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Date: Friday, March 10, 2000, 3:00 PM -0500
From: Faulkner Mail Server <mailserver@faulknerinfo.com>
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Subject: Faulkner Cyberscape Digest 03/10/00 (Part 1 of 1)

                                 CYBERSCAPE DIGEST

Welcome to CyberScape Digest, a roundup of top internet stories delivered
weekly to Faulkner Information Services subscribers.

This issue of CyberScape Digest covers events from Monday 03/06 through
Friday 03/10. Here's what you should know...

Master of Its Own Domain, VeriSign to Buy Network Solutions
In an effort to break out from its stodgy image as strictly an encryption
vendor and to broaden service offerings for its customers, Internet trust
services provider VeriSign agreed to purchase domain-name registrar and
global registry services provider Network Solutions in an all-stock
transaction valued at $21 billion. Analyst opinion of the deal was mixed:
some felt that a partnership could have afforded similar advantages and
considered the price too high in relation to return on investment; others
saw the acquisition as an appropriate match that would help VeriSign to
achieve its objective of becoming a major gateway for companies seeking to
join the Web economy. Investor reaction to news of the transaction was more
decided: VeriSign's stock dropped by almost 20 percent. Under terms of the
agreement, VeriSign will issue 2.15 shares of its common stock for each
share of Network Solutions stock as constituted prior to the 2-for-1 split
of Network Solutions stock to be completed on March 10, 2000. The
acquisition was approved by VeriSign's and Network Solutions' boards of
directors and is pending approval of both companies' stockholders. The deal,
which is also subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in the
third quarter of 2000. Network Solutions would then become a subsidiary of
VeriSign, with James Rutt remaining CEO of Network Solutions, reporting to
Stratton Sclavos, president and CEO of VeriSign. The combination of
infrastructures is intended to afford organizations a range of services for
the e-business lifecycle, such as establishment of online presence, basic
e-commerce, customer/supply chain management, and global trading. 
[ http://www.networksolutions.com/ ], [ http://www.verisign.com/ ] 

B2B Marketplace Frenzy Hits
Last week's spate of online business-to-business marketplace deals seemed
only to whet the appetite for more. Ariba, already a busy player in this
arena, signed an agreement with Entrust Technologies to integrate the
company's security software into its business-to-business e-commerce network
and software. Of course, Ariba turned right around after that and got
involved in a strong alliance with IBM and i2. The three companies will pool
their areas of expertise to assist businesses in setting up complete online
marketplaces. IBM will invest $450 million in Ariba and $187 million in i2
to cement the alliance--less than a two percent stake in each company. For
some reason, these kinds of deals attract trios rather than duos; Oracle,
Chevron, and Wal-Mart also formed a three-way alliance, dedicated to
creating an online business-to-business marketplace for the convenience
store industry. The marketplace, dubbed RetailersMarketXchange.com, will use
Oracle's e-business platform and go live sometime this summer. The online
B2B marketplace biz is also coloring purchases. VerticalNet put up stock
valued at $500 million to purchase Tradeum, a maker of the technology that
powers such marketplaces. Internet Capital Group put up more than that--$635
million in stock and $22 million in cash--for a majority stake in
RightWorks, another maker of marketplace software. Priceline is reportedly
looking to get into the B2B marketplace, with plans for a "name-your-price"
feature targeted at businesses that will let them buy a variety of products
and services, including telecommunications and freight. Expect to see this
feature added before the end of the year. Finally, PNC Bank and Perot
Systems are working on taking online billing into the B2B arena. Their 50-50
joint venture, dubbed The BillingZone, will allow businesses to issue bills
and pay each other online. The companies expect to go live sometime in June.
[ http://www.ariba.com/ ], [ http://www.entrust.com/ ], [
http://www.ibm.com/ ], [ http://www.i2.com/ ], [ http://www.oracle.com/ ], [
http://www.chevron.com/ ], [ http://www.wal-mart.com/ ], [
http://www.verticalnet.com/ ], [ http://www.tradeum.com/ ], [
http://www.internetcapital.com/ ], [ http://www.rightworks.com/ ], [
http://www.priceline.com/ ], [ http://www.pncbank.com/ ], [
http://www.perot.com/ ]

Unmetered Net Access One-Upmanship in the UK
In an effort to boost Internet use in the UK, Internet providers reported
plans to offer unmetered access deals. Initially, Britain's leading ISP,
Freeserve, offered no upfront fees for services, but issued phone charges of
up to four pence a minute for daytime access. The impact of large phone
bills served to deter Web surfing to such an extent that a Freeserve user
would spend six hours a month online, as compared to a US user's 30 hours
online. US Net company AltaVista challenged Freeserve's business model by
offering unlimited Web access for an upfront fee of no more than 50 pounds,
plus a joining fee of 35 pounds and an annual renewal charge of 10 pounds.
AltaVista reported that it would initially limit services to 500,000
subscribers to ensure it can cope with demand. Freeserve and AOL-UK reported
that they were also studying charge structure. British Telecom (BT) unveiled
its own plans for unmetered Internet access, which include a 15.25 pounds
monthly line rental plus unmetered offpeak Net access package for consumers,
and 80 minutes of voice calls per month. 24x7 unmetered access would run
29.25 pounds. This was apparently in response the UK's largest cable
provider, NTL, reporting that it would offer unmetered Internet access with
no subscription charges under its ntlworld service. Existing BT customers
will be required to spend at least 10 pounds per month on non-Internet voice
calls, as well as to pay another 10 pounds for a telephone adaptor. There
will likely be additional price adjustment announcements for UK unmetered
access in the near future, although, as NTL CEO Barclay Knapp puts it:
"...you don't get much better than free."
[ http://www.freeserve.net/ ], [ http://www.altavista.com/ ], [
http://www.aol.co.uk/ ], [ http://www.bt.com/ ], [ http://www.ntl.com/ ]


Online Privacy in Spotlight Again
DoubleClick, facing attacks by consumer advocacy groups and investigation of
its privacy practices by the Federal Trade Commission, hired two privacy
czars. Robert Abrams, former NY Attorney General, and Jules Polonetsky,
former New York City consumer affairs commissioner, will serve as chairman
of DoubleClick's privacy advisory board and chief privacy officer,
respectively. Their mandate is to construct a new privacy policy for the
company. Meanwhile, Joseph Rubin filed a lawsuit in a federal court in
Manhattan against personal finance software maker Intuit, charging the
company with revealing his personal information to advertisers without his
consent after he used the company's Quicken.com Web site. Rubin is seeking
damages and a purge of his information. A policy shared by both Sprint PCS
and AT&T Wireless brought the issue of privacy to the wireless Web when it
was discovered that both companies' Web-enabled cell phones use their phone
numbers to identify themselves to the Web sites they visit. Sprint said its
phones will stop using the phone number for that purpose in the next month;
AT&T, however, claims that it has received no complaints about its policy
and does not plan to change. Of course, it wasn't only businesses that
stumbled over the issue of privacy. In Britain, the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers bill, which would permit government monitoring of
e-mail under specific guidelines, ran into resistance from the opposition.
The sticking points rests in section 49, which, according to the
Conservatives, would allow law enforcement agencies to demand that
intercepted e-mails be decrypted--and if the user refuses, insist that he or
she prove lack of possession of the key. (Hmm, my old philosophy teacher
would have flunked me if I tried to insist that someone prove a negative).
In the US, the Department of Justice is mulling over a federal court order
that would allow investigators to use the one court order when pursuing
hackers rather than have to go through the process of getting a court order
from every state involved when tracking hackers and others whose criminal
exploits are performed online. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) expressed concern
that the creation of such a court order would severely encroach on citizens'
privacy and create more problems than it solved.
[ http://www.doubleclick.com/ ], [ http://www.intuit.com/], [
http://www.quicken.com/ ], [ http://www.sprint.com/ ], [
http://www.usdoj.gov/ ]

Beleaguered Businesses To ICANN: UCANNT
Amidst a swirl of controversy, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN) opened a round of meetings in Cairo. The independent
domain registration oversight body has been under fire of late by Bell
Atlantic, AT&T, and other companies that conduct business over the Internet
and oppose ICANN's plans to extend the Web address system. ICANN is
considering the addition of hundreds of domains, such as .law and .med, in
the interest of better Net segmentation and the opportunity for companies to
register addresses that consist of single common words. While addition of
domain names can enable businesses to simplify Web addresses, helping to
bring customers to a site on an initial hit, companies fear it can also
prove a bonanza for cybersquatters--speculators who register trademarks as
Web addresses to sell at a profit. Trademark enforcement is already a
corporate headache for many. Bell Atlantic attested to the difficulties,
noting that it already has three full time employees who guard against
cybersquatting. Another thorny issue is the pending election of ICANN board
members. Watchdog groups Common Cause and the Center for Democracy and
Technology urged ICANN to modify its election plan at the Cairo meetings.
The groups claimed that the current plan, which would allow anyone with an
e-mail address to vote for representatives who would, in turn, elect board
members, was open to manipulation and abuse. 
[ http://www.icann.org/ ], [ http://www.bell-atl.com/ ], [
http://www.att.com/ ], [ http://www.commoncause.org/ ], [
http://www.cdt.org/ ]

More Than One Way to Go Shopping Online
Giving in to its need for speed, Covad Communications purchased LaserLink, a
non-branded ISP that will allow Covad to offer broadband services to
companies that sell broadband Internet access for their customers. Covad put
up stock valued at $387 million for the acquisition. Seeing the big picture,
e-commerce imaging company Internet Pictures put up stock valued at $175
million for the purchase of rival PictureWorks. The two companies plan to
create a global infrastructure of services, networks, and delivery systems
for visual content. PSINet continued its seemingly neverending shopping
spree by snatching up SSD, Interserver, and GlobalNet, all Latin American
ISPs, for an undisclosed sum. Finally, Internet shopping went mobile when
Software.com,  a maker of mobile communications software, purchased wireless
Internet ASP @mobile.com for stock valued at $400 million.
[ http://www.covad.com/ ], [ http://www.laserlink.net/ ], [
http://www.ipix-eu.com/ ], [ http://www.pictureworks.com/ ], [
http://www.psi.net/ ], [ http://www.ssdnet.com.ar/ ], [
http://www.interserver.com.ar/ ], [ http://www.gbl.com.br/ ], [
http://www.software.com/ ], [ http://www.@mobile.com/ ]

Arizona E-lects to Vote Online
The results may be moot at this point, but the Arizona Democratic primary is
significant in one sense: it marks the first instance of voters casting
ballots over the Internet in a statewide legally-binding public election.
Internet voting was available during a four-day period prior to the regular
Democratic primary on Saturday, March 11. The Net polls opened on "Super
Tuesday," March 7, with the first cyber vote being cast at 12:01 a.m.;
online polls close at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, March 10. Participants cast
ballots by logging on to Election.com and entering personal identification
number, birthdate, and birthplace. Proponents believe that the convenience
of the point-and-click poll will engage less enthusiastic voters, such as
Generation Xers, fostering a substantial increase in participation in the
democratic process. Still, the cyber primary serves as a bellwether for an
innovation that may not completely win the public confidence for some time.
Critics cite concerns about election invalidation due to hacking, viruses,
and security and identity breaches. Indeed, the Arizona online primary
almost did not come to pass: the Virginia-based Voting Integrity Project
filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Hispanic woman and an African-American man,
charging that online voting discriminates against the poor and minorities,
population segments with limited access to the Internet. A federal judge
ruled to allow the election to go forward, while the Voting Integrity
Project reported plans to challenge the results. Access will likely remain a
point of contention, as another concern about Internet voting is the
potential for election results to become slanted toward the interests of
affluent voters. Some see a more insidious aspect to the Internet voting
access discrepancy: Voting Integrity Project president Deborah Phillips
explained, "We call it the new millennium version of the literacy test."
[ http://www.state.az.us/ ], [ http://www.election.com/ ], [
http://voting-integrity.org/ ]

All Kinds of Agreements Buzzing
America Online is rumored to be in talks with both AT&T and MCI WorldCom.
AOL Chairman Steve Case was vague about the discussion with AT&T, but MCI
WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan bluntly stated that his company and AOL were
close to signing a contract for WorldCom to carry some of AOL's Internet
traffic. Cap Gemini and Cisco agreed to work together to create an Internet
consulting venture to help bring more businesses online. Cap Gemini will own
most of the company, which will market its services to telecommunications
companies, media companies, and suppliers of Internet access sites. Nortel
Networks and Koor Industries agreed to work together to create Nortel
Networks Israel, with the goal of selling Nortel's Internet and
telecommunications products in the soon-to-be-deregulated Israeli market.
Staples and DSL.net got together on a deal whereby Staples will sell DSL's
high-speed Internet access service through its office supplies Web site.
Going from two-way partnerships to virtual gangs, six theater chains joined
up to create their own online movie tickets venture. The as-yet-unnamed
company will also offer previews, reviews, and other information. The chains
involved include Loews, Cinemark, Regal, Edwards, General Cinemas, and
Century Theaters. An IPO is expected sometime in the future. Finally, a
dozen major broadcasters and publishing houses agreed to create a wireless
distribution network for sending audio and video content to consumers via
their PCs. The venture, dubbed iBlast Networks, has signed up 143 local TV
stations in more than 100 cities, reaching more that 80 percent of the US.
Founding partners included Gannett, Cox Broadcasting, the New York Times,
and McGraw-Hill. 
[ http://www.att.com/ ], [ http://www.wcom.com/ ], [ http://www.aol.com/ ],
[ http://www.cisco.com/ ], [ http://www.capgemini.com/ ], [
http://www.nortelnetworks.com/ ], [ http://www.koor.co.il/ ], [
http://www.dsl.net/ ], [ http://www.staples.com/ ], [
http://www.enjoytheshow.com/ ], [ http://www.regalcinema.com/ ], [
http://www.gannett.com/ ], [ http://www.nytimes.com/ ]

Sun to Acquire Net Messaging Company
In a bid to vie with such firms as AOL and Microsoft for a piece of the
Internet messaging action, Sun Microsystems reported a definitive agreement
to acquire California-based Innosoft International, a developer of Internet
standards-based messaging and directory offerings. Upon completion of the
transaction, Sun plans to integrate Innosoft's key products and
technologies, including DirectoryPortal, LDAP Proxy Server, and Messaging
Transfer Agent, into the product profile of the Sun-Netscape Alliance's
iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions. Terms of the deal, which is subject to
Innosoft shareholder consent as well as the usual regulatory approvals, were
not disclosed. 
[ http://www.sun.com/ ], [ http://www.aol.com/ ], [
http://www.microsoft.com/ ], [ http://www.innosoft.com/ ], [
http://home.netscape.com/netscape/alliance ]

Plugging into High Speed Net Access over Power Lines
Delivery of high speed Internet access through the same pipes that transport
electricity may be nearing reality. Following numerous stalled attempts by
other companies, German energy conglomerate Veba and US home networking firm
Enikia report that they are nearing launch of such services under newly
formed communications company Oneline AG, with European trials  scheduled
for this summer. A US trial is also being contemplated for this summer, with
a commercial release targeted for the end of the year. If the service works
as Oneline claims, enabling the user to plug a computer into an outlet and
achieve a high-speed Net connection, and if the price of the service is
competitive with telephone and cable services prices, the global
telecommunications behemoths could find themselves competing directly with
utility firms. 
[ http://www.veba.de/ ], [ http://www.enikia.com/ ]

A Step Toward Mending Broken Hyperlinks
Web surfers are familiar with the frustration of clicking on the hyperlink
for a desired Web site, only to receive the annoying "404 error" message.
Two researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, Thomas A.
Phelps and Robert Wilensky, detailed a method to build Web page links that
will continue to work even if the page has been moved. In an academic paper,
Phelps and Wilensky claim that initial results of their research shows that
most documents on the Web can be tagged with a unique identification based
upon a set words that no other document shares. Approximately five words are
required to uniquely identify a page. Chosen creatively and in a manner that
relates them to the document itself, the set of five rare and carefully
chosen words can be used to augment the standard Universal Resource Locator
(URL), or Web address. If a document's URL should change, a search engine
could be used to automatically locate the missing page. The system, which
would rely chiefly upon Web publishers instead of a third-party
administrator, still requires further work to address the problem of
accessing documents that have been deleted from the Web. 
[ http://www.berkeley.edu/ ] 

Seems Like No One Can Keep a Secret Online
Despite legal threats, the Drudge Report and other Web sites made available
exit polls for states holding primaries on Tuesday--hours before the polls
closed. The polls were conducted by Voter News service, a consortium of ABC,
NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox TV networks, and the Associated Press. They are
normally used by news organizations to project winners just after the polls
close; it is widely believed that revealing the results before the polls
close may deter many voters from casting their ballots. VNS threatened to
sue the Web sites that published the results early. Of course, most of the
candidates running for their respective party's nomination make noises about
"protecting the children"--and one wonders what their reaction would be if
they found out how much some of those children don't want to be protected.
Which brings us to the issue of filtering software. Bennett Haselton, a
22-year-old who started the Peacefire Web site four years ago, continued his
campaign against the use of filtering software by targeting Symantec's
I-Gear. According to Haselton, after decrypting the list of addresses that
I-Gear blocks, and checking the first 50 addresses with an .edu suffix, he
discovered that 38 of those sites didn't seem to be blocked for the reasons
I-Gear gave. For example, one satirical Web site contained some profanity,
but had been classified as pornographic by I-Gear--a classification which
Haselton disagrees with. In fact, he put up a link on the Peacefire home
page to a program that can decrypt the list of sites blocked by I-Gear.
Symantec maintains that Haselton violated the end-user agreement that comes
with the software by his actions, but it has not stated whether it will seek
legal redress.  
[ http://www.drudgereport.com/ ], [ http://www.symantec.com/ ], [
http://www.peacefire.com/ ]

Amazon's Bezos Confronts Patent Issues
In response to "several hundred e-mails" concerning one of the company's
patents, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos posted an open letter on Amazon's Web site.
In the letter, Bezos states that the present rules covering business and
software patents "could end up harming all of us" but refuses to give up the
company's present patents, as some observers have urged him to do. Bezos
proposes a number of reforms for business and software patents, including
limiting their length to three to five years--and making those limitations
retroactive, so they would affect Amazon as well. Bezos proposed to meet
with several members of Congress "from the committees with primary
responsibility for patents" to discuss the issue. Jeff Bezos also invited
Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Books (and opposed to Amazon's policies
towards its patents) to attend those meetings with him.
[ http://www.amazon.com/ ], [
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/misc/patents.html/102-5371394-06840
60 ]

Outage Ticker: Erols, Ameritrade
Erols' AS6079 router began leaking its internal routes to the public
Internet at noon on March 5, causing a traffic tie-up at both MFS' Mae-East
and Sprint NAP in Pennsauken, NJ. The problem was caused by a network
upgrade gone bad, according to an engineer at Erols. The matter took until
past midnight to resolve. Ameritrade experienced an "after-hours" snafu: its
cancelled its extended-hours trading session on Monday. The session, which
normally happens from 4:15 to 6:30 PM EST, fell victim to "market
destination" problems. All orders received during the later hours on Monday
were cancelled.
[ http://www.erols.com/ ], [ http://www.sprint.com/ ], [
http://www.ameritrade.com/ ]

Cyberscape Dee-Lite: A Really Keen Web Site
The Internet redefined the meaning of "connection." While it's true that
many Web surfers are more "connected" than ever before, sometimes the human
connection gets lost in the shuffle. Some Web sites have sprung up to
address this problem. The latest example, Keen.com, operates on a simple
premise: getting people with shared interests connected to each other--over
the telephone. When a user registers at the site, he or she is issued 100
free minutes--at five cents per minute--which can be used to contact other
registered users of the Keen.com community. Users can also list themselves
under appropriate areas of expertise--and may charge considerably more than
five cents a minute for their advice. Every listed user on Keen.com receives
a rating from those who call them, based on a scale from 1 to 5.
Availability to take calls is indicated by a telephone icon to the left of
the listed user's name. Those who accumulate more than $25 per month can
request a check at the end of the month.
[ http://www.keen.com/ ]
  
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Missy Harvey
Computer Science Librarian
Engineering & Science Library
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA  15213

http://www.library.cmu.edu/usr/missy/

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