A federal judge is expected to rule next Wednesday on whether MP3.com willfully violated copyrights and must pay millions in damages to record company Universal Music Group. The story is from Bloomberg.

From a column at Linuxplanet.com: “The intersection of Linux and high end computing got a lift yesterday with an announcement that offers a pleasant splash of substance to end a month that had its share of convention-inspired hoopla and an inordinate amount of fascination with GUIs.”

BSD Today reviews two more web-based email programs — both powered with php and mysql.

TheStandard.com checks on the number of CEOs that have left tech companies recently, including Corel’s Michael Cowpland, who says, “I am looking forward to dedicating more time to start-up ventures in the Linux arena. I will continue to work closely with Corel and its affiliates.”

One of the most popular meeting spots for trading MP3 songs and information on the underground Internet Relay Chat network has closed its virtual doors. MP3Cafe had been a place where hundreds of people at a time would gather to download music, chat about bands, and trade information about other file-swapping nodes on the Net. While the activity was minor compared to the activity on Napster and similar services, it was a tight and active community, reports CNet.

From a Thursday stock market roundup at Wired.com: VA Linux (LNUX) continued its rally, picking up 3 3/16 to 55. (Full disclosure: VA Linux owns NewsForge.)

What services do you need? Well, that depends on how you plan to use your system. The Geek will show you how to set up a run level for every occasion. The story’s at LinuxWorld.com.

Signalground.com surveys numerous motherboard Web sites on patrol for any and all references to Linux (compatibility test reports, known problem reports, Linux drivers or otherwise).

Patches are available for the 4.x and 5.x kernels. Versions of 4.x and 5.x downloaded after August 15, 2000 are not vulnerable. Users of 3.x versions of FreeBSD should upgrade to 4.x if possible. The advisory is at securityfocus.com.

From an article at Linux Journal: “Calling a system embedded doesn’t have anything to do with its size, but whether it performs some dedicated task. Besides the size changes over the years, there have been cost changes. While my microwave doesn’t have an embedded processor in it, most do as do most traffic light controllers and virtually every printer in the world.”