Faulkner's Cyberscape Digest 11/17/00 (fwd)

[Missy Harvey]

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Date: Friday, November 17, 2000, 2:17 PM -0500
From: Faulkner Information Services <mails...@faulknerinfo.com>
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Subject: Faulkner's Cyberscape Digest 11/17/00

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CyberScape Digest

CyberScape Digest is a weekly roundup of top internet stories.
This issue covers events from Monday 11/13/00 through Friday 11/17/00.

ICANN Meets to Decide on New Top-Level Domain Names
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers held a meeting this
week to decide which of the 44 proposed top-level domain names will join
.com, .net, and .org. In a report released before the meeting, staffers of
the non-profit organization gave the nod to only 17 of the proposals,
recommending against such restricted domains as .kids for child-friendly
content or .xxx for pornographic content. Because of the difficulty in
policing such sites and the controversy surrounding them, the report
recommended sticking with more generic domains. The proposals included one
from the World Health Organization. The WHO wanted to reserve .health for
health information online, and promised to review and authorize content on
Web sites wishing to use that domain. In the event, an "extremely
disappointed" WHO joined the list of organizations whose proposals ICANN
rejected. The elite seven to receive the go-ahead late Thursday included
JVTeam (.biz), Afilias (.info), RegistryPro (.pro), Museum Domain
Management Association (.museum), Societe Internationale de
Telecommunications Aeronautiques (.aero), National Cooperative Business
Association (.coop), and Global Name Registry (.name). These lucky few must
now negotiate their contracts with ICANN. For those planning to rush out
and take advantage of the new TLDs as soon as possible, only .biz and .info
can be used without restrictions--in direct competition to the old .com
TLD.

Cold Climate Encourages Courting Companies
While your humble editor prefers spring and summer nuptials, some Internet
companies seem to enjoy getting married during a somewhat chillier time of
year (and anyone examining the venture capital and stock markets lately
knows this describes more than just the weather right now). Touted by some
as the queer version of the AOL-Time Warner merger, PlanetOut and Gay.com
tied the knot this week, changing its name to PlanetOut Partners. The two
companies, which cater to a mostly lesbian and gay audience, receive 3.5
million unique visitors each month and claim more than 1.6 million
registered users. In another case of like attracting like, ICG Commerce
agreed to merge with ePValue, owned by Andersen Consulting. Both firms are
involved with online procurement; they will retain the ICG Commerce name
when the deal closes in less than two months. The combined company will
handle more than $10 billion in purchases, and count Sun Microsystems and
Sara Lee as equity stake holders. As a result of court action, Scour closed
down its free file-sharing service and wound up in bankruptcy court--but
this story might yet have a "happy" ending. Listen.com reportedly offered
$5 million for Scour's assets, and CenterSpan revealed plans to submit a
bid for the company. Sometimes a company's assets end up worth more than
its business, after all. Merisel completed its $2.4 million purchase of
Value America--but not to get into the online retailing business. Rather,
Merisel wanted the company's front-end Web-based customer interface, which
complements its own back-end logistics offering.

America Online, Time Warner May Miss Deadline
Old and new media giants Time Warner and America Online may miss their
December 21 self-imposed deadline for completing their merger. The Federal
Trade Commission delayed its vote on the merger until November 30, and is
now insisting that the two companies sign an agreement with a rival ISP
granting it access to Time Warner's cable network before the FTC will allow
the merger to proceed. Business proceeded as usual for AOL, however. It
made deals with home furnishings retailer Restoration Hardware and footwear
maker and seller Skechers which gave the two companies featured online
spots on AOL's service. The ISP also launched a luxury shopping area, and
signed up Saks among other merchants for spaces in the new zone. Time
Warner's InStyle.com will offer content for the new area.

And the Dealmaking Continues...
Number two ISP EarthLink cut a deal with Hughes Network Systems that will
allow it to offer two-way, high-speed satellite broadband services to its
customers. The satellite service, dubbed "Powered by DirecPC," will be able
to grant high-speed Internet access to EarthLink members nationwide
regardless of where they live. Speaking of high-speed Internet access,
broadband provider Excite@Home entered into a joint venture with MTVi Group
to go live with Excite Music, a news and entertainment site for music
lovers. Does the Internet really need yet another place to make purchases?
iVenus.com and Bid.com think so. The women's Web site and online auctioneer
joined forces to create an online shopping channel and Internet auction,
accessible from iVenus' site. Web surfers familiar with making purchases at
online auctions probably recognize PayPal, an online payment company whose
services are popular with eBay users. PayPal inked a partnership with ING,
a Dutch financial services group, to expand the use of e-mail payments into
Europe. The companies are also looking at offering a payment service usable
from mobile phones. Those interested in e-commerce security should pay
attention to the two-year agreement signed by Visa USA and the Better
Business Bureau. The two groups have partnered to increase confidence in
the security of online shopping. They will start with an education campaign
to teach Web surfers safe online shopping practices, and will create
mechanisms to handle purchase disputes. On the other side of the
transaction, they will also work with online merchants to ensure usage of
software and techniques to keep credit card numbers safe and private.
Finally, 17 firms involved in online real estate created a consortium to
build data exchange standards for home buying and selling. The standards
will address how real estate agents do business online, the control buyers
and sellers will have over transactions, and the presentation of online
information in a way that will allow different online management programs
to exchange data. iProperty spearheaded the move--and Homestore.com was
conspicuous by its absence. The online real estate services company claims
it wasn't invited to join the alliance.

Microsoft Network Disappears into Black Hole...Sort Of
Militant anti-spam group Mail Abuse Prevention System received complaints
that the Microsoft Network is letting spammers send unsolicited bulk e-mail
through its servers. So it did what it always does in such cases: performed
tests to see if it was really possible to relay spam through the servers,
then added the six offending MSN servers to its Relay Spam Stopper data
base. The list is used by many ISPs to reduce the amount of spam flowing
through their networks. Thousands of legitimate e-mails may be disrupted as
a result. Ironically, MSN's Hotmail service subscribes to another list put
out by MAPS, the Realtime Black Hole List of ISPs known to harbor spammers.

Diverse Privacy and Security Issues Grab Headlines
Remember Carnivore? As Internet savvy and privacy minded users no doubt
recall, the Electronic Privacy Information Center successfully sued the FBI
under the Freedom of Information Act for documents concerning this e-mail
collecting system. The FBI agreed to release the documents a batch at a
time. The latest batch confirmed some of EPIC's fears. Despite FBI's
statements to the contrary, the paperwork shows that Carnivore can collect
and store "unfiltered" Internet traffic. Such a capability would seem
incompatible with Carnivore's stated purpose: to collect information sent
and received by suspects under investigation. Internationally, a cybercrime
treaty now in its 22nd draft and posted to the Internet for comments will
be redrafted yet again after the drafting body received hundreds of e-mail
messages protesting sections that could chill the Internet's historically
free flow of ideas. The Council of Europe has been working on the treaty
for three and a half years, and was scheduled to release a final draft this
month. They were surprised at the vehemence of the e-mails, which were sent
by a diversity of Internet users, civil liberties activists, and
anti-censorship groups. Issues raised included passages making hacking a
crime, which would outlaw "cracking" programs used by many technicians to
test the security of their own systems; a section obligating ISPs to store
data, which would violate users' privacy; and a provision requiring access
to encryption keys, which would, among other things, violate the US
Constitution's Fifth Amendment against forcing self-incrimination. A
spokesperson for the Council of Europe emphasized that "That was never our
intention" and that new language clarifying these matters was being added.
Businesses are not immune to online privacy and security problems of their
own, as 700 mortgage loan applicants, 27 mortgage loan companies, and
Contour Software discovered. The mortgage loan companies used Contour's
software to process mortgage applications electronically. A spokesperson
for Contour said that an angry former employee turned off settings for a
computer directory, exposing the applications--which included such
information as applicants' Social Security numbers--on the Internet. The
problem was fixed by late Wednesday afternoon, but Contour is not sure how
long the information was exposed. Finally, Netegrity began working on
Security Services Market Language, an XML-based standard to secure
e-commerce transactions. Bowstreet, Commerce One, Jamcracker, Sun,
VeriSign, webMethods, and PricewaterhouseCoopers have all had a hand in
S2ML, which will go to the World Wide Web Consortium by mid-December for
examination.

PSINet Overextended, Might Sell Itself
Oh how the mighty have fallen. PSINet, which proudly refers to itself as
"the Supercarrier" and went through a period of buying seemingly every ISP
in sight, enlisted Goldman Sachs to help it out of financial difficulties.
The situation sounds more serious that simply needing capital; with the
ISP's stock falling 95 percent this year, and a loss this quarter of $1.4
billion--a whopping $7.34 a share--PSINet needs to find an ally or a buyer,
otherwise it might have to file for bankruptcy. The ISP fingered its $1.9
billion purchase of Metamor Worldwide for its financial problems. The Web
services company was supposed to help PSINet branch out from simply
providing Internet connections by offering more services for its business
customers. Alas, Metamor failed to contribute any revenue to PSINet's
bottom line.

New and Noteworthy Products and Services
This week's biggest product release news, for many people, is that the
Netscape 6 browser is finally available. Powered by the Netscape Gecko
engine, the open-source-based software is designed to run on a wide range
of platforms. The browser offers many more options for customization and
personalization than previous releases, and can be downloaded for free from
Netscape's Web site. Fans of the Eudora e-mail program may be pleased to
hear that QUALCOMM teamed up with HearMe to enable some users of Eudora 4.3
and 5.0 to hold PC-to-PC live voice conversations with other e-mail users.
The VoiceContact feature accesses a cobranded Eudora Web page which is used
to complete the connection. Those trying to find gifts for that gadget
freak who's also a voracious reader can take heart: Amazon opened an
electronic book store. The store supports the Microsoft Reader format, and
many of its titles are not available anywhere else (including several Star
Trek novels released by Pocket Books). More than 30 of the titles are free.
If that wired friend is a music lover, perhaps a subscription to MP3.com's
new fee-based service will be a well-received gift. The service will still
be called MyMP3.com, as it was before the copyright infringement lawsuits.
The details, including pricing, are expected to be worked out by the time
MP3.com relaunches later this month. Sadly, it won't be possible to give an
I-opener Web access device as a gift; Netpliance chose to stop selling it.
The company is restructuring itself in the wake of truly awful third
quarter financial results. The company will continue to support the device,
however. Web surfers annoyed at the recent approval of a $0.01 increase in
first-class stamps--right around the time that first class mail increases
dramatically, thanks to holiday cards--can take heart from Stamps.com. The
online stamp supplier received approval from the Postal Commission to
create a separate, lower rate for first-class mail sent using Internet
postage. The US Postal Service must still approve the rate reduction, which
Stamps.com expects would be about $0.04 less than the traditional first
class rate.

We Wish You a Merry Virus...
"Feliz navidad" is "Merry Christmas" in Spanish, but a virus named
"Navidad" infected at least 10 large companies. The virus infects Windows
computers, arriving as an attachment to a reply from an infected computer.
When the attachment, Navidad.exe, is opened, it displays in Spanish the
message "Never press this button." Users who press the button then see the
message "Feliz Navidad. Unfortunately you have given in to temptation and
will lose your computer." The virus then causes the computer to lock up,
but otherwise does not damage the system. Antivirus companies, such as
McAfee, have already created software to combat the virus. Potentially much
more dangerous is Hybris, a sophisticated worm that uses encrypted plug-ins
to change features, can disguise itself in an e-mail written in one of four
languages, and uses newsgroups to communicate with others of its kind. The
virus appears as an attachment to an e-mail; the sender will appear to be
"Hahaha." If the attachment is opened, Hybris stores a copy of itself in
the Windows systems directory and then lies in wait for e-mail messages to
other computers; it can then use that information to infect another
computer. But it's the worm's plug-ins that cause concern. Antivirus
company Kaspersky Labs identified at least five plug-ins which the worm can
download that will allow it to do various amounts of damage, encrypt itself
to avoid detection, and find and infect already-compromised machines. It is
impossible to tell from a worm's level of sophistication how serious a
threat it poses, however--it could spread like wildfire, or it could
fizzle. Kaspersky offers an upgrade that protects against Hybris.

Internet Businesses Bleed Red Ink...
A year or so ago, observers of online companies found it difficult to keep
up with the number of firms going public; these days, it's difficult to
keep up with the number of firms going out of business. Cosmetics retailer
Beautyjungle.com closed its virtual doors, unable to raise enough funds to
help its business grow profitable. Speaking of growing businesses,
Garden.com began its final, fatal pruning, revealing plans to sell all its
assets, including its remaining inventory and URL. Teen payment service
ICanBuy.com couldn't buy itself extra survival time with a three year plan
to turn a profit. It laid off 35 workers and will refund money and gift
certificates already deposited in accounts with the company. Even CMGI felt
the heat; it will shut down its online entertainment unit iCast and
Internet access unit 1stUp, taking charges of up to $90 million in the
process. The company may suffer less pain if it finds a buyer for the
units, which employ a total of 310 people. ICG Communications, a seller of
telephone and Internet connections, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In
addition to the usual problems with lack of profits, its woes include
service complaints, trouble with management, and investor lawsuits. Online
grocer ShopLink.com closed its doors. On its Web site, CEO John Icke
apologized to customers and explained that "General financial market
conditions have not been favorable to business-to-consumer e-commerce
companies...We had no choice but to close the business." It's not going out
of business alone; Streamline.com is also closing down its online grocery
business, abandoning customers in Boston and New Jersey. It promised an
orderly shut down, however; it will continue to serve its customers through
November 22, and pay its employees through January 13. Hoping to avoid the
brouhaha that surrounded Toysmart.com's closure, Streamline will destroy
its customer files.

...And Workers
Any academic or casual researcher capable of seeing writing on the wall
surely screamed at the news that Britannica.com, Encyclopedia Britannica's
online unit, laid off 75 workers, or about 16 percent of its staff. The
layoffs follow the resignations of Jim Hurley, chief financial officer, and
Bob McHenry, editor at large. Britannica.com hopes the layoffs will allow
it to achieve profitability sooner. The company's 232-year-old parent will
not be affected by the turmoil. Discovery Communications, owner of cable TV
channels, 160 retail stores, and Discovery.com, laid off 80 out of 200
full-time employees and about 150 contract workers, all of whom handled
running the Web site. As a result of Discovery Communication's choice to
focus more on its TV business, the Web site will undergo a redesign to give
more attention to Discovery's channels, offer more topics likely to make
money for the company, and reduce the number of new, original stories it
features. Online invitation company Evite laid off 42 of its 69 employees,
hoping to attract a buyer. The layoffs rid the company of its marketing and
business development departments; no executives were affected. At least the
pink-slipped employees received severance packages; many online companies
dispense with such formalities. But what's happening with the Hispanic
community on the Internet, which is supposed to be growing by leaps and
bounds? Online community Quepasa.com asks that question--and answered it by
laying off 38 out of 58 employees--more than 66 percent. It will take a
restructuring charge of $730,000 in connection with the layoffs, which were
instigated to conserve cash. Quepasa says it will continue to run its Web
site. Internet consulting firm MarchFirst hopes to revive its stock price
and save about $100 million a year by cutting 10 percent of its work
force--about 1000 employees. Political Web site Voter.com laid off 10
percent of its staff in preparation for a corporate restructuring. Seeking
to become more than a place to turn to for political news, Voter.com wants
to help other groups create a political presence online. And this just in:
TheStreet.com, a provider of financial information online, plans to cut 111
jobs and close the doors of its UK operation. Facing the same pressures to
show a fast path to profitability as any dot.com in the present business
climate, TheStreet said its actions would stop the flow of red ink to the
tune of $18 million a year.

Outage Ticker: Sprint, Qwest
Sprint experienced outages in a number of its New York routers last
weekend, culminating in an outage at 1:30 PM EST on Sunday in its sl-gw2
router, which the company began repairing at 4:30 AM EST on Monday. Sprint
had to replace the RSP4 and VIP 2/50, and the port in the VIP. New York
came in for another hit on Tuesday, as Sprint's sl-gw20 router went down at
11:15 PM that evening. A card transfer repaired the problem. Though
normally expected in the spring, "out-of-season" fiber cuts do occur--like
the one that happened at 10:20 AM EST on Wednesday. Reported by QWEST and
affecting Tradescape's service in--where else?--New York City, a time frame
for repairs was unavailable at press time.

Cyberscape Delight: The Important Stuff--Life, Death, Humor...and Shopping
Modern technology earned its hype this week when it helped a surgeon save
the life of one of his patients from 200 miles away. According to a story
in the Irish Times, Dr. Ahmed Samy was traveling back from a conference by
train when he received a call on his mobile phone informing him that one of
his patients, seriously ill in a hospital, needed new surgery. The
attending junior doctors hesitated to go ahead until Dr. Samy could look at
the X-rays. Very shortly, the X-rays were e-mailed to the doctor's laptop
via his cell phone. He made the diagnosis and advised the attending
doctors. The operation succeeded and the patient recovered. Speaking of
matters of life and death, people who have some time to kill might enjoy
checking out the Dead People Server, a Web site listing more than 2000
celebrities who are "long dead, newly dead, or might plausibly be dead."
Here you can learn, for example, that Jimmie Walker from TV's Good Times is
still alive and hosting a talk show, but Alan Napier, the butler from the
old Batman TV series, is dead. Important hint: do not visit this Web site
while trying to meet a deadline...Speaking of deadlines, today is the day
when all of Florida's absentee ballots for the US presidential should be
in, which means it is conceivable (though unlikely, given recent court
challenges) that we will have a president-elect by the time this newsletter
hits the ether. But if not, one supposes the presidency could be put up for
sale on eBay...oh, wait, that's already been done. The presidency was put
up for bid at 9:50 AM PST on Monday, for one penny; bidding reached $100
million by 2:00 PM EST that same day, at which time eBay pulled the
auction. Finally, and proverbially just in time for the holiday shopping
season, WebBuyingGuide.com launched its Web site. The online shopping
portal does not sell anything itself, but offers guidance to those
interested in shopping online--everything from how to do it safely
(including scams to watch out for) to the best places to go for particular
categories of items. Users can even find coupons and keep updated on new
shopping sites.

*** Terri Wells, Faulkner Information Services ***

CyberScape Digest, Copyright 2000, Faulkner Information Services. All
rights reserved.

Should you have any questions, concerns or problems with your flash, please
contact us at: mailto:fl...@faulkner.com

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