• U.S. Court Rules MP3.com Violated Copyright Law
  Time: 18:58 EDT/23:58 GMT News Source: ZDNet Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  A U.S. federal court ruled on Friday that MP3.com Inc. violated copyright law with the creation of its database in which users can store music and then access it via any computer connected to the Internet.

  The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed in January by the world's largest record labels, which said that the database of more than 80,000 copyrighted albums, part of the online music downloading company's http://my.mp3.com service, represented copyright infringement.

  The database is part of the San Diego, Calif.'s company's software that allows computer users who own one of these recordings can listen to the albums over the Internet from any computer.

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• Security hole found in Eudora
  Time: 18:49 EDT/23:49 GMT News Source: PCWeek Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  A researcher has discovered a security hole in Qualcomm Inc.'s Eudora e-mail program that could allow a hacker to run code on a user's machine.

  The exploit requires that a user open an e-mail file and click on a link in the message, said Bennett Haselton, a Webmaster for Peacefire.org who reported the flaw.

  When a user clicks the link, the code is executed. The trick, explained here, is to mask the warning that Eudora normally displays when a user tries to run an executable file that is sent as an attachment.

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• Nintendo under price-fixing investigation
  Time: 18:45 EDT/23:45 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  The European Commission today opened an investigation into possible price-fixing by Nintendo and seven video game distributors.

  The Commission has been looking into whether these companies divided up the market for Nintendo video game systems like the "NES" model and the portable "Game Boy" in order to keep prices artificially high.

  "The Commission believes that the companies concerned participated in a cartel-like arrangement with the aim of partitioning the European single market," the agency said in a statement. The Commission is the 15-nation European Union's regulatory body.

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• AOL Rival Asks FCC Action On IM
  Time: 05:19 EDT/10:19 GMT News Source: ZDNet Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Tribal Voice Inc. filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday urging it to push America Online Inc. to open its AOL Instant Messenger client to outside IM providers before its merger with Time Warner Inc. is approved.

  Tribal Voice, along with other IM service providers like Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., have been at odds with AOL for nearly a year over the company's refusal to allow users of other IM clients to communicate with its 91 million AIM users.

  In the FCC complaint, Tribal Voice says that there are no technological barriers to interoperability and that AOL is the only obstacle.

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• Can students be caught in Napster cross fire?
  Time: 05:17 EDT/10:17 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  The legal pressure on MP3-swapping software Napster is growing, and with it the focus on university students who may be breaking the law by using it.

  Angry at what they see as theft of their work, several recording artists have filed lawsuits targeting students. Specific individuals have not yet been named, but the attorney for artists Dr. Dre and Metallica, the first musicians to file lawsuits, says he can add names to the complaint as he gets more information.

  Difficulties in identifying specific copyright violators could make the exercise impractical. But the development has stirred anger among some students, who criticize "millionaire musicians" for targeting relatively poor fans. At the same time, the move is being called a "scare tactic" by some in the legal community.

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• AOL Time Warner: The Next Monopoly?
  Time: 05:10 EDT/10:10 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Claiming consumers will suffer if America Online purchases Time Warner, four consumer advocacy and media access groups filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission Wednesday to block the transaction unless it is restructured.

  "We have nothing against these two companies," says Gene Kimmelman, codirector of Consumers Union, which leads the petition effort. But the firms have a history "that is in disregard of our nation's laws against concentration of ownership and monopolistic transactions," Kimmelman says.

  The Consumers Union is joined in its concerns by the Center for Media Education, the Consumer Federation of American, and the Media Access Project. They contend the merged company would dominate television and Internet content, as well as broadband and narrowband Internet services.

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• Nasdaq Buys Software Company for Undisclosed Sum
  Time: 05:20 EDT/10:20 GMT News Source: Yahoo! Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  The Nasdaq, the No. 2 U.S stock market, on Tuesday said it bought a software company from FleetBoston Financial Corp. to make its trading process more efficient.

  The Nasdaq, which is owned by the National Association of Securities Dealers, declined to disclose what it paid for Financial Systemware Inc., a Nasdaq spokesman said. The Nasdaq, a unit of the NASD, will rename its new subsidiary, Nasdaq Tools. The quest to make trading quicker and smoother is a continuing one for Nasdaq, which is facing more competition from off-exchange electronic rivals. On April 14, the NASD said a majority of its members voted to spin off the Nasdaq into a company partly owned by investors later this year.

  The software products of Financial Systemware have order-routing and quote-management features that will allow Nasdaq stock traders to streamline the entering of buy and sell orders, and the execution of trades. The firm also produces software that will enable traders to comply more easily with Nasdaq regulations.

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• UPS to deliver online bill payment
  Time: 05:16 EDT/10:16 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Already a major player in Web services, the United Parcel Service announced today that it is expanding into electronic bill payment.

  Through its new service, UPS will help control the flow of money between buyers and sellers. Businesses will pay for goods electronically but prior to payment, buyers can track the status of their goods, and based on that information, adjust the amount of payment. For instance, a company buying merchandise that is delivered damaged could contact UPS to withhold a percentage of the payment.

  "There is so much money to be saved through electronic bill payment that the company that facilitates that savings stands to be in a good position to earn some of that money themselves," said James Van Dyke, Jupiter Communications senior analyst. "The technology is there, just nobody so far is using it."

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• Rap artist sues Napster, students
  Time: 05:13 EDT/10:13 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Rap artist Dr. Dre sued MP3-swapping firm Napster today, adding a new layer of legal woes to the already besieged company.

  But this time, the stakes are being raised: Dr. Dre also is targeting students at universities who are using the Napster software to download MP3 files, the first time that individual music listeners have been put into the legal line of fire.

  It's the second lawsuit filed by musicians who say the controversial software is responsible for massive violations of their copyrights. Heavy metal band Metallica also is seeking to close Napster's digital doors.

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• AboveNet victimized by attack
  Time: 05:10 EDT/10:10 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Law enforcement authorities are investigating a cyber attack today on a major Web hosting firm that slowed service or shut down many Internet properties.

  Although AboveNet restored service by mid-afternoon, many of its 1,000 dot-com customers experienced sluggish Web site performance--or total outages in some cases--since mid-morning, according to Paul Vixie, senior vice president of Internet services for Metromedia Fiber Network, AboveNet's parent company.

  "Almost all of (our customers) felt some kind of pain from this," Vixie said. "This was a malicious and painful attack."

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• Apple investigating possible iMac look-alike
  Time: 18:28 EDT/23:28 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Australian company FishPC is advertising a translucent PC on its Web site that looks very similar to Apple's trendy iMac. But while the iMac is an all-in-one PC, FishPC's computer apparently is not.

  "I'm not a legal expert, so I'm not sure if there are copyright or trademark infringements involved," Apple representative Alec Rosen said on Friday. "But it looks pretty darn close to an iMac."

  Timothy Sabre, general manager of FishPC, said in an email exchange yesterday that his product is not an iMac knockoff.

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• Intel cranks mobile Pentium III to 700MHz
  Time: 18:26 EDT/23:26 GMT News Source: InfoWorld Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Intel boosted the speed of its notebook PC chips Monday with the launch of new mobile Pentium III and mobile Celeron processors.

  For high-end notebooks, the company launched a mobile Pentium III that runs at speeds as fast as 700MHz using Intel's proprietary SpeedStep technology. SpeedStep allows a chip to run at different clock speeds depending on whether a notebook is running on batteries or plugged into a power supply.

  On batteries, the new Pentium III operates at 550MHz. When the notebook is plugged into a power supply, the processor automatically jumps up to 700MHz, Intel officials said in a statement.

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• Qualcomm invests $144M in NetZero
  Time: 18:24 EDT/23:24 GMT News Source: InfoWorld Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Qualcomm has invested $144 million in free-access ISP, NetZero, which in turn will begin distributing Qualcomm's Eudora e-mail as its preferred client software, the companies said in a release Monday.

  The e-mail software will be included on NetZero CDs and will be part of the standard install program for NetZero's client-access software. NetZero, with more than 3 million registered users, is one of the largest providers of free Internet access and e-mail.

  The Eudora software is free of charge when used in sponsor mode, which displays advertisements in a small window on the user's monitor. Qualcomm released Eudora 4.3 in February.

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• Ask Jeeves Picks Popular Searches
  Time: 18:22 EDT/23:22 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Ask Jeeves is putting popularity to work. On Monday, the Web information access provider unveiled its Webwide Navigation Services, a suite of three popularity-based Internet navigation products.

  The services are Jeeves Popularity Search, Jeeves Directory Search, and Jeeves Compare. Ask Jeeves acquired the technology behind the trio with the purchase of Direct Hit Technologies earlier this year.

  "It's all about relevancy," says Sean Murphy, vice president of product management at Ask Jeeves. "There's a lot of focus to drive users to a Web site, but not a lot of focus on the user experience at the site."

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• Napster undeterred by musician's demands
  Time: 05:58 EDT/10:58 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Facing increasing pressure from artists concerned about massive copyright violations, MP3 music-swapping company Napster isn't budging.

  Rap artist Dr. Dre served the company with an ultimatumearlier this week, demanding that it remove his work from its service or face potential legal consequences. Napster's attorneys said today that the company can't agree to the request and that all it can do is block specific people whom musicians say are illegally trading songs.

  "Napster will block access to people who are identified by copyright holders as violators," said Napster's attorney, Fenwick & West's Lawrence Pulgrum. "We sent that to Dr. Dre. Now it's up to them what to do."

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• Children's Privacy Law Takes Effect
  Time: 05:55 EDT/10:55 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Web sites catering to kids are scrambling to meet Friday's deadline to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Many won't make it, possibly facing stiff fines, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

  The act mandates that sites with traffic that includes children under the age of 13 post a privacy policy spelling out what information they collect about their child visitors. Sites must have a parental notification and approval system in place.

  "What we're learning is that a lot of sites aren't in compliance," says Parry Aftab, a children's Internet lawyer and author of The Parents Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace.

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• Intel to put back desktop Celeron launch to June
  Time: 05:53 EDT/10:53 GMT News Source: InfoWorld Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Intel is delaying its planned launch of two desktop Celeron chips until June, sources close to the company said Thursday. The two chips -- with clock speeds of 633MHz and 667MHz respectively -- were set to appear Monday.

  "Demand continues to be high for our products as we said in our earnings Tuesday," an Intel spokesman said. "Our public guidance remains unchanged, we still intend to ship faster Celerons in the second quarter."

  However, the Intel spokesman would not be drawn on an exact shipping date for the chips.

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• NEC to Build New Chips Plants in U.S., Japan
  Time: 05:45 EDT/10:45 GMT News Source: Yahoo! Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  NEC Corp, the world's second-largest chipmaker, said on Friday it will begin constructing within a year buildings to house new chip plants in California and Hiroshima, Japan.

  NEC will spend 300 billion ($2.84 billion) to build new plants -- one each in the United States and Japan -- to make general-purpose memory chips and valued-added system LSI (large- scale integrated) chips, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun financial daily reported on Friday.

  A company spokesman generally confirmed the details of the report. But he said NEC, which has announced a flurry of plans the past two weeks to build new chip factories and expand existing facilities, has not decided how much to invest in the new plants, which will stand empty until some uncertain future date.

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• Group proposes policy for creating Net name suffixes
  Time: 17:50 EDT/22:50 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) took a small step toward creating more space in cyberspace by adding new domains to the ones connoted by the ubiquitous ".com," ".net" and ".org" suffixes.

  ICANN is the nonprofit responsible for maintaining the infrastructure for Internet addresses. An ICANN committee issued a recommendation to the group's board of directors that a policy governing the creation of such categories, called "generic top-level domain names," be created in an effort to better categorize Web sites and make them easier to find.

  Support for the expansion of top-level domains was not unanimous. Some companies complained that with the introduction of new domains comes new vulnerability for trademark infringement.

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• IBM Cuts Costs, Size of PCs
  Time: 19:47 EDT/00:47 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  IBM this week is firing another shot in the battle of the low-cost PC. Big Blue is announcing a line of PC 300 desktop systems aimed primarily at budget-minded small businesses, with prices starting at $679 (not including monitor).

  IBM claims the system unit is one of the smallest in the industry. Measuring 3.5 inches by 12 inches by 15 inches, it's about the size of a typical VCR, so you can place it inside or underneath furniture. (A "micro-tower" case is also standard with some models.)

  The 12 standard business configurations of the PC 300 will be available in mid-May, and will be sold both by dealers and direct through IBM's Web site.

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• Net Vandalism Suspect Arrested
  Time: 17:43 EDT/22:43 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Canadian police say they have charged a 15-year-old hacker known online as Mafiaboy with jamming the CNN.com Web site and up to 1200 CNN-hosted sites for four hours on February 8.

  Mafiaboy, who cannot be named under a Canadian law that withholds the identities of juveniles, was arrested on Saturday and was formally charged on Monday, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

  He was charged with two counts of mischief to data, police say. Mafiaboy has been released, but his bail conditions include not using a computer except for academic purposes and under the supervision of a teacher. He is also prohibited from connecting to the Internet or frequenting stores that sell computers or computer paraphernalia.

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• New software aims to meld rival messenger products
  Time: 17:40 EDT/22:40 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  America Online may have just been thrown a curve ball as it seeks to bat away competitors intent on forcing the company to open its hugely popular instant messaging services.

  Sweden-based My Solutions this week released software dubbed MyCQ that allows people to simultaneously log on to multiple messaging products and communicate on all of them through a single interface.

  Although MyCQ does not technically allow incompatible services to talk to one another, it could reduce the gap between rival products by making it easy to sign up for and manage them. For now, the product supports ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), according to documentation on the company's Web site. However, the product is largely untested and may not live up to its promises.

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• Dot-Com Advertising Rings Up $4.6B In 1999
  Time: 19:15 EDT/00:15 GMT News Source: TechWeb Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Advertisers spent $4.6 billion on Internet advertising last year, double the amount spent in 1998, the Internet Advertising Bureau said Tuesday.

  Advertisers spent $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 1999 to end a year that saw online ad revenue grow 141 percent over the $1.92 billion spent in 1998, according to a study conducted by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and released by the Internet Advertising Bureau, a New York-based industry group.

  Consumer-related advertising was the leading segment, at 31 percent of spending; followed by financial services, 17 percent; and computing, 16 percent, according to a survey of 200 companies and as many as 1,200 websites.

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• Yahoo addresses multiple-personality email problem
  Time: 19:12 EDT/00:12 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Some new Yahoo Mail users found themselves too close for comfort last week when a technical glitch piled as many as 100 people into the same account.

  "For a short period of time, new users who signed up were assigned erroneously to the same email account," said Lisa Pollock, senior producer for Yahoo Mail. "When they signed up for a Yahoo email account, we had multiple IDs that were assigned to a single Yahoo.com address."

  New members, possibly numbering "in the hundreds," were assigned to two email addresses that Yahoo knows of before the problem was straightened out, Pollock said. She added that people with existing accounts were not affected.

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• Standards body wants online forms brought up-to-date
  Time: 19:10 EDT/00:10 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Calling current technology for online forms "outdated," the Web's leading standards organization today released a draft of a new specification that promises to make forms work on various Web access devices and perform better with applications and databases based on XML.

  The World Wide Web Consortium today released a draft for the XForms data model, one of three installments of a proposed XForms specification that will govern how Web designers create those pesky forms that ask your name, credit card numbers, clothing measurements and other personal information.

  The data model establishes how forms will "validate" the information you enter. For example, if the form asks for a phone number, the data model lets the form make sure that you have entered 10 digits instead of just seven. Web authors currently have to use unwieldy scripts to validate form data.

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• First virtual news reader to debut
  Time: 19:08 EDT/00:08 GMT News Source: USA Today Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Move aside Lara Croft . Ananova goes live tomorrow as the first Internet news anchor, and if her creators have their way, she will be everywhere in a few years - from our phones to our alarm clocks.

  She's designed to speak in a mid-Atlantic accent, neither distinctly American nor British, smile when the news is amusing and be an expert on sports trivia, among many other things. The question is whether this Internet search engine overlaid with software will be convincing in simulating a human.

  If she's believable, Ananova will be the latest step in making the Net more popular and accessible. She'll also be a high-profile showcase for the companies that produced her software. Virtual brokers and rock groups could be born in her wake.

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• Napster Takes a Nap
  Time: 19:47 EDT/00:47 GMT News Source: Wired Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Napster addicts in need of a music fix were stifled Monday by the unavailability of the company’s servers.

  Starting around 7 a.m. PDT Monday, servers and home pages for Napster, a popular service that allows Internet users to exchange MP3 music files, have been unavailable and disconnecting users.

  The problems are likely linked to Napster's hosting service, AboveNet, which has been experiencing difficulties with its backbone connection to Sprint.

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• Partners Bolster Free Net Access
  Time: 19:43 EDT/00:43 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  The growing ranks of free Internet service providers are mostly marketing tools, rather than potential revenue or profit sources, experts say, although they are gaining interest and forcing some changes in the dot-com field.

  The free ISPs appeal to bargain-conscious consumers, often drawing new Internet users from among those who might otherwise be only thinking of trying the Internet without actually taking the plunge.

  Once they attract at least a minimum audience level, the free ISPs are alluring and viable for advertisers, Internet analysts say. For advertisers, they are "a good, inexpensive way for serving up ad banners on the providers' Web sites," says Dylan Brooks, an analyst at Jupiter Communications.

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• FBI seeks stolen laptop holding secret information
  Time: 19:40 EDT/00:40 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  A laptop computer that may have held classified information disappeared from the State Department about two months ago, and the FBI is Investigating whether it was stolen, the State Department said today.

  The Washington Post said the computer disappeared from the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and definitely contained highly classified information.

  The paper quoted a senior State Department official as saying the laptop's disappearance, from a supposedly secure conference room at the department, set off an intense effort to recover the computer and a search for suspects, including contractors who had been renovating the area.

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• PC/Cable TV Merge Is One Step Closer
  Time: 05:30 EDT/10:30 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Your PC could soon become the brains behind a cable TV box that brings interactive digital TV--a new blend of Web access, entertainment, e-commerce, and gaming--into your home. That vision moved a step closer to reality this week when network hardware maker SCM Microsystems announced it has successfully tested the first PC receiver that works with the scrambled signals of different cable TV companies under a new OpenCable protocol.

  Today's cable TV set-top boxes are proprietary and contain all of the computer smarts and security technology cable companies use to convert signals and prevent their content from being stolen. OpenCable provides for moving most of the digital process to the PC, while security resides on credit card-sized PC cards that plug in like keys.

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• MP3.com, record labels sued by artists over royalties
  Time: 05:15 EDT/10:15 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  MP3.com and several prominent record labels were sued in federal court today by musicians who seek royalty payments for the distribution of their songs over the Internet.

  The suit, filed by musicians who perform as The Chambers Brothers, The Coasters and The Original Drifters, seeks a ruling that neither MP3.com nor the record labels--Time Warner, Sony Corp. of America and two others--have the right to transmit their songs over the Internet.

  The lawsuit comes nearly four months after a trade group representing the record labels sued MP3.com for distributing songs online. Lawrence Feldman, a Jenkintown, Penn., lawyer who brought the case, said the record labels' case protects the rights of only record companies, not artists.

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• Metallica Rips Napster
  Time: 05:01 EDT/10:01 GMT News Source: Wired Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Heavy metal band Metallica has always been synonymous with music that is played fast and loud. After filing a lawsuit Thursday, the band might become more famous as the first group to strike a chord against music piracy on the Net.

  Metallica filed a lawsuit against Napster in the US District Court, Central District of California, alleging that the company encourages piracy by enabling and allowing its users to trade copyrighted songs through its servers.

  The suit also names the University of Southern California, Yale University, and Indiana University, institutions which, ironically, have attempted to deal with the problems associated with students’ use of Napster on campus networks.

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• AOL ditches kids' online profiles
  Time: 09:00 EDT/141:00 GMT News Source: USA Today Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Kids under age 13 may no longer create profiles listing personal information such as name, age and interests in America Online's membership directory, as a result of a children's privacy law that takes effect next wee

  And if they think that's drastic, wait until April 21, the day the law kicks in: All existing profiles listing birthdays from 1988 on will be deleted.

  The changes are being made to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), intended to prevent the collection of personal information from children without their parents' explicit consent.

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• AMD shatters first-quarter estimates
  Time: 08:30 EDT/13:30 GMT News Source: PC Week Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Advanced Micro Devices Inc. delivered spectacular sales and earnings in its first quarter Wednesday, almost doubling analysts' profit estimates.

  "Q1 was a great start to the new millenium at AMD," Chairmand and CEO W.J. Sanders III told analysts during a Wednesday afternoon conference call. "This was particularly for our PC processor business."

  Strong sales of its high-performance Athlon chips helped AMD earn $189.3 million, or $1.15 a share, on sales of $1.09 billion.

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• Internet Retailers on the Ropes
  Time: 08:29 EDT/13:29 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Forrester Research added its voice to the chorus of skeptics hammering Internet retailers of late, issuing a report that predicts the demise of most Internet-only retailers by the end of next year.

  "The combination of weak financials, increasing competitive pressures, and investor flight will drive most of today's dot-com retailers out of business by 2001," according to a statement issued by the research company.

  Forrester is predicting that business-to-consumer electronic-commerce consolidation will come in three waves. First, companies that have been successful selling products such as books and software online for a while will start merging by this fall.

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• Congress Mulls Net Tax Report
  Time: 08:27 EDT/13:27 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, after two years of study, has offered a split decision on banning Internet taxes. The next move is by Congress, but its direction is far from certain.

  Virginia Governor James Gilmore, who chaired the commission, presented the report at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. He called it a "cohesive and comprehensive framework" that lawmakers can use as they consider legislation dealing with electronic commerce.

  The report is not considered binding because it failed to gain a two-thirds majority vote from the 19-member commission. Even as Gilmore presented it, there were signs that support for some of its recommendations are not as firm as Gilmore suggests.

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• AOL, Net2Phone stake Web message service
  Time: 08:24 EDT/13:24 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  America Online and ally Net2Phone are dipping their toes into the Internet-based unified messaging market.

  The two companies each took a stake today in small Illinois-based Webley Systems , which offers services such as voice mail, "follow-me" calling that tracks down subscribers to cellular phones, and voice-activated Web browsing over phones.

  While the size of the investment is relatively small--just $15 million between the two companies--the move underscores a growing willingness on the part of AOL to move into a communications sphere once dominated by traditional telephone companies.

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• Sonicbox Releases iM Software Tuner
  Time: 16:40 EDT/22:40 GMT News Source: InternetNews Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Sonicbox Inc. Tuesday released its iM Software Tuner, giving Internet users easy access to streaming radio stations.

  "Sonicbox was founded to make listening to 'best of planet' Internet radio as simple as possible, said Niko Bolas, President and CEO of Sonicbox Inc. "The iM Software Tuner is our first step toward listeners being able to experience Internet radio anytime and anywhere, making it a part of their life - stay tuned."

  With pushbutton e-commerce capability and targeted one-to-one ad insertion, Sonicbox offers radio stations new revenue opportunities and advertisers access to highly targeted listeners via an Internet-extended cluster model.

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• HP launches range of e-security services
  Time: 16:35 EDT/22:35 GMT News Source: InfoWorld Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Hewlett-Packard Tuesday launched a range of new services called Global Security Consulting Services, aimed at helping customers define an e-security strategy, review their current e-security products, and integrate them into their existing business. The launch was announced here at the Infosecurity show Tuesday.

  "We estimate that these consulting services will generate four times the revenue of all our products this year," said Roberto Medrano, general manager of HP's Internet security solutions division. "Next year we estimate that the consulting services will generate six to seven times the revenue of the products."

  Although Medrano has high goals for e-security services revenue, he didn't disclose an exact figure. The new consulting services will employ between 100 and 200 people in Europe this year, according to Medrano.

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• Protect Your Good Domain Name
  Time: 16:30 EDT/22:30 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  What's in a name? If it's an Internet domain name, maybe millions or dollars--or maybe a trip to court.

  Memorable domain names are in short supply, and the prices of sought-after ones are skyrocketing. Late last year, for example, the name "business.com" sold for a record $7.5 million.

  While mere mortals may scratch their heads over the price, at least that deal was legitimate.

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• Juno to offer high-speed wireless Net services
  Time: 16:40 EDT/22:40 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Juno Online Services said it agreed to offer its email and Internet service through the high-speed wireless network being built by Metricom.

  "Our goal is to make it possible for anyone to access Juno anywhere," Charles Ardai, Juno's president and chief executive, said in a statement.

  Juno said it will become one of the first Internet access providers to use Metricom's radio-frequency Ricochet network, which allows computer users to access the Web without plugging into anything. Metricom uses a network of microcell radios that are typically attached to streetlights or utility poles to deliver the Internet at twice the speed of dial-up modems, Juno said.

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• E-Coke – It's the Real Thing
  Time: 16:35 EDT/22:35 GMT News Source: The Industry Standard Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Coca-Cola said today that it will sell its branded merchandise on a new Web site by early summer. It's the first of many online ventures that the company has planned in order to extend what is already one of the world's strongest brands.

  More than a year in the making, the site will take Coca-Cola's $1 billion-plus merchandising business online in an attempt to reinforce the company's brand. The company operates four stores and sells licensed merchandise through retailers such as Wal-Mart and FAO Schwarz.

  The Coke brand consistently ranks among the most robust worldwide, but the company has been slow to embrace the Net as a marketing channel. Coca-Cola has recently renewed its focus on innovation as a reacting to poor performance in recent years.

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• AOL Unleashes Instant Messenger 4.0
  Time: 16:30 EDT/22:30 GMT News Source: InternetNews Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  America Online Inc. launched the latest volley in the instant messaging war Monday by adding voice communication and image sharing to version 4.0 of its AOL Instant Messenger.

  Released for Windows and Macintosh, AIM 4.0 features AIM Talk, which enables online voice communication between AIM users from any Internet-enabled PC. This feature is integrated into AIM so that users can check to see who is online and make a call with a single click.

  Instant Images lets users send and receive photos, images and sounds to one another, adding a new dimension to instant online communications. Also among the new version features is a new batch of Buddy icons, which let users personalize messages and a suite of "alert" tools that give users the heads-up on e-mails, stocks, and Buddy calls.

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• Do you know who's watching you Web surf?
  Time: 16:40 EDT/22:40 GMT News Source: PCWeek Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  While vendors stumble over one another to offer the latest personalization technology, privacy advocates are worried that advancements in e-commerce services have a steep price: the integrity of a person's identity.

  "I don't want to live in a world that tracks my every move just because I like to have a cell phone," said Austin Hill, CEO of Montreal-based Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc., at his opening keynote at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2000 conference in Toronto earlier this week. "Privacy is the civil rights and environmental movement of the 21st century."

  Hill's company is doing its part with Freedom 1.1, a just-released upgrade to its privacy software that allows users to surf the Web and send e-mail anonymously or under pseudonyms -- allowing tracking software to know only what the user wants it to know.

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• Netpliance changes contract to foil hackers
  Time: 16:35 EDT/22:35 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Netpliance has changed the terms of its user agreement to foil consumers who want to use its device as a cheap computer.

  The Austin, Texas-based Internet appliance company, which sells the inexpensive "i-opener," said it now requires customers to sign up for at least 90 days of Internet service at $21.95 a month. Customers can return the unit within 30 days if dissatisfied but otherwise face a $499 cancellation fee if they drop service within the 90-day period.

  Customers who paid for their i-openers, which sell for $99, before March 31 are not subject to the new terms, said Munira Fareed, director of marketing at Netpliance. Those who ordered before the policy came into effect but had not yet paid have the option of canceling their orders.

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• BMG, Sony unit to sell digital music on Net
  Time: 16:30 EDT/22:30 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  BMG Entertainment plans to start selling digital music on the Internet in the next few months, the company said today. And Sony Music, a unit of Sony, will announce Monday that it plans to offer digital downloads at the end of the month. The plans will allow customers to download music files onto their personal computers rather than having to buy CDs or cassettes.

  To facilitate its plans, BMG said it has partnered with numerous technology companies, including IBM, Liquid Audio and Microsoft.

  BMG, a unit of Bertelsmann, said it would begin sales of music singles in early to mid-June. The company did not disclose how much music it will offer initially or pricing information.

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• Privacy advocates hail crypto ruling
  Time: 11:31 EDT/16:31 GMT News Source: Computer World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  A U.S. Appeals Court judge ruled this week that encryption source code is constitutionally protected speech and not subject to prior restrictions imposed by the U.S. Export Administration. The U.S. government had limited its distribution until January of this year. The decision could have far-reaching implications for other pending cases concerning the freedom to distribute controversial software.

  The court's decision was celebrated in Toronto by attendees of the Tenth Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy. "This ruling clearly indicates that we are pushing the Sisyphean rock back up the slippery slope toward human rights and freedom for academic security researchers — which is precisely the right direction," said Dave Del Torto, executive director of the San Francisco-based CryptoRights Foundation. "Anyone interested in the success of electronic commerce should be very pleased at the court's decision."

  The ruling, by Chief Judge Boyce Martin Jr. of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Ohio, reversed an earlier decision against professor Peter D. Junger. Junger, who teaches at Case Western University School of Law in Cleveland, wanted to post encryption source code on his Web site. In July of 1997, the U.S. Department of Commerce told Junger that a chapter in his textbook, "Computers and the Law," which contained encryption code, could be exported in printed form. But the Commerce Department determined that posting the chapter in electronic form would require an export license.

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• Instant messaging latest trend in e-commerce software
  Time: 16:29 EDT/22:29 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Today, communications must be instant, particularly for businesses. Enter instant messaging.

  IM technology, popularized by America Online's Instant Messenger and ICQ software, is a growing hit among consumers as a cheap and easy way to communicate. Now the idea is taking hold among businesses.

  Software makers Novell, the Sun-Netscape Alliance, IBM subsidiary Lotus and others are building new IM software tailored for business use with new features such as increased security and audio and video capability.

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• Privacy standard to get New York audition
  Time: 16:27 EDT/22:27 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  A long-awaited technology standard allowing Net surfers to negotiate how much personal information they are willing to reveal to Web sites is slated for testing next month in New York.

  The standards project, called the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), sets technical specifications so that Web browsers can communicate automatically with Web sites regarding privacy.

  In other words, if Net surfers don't want to give their names or email addresses to Web sites that sell the information to third parties, they can specify their preferences in the browser settings. When they encounter a site that does collect names and email addresses, the browser will sound an alarm, said Janet Daly, a spokeswoman for the P3P project.

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• Cryptos Try to Solve Enigma Crime
  Time: 11:31 EDT/16:31 GMT News Source: Wired Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Whoever stole the rare, World War II secret decoder known as the Abwehr Enigma is going to have a tough time selling it on the online black market.

  That’s what cryptology enthusiasts are saying after the famous decoding machine used during the war to protect German secret messages was taken from its home in a glass display case at Bletchley Park Trust in London on April 1.

  "We hope that if the Internet community gets behind it, it will be impossible to sell the machine on the public market," said Christine Large, the trust's director.

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• Macromedia offers peek at new Web technologies
  Time: 11:27 EDT/16:27 GMT News Source: News.com Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Demonstrating that a recent acquisition has begun to bear fruit, Macromedia today plans to show off a handful of new technologies that tie together some disparate pieces of its Web authoring, personalization and analysis software.

  Macromedia will offer a sneak peak at UltraDev, Web application development software that closely follows the underlying technology and graphical user interface of the company's Dreamweaver Web content authoring application.

  UltraDev will let software writers create applications for the Web based on any of three major Web application programming languages: Allaire's Cold Fusion Markup Language (CFML), Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) and Sun's Java Server Pages (JSP).

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• AOL Served With Another Lawsuit
  Time: 11:25 EDT/16:25 GMT News Source: PC World Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  A small Internet service provider sued America Online on Tuesday, accusing the media giant of trying to use its latest software to monopolize the Internet market and stifle competition.

  Galaxy Internet Services of Newton, Massachusetts, sued America Online in federal court in Boston, charging that AOL 5.0, the version of its software launched in October, blocks its subscribers from using other Internet service providers.

  America Online has some 22 million subscribers, about 1.8 million of whom also use another Internet service provider, Galaxy said in the suit, which it said it hopes other AOL rivals will join.

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• AOL Strikes Up the Broadband
  Time: 18:15 EDT/23:15 GMT News Source: PCWorld Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  America Online said on Tuesday it launched AOL Plus, which delivers multimedia content and features to subscribers using AOL 5.0 over any high-speed connection, marking one of its first steps toward the long-awaited introduction of high-speed access on AOL.

  Downloading the technology will let the interactive services giant's members use AOL Plus's multimedia content and features, which include full-motion video and streaming audio.

  AOL Plus is now available to any of the company's subscribers using its 5.0 software over a broadband connection. AOL 5.0's "speed detect" feature will be introduced this week.

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• Sega Unveils Online Games, Free Consoles
  Time: 18:11 EDT/23:11 GMT News Source: PCWorld Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  Sega of America, anticipating serious competition in the cutthroat video game business, will unveil on Tuesday a radical shift in its business strategy by offering its own Internet service and giving away to subscribers its Dreamcast video console via a $200 rebate.

  Sega will launch a new company devoted to online gaming called Sega.com, and its own branded Internet service, to be called SegaNet.

  The high-speed service will let gamers play each other over the Internet with a Sega Dreamcast, which was launched last year.

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• Netscape 6 to debut Wednesday
  Time: 18:09 EDT/23:09 GMT News Source: PC Week Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  America Online Inc. President and CEO Steve Case will unveil Netscape Communications Corp.'s next-generation Web browser, Netscape 6, on Wednesday at Internet World in Los Angeles.

  The beta version of Netscape 6, including an e-mail client, will be available by mid-April, officials of the AOL subsidiary said last month. The product, originally dubbed Communicator 5.0, initially was scheduled to ship more than a year ago.

  Netscape 6 will contain the Gecko rendering engine along with support for Extensible Markup Language, Document Object Model, HTML 4.0, Cascading Style Sheets and JavaScript.

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• Credit Card Companies See Future Online
  Time: 18:55 EDT/23:55 GMT News Source: TechWeb Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  American Express, MasterCard, and Visa all plan to offer enhanced payment services, such as detailed reporting of transactions and the ability to handle international currencies, specifically for business-to-business marketplaces. Thecompanies are also experimenting with operating online marketplaces.

  MasterCard, Purchase, N.Y., this week will begin testing a b-to-b exchange for small businesses on its website.

  "We are opening it up to any MasterCard business card holder," said Steve Abrams, senior vice president of corporate payment solutions. "The whole point of the test is to understand the behavior and needs and wants of the small business community."

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• FBI warns of virus that dials 911
  Time: 18:50 EDT/23:50 GMT News Source: InfoWorld Posted By: Matthew Sabean

  The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning of a new virus that is capable of wiping out hard drives and calling 911 emergency systems.

  The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) Saturday issued an advisory alerting the public to a "recent and breaking FBI case" involving a self-propagating script that can erase hard drives and dial 911.

  According to the advisory, the script searches the Internet for systems set up for file and print sharing and copies itself onto the system. The virus then overwrites the hard drive and prompts the system to dial 911.

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Read more of the past months news in our News Archive for February and March News.

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