JOURNALISM
Bloomberg Sues Over Hoax Report (WP)
INTERNET
Microsoft Internet Music Format to Challenge IBM (WP)
Informix To Unveil Package For E-Commerce Sites (SJ Merc)
Who Rules The Web? Pamela Anderson Lee, The B-Movie Actress (WSJ)
Is A Web Political Poll Reliable? Yes? No? Maybe? (WSJ)
CONTENT
Media Companies Are Sued In Kentucky Shooting (NYT)
INFRASTRUCTURE
C&W To Invest $670 Mln To Develop U.S. Network (SJ Merc)
British Venture Takes On Microsoft in Wireless Data Market (NYT)
MERGERS
Sprint To Acquire People's Choice TV In Broadband Bid (WSJ)
Letter From Commissioner Furchtgott-Roth (FCC)
TELEVISION
CBS To Buy Stakes In Two Internet Sites, Pay $485 Million For
Dallas TV Affiliate (WSJ)
Seniors Should Know Their Rights as Cable Consumers (FCC)
SATELLITE
Intergovernmental Satellite Organizations on International
Anti-Bribery Requirements (NTIA)
ON THE HILL THIS WEEK
Congress Returns to a Flurry of Technology Legislation (NYT)
Low-Power Television Licensees (House)
Internet Access and the Consumer (Senate)
JOURNALISM
BLOOMBERG SUES OVER HOAX REPORT
Issue: Online Journalism
Bloomberg LP is going after the people who posted and promoted a bogus
report last week on the Internet that boosted the value of PairGain
Technologies' stock 31% before the hoax was exposed. Last Wednesday someone
copied the Bloomberg page design and created a false news story about
PairGain which appeared on Angelfire.com, a personal Web page site.
Bloomberg's lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court in Manhattan names the
five unidentified persons as John Does No. 1 through No. 5 and seeks to
learn their actual identities. Richard Klein, a Bloomberg lawyer, said,
"We've issued subpoenas to the companies that sponsor the Web site where
this phony story was posted and the discussion boards where messages were
posted referring readers to the counterfeit page." PairGain and Bloomberg
both asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the hoax
last week.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (Online), AUTHOR: Larry Neumeister (Associated Press)]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/april99/bloomberg12.htm)
INTERNET
AMAZON, EBAY ANNOUNCE ACQUISITIONS, ALLIANCES FOR ONLINE-AUCTION BUSINESSES
Issue: E-Commerce
Amazon.com and eBay have gotten caught up in a flurry of online-auction
acquisitions. Two weeks ago, Amazon announced that it has agreed to buy
LiveBid.com, a site that telecasts live auctions across the US. eBay has
also recently announced alliances with two shipping companies, Mail Boxes
Etc. and iShip.com, which should help users send goods to one another. These
latest deals illustrate the enormous potential of online-auction sites.
Online-auctions are, in fact, one of the few types of Internet-based
businesses that have posted profits from the very beginning.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (B6), AUTHOR: George Anders]
(http://wsj.com/)
MICROSOFT INTERNET MUSIC FORMAT TO CHALLENGE IBM
Issue: e-Commerce
Microsoft is trotting out rock stars and movie luminaries Tuesday night in
Los Angeles as it showcases its new product, MS Audio 4.0, software intended
to deliver pirate-proof music over the Internet. MS Audio will allow
Internet users to download music files for replay later and will guard
against piracy by making songs impossible to copy without authorization. MS
Audio, planned as a "plug in" to the Windows Media Player, will be an
alternative to the popular MP3 format. The announcement comes one day after
IBM and RealNetworks announced a joint plan to come up with their own
downloading format. In another Monday announcement, AT&T unveiled the second
version of its a2b music player, promising faster downloads and crisper
sound than MP3.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (Online), AUTHOR: Scott Hillis (Reuters)]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/april99/microsoft12.htm)
INFORMIX TO UNVEIL PACKAGE FOR E-COMMERCE SITES
Issue: Electronic Commerce
Informix Corp., the world No. 4 database software company, is expected to
announce today the availability of i.Sell, touting it as the only product
now available that has all the elements needed for a Web commerce site
combined in one package. For $600,000 a company will receive the Informix
database and the software necessary to design an e-commerce Web site. Set up
is anticipated to take about 13 weeks. Other database companies already are
offering some e-commerce products. Oracle says its Oracle 8i is Internet
friendly. IBM is pushing its DB2 database and has the world's largest
services organization to set up, run and maintain e-commerce sites for its
customers.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/067400.htm)
WHO RULES THE WEB? PAMELA ANDERSON LEE, THE B-MOVIE ACTRESS
Issue: Content/Internet
Former Bay Watch star Pamela Lee Anderson is to the Internet what Madonna was
for music video. Just as Madonna proved music videos could sell, Ms. Lee is
"hammering home the viability of the Web as engine of commercial importance,"
Weber reports. According to some calculations, there are more than 145,000 web
pages citing her and selling everything from X-rated videos to plumbing
supplies. Although she has lost legal control of her home-made honeymoon video,
she herself gets very little of the $77 million the ripple effect of the power
of her name and her image attract Web surfers. "You could say that the economy
of the search engine, on which Wall Street has staked billions of dollars is
sort of based on obsessive behavior," says Marita Surken, a professor of
popular culture at University of Southern California. Seth Warshavsky, the man
who acquired the rights to Ms. Lee's video after the legal battle, says the
root of her appeal and selling potential is clear: "She is as explicit and
graphic as you can get while still being considered mainstream." For some,
however, the story brings up copyright and privacy issues. Search engines, like
Alta Vista and Excite decide how to index Web pages, based on the "meta-tags"
that Web page authors provide. Many sites, having nothing to do with Ms. Lee
use her name as a "meta-tag" luring users. There are legal protections in
place, such as publicity laws that prevent others from using celebrity names to
sell a product without permission, but in practice this has been hard to
enforce. Some say that Lee carries a broader message about the Internet and
society: [the Lee story is] "a parable of how risqu