[Government funding of the press? Hmm. That always leads to fair, objective, entirely neutral reporting that is properly skeptical of government efforts in the security realm! I'm sure that Congress would never, ever threaten to yank the funding of a site that is critical of government security efforts! :) --Declan] --- From: "Nathan Cochrane" <ncochraneat_private> To: "Declan McCullagh \(E-mail\)" <declanat_private> Subject: VMyths enters realms of legend Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 12:55:33 +1000 Hi Declan The virus hoax busting site, VMyths, is to close. VMyths was the single source of independent information about virus hoaxes, and a reporter's best friend when it came to evaluating "falling sky" claims from antivirus vendors. Paradoxically, it is this ethical streak that ultimately killed VMyths, founder Rob Rosenberger unwilling to accept financial support from vendors. In today's announcement to registered readers of the site, VMyths editor George Smith writes that Rosenberger is due for an extended deployment in the Persian Gulf with the US Air Force, which will take much of his time. But it was a fall in advertising revenue that delivered the killer blow, making VMyths' continued publication impossible: "VMYTHS has proven as valuable to scholars and policy-makers as it has to the put-upon corporate worker looking for a way to convince his peers to stop mass-mailings of the JDBGMGR.EXE and 'It takes gut to say Jesus' virus hoaxes," Smith says. "Whether cited by a RAND Organization research fellow or Consumer Reports magazine, VMYTHS' reputation as the primary source for virus hoax information was well deserved. Indeed, a Google research returns an astounding 10,200 hits, an ocean of reference spread over everything from small mailing lists to general interest magazines sold in supermarkets to the nation's major daily newspapers.It is always sad to see these resources disappear. But the nature of the Web is such that if information is needed, it will be filled." What I find remarkable is with the billions of dollars the US and other Western governments are pumping into mostly pointless projects that will do little to defend the cyber infrastructure, they couldn't find a few thousand dollars to keep this service going. Rosenberger is a US military employee who, Smith says, will instead write classified histories of units of interest for the USAF. But couldn't he be better employed keeping this project running? MORE: http://bilskirnir.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_bilskirnir_archive.html#105763237260460054 - Nathan Cochrane Deputy IT Editor :Next: The Age and Sydney Morning Herald http://www.next.theage.com.au ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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