition, and that it will invest in building higher-margin cloud solutions.

He touted plans to build public cloud infrastructure on which customers will be able to design, build and test software as well as a cloud-based “app store” for both consumer and enterprise applications. HP execs also stressed that the company’s new WebOS, which comes out of HP’s purchase of Palm Computing and runs on smartphones and tablets, will be the front door to myriad cloud-based services.

The IT giant leads the league in server sales and is coming on strong in networking hardware, and has long fostered an array of software, ranging from the now-defunct OpenMail email and OpenView (now BTO) systems management software. But it has a checkered past when it comes to bits and bytes. And HP customers see no indication that that’s about to change.

For one thing, they said HP can barely push the software it already offers.

“In my view, HP has real difficulties selling software to its current enterprise customers. You can see this in the laggard Matrix sales,” said Kent Altena, technical engineer with FBL Insurance, an HP server shop in West Des Moines, Iowa. HP Matrix is the operating environment for HP’s converged hardware.

Altena said that while HP clearly has the resources — in manpower, technology and funding — to get real in the cloud, “I personally have doubts about [HP’s ability] to develop the integration software its users would require, be as responsive or agile as the volatile cloud market would require, and even be able to leverage its sizeable VAR market effectively to get its products sold in the first place. To me, this is Matrix Part Deux.”

HP customers: Where’s the beef?
Others said HP’s presentation was fine as far as it went — which was to provide a directional statement — but woefully lacking in specifics.

“From what I have read and seen so far, this was a high-level plan and hitting on so many business areas, the challenge will be [whether] HP can best execute this strategy with in-house talent or will they look outside? I was expecting some sort of ‘HP is back’ presentation and was assuming it would include some more concrete dates/timelines,” said Pete Sclafani, CIO of 6Connect, a San Francisco data center consultancy.

Sclafani would like to see HP in a ‘first mover” spot. “Lately it seems like they keep playing the ‘we will have it soon’ card to keep interest. That is not a good long-term strategy and customers will get tired of it.”

Altena said HP could well go the VMware route — snapping up outside technology and tying it together. But HP is dogged by a reputation for not doing a great job of such integration, especially compared to new arch-rival Oracle.

“Former Opsware products have not been sold well under the HP umbrella, either by local VARs or directly from HP,” Altena said. “HP sales staff appears most comfortable in my organization when pushing the latest processor, printer, laptop or even promoting their storage platforms. The longer time-to-agreement of enterprise software sales just have not been a priority.”

Perhaps tacitly acknowledging that issue, HP CFO Cathie Lesjak said Monday that the company will build its sales force both in “quality and quantity.”

The CTO of a large Midwestern financial services firm agreed that HP will need to buy its way into software prominence.

The HP Summit message, in his opinion, was “what Wall Street wanted to hear. A top-line growth strategy, higher-margin businesses, increased dividend. Big company stance. Consumer plus business balance via the cloud. They’re going to have to buy into software. My bet is CA or BMC.”

That HP sees the need to buttress its software is not surprising given its hiring of Apotheker, a former CEO of ERP software giant SAP. Last year it also brought Bill Veghte over from Microsoft to head its software and solutions business.

While stressing HP’s existing strength in management software, Apotheker at one point said it was to HP’s “advantage we don’t have a legacy franchise to protect,” perhaps a jab at legacy software power (and partner) Microsoft, which has to negotiate its own cloud strategy carefully so as not to damage its on-premises software business.

None of what came out of the HP Summit surprised Kevin Armour, CTO at Paycor, a Cincinnati-based payroll processing company. “All hardware companies are talking [about] how they will move everyone to the cloud. All have hybrid approaches. The [HP] software stack seems like it would not apply to many if they are not providing Windows or Microsoft solutions,” Armour said.

“The WebOS [piece] is interesting because [WebOS] is way behind the other smartphone operating systems today. To catch up is going to be a big challenge.”

The other Midwestern CTO was even more dismissive about HP’s WebOS emphasis. “WebOS? Give me a break,” he said via email.

IBM envy?
HP is also seen as suffering from a certain amount of IBM envy.

IBM has done a fairly good job transforming itself from a hardware-oriented company into a major power in software and services. Oracle, another HP obsession, appears to be going in the opposite direction after buying Sun Microsystems and its hardware business and competing more directly with HP.

So it’s fate that HP will need more software business. The question is whether it will execute better this time out, customers said.

Source:http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/2240033450/HP-as-software-power-Maybe-maybe-not-IT-pros-say

With new technology, parents can get minute to minute status update of their wards

Are you among one of those parents who are perpetually worried about their wards? With the increasing trend of untoward happenings with kids (both school and college going) it is only natural, as a parent, to be anxious. Also, there are those parents, who want to know the whereabouts of their children. The reason behind this worry is simple; while most of the parents remained concerned about the safety of their children, many a college goers bunk their classes often and go to cinema halls.

There is good news for such parents now in the form of new, unique integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software – Campus Mantra. The software is specially designed for academic institutes and parents and it also has benefits for students as well.

Launched by Targus Signity Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (the software and value added services/ enterprise services arm of Targus Group), Campus Mantra offers the flexibility of anytime monitoring to parents. The latter can now effectively monitor their wards’ whereabouts via reports that can be accessed through one’s e-mails and mobile phones (sms alerts). This feature is called the third eye module which helps in constant monitoring of students by parents and it sends out sms alerts from the time the student leaves the home for school/college till he or she comes back.

The software also offers a dynamic range of services to the academic institutions (schools/colleges/universities). This includes Student Management (Personnel and Academic), Human Resource Management, Library Management, Hostel Management and Transport Management, Finance, Counseling, Sale & Purchase and Stock Management.

According to Mr. Amarjeet Singh Walia, CEO, Targus Signity Solutions Pvt. Ltd., “Campus Mantra is effective software that helps parents in 24*7monitoring of their wards. Similarly, the software can be used by teachers also to monitor their students. It is equally beneficial for academic institutions for a number of things such as hostel management, cafeteria management, transport management etc.”

It is a fully secured solution which provides real-time data processing. The several modules of Campus Mantra are integrated and can be customized according to the requirements of the end customer. The reports are generated automatically from the integrated solutions so one doesn’t need to reconcile with other records to find out its accuracy and reliability.

He further elaborates, “The software comes integrated with Intelligent Interactive Voice Response System that acts as a strong access medium for parents and students as well as interface between parents and school administration.”

Based on the concept of ‘anywhere, anytime education’, Campus Mantra enables the students to do online admission, online payments (smart pay) and smart attendance (via radiofrequency identification or RFID and Biometrics). Students can also obtain their performance results in exams via this software on their cell phones. Also, they can locate any book enlisted in their school/college, via their mobile phones, within a matter of few seconds. They can access a whole lot of other information like time table, course content and fees information.

Moreover, this ERP software has such inherent features that help in creating an exclusive brand image for the institute installing it. For the staff of the institution/college Campus Mantra helps in providing real-time information on academics, student management, salary slips, design time table etc.

Source:http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/software-to-help-in-keeping-watchchildren%5Cs-activitiesperformance/428722/