After Napster Deal, BMG Execs Depart
Music & MP3
11/6/2000; 11:10:01 AM

'Just days after German media giant Bertelsmann formed an alliance with Napster, BMG Entertainment's two top executives have announced that they're leaving....

'Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Middelhoff said the timing of the Napster deal and the BMG resignations was coincidental. However, Zelnick had been an outspoken critic of Napster as late as July, when at a conference in Los Angeles, he compared Napster users to thieves.'

Read more…

Spam Analogy
Humor/Amusing
11/5/2000; 8:11:32 PM User Friendly cartoon.

VoteAuction.com Deregistered From DNS Servers Political Speech11/4/2000; 6:36:29 PM VoteAuction.com has been de-registered from DNS servers; that link should not work. To visit the site, you can use the IP address: http://62.116.31.68/index00.htm (this bypasses a splash-screen). Of particular interest is their legal documents section.From what I can gather from the web-law list at egroups.com, which one of the "makers" of voteauction.com mailed (his word, not mine), a Missouri Attorney-General or court ordered, via e-mail, a Switzerland "meta-registry" (corenic.org) to de-register the domain. (CORE is also apparently a defendent in the civil action in Missouri.) A Missouri restraining order taking effect on a Swiss entity. Isn't the Internet fun?According to the source on the list, voteauction.com is threatening to sue CORE if they don't re-instate the entry. Wierd stuff, man.The message is here but you have to be a member to read it.

LinkBack Back Up (I Hope)
LinkBack
11/2/2000; 5:53:49 PM

LinkBack is functional again, after the computer has undergone extensive repairs. One 'returning' user, after dropping his class site, is Duncan's Jotter. We also have a new user, YooZoo. Thanks for (re-)joining. Also, array has changed to dangerousmeta.

Let's hope it'll stay up a while this time.

Can Napster Secure SDMI?
Music & MP3
11/2/2000; 2:52:38 PM 'The new file-trading service that Napster and Bertelsmann are developing will need digital-rights-management technology and could be the key to resuscitating the recording industry's initiative.

'Napster's yet-to-be-developed service might be just the place for the largely theoretical Secure Digital Music Initiative to get its test run.'

This is a great example of even a "with-it" news organization failing to take advantage of the strength of the web. These two paragraphs are the entire article. The rest of the standard-length one-page Wired Online article is nothing but a re-cap of the Napster agreement and the SDMI initiative, including a lengthy explanation of the Hack SDMI contest.

Read more…

Web Enters Privacy 'Safe Harbor'
Privacy from Companies
11/2/2000; 2:48:14 PM 'A kind of data-privacy wall has popped up on the Web, and like the world's better-known walls, it is geographical in nature.

'Safe Harbor, an international privacy agreement approved earlier this year, took effect Wednesday and marked the line between acceptable privacy practices in Europe and the United States.

'The program, the result of an agreement between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission, governs the transatlantic flow of data -- both online and off. The agreement set up a framework for certifying companies collecting data under privacy protection standards that satisfy the stricter standards of the European directive.'

Read more…