🚀 go-pugleaf

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Date: Friday, February 04, 2000, 3:19 PM -0500
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Subject: Faulkner Cyberscape Digest 02/04/2000

                                 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 01/31 through
Friday 02/04. Here's what you should know...


Like Companies Attract
Just in time for Valentine's Day, several companies with a lot in common
agreed to merge. VA Linux Systems picked up Linux information Web site
Andover.net for a combination of cash and stock worth around $813 million.
The acquisition moves VA Linux another step closer to being a "one-stop
shop" for all things Linux. Taking stock of its competition, Schwab agreed
to spend stock valued at $488 million to purchase day-trading firm
CyBerCorp. Additionally, Schwab will progressively cut its commissions, down
to $14.95 for those who make 60 trades or more in one quarter. In a somewhat
smaller birds-of-a-feather deal, Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch agreed to
spend stock valued at $23 million to purchase another online ticketing firm,
2b Technology. The privately-held company sells tickets for museums and
historic sites, with a client list that includes the British Museum, the
Guggenheim Museum, and the Tech Museum of Innovation. Speaking of tickets,
Internet travel company Expedia ponied up $177 million in stock to purchase
two online travel companies, VacationSpot.com (for $82 million) and
Travelscape.com (for $95 million). The acquisitions should significantly
strengthen the Microsoft affiliate's position in the online travel market.
Finally, sometimes a difference in interests can be very stimulating. NBC
Internet found the attraction of the business-to-business sector
irresistible, and put up $225 million in stock to acquire AllBusiness.com, a
Web site specializing in giving advice to small businesses.
[ http://www.valinux.com/ ], [ http://www.andover.net/ ], [
http://www.ticketmaster.com/ ], [ http://www.2btech.com/ ], [
http://www.schwab.com/ ], [ http://www.cybercorp.com/ ], [
http://www.expedia.com/ ], [ http://www.vacationspot.com/ ], [
http://www.travelscape.com/ ], [ http://www.nbci.com/ ], [
http://www.allbusiness.com/ ]

Amazon Fires 150, Takes Stakes in Three
Online retailer Amazon.com reported across-the-board layoffs of 150 people,
or two percent of its work force. The company's shares fell nearly eight
percent on the news, to a little over half of the 52-week high it reached in
December. Don't think for a minute this slowed the company down. In rapid
succession, Amazon acquired stakes in three companies. First, in a deal
rumored to be worth $18 million, it gained a five percent stake in Audible,
an online seller of audio books and newspapers. Audible agreed to pay Amazon
$30 million over three years in exchange for promotion on Amazon's Web site
as part of the deal. Then, perhaps figuring that folks listening to audio
books might want to stretch out in a nice easy chair while listening, Amazon
took an 18 percent stake in living.com, a domestics site focusing on
furniture, bedding, and other items for the home. Living.com agreed to pay
Amazon $145 million over five years in exchange for becoming Amazon's
exclusive domestic store. Amazon, in return gets warrants to buy another
nine percent of the company and a seat on living.com's board of directors.
(Now if they were really thinking, they might promote the alliance by
offering a large discount on bookcases purchased at living.com for those who
bought, say, 20 or more books at a shot). Finally, Amazon spent $5 million
for a minority stake in Greg Manning Auctions, an Internet auctioneer
focusing on collectibles that operates in China, the US, and Europe. The
auctioneer will also appear on Amazon's Web site under its own name.
[ http://www.amazon.com/ ], [ http://www.audible.com/ ], [
http://www.living.com/ ], [ http://www.gregmanning.com/ ]

This Week's Lawsuits
America Online heads the list of defendents this week. The company faces a
class-action lawsuit filed by Gathing, Kennedy, and Associates on behalf of
Kenneth Yates, Farhad Khazai, and other AOL subscribers who upgraded their
AOL software to version 5.0 and maintain an account with another ISP.
According to the complaint, when a user of the software makes AOL his or her
default ISP, the software makes it much more difficult to access an account
with another ISP. The plaintiffs are seeking up to $1000 in damages for each
of the eight million subscribers now using AOL 5.0. For those keeping an eye
on cybersquatting complaints, Coca-Cola sent a cease and desist letter to
the Web site administrator of Vintagecocacola.com, a fan site where senior
citizens displayed memorabilia featuring the bubbly beverage. The
administrator promptly responded by taking down the memorabilia and posting
the letter from the company, and his response, instead. Since the Web site
was strictly a fan site, offering no merchandise for sale and clearly
indicating the true owner of the copyright, it is questionable whether its
owners would be prosecutable under anti-cybersquatting legislation passed by
Congress in November. A rather different case of cybersquatting may get
settled without even reaching the courts. The London literary agents for the
late P.G. Wodehouse finally caught up with US Internet search engine Ask
Jeeves. Jeeves appears as--of course--a butler, both on the Web site and in
Wodehouse's novels. According to a spokesman for the literary agents, "Ask
Jeeves and the estate of P.G. Wodehouse are engaged in amicable discussions,
which we are confident will result in a mutually favorable outcome." How
very civilized. Meanwhile, several ongoing lawsuits reached important
points. Canada-based iCraveTV.com was told by a US judge to take itself off
the air, at least temporarily. The company is under attack from a coalition
of broadcasters and cable and movie companies, because it rebroadcasts
programming from 17 Canadian and US TV stations online--without the
requisite permissions. The plaintiffs argue that this violates US law.
Microsoft filed a 30-page rebuttal to the Justice Department's final
conclusions of law in the ongoing antitrust case. The company maintained its
innocence, and implied that the government was more interested in scoring
points for rhetoric than providing substance to back its claims. Finally,
the folks at Networks Solutions must have breathed a collective sigh of
relief, as both the US Department of Justice and the European Union formally
concluded their investigations of the company without taking any further
action. 
[ http://www.aol.com/ ], [ http://www.cocacola.com/ ], [
http://www.vintagecocacola.com/ ], [ http://www.askjeeves.com/ ], [
http://www.icravetv.com/ ], [ http://www.microsoft.com/ ], [
http://www.usdoj.gov/ ], [ http://www.nsi.com/ ]

Security Threats: Yes, This is Serious
The CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University teamed up with
the FBI and the Defense Department to issue a warning about a nasty new
security threat. Called cross-site scripting, it involves hiding computer
code in innocent-looking links to Web sites. The links can be e-mailed or
posted online. The hidden code allows a hacker to launch programs on a
victim's computer, gather information submitted to a Web site (such as
credit card numbers), and even alter information displayed in a user's
browser. The vulnerability takes advantage of the fact that, as a rule, many
Web sites do not check to make sure that hidden software code sent from a
surfer's browser is safe. What makes this security threat particularly awful
is that it is not limited to one type of software; all browsers are
vulnerable. Users are being advised not to click on Web links received from
unknown sources. Microsoft posted complete information about the problem on
its Web site; Sun and the Apache Software Foundation also include
information on their Web sites. Were this the only problem discovered this
week, it would be bad enough, but another security problem was revealed,
concerning versions 4, 5, and 5.01 of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Only
versions that contain Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine are affected. The
vulnerability can be exploited with a single line of code, inserted into a
Java applet embedded in a Web page. When a vulnerable IE browser accesses
the page, it executes the applet automatically; the applet can then read
files on a user's computer, and even transmit the files attached to e-mail.
Dr. Hiromitsu Takagi, who discovered the hole, recommends that users disable
the JVM until Microsoft comes up with a patch. Microsoft says it is looking
into the matter.
[ http://www.cert.org/ ], [ http://www.fbi.gov/ ], [
http://www.microsoft.com/security/ ], [
http://www.apache.org/info/css-security/ ], [ http://www.microsoft.com/ ]

Companies Team Up, Offer More Services
Search engine AltaVista allied itself with Yodlee, an Internet start-up that
offers what it calls a Web Personalization Platform. The platform allows
users to access all of their online personal account information through a
secure, customized Web page. CBS teamed up with publisher Steven Brill to
launch Contentville.com, a company that will sell all types of Internet
content, including magazines, books, transcripts, original works, and
speeches. CBS will own 35 percent of the company. Excite@Home and McAfee
joined forces to offer McAfee's personal firewall software to Excite@Home
subscribers. The software should protect users from hackers, and also from
spammers whose hijacking of Excite@Home's network nearly brought a Usenet
Death Penalty down on the ISP. Bell Canada is getting deeper into the portal
business, with the help of Lycos. The two companies will create
Sympatico-Lycos, a business-to-consumer portal for English- and
French-speaking Canadians. 
[ http://www.altavista.com/ ], [ http://www.yodlee.com/ ], [
http://www.cbs.com/ ], [ http://www.home.net/ ], [ http://www.mcafee.com/ ],
[ http://www.sympatico.ca/ ], [ http://www.lycos.com/ ]

Hewlett-Packard in Two Big Deals
For those who want to get the big picture--or even just the little one--HP
and Kodak agreed to create a new company, focused on creating retail
photofinishing technology for both traditional and digital photos. The
yet-to-be-named company will use HP's thermal inkjet and digital imaging
technology as well as Kodak's traditional and digital photographic
technology. The new company plans to enable consumers to print images over
the Internet. Of course, there's a lot more to HP than printers--just ask
Ford. The auto manufacturer struck a deal with the company to put
Hewlett-Packard PCs into the homes of every one of its workers. For those
keeping track of such things, Ford employs over 350,000 people worldwide.
The workers would also get printers. Both the PC and the printer will be
free; additionally, each worker will get unlimited access to the Internet
for just five dollars a month.
[ http://www.hp.com/ ], [ http://www.kodak.com/ ], [ http://www.ford.com/ ]

Privacy Concerns (Still) Raising Interest
Online advertising firm DoubleClick opened up a hornet's nest of controversy
when it reported its plans to combine its tracking of Internet users' visits
to certain Web sites with information revealing their real identities. The
Center for Democracy and Technology expressed concerns that the company's
data base could later be used by the government, other companies, and
parties to lawsuits. It encouraged Internet users to send e-mail to
DoubleClick and sites that carry ads placed by DoubleClick to express their
opposition to the new policy and to opt out of the system. Additionally,
Nancy Donaldson filed a lawsuit in New York against the company, seeking
damages of $1000 for every person who clicked on a DoubleClick ad since the
beginning of 1996. A spokesperson for the Electronic Privacy Information
Center said that other groups were likely to file a complaint with the
Federal Trade Commission about DoubleClick's actions. While DoubleClick may
be one of the most blatant Web sites violating online privacy, it is far
from the only one. A study done by the California HealthCare Foundation
discovered, perhaps more disturbingly, that 19 of the top 21 health sites
had privacy policies but didn't follow them. None followed fair information
practices defined by the FTC. Many consumer groups have voiced their worries
about a lack of respect for their privacy online--and Congress is listening.
According to Rich Boucher (D-VA), senior member of the House Commerce
committee, "Congress is hearing the drums...There won't be an interruption
of data flow. But Congress will impose a baseline set of protections this
year." Indeed, fellow House member Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) introduced a
bill that would order the FTC to come up with regulations protecting
personal online data. The Online Privacy Protection Act takes the provisions
of an earlier bill, which covered the collection of information from
Internet users under 13 years old, and extends it to all US Internet users.
The goal of the bill is to compel online businesses to reveal their privacy
policies, what types of information they collect, and how they use that
information.  
[ http://www.doubleclick.com/ ], [ http://www.cdt.org/ ], [
http://www.epic.org/ ], [ http://www.ftc.gov/ ], [ http://www.chcf.org/ ], [
http://www.house.gov/ ]

AOL Shops for Netcentives Stake
Looking for a way to better serve its 21 million members, America Online
agreed to purchase a stake in Netcentives, a developer of frequent-buyer
programs on the Internet. The stake comes to less than five percent. In
return, Netcentives will become AOL's only third-party provider of
infrastructure software for processing transactions for AOL's rewards
program. The companies will also work together to provide a co-branded
consumer rewards program for ICQ. Netcentive shares jumped more than 10
percent on the news.
[ http://www.aol.com/ ], [ http://www.netcentives.com/ ] 

eBay Under Pressure
Two days after BiasHELP sent a letter to eBay's chief executive requesting
the removal of auctions featuring Ku Klux Klan material, the online
auctioneer bowed to pressure. In a posting on its announcement board, the
company revealed its new policy: a ban on auctions of items that promote
hate groups, such as the KKK or the Aryan Nation. For new items, the ban
goes into effect immediately, but items listed before the change in policy
will not be removed. Also, items that are at least 50 years old and have
"legitimate collectible" value will still be permitted. Company spokesman
Kevin Pursglove explained that eBay was trying to balance two sets of
interests: those of collectors, and those who find such material offensive.
But a different practice of eBay's, which at least some find offensive, drew
the attention of the Justice Department this week. The DoJ is looking into
eBay's attempts to prevent software probes of its Web site by other Internet
companies. The agency has already met with AuctionWatch and Bidder's Edge,
two companies that provide users with item-specific auction searches. eBay
has prevented their search engines from probing eBay's site for listings.
Foremost on the DoJ's mind is whether this constitutes an anti-competitive
practice.
[ http://www.ebay.com/ ], [ http://www.auctionwatch.com/ ], [
http://www.biddersedge.com/ ], [ http://www.usdoj.gov/ ]   

IPO Buzz
AT&T generated a lot of interest when it revealed plans to take its wireless
operations public with a tracking stock. Its filing with the SEC did not
mention how many shares will be offered or the expected price range, but
observers anticipate the IPO could raise $10 billion or more, making it the
largest initial public offering in US history. The AT&T Wireless Group
includes the company's voice and data business, fixed-wireless operations,
and international business. The New York Times is also looking to spin out
one of its divisions with an IPO--in this case, its Internet division. Like
AT&T, it plans to issue a tracking stock, to raise a more modest $100
million, covering its Times Company Digital division. Dow Jones, which owns
the Wall Street Journal, is reportedly considering a tracking stock for its
Internet operations as well. DigitalWork.com, a provider of Web-based
services to small businesses, hopes to raise $90 million with its IPO.
Finally, BlueStar Communications is looking to raise $200 million with its
IPO. The company provides broadband communications and Internet services to
small- and medium-sized businesses; it focuses its network roll-out in small
cities (less than 1.5 million people) and plans to go nationwide this year. 
[ http://www.att.com/ ], [ http://www.nytimes.com/ ], [ http://www.wsj.com/
], [ http://www.bluestar.com/ ]

What Does "Free" Mean?
The words "free" and "freedom" seem to take on different meanings when they
meet the Internet. A number of stories dealt with those slippery words this
week. For example, as a side effect of the merger between eMachines and
FreePC, the latter officially ended its free personal computer program.
FreePC sent an e-mail to its subscribers, explaining the changes. The
company said it will sign over the titles of the computers to the users,
free of charge, and destroy all credit card information it had gathered.
Furthermore, it included instructions for getting rid of the advertising
display, and informed users that Compaq and Dell would honor their
warranties. As to the free Internet access, users will lose that on February
14. Many Internet companies have sought to keep it free from taxes, and at
least two members of Congress have listened. Both Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)
and Representative Christopher Cox (R-CA) plan to introduce a bill to make
permanent the temporary ban on new Internet taxes that Congress enacted in
October of 1998. The bill specifically seeks to prevent taxes on such items
as the monthly fees many consumers pay to access the Internet. One can only
hope freedom from taxes catches on. Tom Ridge, governor of Pennsylvania,
seemed to catch the idea when he proposed that, for two separate weeks over
the next year, no sales tax be collected on personal computers. The cut
could save consumers more than $100 on the cost of a new computer. If passed
in the governor's budget, the first week would occur in August in time for
the back-to-school season, while the second week would occur around
President's Day in 2001. Of course, there are other freedoms that matter,
and one of them received a boost from a somewhat unlikely source. The
Internet Engineering Task Force, which sets Internet standards, resoundingly
refused to "consider requirements for wiretapping" in its protocols.
Controversy over the matter raged for four months, during which the group
heard opinions from the FBI, Congress, and many others with an interest in
the matter. The draft document of the new protocols is open for comments,
and will become an Internet standard if there is no serious opposition. For
some, freedom simply means the freedom to do things that everyone else does,
despite disabilities. The World Wide Web Consortium released its first
version of the Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG). The
guidelines explain how users can make their Web sites more accessible to
those with disabilities, and how makers of authoring tools can make those
tools more useful to the disabled. Finally, there are those who might be
taking the idea of freedom a bit too far. Napster faces a lawsuit from the
Recording Industry Association of America because, according to the RIAA,
its software for swapping digital music tracks encourages piracy. However,
Napster itself became the focus of a "free Napster" movement. A number of
colleges stopped permitting their students to access Napster because of how
much bandwidth the company's software uses. David Weekly, a Stanford
University student, posted a tutorial to show students how to get around the
colleges' blocks to accessing Napster. Don't expect Napster to be thankful;
Weekly is the same student who posted details on how Napster's system
works.  [ http://www.emachines.com/ ], [ http://www.compaq.com/ ], [
http://www.dell.com/ ], [ http://www.ietf.org/ ], [ http://www.napster.com/
], [ http://www.riaa.org/ ], [
http://david.weekly.org/code/napster-proxy.php3 ], [ http://www.w3.org/ ]

Wining for Equal Access
Virginia-based Swedenburg Estate Vineyard filed a lawsuit in a US District
Court in New York in an attempt to get the state to overturn the law
forbidding out-of-state wineries from shipping the fruits of their labors to
consumers. The winery also wants to overturn the New York laws that limit
promotion of their wines over the Internet; they argue that such laws
violate the First Amendment. Oddly, the winery does not have a Web page.
According to owner Juanita Swedenburg, "These direct-shipment prohibitions
are hurting small family-run wineries, and may drive them out of business."
Other small wineries are pursuing suits in Indiana, Texas, Florida, and
ironically, Virginia. The wineries face an uphill battle, since 30 states
have laws on the books forbidding the direct sale of wine from out-of-state
wineries to consumers. A spokesman for the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of
America stated that Internet sales prevent states from collecting excise and
sales tax on the wine, and encourage underage drinking.
[ http://www.wswa.org/ ]

Governments and the Internet
What to do when the government gives an order to shut down a Web site? Send
the Web site overseas. At least, that's how Australian pornography sites
responded to rulings by the Australian Broadcasting Authority, which has the
newly-granted power to shut down Web sites rated X or RC by Australia's
Office of Film and Literature Classification. After investigating several
complaints it received, the ABA told several pornography sites to shut down.
They did--then came back up again, their content relocated to servers in the
US. Many critics of the law foresaw such acts, and point to them as proof of
the law's futility. Meanwhile, China's new law requiring all users of
encryption technology to register with the government met with profound
apathy; only a handful of people showed up at the State Encryption
Management Center to register. Those watching the situation weren't quite so
apathetic, however. Since this move is the first step towards banning all
non-Chinese encryption products in the country, it could complicate China's
plans to enter the World Trade Organization this year. China also made
everyone sit up and take notice when it shut down 127 illegal Internet
cafes, confiscating their computers. The cafes were allegedly operating
without government permission, not paying taxes, and providing users with
pornographic CDs (is there a theme here?). Meanwhile, the European
Commission is all excited about a new domain, ".eu," which it hopes will be
embraced in Europe. The commission will accept opinions from interested
parties on the new domain over the next six weeks. Finally, the Food and
Drug Administration's crackdown on Internet pharmacies went beyond US shores
this week, when the agency sent e-mails to a dozen non-US-based online drug
companies warning them that they may have violated US law by selling
prescription drugs without a prescription to US citizens. The letters warned
that future shipments may be prevented from entering the country. According
to the FDA, one company receiving the letter already said it would comply
with US law. 
[ http://www.aba.gov.au/ ], [ http://www.oflc.gov.au/ ], [
http://www.wto.org/ ], [ http://europa.eu.int/ ], [ http://www.fda.gov/ ]
  
Outage Ticker: Sprint, MCI, NSA, H&R Block, Others
On Wednesday, Sprint reported an outage in one of its New York city routers,
which occurred around 2 PM. The company gave no estimated time for repairs.
Likewise, no ETR was given for an outage the same day, but very early in the
morning, in Chicago. The company also spent an hour upgrading hardware on
one of its Kansas City routers on Thursday. All three outages resulted in a
loss of connectivity for those connected to the respective routers. MCI
WorldCom reportedly experienced a fiber cut over the weekend in Vernon,
California, that affected 12 OC48s. Problems were also reported with
connections from AT&T Global Network, AT&T Local Services in Los Angeles,
PCI, and MindSpring. Some of the problems were attributed to
denial-of-service attacks; AT&T's problems were reportedly due to faulty ATM
software, while PSI problems stemmed from power and facility outages. The
National Security Agency reported that it was unable to process intelligence
information for 72 hours starting at 7 PM on January 24--collection of
information continued unhampered, however. Finally, downed Web sites now
join death and taxes on the list of inevitable events: H&R Block received
such a flood of interested Web surfers that the company was forced to shut
down its Web site on Tuesday. No saved data was lost, even though the
company's software was overwhelmed; by Thursday morning, the Web site was
back online. 
[ http://www.sprint.com/ ], [ http://www.hrblock.com/ ], [
http://www.att.com/ ], [ http://www.mindspring.com/ ], [ http://www.psi.net/
], [ http://www.nsa.gov/ ], [ http://www.wcom.com/ ]

Cyberscape Dee-Lite: Kmart's Latest Blue Light Special
Attention, Kmart shoppers: now the brick-and-mortar retailing giant is
offering its own stock for sale online. Thanks to a partnership with
StockPower, Web surfers can purchase Kmart common stock through Kmart's Web
site. The plan, Kmart Stock Direct, allows customers to make automatic
monthly stock purchases and provides customized e-mails of interest to
stockholders. The mailings also offer information about Kmart promotions and
sales. As with any special offer, there are certain limits; stock purchasers
must invest a minimum of $250. It will be interesting to see if any other
companies follow suit. 
[ http://dsp.kmart.stockpower.com/ ], [ http://www.bluelight.com/ ], [
http://www.stockpower.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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      (_/'~~      ''''(;

"Golden retrievers are the best alarm clock 
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