The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

[walktalker]

Hello Napsterites !
Pushing the envelope on IM
Watch out browsers, bots, e-mail and telephones -- here comes the next generation of instant messaging. Long associated with casual text-based conversations among teens and singles in America Online chat rooms, IM technology is now poised not only to gain mainstream acceptance, but to establish itself as an independent platform for a variety of communications and information-gathering applications. Already, instant messaging applications from mainstream software and media companies Yahoo, AOL Time Warner and Microsoft offer a long menu of communications tools that go beyond the traditional text-based instant message. These include audio chat and PC-to-phone telephony, videoconferencing, file sharing and multiplayer games.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

BMG to test 'rip'-proof CDs
BMG Entertainment said Monday it will work with security technology provider SunnComm to create copy-protected CDs, one of a growing number of efforts by the record labels to combat alleged Internet piracy at the source. Under the deal, SunnComm said BMG will use its technology, dubbed MediaCloQ, which prevents people from being able to "rip" songs directly from a CD onto a computer. BMG said it is testing SunnComm's technology and is starting to implement it on promotional CDs. BMG said it will decide later whether to use SunnComm's technology for commercial releases. The announcement comes as major record labels are testing ways to stop the flood of unauthorized MP3s onto the Web. Thousands of CDs incorporating anti-copying technology have already been sold to unsuspecting consumers in one test that began months ago.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Global alert for next round of Code Red
A group of government and private security experts took the unusual step Monday of publicly urging businesses worldwide to guard themselves against the Code Red worm, set to reactivate Tuesday with possibly dire consequences for the Internet. Representatives from Microsoft, federal security agencies and various trade groups held a globally televised press conference to urge businesses to install a Microsoft software patch that prevents Code Red from infecting servers running Microsoft's server software. "There is reason for concern that the mass traffic associated with this worm's propagation could degrade the functioning of the Internet," Ronald Dick, director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, said during the conference.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Net music: Who will pay what?
Record companies and Internet radio broadcasters will start a long-awaited round of hearings on Monday aimed at setting the ground rules for the burgeoning online radio business. At stake is whether the free music services that have drawn millions of listeners during the past few years -- including such sites as AOL Time Warner's Spinner.com, MTVi's SonicNet and MSN's music service -- can remain free. For the past several years, the companies have operated their online stations without a clear idea of how much money they would ultimately have to pay for the music they broadcast 24 hours a day. Now that price tag will finally be set, and with it the fate of one of the only commercial features of the online music landscape that has demonstrated significant popular support.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Yahoo puts pop-unders to the test
Yahoo is poised to throw its weight behind a new and controversial breed of Net advertising: pop-unders. Ads hawking credit reports and a miniature video camera from X10 have begun launching in hidden browser windows on Yahoo's news and travel sites. A Yahoo representative told CNET News.com on Friday that the ads are a "test" as the company considers whether to sell pop-unders on its sites, which collectively draw one of the largest audiences on the Web. The move promises to increase the number of pop-unders consumers see online -- a figure that has already climbed into the billions, according to Dave Gross, a partner with Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Fastclick.com, which sells and serves the ad format for a growing roster of marketers.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Bad writers never had it so good
Bad writers never had it so good. Largely thanks to increased exposure on the Internet, prices for their works have been rising. First Editions of Ed Earl Repp, who wrote Westerns and science fiction fetch $100 on the Internet. Sydney Horler, a spy writer, was "egregiously bad," says Bill Pronzini, a mystery novelist who has produced three books on bad writing. "Fifteen, 20 years ago, you couldn't give away his books." A first-edition Horler now can be found for sale on the Web for $550. Fender Tucker, an unemployed former country guitar player in Shreveport, La., has reprinted 24 Keeler novels with nothing more than a computer and homemade bookbinding equipment. "I'm hoping for a small Keeler renaissance," says the 54-year-old Tucker. "There are a lot more people out there who would like Keeler. I just have to reach them." These days, snippets and sometimes whole works are copied on sites devoted to bad writers.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...799815,00.html

BSA antipiracy campaign: Truce or scare?
If you're a small or medium-size company, there's a good chance you've heard from the Business Software Alliance about getting your software compliant with its licenses. If not, you probably will. The group is well into a nationwide letter and radio campaign to do just that. But what you probably don't know is that, like so many of the companies that stuff your mailboxes with junk mail, the BSA, which represents such software giants as Microsoft, Adobe Systems and Apple Computer, has no intention of following up on its letters — regardless of how threatening and personal they may seem. It won't phone. And it won't pop in for a surprise audit. Instead, an eWeek investigation reveals, the BSA's campaign is primarily a marketing effort essentially designed to scare people into buying more software.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...pt=zdnn_nbs_hl

FBI case highlights high-tech spying
By bugging a keyboard or using special software, FBI agents can remotely capture a computer user's every keystroke.With a black box, they can intercept e-mail from miles away. From a van parked outside a suspect's house, they can secretly re-create the pictures on a computer screen from its electromagnetic energy. The legal limits for these new investigative tools will get a test Monday when a federal court in New Jersey examines a mob case in which agents, without a wiretap order, recorded a suspect's computer keystrokes. Privacy experts are watching the case of Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr. with great interest because it could bring major changes to investigative tactics in the online age.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

School's out for virtual university
Harcourt Higher Education, which launched a much-ballyhooed online college in Massachusetts last year, is closing the school's virtual doors this fall without a single mortarboard tossed in the air. The decision to shut down the college was made after Reed Elsevier, a Dutch-Anglo publisher of textbooks and medical books, bought Harcourt General, then sold several of its subsidiaries, including Harcourt Higher Education, to Canada-based Thomson last autumn. The sale was completed July 13. "Thomson has decided that it will not continue to operate HHE as an independent degree-granting institution after September 28, 2001. The decision is in line with Thomson's strategic business plans," Robert V. Antonucci, the president and chief executive of Harcourt Higher Education, wrote in a letter to the Board of Higher Education on Friday.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Days of free Internet lunch ending in China
Free access for many of China's 20 million e-mail users is ending. Internet portals in China, desperate to turn their popularity into profits, are starting to charge for user services as online advertising revenue proves insufficient even to pay the bills. "If they don't start charging for the services they provide, I don't think any of them will survive in the long haul," said Jack Lin, chief investment officer of Internet conglomerate Chinadotcom. Chinadotcom, which operates a mainland portal, plans a host of fee-for-service initiatives -- including e-mail -- beginning in August, to help the company in its quest to break even. Up for review are Chinadotcom's 80MB free e-mail boxes. Microsoft's Hotmail offers only 2MB. Rival Sina.com plans fees on some services, including e-mail, "definitely" before year-end, a spokesman said.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Retail software sales grow
Retail sales of software inched past peak levels in the first half of 2001, fueled by demand for financial and security software for PCs, according to market researcher NPD Intelect. Although sales of PCs sold in stores and through catalogs have sunk compared with the same period last year, the continued flat or even slightly higher sales of software programs are bringing a sense of relief to retailers. "A lot of people were holding their breath because of all the dismal performance of hardware sector," NPD analyst Steve Koenig said. "It definitely is good news for retailers that demand for software remains steady compared with a year ago and even improved by a thin margin."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Tour de France training -- on the Net
What does it take to win the Tour de France? Skill, sweat and a little help from the Internet. The winner of the 1999 and 2000 Tour de France, 29-year-old American cyclist Lance Armstrong, and his coaching staff used the Web to help improve his chances of bringing home victory again in 2001. On Sunday, Armstrong crossed the finish line, claiming the yellow victor's jersey and his third victory in as many years. While training for the 22-day event, Armstrong and some members of the U.S. Postal Service Team used an Internet-based coaching tool that allows coaches to create training schedules for athletes on a secure Web page.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200...html?tag=cd_mh

More news later on