The Newspaper Shop -- Tuesday edition

[walktalker]

One more time

Win XP gets $1B marketing blitz
Microsoft said Tuesday that it, together with Intel, PC makers and retailers, will spend $1 billion promoting Windows XP, the software giant's upcoming operating system. Microsoft and Intel alone will spend $500 million to market Windows XP, which is slated for an Oct. 25 launch, with PC makers and retailers spending another $500 million. In May, Jim Allchin, Microsoft group vice president, said the company would spend "hundreds of millions of dollars" promoting Windows XP. Microsoft will spend a combined total of more than $700 million on marketing to launch Windows XP and the Xbox video game console this fall, according to estimates from the company and Merrill Lynch. Xbox is set to debut Nov. 8.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...chkpt=zdnn_tp_

Microsoft faces second patent claim
InterTrust on Tuesday said it has received a new patent that it will use against Microsoft in a closely watched intellectual property dispute that could affect the way consumers access music and other digital content. InterTrust, which makes digital rights management software designed to help copyright owners control distribution of their material, was awarded a new patent on a method of transferring digital content between computing devices. The company said it plans to add the patent claim to a suit it filed against Microsoft in April. In that suit, InterTrust claims Microsoft violated its patents by including anti-copying technology similar to InterTrust's in its software for storing and playing music and video files on a personal computer.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093296,00.html

Open-source maven joins Apple
Apple Computer has hired Jordan Hubbard, founder and leader of the effort behind the open-source FreeBSD version of Unix, to work on Apple's operating system, derived in part from FreeBSD. Hubbard, one of the co-founders of FreeBSD, launched in 1993, announced the news Monday on a FreeBSD mailing list, saying he'll shift his emphasis to Darwin, the open-source underpinnings of Apple's Mac OS X operating system. "The FreeBSD product line has reached the stage where I feel comfortable taking a job that allows me to focus more on Darwin," Hubbard said in the posting.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093293,00.html

EarthLink hikes Net access fees
Internet service provider EarthLink on Tuesday said it plans to raise monthly rates by $2 for its basic, unlimited Net service. The price increase to $21.95 from $19.95 will go into effect July 2 for all new subscribers and Aug. 1 for most of the company's existing customers. The move will affect approximately 3.1 million customers. With the price change, EarthLink follows the lead of Internet heavyweight America Online, which last month boosted its rates by 9 percent.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093264,00.html

Napster bags Euro labels for pay service
Napster on Tuesday signaled the end of free music swapping on its service, with the announcement that it has signed up the European independent music industry to its subscription-based service. At a press conference in London attended by Napster's creator, Shawn Fanning, Napster executives announced that music from independent labels would be included in the music-swapping company's new subscription plan, slated to go live later this summer. Earlier this month, Napster also announced a distribution deal with MusicNet, a separate subscription service launched by Warner Music Group, BMG Entertainment and EMI Recorded Music.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...093263,00.html

ISPs fight for more than DSL scraps
Independent Internet service providers are mounting a mini-revolt against SBC Communications, saying the phone giant is trying to cut them out of the future of the high-speed Internet business. Since last December, SBC has been working with the ISPs to renew their contracts for high-speed DSL lines. Typically, the service providers lease phone lines and the service so they can offer their own customers broadband connections. But the new terms offered by SBC are sparking waves of resentment, letters to regulators, and early mutterings about lawsuits.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Net auction fraud gets lawmakers' attention
Congress is starting to take a closer look at online auction fraud, and is asking some of the leading e-commerce sites how they cope with the problem. The chairman and one of the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday sent a letter to the chief executives of eBay, Yahoo and Amazon.com, asking them to address questions about the prevalence of fraud and specifically about shill bidding. Shill bidding, made infamous in the sale of a faked Richard Diebenkorn painting last year, involves sellers bidding on their own auctions anonymously to increase the closing price.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200...html?tag=mn_hd

How the Web Changes Recruiting
Internet recruiting is, of course, a two-edged sword. If it's much easier for you to hire experienced workers, it is also much easier for competitors to hire away your own people. Employees can forget the advice that they need to market themselves, to develop their own "brands" in order to advance their careers. If they are good at what they do, recruiters will find them. Many employers are out there ready to snap up your workers, and everything moves quickly in the on-line world. But companies can reverse the destabilizing effects of on-line recruitment.
http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu/p...0&t=innovation

The New Cybersquatting Law Also Stops "Typosquatting"
In the sometimes fuzzy intersection of new technology and the law, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) is that rare example of a statute that actually lives up to its promise. Enacted with great fanfare in November 1999, the law has proven to be an effective weapon against cybersquatters -- i.e., people who register trademarks of other companies as domain names and then try to ransom them back to the owners. More significantly, however, the ACPA is now being used against "typosquatters," or people who register variations of trademarked names to capitalize on the inevitable flow of misdirected Internet traffic.
http://www.ecompany.com/articles/web...,12501,00.html

Assimilating the Web
Like "Star Trek's" all-powerful Borg, AOL and Microsoft are determined to crush the spirit of online independence. Is resistance futile? We're reaping the worst of both worlds, networked chaos and monopolistic consolidation. The least common denominator of individual behavior multiplies, while the least common denominator of mass taste prevails. In other words, we're screwed.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...web/index.html

Revenge of the Laid-Off Techies
As layoffs at technology and manufacturing companies continue to climb, more and more disgruntled former employees are attempting to damage or break into their former employers' networks. "It has definitely been on the rise. We have had more referrals to and complaints from victim companies," says Andrew Black, a special agent in the office. The FBI can't reveal the exact number of such cases, and getting an accurate tally of these attacks is problematic.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...010626_024.htm

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