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The Postal Service Wants .us - The US Postal Service wants a piece of the online pie and outlines its plans at a Commerce Department hearing. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
The Wired News Week - "Melissa" exposed as a man from New Jersey ... Credit card fraud plagues online business ... Yahoo gobbles Broadcast.com ... Serbian police shut down radio station B92 ... and other news and goings-on. Compiled by Pete Danko. [Wired News]
Lotus Positioning a Browser Presence? - Observers are atwitter about a possible foray into the market. [Wired News]
Wired News - Daily technology, political, cultural, and business stories.
No Credit Where It's Due - Vice President Gore tells a reporter the Internet was his idea. Nice try, Al. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Few Dips for Chips - Semiconductor industry analysts predict solid first-quarter earnings. Never mind the slump in personal computer sales. [Wired News]
CMP Closing NetGuide Magazine - Company execs thought that in NetGuide they had a name that couldn't be beat. They were wrong. [Wired News]
Animation Tutorial: Lesson 4 - This introduction to Macromedia's Flash is no Mickey Mouse. Whether you're an old hand at animating or your dexterity stops at stick figures, this intro will have you drawing online in no time. From Webmonkey. [Wired News]
Microsoft Blames the Messenger - A lawyer leaks an internal memo about the software company's antitrust trial. It's probably not an accident. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Salon Is Salon.com, at Last - The Left Coast purveyor of news and commentary buys the URL it's always wanted, and prepares a redesign and nationwide advertising blitz. Also: Yahoo uses Online Anywhere.... Speedy AMD chip challenges Pentium.... And GTE scoops up 20 Ameritech wireless properties. [Wired News]
Education Dream Job: Teach in the Community - For seven years, The Buddy System has been helping the San Francisco Bay Area get educated. [Wired News]
Animation Tutorial: Lesson 2 - Emily and Anna pull out all the stops on the five-star tour of GIF89. From Webmonkey. [Wired News]
US: Worry About the Y2K Nuts - The US government doesn't fear a collapse of society because of Y2K computer problems. Policymakers say the greater danger is overreaction. [Wired News]
Staking iTurf on Wall Street - The online purveyor of T-shirts and bikinis for Generation Y figures to be all the rage on Wall Street when it goes public this week. [Wired News]
NBC Takes Tip from Microsoft, Expands Online - The move shows how new-media and old-media enterprises are uniting to leverage their respective strengths. It also provides Sidewalk with an opportunity to use the familiar NBC brand to reach a whole new audience. [Wired News]
Animation Tutorial: Lesson 3 - Quirky as it is, dHTML's high jinks can be a boon to animators. Anna tells us how to get dynamic. From Webmonkey. [Wired News]
Compromise Near on Y2K Lawsuits - Senate Republicans say they're willing to take a second look at legislation limiting Y2K lawsuits. It's good news for Democrats and consumers, bad news for the nation's software industry. [Wired News]
Amazon, Wal-Mart Settle - The two retailing giants agree to stop throwing punches over defecting employees. No damages were paid to Wal-Mart, but some Amazon employees will find themselves with brand new job titles. By Jennifer Sullivan. [Wired News]
Microsoft Again in the Cross Hairs - The Department of Justice is looking into Microsoft's multiple investments in the streaming-media business, and may be probing as well into the software giant's recent deal with Apple. [Wired News]
Freelancing in the Web World - So you think you've got the cojones to be a freelancer, eh? Then join Evany as she gives you some pointers on this wild and woolly career move. From Webmonkey. [Wired News]
UK May Loosen Crypto Rules - A new UK government electronic commerce roadmap relaxes a once hard-line stance on scrambled communications. So why that secret meeting? Wendy Grossman reports from London. [Wired News]
Amazon's Auction a Bust So Far - Amazon.com shows book shoppers related items for sale in the site's new auction section. But "related" is clearly a subjective term. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Reuters Dumped from Trading Service - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange will switch from Reuters' to a French company's systems and technology in the Globex online trading system. [Wired News]
Overcoming Yuk - It may be unnatural, but encouraging genetic choice in humans is not bad. (It's also inevitable.) [Wired News]
Israeli Court Freezes Sex Domain - An Israeli man with high hopes for striking it rich on the Net takes his domain-name dispute to the nation's highest court. Tania Hershman reports from Jerusalem. [Wired News]
Stocks Soar on Jobs Data - Signs that the US economy isn't overheating reinforce investors' belief that the Fed won't fiddle with interest rates any time soon. The market flirts with record territory. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
AOL Gears Up for Another Ad Blitz - A few short months after an aggressive ad campaign clogged AOL's lines with new users, the company is trying to expand its customer base again. [Wired News]
Creating One Huge Computer - In an interview with Wired magazine, Sun Microsystems visionary Bill Joy gives the first in-depth glimpse of Jini, the Java-based distributed-computing technology that aims to give all computers everywhere the ability to interact. By Kevin Kelly and Spencer Reiss. [Wired News]
A Baby Step for Encryption - A congressional panel approves a measure to ease export restrictions on encrypted software. But the bill has a bumpy legislative road ahead. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Jobs Data Send Stocks Flying - Signs that the Fed won't fiddle with interest rates any time soon propel share prices through the roof. The Dow tops 10K again and the Nasdaq climbs to a record high. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Sysadmin Dream Job: Seattle Art Museum - The Seattle Art Museum wants to start networking, but needs a computing staff. [Wired News]
Animation Tutorial: Lesson 5 - This lesson in animation and design theory draws the base line, then invites you to break all the rules of the game. From Webmonkey.com. [Wired News]
Mitnick Trial: Full Speed Ahead - The judge in the case against accused cracker Kevin Mitnick throws out defense motions that would have give him some breathing room. Douglas Thomas reports from Los Angeles. [Wired News]
Tech Firms Invade Fortune 500 - Smokestack companies like General Motors and General Electric still dominate the Fortune 500 list -- but not for much longer, Fortune says. [Wired News]
Design Dream Job: Cyber Salutations - San Francisco start-up Greet Street provides greeting cards and, soon, "E-greetings" over the Web. [Wired News]
Hey -- That's Private - Users want privacy and the bennies of personalized sites. Collaborative filtering coupled with a technology-based privacy standard may be the answer to protecting user data. From Webmonkey.com. [Wired News]
Net Journalists Outwit Censors - Despite old-fashioned attempts to muzzle journalists, the Internet offers new ways of publishing the news. Journalists around the world use the Net to take control of information. Alan Docherty reports from London. [Wired News]
New Record for Online Trading - Online brokerages stocks surge on news of the historic first quarter. A new report says one in seven trades takes place on the Net. [Wired News]
Microsoft and Intuit in E-Bank Detente - The rivals agree on "Open Financial Exchange," a common standard for online banking and financial transactions. [Wired News]
Power to the People - Taylor urges his fellow, frustrated Web developers to get involved in the standards process. From Webmonkey.com. [Wired News]
AOL Fraud Touches West Virginia - With the help of his AOL account, a fast-food restaurant manager allegedly committed credit-card fraud against residents of his small town. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Better Times for MS Temps? - Microsoft increases the number of temp agencies that supply its temporary labor force. The competition may mean better benefits, the company says. Or not, say labor organizers. Chris Stamper reports from Seattle. [Wired News]
RealNetworks' Stock Opens with Bang - The leading streaming media firm sees its brand-new issue rise 60 percent in the first hours of trading. [Wired News]
Opera 3.0 - Browser to Beat the Band - There are things that upstart browser Opera 3.0 can't do, but it whoops the Big Two browsers in speed. [Wired News]
Jerry Brown's Oakland.net - The former California governor is Oakland's new mayor. His challenge is to revive a major city that sits smack in the middle of high-tech America. So what's the plan? Christopher Jones reports from Oakland, California. [Wired News]
MCI WorldCom, Nextel in Talks - Will MCI WorldCom make the wireless plunge? Sources say a deal is far from certain. Also: Malone invests billions in Murdoch's News Corp.... DVD still stomping Divx.... Boeing's Delta 3 on hold.... The red phone booth lives.... And Intel price cuts are on the way. [Wired News]
Average Salaries Soar for US Engineers - A survey sets the annual average at US$72,000, the highest amount in 25 years. Engineers have the Internet to thank. [Wired News]
Browser Standards Beat On - As the Document Object Model moves toward standardization, Microsoft and Netscape waver on uniform support. Forces at play: hubris, competition, and the Microsoft factor. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Journalist Admits Eavesdropping - A freelance writer who taped phone conversations of celebrity couple Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise pleads guilty to a wiretapping charge. [Wired News]
Red Hat Linux on Dell PCs - Dell buys a stake in Red Hat, agrees to install Linux on some of its PCs, and sells a bunch of Linux boxes to a big corporate customer. Is this the beginning of the end for Windows? [Wired News]
TCI Names Leo Hindery as President - The appointment is a small step by TCI toward winning back the confidence of investors. [Wired News]
Contrarian Browsers - Everyone agrees that browsers should be standards compliant. But that's easier said than done, and it often comes at the price of innovation. From Webmonkey. [Wired News]
Hillary Online: Socks, Not Sex - The first lady tells all -- about the White House pets -- in an AOL chat session. Will Buddy stand beside her in a US Senate campaign? [Wired News]
Stocks Stage Cautious Rally - Wall Street creeps higher after a mixed showing for much of the session. Investors shrug off concerns about high valuations and the situation in Yugoslavia. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Java Dream Job: Direct the Engineers - WebLogic produces products from drivers to server software that provide Java database connectivity. [Wired News]
The Trouble with P3P - The budding privacy protocol aims to negotiate the exchange of personal data between Web sites and consumers. But the biggest hurdle to its success may not be technical. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Execs: Regulations Won't Help - Businesses and creative professionals in England agree that governments should keep their paws off the Net. Alan Docherty reports from Exeter, England. [Wired News]
The Microsoft of Mobile Radio - A group of radio dispatch companies says it wants the US government to keep Nextel Communications, the industry's biggest player, from monopolizing the market. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
EarthLink 'Made Mistake' on Cash Crisis Claim - The ISP admits it goofed when it reported to regulators that it didn't have enough cash to meet expenses. The company now says it has plenty of money. [Wired News]
Should Feds Trust Windows NT? - With potentially more than three million licenses at stake, Microsoft is keen to push its Windows NT operating system to government desktops even, alleges one security expert, at the expense of national security. [Wired News]
Chemical Plants Face Y2K Threat - A new report warns that chemical plants face "significant" risk of Y2K related failures. Worse, local governments seem to be oblivious to the problem. [Wired News]
Rally Sputters, Stocks Mixed - Wall Street cools its heels following Monday's run into the record books. Investors decide to pocket some cash, and cast a wary eye toward Yugoslavia. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Online Services Settle with FTC - AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy agree to better inform their customers that all those free trial offers turn into real debits. The Microsoft Network, while not part of the probe, had better watch it, too. [Wired News]
Wireless Net Thinks, Acts Locally - While Iridium and other satellite-based networks aim to blanket the globe with their services, Celsat is arguing the virtues of a regionalized approach. Whether the FCC sees its point is another matter. [Wired News]
Military Vexed by Vaccine Scare - The Pentagon takes issue with Internet discussions warning that the military's mandatory anthrax inoculation is dangerous. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Star Wars: The Rules - Theaters screening Phantom will have to follow multiple conditions on exactly how and where it will run. Also Hewlett-Packard in US$100 million e-commerce deal, and Boeing's Delta 3 can't get off the ground (again). [Wired News]
NYC Dream Job: Multimedia Meets Music - As Atlantic Records hits its 50th anniversary, the compact multimedia division is hiring a designer. [Wired News]
One Big Beta - Broadcasters venturing into DTV territory this fall are walking a very thin line. Folks in TV land won't be impressed unless the show goes on -- and stays on. By Kristi Coale. [Wired News]
Forbes Trumpets GOP Run Online - The magazine publisher puts up a press release on his Web site and calls it a first. [Wired News]
At Home in Japan - The cable Internet company continues its overseas expansion, joining with Japanese corporations to provide high-speed access to the island nation. [Wired News]
Animator Dream Job: Work for Wild Brain - This 2-year-old animation studio's projects run from Seuss to Spawn, and more animators are needed. [Wired News]
Back? The Amiga Never Left - It was a platform to beat all platforms, yet the other platforms won. But the Amiga computer survives today, thanks to a cadre of devoted followers. And if Gateway can do what other companies couldn't, Amiga could be back to stay. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
UK's Royal Mail Does E-Commerce - The centuries-old institution introduces a secure document technology service aimed at the business sector. British consumers will likely be next in line. By Wendy Grossman. [Wired News]
Big Guns Unite To Unify Unix - Compaq joins the Monterey alliance, an effort by a dozen companies, including IBM, to solidify the scattered Unix software market. [Wired News]
Demon Puts 49 Percent Share on the Block - Britain's oldest dialup ISP is seeking a partner to help it survive a changing market and growing competition. [Wired News]
Day 1: The Foundations of Web Design - Jeffrey Veen's Web design manifesto begins with a look at the place where art and technology collide. [Wired News]
The Web Privacy Seal, Take 2 - The Better Business Bureau begins stamping its own "seal of approval" on Web sites. Like Truste, the bureau hopes it can calm privacy-nervous consumers. By Chris Oakes and James Glave. [Wired News]
Bulk Buying Comes to the Web - The more people who want something, the higher the price, right? Maybe not. A new Web shop called Accompany flips the supply-demand equation on its head. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Developers Straying from the MS Way? - Microsoft-watchers say despite its public embrace of the Internet, the company is still shackled to a piece of old thinking: Windows must be Number One. [Wired News]
No More GIF Text! - You can now embed fonts right into your Web pages to make your site good lookin', searchable, and structurally beautiful. [Wired News]
Lost in Space and Red Tape - NASA should lead, follow, or get out of the way of private space exploration. That's the consensus at a conference on the future of space. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Sag, Net Shines - Wall Street is mixed as investors steer clear of leading tech shares. But a heavyweight online music alliance, and a stratospheric IPO, add gloss to the Internet sector. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
ISPs' Complaints Force Tweak of Speed Study - Boardwatch magazine and Keynote Systems will allow ISPs to choose which servers are measured. [Wired News]
Animation Tutorial: Introduction - Animating season is now open. Begin with this introduction to get an overview, read profiles of the main technologies, and find out what to expect from this seven-lesson tutorial. From Webmonkey. [Wired News]
FTC, Intel Bury the Hatchet - In its settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Intel agrees to share technical information fairly -- even with those companies that it is fighting in court. By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
Pop Music Retail Titan is Born - The selection of CDs on the Web just got bigger. Two of the world's largest record labels are getting together to operate a new music store, offering hits from Elton John to Puff Daddy. [Wired News]
IDG, Ziff-Davis Merge Mac Mags - Dwindling circulation and ad sales force Macworld and MacWEEK into a joint venture, while MacUser dies. [Wired News]
Feeding Frenzy Over Netscape Code - While Microsoft shrugged and touted its own browser components, developers looked under the hood of Netscape's newly released browser code. [Wired News]
Whose Right to Know? - US and European Union negotiators struggle to resolve fundamental consumer privacy differences. What does it mean for data in the digital age? [Wired News]
Dow Soars, Techs Struggle - Blue-chip stocks zoom back into five digits, and Net shares are boosted by a heavyweight online music alliance and a stratospheric IPO. Techs can't keep up. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Scans: Gold Digging in Deep Space - One man's dream to capture a new corner of an old market may become a reality. He plans to mine the rich gold and platinum deposits on asteroids. [Wired News]
Can Caching Tame the Web? - Web caching would store popular pages closer to users, and a flurry of companies are out to popularize it. Promising less Net traffic and faster browsing, caching must anticipate usage patterns on a constantly growing and changing Web. But skeptics say even when it does, caching's impact may be limited at best. [Wired News]
FCC to Bells, GTE: Open Up - The FCC is pushing for more competition by ordering regional phone carriers to allow access to their equipment to new companies. [Wired News]
Lawsuit Says MCI 'Redlines' - A Los Angeles man says MCI Worldcom discriminates against people calling from minority-populated areas by not allowing those customers to place calling card calls. [Wired News]
Microsoft Builds Up Its Web Offerings - A partnership with search engine-maker Inktomi is part of Redmond's move to beef up its online content - following the lead of Yahoo and Excite. [Wired News]
Q&A: The Wearable Mann - Steve Mann, co-founder of MIT's Wearable Computing Project, was putting computers on his head long before anyone had them on a desk. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Mitnick Pleads Guilty - After languishing in jail for four years, celebrity cracker Kevin Mitnick pleads guilty only a month before his trial was to start. Douglas Thomas reports from Los Angeles. [Wired News]
Four IPOs Set to Net Investors - Four tech IPOs are scheduled for Thursday and Friday. All will probably do very well, analysts say. But keep an eye on the long term. By Jennifer Sullivan. [Wired News]
Bandai Calls Off Planned Merger with Sega - The move came after Bandai's board decided the two companies wouldn't be such a good fit after all. [Wired News]
Smurfing Cripples ISPs - The latest denial-of-service attack is possibly the worst the Internet has ever seen, says one victim. And critics say the national providers seem to be asleep at the switch. [Wired News]
Maine Wants to Stockpile for Y2K - Where do you put 13 million cubic feet of rice and beans? That's the question facing a Maine state legislator as she moves to stockpile emergency food in the event of Y2K failures. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Blowout Quarter for Yahoo - The online directory reports first-quarter results far above Wall Street expectations. Traffic, revenue, and earnings all surge in the quarter. [Wired News]
Vivid To Pay Bills, Workers With New Loan - The pioneering multimedia firm hopes to "get the gears working up to speed again." [Wired News]
Who Will Rule the Set-Top Box? - A survey of the companies that are investing money and technology in the race for the lucrative set-top real estate. [Wired News]
Does Privacy Trump Piracy? - A bill to protect private information, such as medical records, meets strong opposition from companies who want the data to stay in the public domain. By Kristen Philipkoski. [Wired News]
Wallstreet.com Up for Sale - A tiny Arizona firm hopes to bag big bucks by auctioning off its glitzy Web address. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Community Dream Job: 3-D Infrastructure Guru - Black Sun, creator of virtual community software, is hiring an infrastructure specialist. [Wired News]
Does Yahoo Still Yahoo? - One of the Web's flagship sites is increasingly blasted for failing to list submissions. It's not its job to get every site in, Yahoos say - but some are calling for the Web's de facto directory to own up to a quiet shift in its goals. [Wired News]
Case Closed for Cracker? - Kevin Mitnick's guilty plea won't stop the underground movement that bears his name. Their rallying cry says it all. Douglas Thomas reports from Los Angeles. [Wired News]
That Cell-Phone Jolt - Researchers find that microwave emissions from mobile phones could speed your reaction time. Also Net news hoax sends company's stock soaring, for a while, Falcon joins At Home effort to bring broadband to the sticks, and Cisco buys two ATM firms. [Wired News]
AT&T Buys Big into India Mobile-Phone Market - The conglomerate's local joint venture plans to invest $1.5 billion in constructing a system capable of attracting a million subscribers. [Wired News]
Indexing the Video Frontier - Seeking footage of Regis kissing Kathie Lee? The pope in the pope-mobile? As video libraries grow online, interest in searching them will grow, too. Video analysis is the technology for the (daunting) job ahead, but media-makers from ABC to PBS - and technology vendors like Microsoft - are starting to pay heed. [Wired News]
Key US Computer Lags on Y2K - The US Department of Health and Human Services switches its tactics on Y2K compliance, jeopardizing federal funding for everything from Medicare to airports. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Wow Dow Marches Higher - Wall Street shakes off a bumpy start to resume its record-breaking ascent. But another profit warning from AMD pours some cold water on tech stocks. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
SGI Moves to Advance VRML Standard - By purchasing 3-D software maker ParaGraph International and creating a new subsidiary, the company hopes a "Second Web" will soon emerge. [Wired News]
Group Out to Set A New Standard - Designers in the Web Standards Project have a message for Netscape and Microsoft: By not sticking to standards, you cost us tens of thousands of dollars each year. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Aussies Sound Smut Alert - The Australian government invites community-minded citizens to ferret out Net porn. Also: A Japanese court sends a man to jail for posting porn online in the United States. [Wired News]
Net Surfing's Up - The average user spends seven hours each month surfing the Web at work. It's all business, of course. [Wired News]
NetObjects Heads to Land of the Rising Sun - The maker of Web site-building software is teaming up with Mitsubishi to get into Japan's rapidly growing Internet market - but does it have the right stuff? [Wired News]
Sun's New Headache: H-P's Java Brew - Hewlett-Packard has shipped its own Java virtual machine for embedded devices such as printers and phones. The company also signed up Microsoft as a licensee, and announced plans to enter the standards arena. [Wired News]
GM Recalls Faulty Web Site - Until today, spammers could tap into the personal data of more than 10,000 online sweepstakes entrants at Pontiac's site. The company promised that would never happen. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Blue Chips Go Bananas - Earnings worries? What earnings worries? Wall Street reopens the record books as the Dow scores another home run. Once again, tech stocks bring up the rear. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
@Home Crosses Border - The high-speed access company - heading back from the dead - joins forces with Canadian cable giants. [Wired News]
Weather Data Lost in Space - The failure of the Galaxy IV satellite did more than interrupt paging -- it hit the distribution of critical Doppler weather data to airports, airlines, and the national weather forecasting center. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Rural Net Surfers Stuck in Limbo - US West says it's trying to bring high-speed access to rural areas, but is hamstrung by regulators. Hogwash, regulators say. By Joseph Rose. [Wired News]
Cisco Gobbles Up Two More Firms - The world's biggest data-equipment maker becomes even bigger with two acquisitions worth a total of US$445 million. The booty: technology to fuse voice and data networks. [Wired News]
AOL, BMG to Make Beautiful Marketing Music - The online giant and the music publishing giant are nearing a deal that will package startup software on audio CDs, Wired News has learned. [Wired News]
MS, Sun Weave Tangled Path - In describing the network of the future, both Microsoft and Sun see distributed, self-monitoring systems. How to achieve this goal is where the companies diverge. By Lisa Rein. [Wired News]
MS, DOJ: No Deal Yet - Despite Microsoft's claims to the contrary, the government says the two sides have not begun discussing a possible settlement to the antitrust trial. James Glave reports from Scottsdale, Arizona. [Wired News]
The View from AboveNet - Sherman Tuan claims he was a lousy engineer. But he came up with a clever business plan: build a network above the Net's congested traffic routes. Customers are signing on. So is Wall Street. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
It's Consolidation Season in the Ad Business - On the heels of this month's I/Pro-NetCount merger, ClickOver and Focalink join forces - putting teeth to the claim that it takes bigger fish to swim in stronger seas. [Wired News]
No 'Right' to Crypto Export? - The US deputy secretary of defense tells Fortune 500 company officials that no one has a god-given right to use powerful American encryption technology. By Michael Stutz. [Wired News]
The Laugh Is on Gore - Republicans scored some great one-liners after Al Gore claimed to have fathered the Internet. But they missed a prime opportunity to question the vice president's stand on tech issues. A perspective by Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
PlayStation Clones Go to Court - Sony is trying to halt the shipment of PlayStation emulators for PC and Mac. Sony will appear today with Connectix and Bleem in separate hearings. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Paradigm Acquires SonicNet from Prodigy - The alternative-music Web site has plans to receive new resources and expand offerings - but it has yet to make money. [Wired News]
Think Different: Hack a New Mac OS - You've probably never heard of Cache Computing, but its founders claim they are set to give Mac owners a whole new operating system. Cupertino is not amused. [Wired News]
Y2K Aid Bill Clears Congress - The House approves an estimated US$500 million in loans for small businesses infestations of the millennium bug. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Sony Player Coming Soon? - Though tight-lipped about details, Sony is interested in portable Walkman-like playback devices for audio. Piracy issues still need to be resolved with the recording industry. By Jennifer Sullivan. [Wired News]
Find Porky's; Buy It, Too - Internet Movie Database and Reel.com strike a deal on instant movie sales. [Wired News]
No Java in IE5's Base-Level Download? - Microsoft intends to leave out Java support in the minimum installation for the next version of Internet Explorer, a source says. Although Microsoft won't confirm the plan, it says that allowing components like Java support to be downloaded later is one way to balance size and features. [Wired News]
MP3 Search Engine Under Fire - An international music industry group is filing a lawsuit against the Norwegian company that built the MP3 search engine used on the Lycos site. [Wired News]
Net, Tech Stocks Lead Pack - Wall Street takes a breather after its record-setting run-up a day earlier. Blue-chip shares lose ground as investors rekindle their affections for gadgets and gizmos. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Publishing Dream Job: Peachpit Press - Berkeley-based publishing house Peachpit Press is now a division of textbook giant Addison-Wesley. [Wired News]
Does the Internet Backbone Index Have a Spine? - CompuServe owns the fastest backbone in the US, according the Third Keynote/Boardwatch Index of Backbone Providers. Critics say that's not surprising, given what they allege is the survey's flawed methodology. [Wired News]
Kosovo Won't Be Televised - International live TV transmission from Kosovo went black Wednesday before the bombs started falling. Serbian police are blamed for a satellite shutdown, preventing Baghdad-like live telecasts. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
The Wired News Week - Cypherpunks and politicians hash it out at the annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy confab ... Brits plan US invasion for the Phantom Menace screening ... Teen geek builds a wearable Web cam ... and other news and goings-on. Compiled by Pete Danko. [Wired News]
Newtonians Share Angst Over Falling Apple - A report that Apple is secretly about to sell its PDA to raise cash sends Newton's small but dedicated following to the Internet to voice their fears. [Wired News]
Back Orifice a Pain in the ...? - An underground computer security group says it is about to release a program that will allegedly grant deep access into the machine of any Windows user unfortunate enough to run it. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Yugoslav Free Radio Shut Down - Government officials have closed Radio B-92, Yugoslavia's main independent radio station, preventing it from reporting on the impending NATO attacks. [Wired News]
Yet Another Big IPO Day - Three new tech firms hit the market Friday, and all three more than doubled. Is it madness or prescience? Who cares?! By Craig Bicknell [Wired News]
Intel, DEC Reported in Talks to Settle Patent Feud - The companies' chiefs are reported to have discussed a deal that would allow Intel to acquire DEC's top-of-the-line Alpha microprocessor in exchange for cash and calling off the legal dogs. [Wired News]
Annotated Reality - Look at a restaurant and read the reviews beamed to your smart glasses before you sit down. Welcome to the future, where wearable computers "augment" reality. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Gates: Settlement Would Be Nice - Microsoft chief Bill Gates says his company is talking with the Justice Department about a possible settlement in the antitrust trial. [Wired News]
Exhausted Dow Takes a Rest - Blue-chip shares cool their heels after this week's record-setting run-up. Fresh hopes for the PC business, plus a trio of Net-related IPOs, keep the focus tight on tech. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Scans: Barter for Banners - With the Web's largest ad network, LinkExchange's banner-swapping program helps smaller sites generate more traffic at no cost. Potential investors are taking notes. [Wired News]
After Hundt, a New Cast for the FCC - The Chairman's departure paves the way for more shuffling; by the end of the year, four out of five members of the powerful commission will be new in their jobs. [Wired News]
Step Two for Encryption Bill - A measure to relax encryption exports clears the House Judiciary Committee, which rejected an amendment to require "back door" access by law enforcement. [Wired News]
Shooting AOL's Messenger - While the world concentrates on Windows 2000, Microsoft is focusing on another strategic product: an instant-messenger client. It might be Microsoft's last chance to counter America Online's dominance. Chris Stamper reports from Seattle. [Wired News]
Motion-Simulator Merger is Very Real - A merger of two bigger-screen biggies will create a stronger competitor in an increasingly cutthroat theater. [Wired News]
'Twas a Dark and Storied Fright: My '97 Nightmare - Cultural-demise hysteria is made real when Gates, Rossetto, Bennett, and Dogg rule - in Jon Katz's bad dream. [Wired News]
Microsoft Offer 'Inadequate' - State officials shoot down Redmond's proposed settlement, aimed at ending the thorny antitrust trial. A federal official says it may be no more than a public relations ploy. [Wired News]
EBay Shapes up Shipping - EBay will ship with Mail Boxes Etc. Also: iShip.com.... Sony, Matsushita ready to battle on new CD format.... China inches online, with US firm's help... Matrix rakes in US$22 million more. [Wired News]
Japan Unprepared for Tide of Junk PCs - In a country where there's already more trash than they know what to do with, a massive switch to Windows boxes could leave the roadsides and sidewalks littered with old technology. [Wired News]
FCC Nominee Gets Earful from Senate Panel - William Kennard is still on track to follow Reed Hundt as the agency's chairman. But members of the Senate Commerce Committee made it clear they think the FCC should be doing more to speed up implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. [Wired News]
Don't Cry For Bill, Argentina - Microsoft cuts a deal with Argentine President Carlos Sa l Menem. The company will promote the software economy in the South American country if the Argentines crack down on software piracy. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Compaq Stock Pummeled - Shares of the computer maker take a nosedive after the company warns of an earnings shortfall and analysts lower performance expectations. [Wired News]
Net Surf: Microsoft Charity - The $150 million to Apple - roughly the equivalent of what Bill Gates earns in interest in the time it takes to launch and crash IE 4.0 on a Mac - was last week's loudest sneeze. [Wired News]
FCC Praises Ameritech Filing, Then Buries It - After complimenting the local phone company's effort to meet the spirit of the Telecom Act, regulators pointed to a few more hurdles it wants Ameritech to cross. [Wired News]
Overheard at the Trial - Lawyers say the darnedest things. They sure have at the Microsof trial -- and so have a few other characters. Compiled by Joe Nickell. [Wired News]
Goldman Raises IPO Price - After watching the stock value of rival investment banks surge, Goldman Sachs notches up the price of its shares in an upcoming initial public offering. It now expects to reap nearly US$4 billion next month. [Wired News]
Japan's Computer Makers Mount PC Sales Blitz - Playing up multimedia capabilities, as well as interconnectivity with TVs and digital cameras, Sony, Toshiba, and others aim to boost global market share. [Wired News]
Texas ISPs Face Republic Fallout - Eight Internet service providers are catching flak for going along with a state request for information about subscribers involved in the secessionist Republic of Texas group. [Wired News]
US Arming for Y2K - Gun dealers are thriving on fears about Y2K. First-time buyers are leading a strong surge in sales, and some dealers predict panic as 2000 draws near. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Stocks Rebound From Compaq Mess - The PC maker's forecast of sharply lower profits knocks the market for a loop. But investors gradually realize that they overreacted by dumping all available shares. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Paul Allen Ventures into Seattle Election - In a special vote on a new stadium for the Seattle Seahawks, the Microsoft co-founder angers many by paying $5 million on a pro-stadium campaign - on top of $4 million to stage the election itself. [Wired News]
He Tries to Draw Legal Borders in Cyberspace - Jeremiah 'Jay' Nixon, Missouri's attorney general, says he's defending his state's sovereignty by going after online beer sellers and casinos. His targets say he's stumping for office. [Wired News]
Mitnick's Judgment Day at Hand - A judge will consider the plea entered last week by Kevin Mitnick, the cracker's poster boy. Regardless of how she rules, he's not out of the legal woods yet. Douglas Thomas reports from Los Angeles. [Wired News]
Stock Markets Ready for Y2K - The National Association of Securities Dealers says a month-long simulation of trading a few days before and after 1 January 2000 turned up no glitches. The financial markets are ready for Y2K. By Joe Nickell. [Wired News]
Oracle Nabs NC Deal With 1-800-FLOWERS - Its first shipment of 2,000 network computers pushes the company out front, and puts networked computing to the test. [Wired News]
Sans Drama, Unabom Opener's a Dud - Day One's festivity - the jury selection that focused on potential panelists' opinions on the death penalty - is remarkable for its lack of electricity. [Wired News]
The Bill Gates Road Show - On an East Coast swing to trumpet his latest book, Microsoft's pooh-bah stops in at Georgetown University. He avoids any mention of his antitrust troubles, but leaves 'em laughing with a videotape showing the wacky side of Redmond's mandarins. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Freeserve May Go IPO - UK retailer Dixons may sell a portion of Freeserve, its free online service, to investors in an initial public offering. [Wired News]
Street Cred: Economic Espionage - In John Fialka's new book, the Cold War is alive and well. [Wired News]
Blazing the Trail to the New Economy - John Doerr and Jim Barksdale, made men in Silicon Valley, kick off a postmodern political-action committee that puts education and litigation reform at the top of its agenda. [Wired News]
Citizens Report from the Front - An Orthodox monk writing from the 'pulpit of his keyboard' sends news of the Kosovo crisis from a 663-year-old monastery, filling the void left by professional journalists. By Leander Kahney and James Glave. [Wired News]
Amazon Buys LiveBid.com - Moving to beef up its auction unit, Amazon.com said it will acquire LiveBid.com, the site that hosted live bidding on O.J. Simpson memorabilia, among other things. [Wired News]
NBC Jacks into City-Guide Fray - The broadcast giant says its brand can help set its online city guides apart. Some wonder whether the move is an attempt to mollify irked affiliates. [Wired News]
ACLU Takes on Virginia Net Decency Law - Expanding its campaign to shoot down state and local censorship statutes, the civil liberties organization targets a law that makes it illegal for some professors to check out risqu Victorian poems. [Wired News]
MS, Antitrust Lawyers to Meet - Microsoft and government lawyers are set to meet next week to talk about the antitrust case. Even though the parties are far from an agreement, Microsoft shares rise in anticipation of a possible settlement. [Wired News]
Cheaper PCs Ahead? - Compaq's warning of an earnings shortfall may spell trouble for the computer manufacturing industry. It could also drag PC prices even lower. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Happy Puppy Snaps Up Games Domain - Moving toward world conquest, the biggest gaming site acquires the second-biggest. [Wired News]
Out of the Basement, on to NPR! - Jon Katz begins his book tour and faces talk-show hell when he finds all issues are debated on either the left or the right. [Wired News]
Bill Swats Millennium Bug - An industry-backed bill limiting Y2K liability lawsuits clears the Senate Judiciary Committee. The measure caps punitive damages at US$250,000. [Wired News]
Blue Chips Defy Compaq's Woes - The Dow rockets to yet another record high, shrugging off a profit warning from the computer sector. Tech stocks eventually limp into positive territory. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Amazon.com Upstages Barnes & Noble - "Earth's biggest bookstore" slashes prices and adds titles before "the world's largest bookseller" gets online. [Wired News]
Suit Asks US Info Agency to Cough It Up - Several Nader groups are suing to force the United States Information Agency to make government foreign-policy information available to Americans. [Wired News]
Do-it-Yourself News - The expulsion of foreign journalists from war-torn Yugoslavia hasn't stopped the flow of news from the region. Far from it. First-hand information about the Kosovo conflict is widely available on the Internet. By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
The Fed Is Ready for Y2K - Money in the bank will mean something when the new millennium dawns. A new GAO report says the nation's Federal Reserve System is 98 percent Y2K-compliant. [Wired News]
Alsop Takes a Seat on Firm's Board - The Fortune magazine columnist and venture capitalist now wears a third hat: Software industry executive. Conflict of interest? Apparently not. [Wired News]
Brouhaha Erupts at Book Signing - Jon Katz visits Princeton with an idyllic image of the Ivy League. What he finds instead is some poisonous people itching to attack the author and each other. [Wired News]
Net Dispatches from Kosovo's War - An Orthodox monk, writing from the "pulpit of his keyboard" in a medieval monastery, provides eyewitness accounts of NATO air strikes in Kosovo to the world. Civilians are being hit hard. By Leander Kahney and James Glave. [Wired News]
Auctioneers Chip In for Kosovo - EBay, Yahoo, and other online companies help out the Kosovo relief effort by holding special auctions. [Wired News]
Intel Stock Spirals Downward - The king of microprocessors, facing growing competition for its Pentium II, warned Wall Street of a drop in revenues. Wall Street wasn't pleased. [Wired News]
Net-Regulation Laws Ruled Unconstitutional - New York state's legislation to protect kids from Net smut is overturned as a violation of the Constitution's commerce clause. In Georgia, a federal judge issues a preliminary injunction blocking a law that seeks to make online anonymity illegal. [Wired News]
ICANN Extends Testbed Deadline - The Net's new regulator loosens its deadline for testbed applicants for the new domain name registration business. [Wired News]
Analysts Rip Network Solutions - When Network Solutions shut down Aberdeen Group's Web site, it stepped on the wrong toes. The market-research firm publishes a nasty report slamming Network Solutions' "sloppy" service. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
CMP Takes Beating on Internet Performance - As the rest of the market took off Tuesday, the Long Island trade-mag publisher paid the price for less than rosy news about its Internet business. Also: Jobs' friends say Jobs isn't interested in Apple job. [Wired News]
Feathers Fly on Bird Chat - Blocking software catches bird-lover using Latin! Jon Katz has all the shocking details. [Wired News]
India Loosens Telecom Policy - Indian broadcasting could get a boost from private and foreign investment as the government hold is broken on telephone and satellite competition. New legislation goes into effect 1 January 2000. [Wired News]
Microsoft's Audio Future - Microsoft prepares to release its own audio format, Cisco spends $2 billion for GeoTel, and Disney's Net dilemma. [Wired News]
CompuServe, Time Settle Lawsuit - The two kiss and make up after an ugly dispute over whether Time's content is a poor investment for the online service. [Wired News]
Culture Crisis Part II: Media Won't Save You - Sex, race, and gender meltdowns flummox the media. Jon Katz looks on. [Wired News]
China Regulates Internet Calls - Telecommunications firms will have to endure a six-month trial period before receiving a permit from the Chinese ministry for Internet phone calls. [Wired News]
Internet Turbo Boosting Airlines - An influential aviation analyst says the Internet is the best thing to happen to the airline industry since the jet engine. [Wired News]
AOL Adds CBS Sports to Content Team - The deal provides more bench strength to AOL's sports channel, which already carries content from CBS' rival, ABC Sports. [Wired News]
Without Incentive, It's Just Hot Air - Getting people to embrace alternative energy sources and devices is the biggest challenge in the effort to slow global warming, a conference of scientists and policy-makers says. [Wired News]
Sweeping UK Net Libel Decision - A British court rules that Internet service providers can be held responsible for libelous messages posted through their servers, casting a pall over the industry. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Bloomberg Sues Over Bogus Site - The business news and information company sues the unidentified creators of a site that cloned its site to hype a stock. But first it needs to find them. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Drops Heard 'Round the World - A by-the-numbers look at global stock market activity during the past three trading days. [Wired News]
Oppressors, Beware! Net Fights for Rights - Human rights groups show that getting wired can work wonders. Some like Amnesty International are finding new ways to use the Net in protecting human rights. [Wired News]
Email Assist for Yugoslavs - An anonymous forwarding service sets up a special filter to help safeguard the identity of those filing unofficial and uncensored email reports from the NATO strike zone. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Revived RealNetworks Buys Xing - The purchase of an MP3 software developer widens RealNetworks' reach and strengthens its position in the digital audio distribution market. By Jennifer Sullivan. [Wired News]
AOL's Profit: How Long Can it Last? - Analysts taking a close look at the company's recent earnings report tell Ned Brainard they see one-time slight-of-hand deals bolstering the bottom line. [Wired News]
Questions at the Close of the O. J. Saga - Jon Katz on O. J. Simpson and the death of justice. [Wired News]
Yugoslav Net at the Brink - As missiles fall around him, the man in charge of keeping Yugoslavia's Internet together is doing his best. But the vital communications link might just fall apart. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Zapata Tries, Tries Again - The Texas-based fish-oil firm with Net ambitions files to spin off its Zap.com subsidiary in a US$109 million offering. That's a lot of money for a business that has no assets. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
CompuServe Heads to the Web - With a seemingly half-hearted approach, the proprietary online service opens its doors to professionals on the Web. [Wired News]
Invitation to a Beheading - Katz is asked to join world titans talking about information-age power shifts. [Wired News]
Keeping the FCC's Mitts Off Net - New legislation introduced Friday will end the Federal Communications Commission's policy of charging for metered Internet connections. Or will it? Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Early Stock Rally Loses Steam - Wall Street is back near where it started as investors pocket some cash from recent record-setting gains. Tech shares are adrift as all eyes turn to Intel. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
IBM to Beef Up Global Services Division - The move is part of Big Blue's transformation from a rigid giant to a company more attuned to the Internet. [Wired News]
Web Watchers Track, Trip Up Parolees - A New York anti-crime group's Web site reports the parole status of violent prisoners - but civil liberties groups say the data lacks depth. [Wired News]
Closing the Window on the War - After Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic pulled the plug on satellite transmissions from his country, TV networks have nothing to show but talking heads. [Wired News]
Privacy and Purchasing Power - Step aside, Yellow Pages; it's time for a new kind of phone book. Novell is trying to forge ahead of IBM and AT T with a multilevel Web directory. [Wired News]
Apple Dismisses Layoff Reports - For Now - Reports say 2,600 workers will be given pink slips. Apple says it's all speculation. A restructuring announcement is expected Tuesday. [Wired News]
Reversal of Fortune - Clinton administration's possible CDA flip-flop: Typical, says Katz. [Wired News]
States Seek OS Surrender - Nineteen states that have accused Microsoft of antitrust violations want to force the company to auction off its Windows operating system. There's still no hint of what the feds want. [Wired News]
Dow Climbs as Techs Sputter - A mixed day on Wall Street. Blue-chip stocks advance deeper into record territory, while tech shares succumb to anxiety over weak earnings. The spotlight shifts to Intel. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Web Ads Hit the Auction Block - Adbot conducts its first telephone bidding to sell Internet advertising. [Wired News]
Web Anglais? Non, S'il Vous Plait - A Canadian Web site owner runs up against a Quebec language law that requires that content in all media be available in French as well as English. Beyond the inconvenience for one site, the case raises questions about trying to enforce linguistic purity in an age of globalization. [Wired News]
Did Russians Get Whitehouse.gov? - Anti-NATO crackers claim credit for an all-day outage at the official White House Web site. Sources call it a hardware problem. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Intel Earnings Defy Expectations - At 57 cents a share, Intel's first-quarter earnings were higher than expected. But the company predicts that earnings for the second quarter will be lower. [Wired News]
DC Dream Job: Project Associate - Open Studio wants to teach the arts community a new way of thinking. [Wired News]
The New Censorship - Jon Katz muses on the price of freedom, eternal vigilance, and Larry Flynt. [Wired News]
Jesse Jackson's New Campaign - The civil rights leader says he'll fight to bridge the so-called digital divide between some minorities and the upper echelons of the technology industry. By Joseph Rose. [Wired News]
Editors Confront 'The Beast' - Newspaper editors from around the country take advantage of their visit to San Francisco to drop in on Silicon Valley. Will technology spell their doom? And other items from the ASNE convention. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
MCI, BT Set Sights on Latin American Market - Soon to be a massive merged entity, the two companies announced plans to link with Portugal Telecom and expand services in both Europe and Latin America, particularly Brazil. [Wired News]
Privacy Implications of Hedy Lamarr's Idea - Net activist David Hughes sought honor for the actress who invented frequency hopping, but he doubts that the full meaning of the technology is appreciated. [Wired News]
US v. Microsoft: Timeline - From the first rumblings in Washington almost a decade ago to the biggest -- and perhaps dullest -- antitrust trial of the decade, here's how we got to where we are. [Wired News]
Grove to Newsies: 'Get with It!' - Chip kingpin Andy Grove tells an audience of newspaper editors that the blinding light in front of them is an oncoming train. Chris Oakes reports from San Francisco. [Wired News]
Tech Exec Dream Job: Business Gaming - Thinking Tools, a developer of business-management simulation software, is looking for a director of engineering. [Wired News]
The Things That Unite Us - Jon Katz offers some observations about post-political thinking. [Wired News]
Freedom Helps, Not Harms, Kids - Cyber-rights supporters defend online freedoms at the Cyberspace 1999 conference at the University of Leeds. Alan Docherty reports from York, England. [Wired News]
IBM Exec to Head Symantec - The software maker tabs IBM lifer John Thompson to replace Gordon Eubanks. Also HP chief Lewis Platt's bad day on Wall Street, Sina.com sees IPO later this year, and Warren Buffett still hasn't gotten tech-savvy. [Wired News]
Dell Soars to Record Earnings - The mail-order computer-maker saw sales increase by 61 percent - four times the growth rate for the rest of the PC industry. [Wired News]
V-Chip Redux? - According to Jon Katz, the technology that the president loves has always been both a fraud and a joke. [Wired News]
Know Your (Customer) Rights - The defeat of far-reaching bank monitoring regulations won't protect individual accounts from surveillance. Privacy advocates of all political stripes mount protests online. By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
Microsoft Trumpets Audio Player - Microsoft launches its new MP3 competitor at a glitzy event in LA. The audience hands MS Audio 4.0 a split decision. By Christopher Jones. [Wired News]
Apple Sued over Chip Licensing - Exponential Technologies, once a favored future vendor of new high-end chips for the Macintosh, says Apple's clone pullout has effectively killed markets for its X704 processor. [Wired News]
Duke Nukem Targeted in Patent Infringement - Strange but patented: An Illinois man says that by incorporating video playback of 'living beings,' the popular shoot-'em-up game infringes on his 1987 patent. [Wired News]
RSA Lands on British Shores - Three months after opening an Australian development house to bypass crypto export regs, RSA Data Security opens a European office to sell software from Down Under. [Wired News]
Techs Still Eating Dow's Dust - Blue-chip stocks remain in high gear, but investors feel wary about the mixed messages from Intel, and are keeping their distance from most PC-related shares. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Your Name Here - Beyond mass production, beyond even niche marketing. MySki produces its goods for a market of one: you. [Wired News]
German Hemp Partisans Long to Inhale - Germany lets its citizens wash their clothes with hemp soap and sip hemp beer, but a throng that turned out in Berlin this weekend wants the plant put to more recreational uses. [Wired News]
MS, Government Back at Table - Microsoft and the Justice Department sit down for settlement talks. Will the discussion end the trial, or hit the same walls as a year ago, before the whole mess began? Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Crash and Burn - Investors search in vain for reasons to embrace their former favorites. The Dow barely scores another record high amid an ugly last-minute selling spree. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Tripod Gets $US10 Million Boost - A group of ad agencies and venture capital firms are making the investment to gain access to the coveted under-30 market. [Wired News]
He's Mad as Hell, and Telling the Web - Something about a recent stadium vote seems fishy to San Francisco Net consultant Ken McCarthy. He says the city's media has fallen down on the job, so he's publishing his own 'expos ' online. [Wired News]
NetSol Spams Name Holders - The company in charge of all things .com, .net, and .org emails an unsolicted marketing message to thousands of domain-name holders. Network admins cry spam. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Impressive Earnings From Apple - The revived computer maker reports solidly better-than-expected earnings. The number of Macs shipped in the quarter jumps 27 percent. [Wired News]
Dow Jones Shutters Its Investor Network - Subscribers logging in were told simply that the site had ceased operations. [Wired News]
Digital-TV Donnybrook Reaches Final Round - After months of posturing, a decision is expected this week on how soon digital broadcasts will begin in the biggest US markets. [Wired News]
Y2K Won't Tie Up the Line - As Americans buckle down for Y2K, the Federal Communications Commission has some good news: The nation's phone system should be up and running. Most of it, at least. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Mom and Pop Storm Boardroom - Investor conference calls used to be closed to all but Wall Street elite. But streaming media is changing the rules. Now everyone can be an insider. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Scans: The Data Chase - Corporations under subpoena often have the seemingly insurmountable task of tracking intangible digital evidence. The data miners and packet sniffers at EDD are fast on the trail. [Wired News]
Name Truce in the Offing? - The two-day Forum on Internet Domain Names heard lots of talk about the future of Net self-governance and the distribution of decision-making power. Some consensus was reached, though: Much more talk is necessary, and Uncle Sam has a big role to play for now. [Wired News]
MS Trial Resuming in May, Maybe - The judge presiding over the Microsoft antitrust trial says things won't start up again until 10 May. Meanwhile, Microsoft and government antitrust lawyers continue looking for a settlement. [Wired News]
Telcos Want More Time - Bell Atlantic and GTE want to take another crack at their proposal for handling GTE's long distance and Internet businesses. So they ask the Feds to delay a review of their wedding. [Wired News]
Net Becomes Bank's Newest 'Region' - Cyberspace will be treated the same as Huntington Bank's six other geographic zones, making the Net the fiscal equal of Ohio and Florida. [Wired News]
A New Crypto Furor - The President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection has spoken: Among other things, it says, the nation needs to give government access to citizens' encrypted data to remain really secure. [Wired News]
Cable-TV Rates Free to Rise - The FCC's jurisdiction over cable-TV prices is ending. The price of cable service is rising at four times the rate of inflation. Are even higher rates ahead? By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
The Sordid Saga of Sex.com - Stephen Cohen built a US$100-million porn empire on Sex.com. There's just one problem. The two-time convicted felon stole the name, foes say. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Lucent, Philips Merge Consumer Units - The new company is expected to generate $2.5 billion in revenue next year, and could be on a footing to compete with giants like Motorola. [Wired News]
Crypto Liberalization Bill Crippled - The House National Security Committee performs radical surgery on a bill intended to get the federal government out of the business of regulating encryption exports. As amended, the bill now gives the feds a stronger say than ever on what can be sold abroad. [Wired News]
Expecting a Miracle Cure? - A chilling new statistic from the nation's hospitals: Only 13 percent are Y2K-compliant. No problem, says an industry survey. Not so fast, say consumer advocates. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Participation or Exploitation? - A handful of America Online's 10,000 volunteers say they're being exploited by the nation's largest Internet service provider. A federal agency is investigating. [Wired News]
Tax Wonk Comes to CompuServe's Aid - The silver lining of the service's woes is beginning to shine thanks to an additional $70 million from parent H R Block related to CompuServe's $120 million loss. [Wired News]
Close Encounter at ABC News HQ - Jon Katz sights Roone Arledge. Life will never be the same. [Wired News]
Tobacco Industry's Smoking Gun - Millions of pages of tobacco industry strategy documents are laid bare on the Net. Among other things, they reveal plans to subvert anti-smoking legislation in California. [Wired News]
Key Cisco Exec Stepping Down - Start-up legend Bill Carrico is expected to announce his exit as head of one of the company's key business units. Also the airline industry says safety won't be an issue come 1-1-2000, and big computers drive Unisys earnings. [Wired News]
BT Eyes Network Computers - Cautiously - Working with the Acorn Group, the UK phone giant is asking a sample group whether anyone would want such a thing. [Wired News]
Cyberlaw's Deep Thinker Wins Big - Pamela Samuelson has been there on many of the big software copyright cases, often fighting for the little guy. And now the UC Berkeley prof is getting her due: A $295,000 MacArthur "genius" award. [Wired News]
McCain Offers Crypto Compromise - The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee has a new plan to appease law enforcement and protect the US software industry. It may be a sign that the encryption tide is turning. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Keep Tumbling - Tech? We don't need no stinking tech! Or so investors think as they continue shifting money out of the sector. After an early rally, blue-chip shares slide as well. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
IBM's Deep (Blue) Coverup - Ned Brainard tells a sordid little tale of the paranoiac behavior of IBM's public-relations hordes. Plus: Will heads soon roll at MSN? [Wired News]
Dole Opens Email List to GOP Allies - Two staffers from Bob Dole's successful '96 presidential campaign Web site are using email addresses gathered from 85,000 supporters as a tool for other Republican candidates. [Wired News]
Canada Rolls into Fiscal 2000 - As the Canadian government begins fiscal year 2000, an army of bureaucrats keeps a sharp eye on Ottawa's mainframes. Matt Friedman reports from Montreal. [Wired News]
EBay Teams Up with Butterfield - EBay will offer antiques from Butterfield & Butterfield in a new auction category. Through the partnership, the online auctioneer will also receive authentication services. [Wired News]
UUNET Confirms New Fees for ISPs - The world's largest Net access provider says it's purely a matter of economics to force smaller companies to sink or swim. [Wired News]
Censorship Isn't What It Used to Be - Jon Katz begins a series on the new censorship and the censor in all of us. [Wired News]
Casting a Wider Net for Learning - An international project to set up educational resource centers that provide Net access in developing countries hopes to foster cultural and political awareness. By Christopher Jones. [Wired News]
Dreamcast Coming in September - Sega's next-generation bad-ass machine, Dreamcast, is set for a US release on 9 September, the company says. Expect to pay about US$199. [Wired News]
Landi Adds to Exodus at Apple - The former chief operating officer surprised few people by leaving Apple after Amelio shifted power to a new cadre of executives. [Wired News]
ACLU: Labeling May Lead to Lost Liberty - Condemning both feel-good government and compliant industry forces, the free-speech champion declares that self-ratings will diminish the victory born from the CDA's death. [Wired News]
MS to Gorton: Clam Up - Microsoft is quick to back away from its home-state supporter when Senator Slade Gorton insults the judge presiding in the company's antitrust trial. [Wired News]
Employers Read Workers' Email - Almost half of major US firms monitor employees' phone calls, email, and computer files, according to a survey. The most common form of surveillance: storing and reading office email. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
TotalNews Settles with Media Giants over Links - TotalNews can continue to link to news sites owned by the plaintiffs, but only if it signs "link licenses." [Wired News]
Campaign-Finance Documents Going Electric - A survey of states shows that although the pace is slow, the idea is spreading. [Wired News]
Melissa Maker Nabbed - New Jersey State Police, along with the FBI's new infrastructure defense division, on Thursday arrested a man they say is the author of the Melissa virus. [Wired News]
Late Rally Salvages Nasdaq - Blue-chip stocks rebound from earlier declines to nail another record, and the turnaround helps tech shares find their way back into the light. Now can they stay there? By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
PointCast Heads to Oval Office - Barely in the door at the push-media company, new CEO David Dorman has been appointed to a presidential advisory board on high-tech issues. Also: CNET snuggles up to Borders. [Wired News]
Congress Does the Net - A quick look at major Net-centric and techno issues the people's representatives will wrestle over this fall. [Wired News]
Yugoslavia's B92 Goes Dark - In a dawn raid, Serbian police shut down Yugoslavia's last independent news outlet. A few overloaded Internet links now supply the last source of unbiased news inside Yugoslavia. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Arrest Made in PairGain Rumor - Authorities arrest a 25-year-old man in connection with a fake news story posted on the Web last week that sent PairGain's stock soaring. [Wired News]
CompuServe Legal Battle Grows Nastier - A former content provider files a new complaint in an ongoing dispute stemming from an alleged breach of contract. [Wired News]
Library Tries Critical Porn-Blocking Approach - The library board in Virginia's Loudoun County voted last week to keep pornography off the system's Net terminals. The twist: It's trying to do so by blocking only what would be deemed obscene under Supreme Court precedent. [Wired News]
'Melissa' Police Work Lauded - Officials heap praise on investigators from a special division of the FBI created specifically to fight cyber crime. Their nimble footwork leads to the arrest of a suspect in the "Melissa virus" case. Deborah Scoblionkov reports from Trenton, New Jersey. [Wired News]
IBM, Sony Join Forces for SDMI - The two superpowers marry their technologies to try and secure digital music downloads for the big music labels. [Wired News]
IBM, Banco do Brasil Brew Some Serious Java - A $180 million deal between Big Blue and Latin America's biggest retail bank sets the stage for one of the largest client investments in Java and OS/2 technology yet. [Wired News]
Who Needs Crypto? Paging Bill Clinton ... - The Clinton administration, in the midst of a fight to limit the availability of strong encryption, has come face-to-face with an embarrassing example of what can happen when its own communications go unprotected. [Wired News]
Justice Department Appeals COPA - With only hours to spare, the Justice Department appealed its loss of a lawsuit that restricted online erotica in the name of protecting children. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Lycos Embraces Open Web Index - The portal licenses Netscape's Open Directory Project, a massive index of Web sites built and managed by volunteers. Backers say it's the only way to keep up with the Net's growth. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Berkeley Buy-Out Brings Layoffs - CUC's acquisition of the wacky game-maker means a management shake-up and staff cuts. [Wired News]
Pentagon's Landmine View Called Overblown - The United States' policy on landmines in Korea is based on the flawed results of computerized Pentagon war games, a report charges. [Wired News]
Shaping Online Privacy - Cypherpunks meet senators and lawmen meet libertarians at an international conference on Internet privacy. They'll have plenty to talk about. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Investors Endure Bumpy Flight - Wall Street runs into some big-time turbulence as the market undergoes a particularly volatile session. Has the Dow's record run finally hit a wall? By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
AMCY on the Spot, Files for Chapter 11 - With its president already removed, American Cybercast lays off 25 of its remaining 40 employees. [Wired News]
Free-Lancers Have Just Begun to Fight - After losing an important court decision on electronic copyrights, the lead plaintiff for free-agent scribes suggests that the battle will be rejoined both in the courtroom and in Congress. [Wired News]
Big Brother Taps the Bitstream - Attendees at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference delve into how governments are listening in on their people in Russia, Austria, and yes, the United States. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Meet the New Net Stocks - A bunch of new tech stocks will hit the market next week. Not surprisingly, analysts expect they'll do quite well. But watch out -- with scores of Net start-ups launching IPOs in the next few weeks, investors will inevitably become choosier. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Editors Reject News Site Ratings - A group of news executives agree that content filtering should be left up to the browser makers - and the users themselves. [Wired News]
New FCC Chief Confirmed - William Kennard wins a 99-1 Senate vote, but gets reminders that Congress is unhappy with the agency. [Wired News]
Yugoslav Dissident Lauded - The man who strung the Internet into embattled Yugoslavian broadcaster Radio B-92 won a Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And he's there to claim his prize. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
AltaVista Hazy on Sold Searches - Some AltaVista search results will be soon be generated by money, and some by machine. The ad agency says we'll be able to spot the difference. Critics aren't so sure. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Excite Reports Loss for Quarter - The earnings announcement follows news that the online directory is partnering with WhoWhere to offer free Web-based email. [Wired News]
Pete du Pont's Pit Stop - When the politician-turned-publisher idles his PR hot rod at the Wired News HQ, sifting through the exhaust is a wild ride in itself. [Wired News]
Ballmer: Linux Is Threat to MS - In a speech at a Windows hardware conference, Microsoft President Steve Ballmer noted that the underdog operating system may not stay that way for long. [Wired News]
IMall Busted for False Claims - The Federal Trade Commission fines iMall for making false claims through infomercials. Also: America Online plans to provide access through non-PC devices. [Wired News]
Consumer Groups Seek ATT Rate Hike Warning - Re-classification as a dominant carrier would require the long-distance providers to give notification prior to rate changes. [Wired News]
Rebuilding a Broken Society Online - As Bosnia's tenuous peace continues to hold, a group of wired US legal scholars tries to use the Net to help reconstruct the country's shattered legal system. [Wired News]
House Member Preps Privacy Bill - Representative Ed Markey says he is putting the final touches on legislation that aims to give consumers broad control over how their data is collected and used online. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Resume Slide - In an unusually turbulent session, blue-chip stocks manage to eke out a fifth-straight record high, while tech shares continue their adventure in deep-sea diving. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
AOL Brings Instant Messaging to Lotus - The online service is spreading its popular service via tech companies. Also: Sony is looking for a piece of the data-over-cable action and is sidling up to Cisco to get it. [Wired News]
Crypto Confab: Talking Code with No Consensus - A group of encryption experts gets together in New York to discuss whether US national policy has reached a crisis point. Agreement? Your cat has a better shot at breaking 128-bit code. [Wired News]
MP3 Foes Cussing Out in DC - Stick MP3s loudest cheerleader up on a stage with a music industry lawyer and you end up with flared tempers and plenty of four-letter words. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
The Wired News Week - The sordid saga of Sex.com unfolds.... AltaVista starts selling search results.... IBM and Microsoft enter the e-music game... Red Hat sends Linux-heads to the beach... And more news and goings-on. [Wired News]
IBM Takes a Wrecking Ball to Net 'Mall' - Big Blue will shutter its year-old World Avenue "shopping mall" next month, a grim reminder that if you build it, they won't always come. [Wired News]
Southern Africa Trying to Climb Online - Generally considered the poorest region of the poorest continent, sub-Saharan Africa is getting wired. And although technology is not making poverty go away, it may be planting the seeds of a new order. [Wired News]
Crypto Cabal: Make Code Not Guns - Crytographers and civil-liberties activists grouse about the privacy threats of a new arms-control treaty. A US Commerce Department official says they're missing the point. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Fund Giant Trims Tech Holdings - The largest US mutual fund sells off some overvalued big-name tech stocks. It could be a warning sign for investors. [Wired News]
The Street Strikes Back - When Dow Jones Company instituted a subscription fee for The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, many new-media savants predicted its patrons would jump ship. They were wrong. [Wired News]
Corporate Censorship, Part II: Chilling Effect - The government is doing relatively little institutionalized censoring these days, Jon Katz says. [Wired News]
MS Wags the Privacy Awards - The Big Brother Awards chide companies that threaten civil liberties, and reserve an especially grim gift for Redmond. But Microsoft plays it up, and comes off unscathed. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Boeing Passes Y2K Test - The world's biggest airplane maker says that its jets won't fall out of the sky on New Year's Eve 1999. [Wired News]
Net Surf: Crashing Online - As the market did its spectacular face-plant on 27 October, you could almost hear Jerry Seinfeld's trademark sneer: "This is going to be a shame." [Wired News]
Security Experts Bound for Cyberterra Incognita - The Manhattan Cyber Project might be better named Virtual Lewis and Clark as corporate, university, and government officials set out to explore the wilds of private and public network security. [Wired News]
Miffed Judge Subpoenas AOL - A Pennsylvania judge, the subject of a hit piece on a muckraking Web site, subpoenas the online service to surrender the name of her anonymous accuser. Civil liberties groups rally to the writer's defense. By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
Internet Stocks Soar Down Under - Australians flock to Internet offerings -- everything from blue chips with online operations to pure Internet plays to tiny start-ups looking for venture capital. [Wired News]
Mpath Teams with Electronic Arts - An exclusive licensing and minority investment deal will deliver EA titles to the Mplayer network - and strikes a blow against gaming rival TEN. [Wired News]
That Reeking Smell? It's Journalism, not Chicken - The Food Lion-ABC News case smells sickeningly familiar to Jon Katz. [Wired News]
MS Targets Trademark Abuse - Microsoft pursues a German Web site for using the popular Linux call to arms, "Where do you want to go tomorrow?" It claims the slogan violates its trademark. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Compaq Execs Abandon Ship - A stunning weekend announcement from the world's No. 1 computer maker: Its CEO has resigned and so has the company's chief financial officer. [Wired News]
Street Cred: Nice Pants - Searching for the perfect fit? A Levi's store in Sacramento uses its computer network to offer custom-tailored jeans, factory direct. [Wired News]
Lobbying on Eve of Clinton Net Summit - The president and his Number Two man will preside over a three-day session on keeping kids safe online. Today is preview day. [Wired News]
Can Media Make a Killer? - What causes a good geek to go very, very bad? A new federal lawsuit blames videogames, erotic Web sites, and a violent movie for the deaths of three Kentucky high-school students. By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
In Vegas, Everyone's a Visionary - High tech and Hollywood converge at the National Association of Broadcasters to hash out the next big thing in digital entertainment. Hooray for HollyWeb. Joanna Glasner reports from Las Vegas. [Wired News]
Web Proves Costly to Financial Firms - Institutions are spending as much as US$23 million to switch from purely promotional sites to more complex online offerings. [Wired News]
Net Decency Law Looks Like Dead Meat - In a tough hearing on one of the crucial free-speech cases of the century, some savvy-sounding justices question the sweep of the Communications Decency Act. John Heilemann reports from the high court. [Wired News]
The Spam That Started It All - Five years ago, a pair of lawyers pushed an advertisement out onto the Internet. Big deal? Actually, it was. That crack in the dam unleashed a cataclysm. Perspective by Ray Everett-Church. [Wired News]
Salon.com Going Public - Salon.com files for an initial public offering. Also: Go2Net buys auction site. [Wired News]
Net Surf: Odd Business Tactics - The world of new-product development owes a massive debt to the peanut-butter/chocolate mathematics wrought by Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. [Wired News]
CDA Victors Celebrate with an Eye on Act II - The coalition of civil and Internet liberties groups that beat back the Communications Decency Act say its important that the effort to protect children from online smut focus on education and providing good filtering tools. [Wired News]
Congress Wants Broadband Study - After much prodding by America Online and ISPs, lawmakers say they want the FCC to study the way cable-TV companies are hogging the high-speed Net access business. [Wired News]
BellSouth Buys Chunk of Qwest - BellSouth, looking to beef up its business-oriented, high-speed telecom services, buys about 10 percent of Qwest for US$3.5 billion. [Wired News]
Reuters, CheckFree to Link Quotes, E-Commerce - The partnership is a shrewd move for the two companies, allowing each to make inroads into the other's area of expertise. [Wired News]
Katz's Communications Decency - In which the Media Ranter DIYs a more realistic CDA. [Wired News]
Porn Industry Knows Its Worth - Boosters do the math for California state legislators in a play to stave off regulation. Its contribution to the economy? US$875 million from the Net alone, they say. Heidi Kriz reports from Sacramento. [Wired News]
Blue Chips Surge, Techs Tank - While the Dow climbs amid fresh merger activity and upbeat earnings, a boardroom coup at Compaq sends tech stocks plunging. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Intel, Infoseek Post Mixed Results - In a week filled with earnings reports, the chipmaker reports a decline in quarter-on-quarter earnings, while the directory service posts another quarter of losses. [Wired News]
Pretty Good Privacy Not Looking So Great - PGP's new owner supports key recovery - the very issue that crypto company founder Phil Zimmermann has been fighting for years. So where does he go from here? [Wired News]
Web Tax Fight Warning - City and county leaders threaten a lawsuit unless Capitol Hill ensures the objectivity of a Web tax panel. It's the second warning. Looks like they really mean it. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Get Butchered - The Nasdaq plummets more than 5 percent as a boardroom coup at Compaq sparks a massive sell-off. The Dow's streak of record closes comes to a crashing halt. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Scans: Connecting to Cambodia - CamNet, Cambodia's first Internet service provider, is struggling to connect the rising nation to the global community. [Wired News]
Site Wages Fight for Breast-Cancer Bills - Two congresswomen who have so far been unable to get a hearing for legislation that would require insurance companies to cover a wider range of breast-cancer treatment try to stir some grass-roots support on the Web. [Wired News]
Take My Email, but Not My Data - What kinds of information are people willing to share online? A new study purports to tell us. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
After the Fall, a Rebound - Tech and Internet stocks are warily returning to life following Wall Street's bloodbath a day before. Will it last? Don't hold your breath. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
US Robotics Offers X2 Customers Free Upgrades - The move signals that the war among competing 56-Kbps modems is shifting from technologies to market share. [Wired News]
Kerrey's Crypto Bill: Spies Like Us - The Nebraska Democrat's draft bill looks a lot like one put out by the White House nearly two months ago. Privacy activists see a lot of Cold War thinking in the proposal. [Wired News]
Reefer Madness in Illinois - A bill that makes it a crime to send information about marijuana over the Web is advancing through the state legislature. Opponents expect it to go up in smoke. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
'Net No Threat to Broadcasting' - The FCC's top man says outfits like Yahoo and Broadcast.com have a long way to go to snag the audience and the reach of traditional broadcasters. Joanna Glasner reports from the broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. [Wired News]
Sun-Newton Purchase: The Logic of It - An operating system written in Java is about to be released for the CPU inside the top-end Newton. [Wired News]
Word's Out: Time to Change Domain-Name System - The hundreds of comments submitted to the Commerce Department are sometimes boringly practical and sometimes wacky, but the consensus from netizens and Net commerce is that the system must change. [Wired News]
China's PM: Trade Gap Is Good - Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji told an MIT audience that the trade deficit between his country and the United States can only spell good news for China's tech development. Jill Priluck reports from Cambridge, Massachusetts. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Come Roaring Back - The silicon bunch stage an impressive rally following Wall Street's bloodbath a day earlier. The entire market advances as investors find new reserves of confidence. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
AOL Posts Sentry against Viruses - With more of its members downloading Trojan horses, the service is introducing an automatic warning system to keep enemies at bay. [Wired News]
You've Got Mail - from the Judge - Tradition-bound Western courts recognize a changing world and begin issuing orders over the Internet. [Wired News]
Free Speech on Trial in Tacoma - Carl Johnson didn't stop ranting about the US government until it landed him in jail. Now the nation's most outspoken crypto advocates are in court to defend him. Declan McCullagh reports from Tacoma, Washington. [Wired News]
Microsoft Profits Up 43 Percent - The world's biggest software company says strong sales of its Windows and Office products result in another solid quarter. But Microsoft warns of a possible slowdown as customers spend available money on Y2K fixes. [Wired News]
Japanese Animator Buys into DirecTV Unit - The parent company of Japan's hottest animation producer will take a 10 percent stake in DirecTV's Japanese subsidiary as the satellite broadcast market in Japan gears for takeoff. [Wired News]
Telcos Attack FCC's School-Wiring Order - Telecom giant SBC has gone to court to overturn last month's Federal Communications Commission order to set up a $2.25 billion yearly fund for wiring the nation's schools and libraries. GTE has filed a separate suit, and other companies' suits are expected to follow. [Wired News]
Y2K Brings Open Skies to Mideast - Egyptians and Israelis compare notes on how their airports are progressing on the Y2K readiness front. Chalk up another one for the peace process. Tania Hershman reports from Jerusalem. [Wired News]
Compaq Bites the Bullet - New chief Ben Rosen calls US$281 million profit on $9.4 billion revenues unacceptable. Also Borders CEO resigns, and Sprint PCS hands Lucent another huge contract. [Wired News]
Qwest Set for Fiber-Optic Expansion - Sinking about $375 million into the expansion of its high-capacity network into California, Texas, and the Southeast, the company is especially keen to sign up Silicon Valley firms. [Wired News]
Who Says Air Force Jet Is 'Lost?' - A pilot familiar with the terrain in which an Air Force attack jet vanished earlier this month takes a sober look at the circumstances. Plus, NORAD on alert. [Wired News]
Report: Feds Need Privacy Lesson - As the US government places pressure on Internet companies to be upfront about personal data collection, a new report suggests Uncle Sam should get his house in order first. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Stocks Trading Through the Night - Nasdaq is considering setting up an evening stock trading session for all those day traders who have day jobs. If Nasdaq gets the approvals, evening trading could happen as early as this summer. [Wired News]
Intel Views NC as Its Theater of Operations - With a parade of multimedia business applications, the chipmaker's approach is clear: Turn up the hype. [Wired News]
CDA Fate? The Un-Justices Have Already Ruled - Bill, Antonin, and the rest of the Supremes can take it easy - a law prof and his students have written an opinion on the Net decency law. [Wired News]
Supreme Court Setback for Annoy - The Supreme Court upholds a remaining strand of the CDA that makes it illegal to communicate with intent to annoy. It's a setback for free speech crusader and annoy.com editor Clinton Fein. [Wired News]
'Must Click TV' Ready to Roll - Interactive TV isn't exactly a new concept, but backers say services that will energize couch potatoes are now there. Two-way TV is no longer an if, but a when. Vince Beiser reports from Las Vegas. [Wired News]
Java Fund Roster Grows by One - The Kleiner keiretsu adds a distribution and service firm to its exclusive list of Java startups. [Wired News]
Senate Bills Challenge Clinton on Crypto - Two bills, including a new version of the Pro-CODE bill, hit the Senate floor. Both try for a compromise between privacy and security concerns. [Wired News]
How to Fight a Cyberwar - A think tank has some bizarre ideas for foiling tech-savvy terrorists -- ideas like itsy-bitsy aerial spies programmed to read "computer emanations." [Wired News]
Broadcasters at Play - This year's broadcasters' convention had the usual back-slapping for the unrivaled power of television, plus a little slapstick. Joanna Glasner reports from Las Vegas. [Wired News]
US Companies Agree to Divvy up Airwaves - The deal, expected to be approved by the FCC later this year, means that ISPs will not have to rely on local phone access in order to provide Net access. [Wired News]
Pockets of Secrecy - Senator Mitch McConnell is invoking disclosure as a panacea, the way some fitness gurus talk about vitamin C. [Wired News]
Canada Aligns with EU on Privacy - While the United States resists the European Data Privacy Directive, Canada declares its support for the law aimed at giving consumers more control over their personal information. Matt Friedman reports from Montreal. [Wired News]
Who's King of the Domains Now? - Will throwing open domain-name registration change the Net at all? Or are new domains, such as .store and .law, needed for real competition? By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Copyrighted Goods to Carry Photocopy Fee - New software will help collect royalties - and may help stem fears of litigation. [Wired News]
Fears, Assurances Orbit Around Cassini Study - NASA takes a new look at the risks of launching a space probe carrying plutonium and concludes they are negligible. But critics see an opening in their fight to change the mission plan. [Wired News]
You? A Terrorist? Yes! - If you've paid cash for a last-minute airline ticket and have a rental car waiting at your destination, you might fit the FAA's new definition of a terrorist. Airline computers know more about you than you think. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Continue Recovery - Just a bump in the road? Monday's carnage quickly fades in the rear-view mirror as investors hit the gas pedal and steer back into favorite technology and Internet shares. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Get Yer Info-Nuggets - A research company has a survey on the most popular business directories on the Web. Paying customers only. [Wired News]
For Venture Capitalists, Australia Is One Big Outback - Money people say that capital-gains taxes Down Under are a key factor in driving investment and intellectual capital away from what on paper ought to be an information-technology powerhouse. [Wired News]
TalkCity.com Taken to Task - A California chat site could be a test case for the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. A trade group says TalkCity.com isn't protecting the privacy of minors. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Healtheon Makes First Big Buy - Healtheon uses some of its high-flying stock as currency to buy a rival, MEDE America. The acquisition will beef up Healtheon's reach into doctors' offices. [Wired News]
Informix Tries to Sort Out Losses - The database software maker blames accounting errors for a US$120.5 million setback in the latest quarter. Hundreds of employees will pay for the mistakes with their jobs. [Wired News]
Senate Spam Bill Proposes Filters, Not Bans - Suddenly, fighting spam is a legislative priority in Congress. A bill introduced by Alaska Republican Frank Murkowski takes a different approach than a House proposal. [Wired News]
US, EU Still Stuck on Privacy - The latest draft of a US plan to sidestep Europe's data privacy rules reveals the two approaches are still an ocean apart. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Lead Broad Rally - Wall Street once again is in fine fettle as investors kiss and make up with their old buddies in the tech 'n' Net club. For its part, the Dow's back to its record-setting ways. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
So Low It's Insanely Great - Nanoscale commerce? Micropayment service providers, such as Digital Equipment Corp., are first trying to figure out how to minimize overhead costs. [Wired News]
To Be Continued: TV Ratings Far from Settled - Everything from this point on will depend on which side lobbies the loudest and the best, Michael Grebb says. [Wired News]
Log On, with a Note from Mother - You say you're a grown-up? Prove it. New rules regulating the online privacy of children say email verification doesn't go far enough. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Big Blue's Big Surprise - Whoever said IBM is a dinosaur is right: It's a badass T. rex. The world's biggest computer company reports first-quarter earnings far above Wall Street expectations. Stock surges in after-hour trading. [Wired News]
Milking the WebTV Cash Cow - A leading Wall Street analyst says Microsoft's acquisition of WebTV could pay off big, but it may take some patience. [Wired News]
Mutant Ruling Down Under - An Australian appeals judge, in an apparently inaccurate reading of US case law, ruled recently that words suggesting a crime are themselves criminal. Net activists see the ruling as a chilling precedent and are going all-out to overturn it. [Wired News]
Guilty Verdict for Cypherpunk - A federal judge rejects arguments that newsgroup rants against Bill Gates and the IRS were expressions of free speech. Carl Johnson is convicted of threatening public officials. Chris Stamper reports from Tacoma, Washington. [Wired News]
Hot IPOs Are Flaming Out - Want to get in on an exciting Net company the first day it hits the market? Bad idea. Most new Net stocks are trading far below their IPO highs. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Quiet Blankets Apple Death Watch - Thousands of people are expected to be struck from the 13,000-position payroll, but staffers won't learn until next week whether they'll be keeping their jobs. [Wired News]
Network Solutions to Keep Hold on Names, for a While - A Commerce official tells a House panel there simply isn't enough time to get a new domain-name system in place before the government's contract with the exclusive registrar runs out. [Wired News]
AOL Gets a Slice of .com - Network Solutions loses its lock on domain registration as America Online and four others join the competition. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Accountants Tighten Merger Noose - The group that sets US accounting standards tightens a popular corporate loophole for making gigantic acquisitions. Acquisitive high-tech companies could get caught in the knot. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
AT&T To Reorganize, Cut Jobs - The telecom giant announced it would be streamlining operations by centralizing control of myriad businesses and cutting about 1 percent of its work force. [Wired News]
Sci-Fi Site Operators Take on Spammers - The plaintiffs argue that people's pseudonymous identities, which they say are as important as their corporeal counterparts, shouldn't be appropriated by spammers. [Wired News]
Open Source in Open Court - A Harvard Law School professor takes the spirit of cooperation and altruism from the open-source software movement into the adversarial world of civil law. By Heidi Kriz. [Wired News]
German, Italian Telcos to Merge - Telecom Italia and Deutsche Telekom agree to merge in a transaction worth US$81.5 billion, forming the largest telephone company in the world. But huge international hurdles lie ahead. [Wired News]
Cablevision Scores a Monopoly in NY Sports - The cable operator's increased interest in Madison Square Garden means New Yorkers can look forward to paying for separate channels for each team rather than having them included as a part of a basic cable package. [Wired News]
Next on US E-Commerce Agenda: Convince Europe - Now that President Clinton has made a forceful declaration that the Internet should be a free-trade zone, US officials confront the task of getting Europe to see the White House way as the right way. [Wired News]
The Bug Inside the Beltway - A rosy report on Y2K readiness, this time from the White House. How do you reconcile its findings with congressional predictions of doom and gloom? A news analysis by Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
Lucent Report: Another Winner - The telecom equipment giant beats Street forecasts as revenues grow by one-third. Also Microsoft has a friend, CBS goes .com-hunting again, and China telecom prize on the line. [Wired News]
Mercury Mail Changes Name - In response to a lawsuit by the San Jose Mercury News, the email news service will now be called Infobeat. [Wired News]
AOL Plays Anti-Pedophile Strategy Close to Vest - While content providers vow to become virtual Net deputies in the war against kiddie porn and the pervs who love it, America Online is close-lipped about its intentions. [Wired News]
No Smut Please, We're Australian - A proposed Australian law would force Internet service providers to block foreign and domestic adult-oriented Web sites. Critics say the bill's footprints lead straight to the political offices of a Tasmanian devil. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Webcast or Die - Radio and TV broadcasters must embrace the Net now or face a future without an audience. New media is ready to steal the show. Vince Beiser reports from Las Vegas. [Wired News]
Electric Minds May Go Dark Within Weeks - Founder Howard Rheingold says funder Softbank withdrew an offer to tide over the community Web site. [Wired News]
House Panel Questions FBI's Stance on Tap Law - Three years after it was enacted, a law to modernize police wiretap capability is still far from implementation. One reason, critics say, is the FBI's overreaching approach to digital-age surveillance. [Wired News]
PlayStation Emulator Thwarted - A federal court blocks sales of the Virtual Game Station in what could be a precedent-setting decision. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Inktomi Makes Impulse Buy - Inktomi, a publisher of search software, buys Impulse Buy to beef up its online retailing engine. Also: US regulators sue stock hoax suspect.... Domain name registrations surging at Network Solutions. [Wired News]
Got a Yen for a Cheap PC? Try Tokyo - A not-very-scientific study points the way to a bargain. But if you're really looking for a low-end notebook computer, try New York - or almost anywhere else. [Wired News]
Privacy Activists Not Sold on AOL Move - Those working to maintain protections for online users say that the company's new terms of service still contain disturbing provisions. [Wired News]
Library Won't Appeal Porn Ruling - A cash-strapped Virginia library decides not to appeal a court ruling that it violated the First Amendment by installing Net filtering software. By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
Big Blue Boosts Big Rally - IBM whips estimates -- whips 'em good -- with a spectacular quarter. Tech and blue-chip stocks both find reasons to rejoice in the company's stellar performance. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Cisco Goes for Diversity, Links with Alcatel - The networking giant adds two more acquisitions to its ongoing shopping spree, and looks for new technologies to emerge from a tie-up with its French counterpart. [Wired News]
Little Pig, I'll Blow Your Site Down - The Nottinghamshire County Council is huffing and puffing at mirror sites in North America to remove a child-abuse report it had suppressed. [Wired News]
Internet 'Kidnapping' Debunked - It seemed like another Internet chat room nightmare -- woman meets man online, man kidnaps woman. But this story has a different ending. Matt Friedman reports from Montreal. [Wired News]
US: Stockpile Oil for Y2K - The US energy office says it looks like the oil supply won't be disrupted by Y2K trouble, but homeowners and businesses ought to fill their heating-oil tanks before 1 January 2000. Better to be safe than sorry. [Wired News]
Digital to Resell Netscape Server Products - The deal reflects a trend for Netscape to sell to small corporate clients through third parties. [Wired News]
Nasa.com Back in Orbit - A lot of people looking for the nasa.gov site are irked to find the unrelated nasa.com site instead. NASA responded by shutting down nasa.com. It's not as easy as it looks. [Wired News]
Next They'll Ban Rubber Duckies - When the National Security Agency moved to ban fuzzy, adorable Furby dolls from its headquarters, spooks were none too impressed. Internal NSA discussion groups were buzzing with questions about how a toy could be a security risk. [Wired News]
Compaq Promises Better Days - At the annual shareholders' meeting in Houston, Compaq's embattled chairman asks investors for patience while the computer maker gets its act together. But shareholders call for blood. [Wired News]
Worlds Inc. Seeks Buyer - The maker of the Worlds Chat forum is shopping itself around, and hopes to announce a deal within the next two months. [Wired News]
Clinton, Gore Want to 'Empower' Parents - The White House will announce a set of proposals, including the wider use and implementation of filtering software and ratings systems, intended to give parents more control over what their kids encounter online. [Wired News]
DNA Databases Go Too Far - A Texas congressman says that the idea of the US government keeping biometric databases on its citizens stinks. And he's introducing legislation to pull the plug. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Big Blue Fuels Big Gains - Wall Street enjoys another record-breaking day in the sun as IBM trounces expectations with a spectacular quarter. Tech and blue-chip stocks go through the roof. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Global 800 Numbers Could Slash Overseas Rates - Foreign carriers could be forced to cut international rates if a new system of global toll-free numbers catches on. [Wired News]
As Britain Withdraws, New Royalty Reigns - As the whole world watched the end of a century and a half of British imperial glory, a crowd that wanted no part of the historic scene gathered to watch a coronation. Also, Wired News' complete series on Hong Kong's transition. [Wired News]
Commerce Tech Boss Checks In - Trust is the key to the digital future, says the man with his hands on the reins of the federal government's e-commerce strategy. Christopher Jones reports from San Francisco. [Wired News]
CEO of Troubled Iridium Quits - The struggling satellite phone company's chief executive is stepping down, effective immediately. [Wired News]
Canada: A Nation Sans Spam? - The Canadian Direct Marketing Association just says no to spam. [Wired News]
The Battle for Net Freedom Is Not Over - No matter what the Supreme Court decides after listening to Net censorship arguments, defenders of free speech on the Net already have new battles to fight. [Wired News]
Hotmail, the Anti-Spam? - The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail elects a new board member from the MSN's Hotmail email service. Will he give the anti-spamming organization some inside advice? [Wired News]
AT&T Wants MediaOne - The biggest US phone company wants to be the biggest cable-TV and broadband company, too. AT T makes a stunning US$62-billion offer for the nation's No. 3 cable company, surpassing a rival bid by Comcast. [Wired News]
Time Warner to Sell Some Cable Assets - The move is a further indication that the entertainment behemoth is standing behind its partnership with US West. [Wired News]
Vox PopAOLi - Democrats in Congress feuded with Republicans last week over money to help disaster victims. They hit on the idea of what they no doubt believed was a brave experiment in new politics: They spent all night in an AOL chat room. Well, it was brave. [Wired News]
Y2K Liability Battle Brewing - Caught between business interests on one side and legal lobbyists on the other, Congress must decide who, if anyone, can be held liable for losses stemming from Y2K failures. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Making a Mint on Wallstreet.com - A group of businessmen lucky enough to have registered wallstreet.com in 1994 sell off their golden domain name for -- sit down -- US$1.03 million. The new owner is an online casino. How appropriate. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Smaller Manufacturers Shunning the Net - A survey shows that many smaller companies still feel they don't need the Net to get ahead. [Wired News]
Domain-Name Proposal Hits Storm - As the International Ad Hoc Committee prepares to launch its new Net address scheme, the Clinton administration and a host of others question the deal. [Wired News]
Washington: The Net Must Pay - Like clockwork, every major American tragedy leads to renewed calls to limit the availability of information on the Internet. A Wired News analysis by Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
Starbucks Web Scheme Brewing - Starbucks plans a big online venture -- and it's not coffee-related. Also ETrade stock will do another two-for-one split, and Level 3 goes under the Atlantic. [Wired News]
Digital Planet to Go Public via Direct IPO - The producer of Madeleine's Mind and other entertainment-oriented Web sites will seek financing on the Web. [Wired News]
FTC Urged to Take Strong Stand on Privacy - Too much is known by too many people about too many people, privacy advocates warn, and a new set of voluntary guidelines from eight big consumer database companies does nothing to change that. Plus, tracking down deadbeat parents online. [Wired News]
Barksdale Resigns from Tax Panel - In a move aimed at heading off a potential lawsuit, the Netscape CEO steps down from a government-appointed tax panel. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Stay on Track - Shrugging off a morning slide, tech and Internet shares are once again Wall Street's money magnets. Blue chips lag as investors mull a costly takeover play by AT T. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Obscure Start-Up, TCI Get Interactive - Wink scores its second coup of the week, with a deal to provide the cable giant with interactive technology. [Wired News]
House Panel Rejects Crypto Amendment - In the latest of a series of bitter skirmishes, the House Commerce Committee turns down a proposal to give law enforcement and spy agencies instant accesss to Americans' encrypted data. [Wired News]
Y2K Liability Bill May Be DOA - The White House threatens to veto a Y2K liability measure, saying it eliminates any incentive to solve the problem. There are not enough votes in the Senate to override a veto. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
The Wired News Week - Once-sizzling IPOs cool off ... MP3 to be superseded by streaming audio? ... Hot domain name sells for US$1 million ... New super virus laughs at Melissa ... And other happenings. Compiled by Pete Danko. [Wired News]
Asia's Racing toward Wiredness - Fortune magazine's 'Asia Info Tech' report says Hong Kong and Singapore are chasing after Japan in the connectivity rush. [Wired News]
Trial and Error - Lately, the so-called Nanny Trial reminds us what the O. J. Simpson trial proved once and for all: Modern media have become an overwhelming force in our criminal justice system. [Wired News]
Did AOL Fear Microsoft's Wrath? - Even as it moved to close the deal to acquire Netscape Communications, America Online kept a wary eye on Microsoft. So much so, in fact, that Netscape officials began to wonder if the deal would fall apart. [Wired News]
Net IPOs Line Up for Next Week - A gaggle of Net IPOs are set for next week. They'll all come out with a bang, say analysts, but many may wind up fizzling. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
SonicNet Sets Course for Japan - The online music magazine has signed a deal with Japanese partners as part of an effort to spread its content abroad. [Wired News]
TV Forecast: Static, Some Digital Clearing - Two cable announcements last week show that the TV industry is moving toward a rollout of high-definition programming in the next couple of years. But it's still impossible to tell what digital choices consumers will have. [Wired News]
Safe Harbor: No Port in a Storm? - A US government proposal to appease Europe on the hotly contested privacy-policy issue will only harm consumers on both sides of the pond, a coalition of consumer groups says. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Hold the Line - Wall Street struggles through an unusually volatile day to end the week on a mixed note. Tech and Net shares cling to higher ground, but blue chips throw in the towel. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
ATT Says US West Is Dragging Feet on Accord - Ma Bell filed a complaint with the Iowa Utilities Board saying US West isn't complying with an accord on local phone service. [Wired News]
Australian ISPs Battle Copyright Onus - An Australian copyright-holders group, emboldened by a court victory forcing a national telephone company to pay royalties for 'on-hold music,' is demanding that ISPs collect copyright fees for music served online. [Wired News]
Intel Says Spamming is Trespass - A California judge grants the chipmaker an injunction that bars a former employee from sending anti-company emails to current workers. The worker vows an appeal. [Wired News]
Senator Slams AT&T Cable Bid - Senator McCain says AT T's bid for MediaOne would hurt consumers if successful. He feels the 1996 Telecommunications Act is to blame. [Wired News]
Bells About to Toll on TELE-TV - Scale back? Merge? Pull the plug? Judgment day awaits programming venture. [Wired News]
Gov't Brief Says CDA Will Save Free Speech - Todd Lappin says the government's brief in Reno v. ACLU reads with all the passion of a coroner's report. [Wired News]
Slow Progress on Y2K Bill - Key Senate Democrats agree to amendments that could advance Y2K liability legislation. The White House has already threatened a veto. [Wired News]
Ericsson Aims Higher, Highest - The Swedish mobile-phone maker has plans to surpass Nokia and Motorola, though not this year. The expansion would cost more than 10,000 workers their jobs. [Wired News]
Netscape Fails to Wow Wall Street - Once the hottest stock on Earth, Netscape is struggling to find a spin that can reignite interest among investors. [Wired News]
The Bombings: 1978-1995 - The Unabomber's bloody campaign spanned 17 years and touched victims from coast to coast. At least one is waiting to hear why. [Wired News]
Safe Harbor Swimming in Circles - European and US negotiators admit there is still a chance of a trade war if the two regions can't agree on a privacy policy. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
I-Planet's Small World - New software by the maker of Java uses a Web browser to link traveling workers to their desktop computers. Just try leaving the office behind. [Wired News]
Stocks Up, Greenspan Content - The Fed chairman says the market plunge could well be economically "salutary." Markets around the world rally, while New York stabilizes. [Wired News]
Will Roulette Wheel Land on 'Ban' or 'Tax'? - That age-old quandary has resurfaced, this time in connection with that combination of vice and multimedia: Internet gambling. [Wired News]
2000 Looms for US Nuclear Plants - A third of the nation's nuclear plants will not meet a self-imposed deadline for Y2K compliance. What's more, 16 percent have yet to take the first step. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
She's Not Your Mother's ISP - The most fearsome player in the Internet game isn't Microsoft or America Online anymore. It's AT T. Ma Bell sets out to control the high-speed wires into people's homes. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Excite Cuts into Content Crew to Retool Site - The Web directory is moving away from site reviews. Its first step is laying off some of its editorial staff. [Wired News]
Drawing the Line on the New Censorship - Jon Katz continues to explore where criticism ends and censorship begins. [Wired News]
Philly Shoots for 'Smart' Guns - Philadelphia hasn't been friendly to gun control in the past, but a new bill proposed by the mayor is aimed at forcing consumers to purchase weapons equipped with smart-gun technology. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Spending Spree Spreads to Asia - Another mega deal for global telecom leaders AT T and BT is the bid for Japan's No. 3 carrier. The US$3.7 billion deal also provides a foothold in Japan's mobile-phone market. [Wired News]
HP May Best Cray, NEC on Supercomputer Deal - The National Center for Atmospheric Research may purchase a new supercomputer from Hewlett-Packard, rather than from battling competitors NEC or Cray. [Wired News]
Dialog Breaks Out at Nader Confab - With some of the most aggressive Microsoft antagonists leaving the scene, a substantive discussion erupts about Microsoft's practices and US antitrust law. [Wired News]
Deja News Backtracks on Tracking - After hearing complaints from privacy advocates, community site Deja News decides to stop logging the IP addresses of those who send email from Usenet posts on its site. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Strong Quarterly Growth for PCs - It's no surprise that Compaq is still the world's largest computer maker. But Dell has a solid lock on No. 2, and it's gaining fast. [Wired News]
Ellison's Network Computers Take on WebTV - The Oracle chairman is once again tilting at Microsoft's windmills. He's planning to turn his NCs into Web-TV killers. [Wired News]
FCC Chairman Hundt Resigns - With 13 months left in his term and the last major decision of the Telecom Act of 1996 in place, he decides to leave to spend time with his family. Also, key events in Hundt's tenure. [Wired News]
Where Pols Go, Tech Bucks Follow - High-technology executives, once slow to drop coins in candidates' coffers, are getting the religion of political influence. Decision makers are being written checks faster than you can say "Y2K." By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Lycos Rolls Out Radio Network - The company says the video component will keep users looking at their screens -- and advertisements. Also Global Crossing buys C W's undersea cable services unit, Broadcom in a US$316 million stock deal to acquire Epigram, and ETrade hits 1 million customers. [Wired News]
WebTV Allies with CitySearch and Sidewalk - WebTV's CEO says his company may have committed a 'PR faux pas' by allowing its deal with the Microsoft rival to be announced first. [Wired News]
Crypto Reform Bill Is Now a Changeling - The House Intelligence Committee reverses provisions in Bob Goodlatte's SAFE that would make strong encryption more readily available and make sure that the US is not subject to a national system of giving cops keys to scrambled data. [Wired News]
Lawsuits: Free the Domain-Name 7 - There may be gold in f***.com or c***.com. But Network Solutions has refused to sell the domain names. Two separate litigants try to force their release. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
EBay Buying SF Auction House - EBay, home of Barbies and Beanie Babies auctions, shells out some of its high-flying stock to buy Butterfield Butterfield, a venerable auctioneer of fine arts and antiques. [Wired News]
Help Wanted Ad May Betray AOL's News Plans - Though insisting that it's not getting into the news business, the online service won't say why it suddenly has a need for experienced editors. [Wired News]
Johnny Cash Talks the Line on Copyright Law - The Man in Black appears before a House panel to plead the case for enacting new copyright protections to protect artists from digital pirating of their works. [Wired News]
Y2K: A License to Print Money? - The presses are rolling at the US Federal Reserve Bank. Officials hope to stave off a millennium-bug bank run by distributing billions of dollars in cash. [Wired News]
Iridium Reports Huge Loss - The struggling satellite phone company reports another staggering loss -- a deficit of US$505 million in the first three months of the year. Time to look for a new business model? By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
CES Crawler: Sourpusses Descend on Vegas - Our man at the Consumer Electronics Show learns why geeks have more fun. [Wired News]
Online Jobs Abound, but How Long Will It Last? - College kids, beware: The future of working online is flexibility, not HTML. [Wired News]
Sun Executives Grilled by MS - What did Sun Microsystems executives know about the AOL-Netscape deal and when did they know it? Microsoft lawyers say the impending merger undercut their client's defense case. Heidi Kriz reports from San Francisco. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Out in Front - A week after the Nasdaq crashed and burned, tech and Net shares are again leading the market amid upbeat earnings and a vitamin-enriched PC industry. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
CKS Acquires NY Marketing Firm - SiteSpecific is the latest small, valuable interactive agency to be gobbled up by a big firm. [Wired News]
CDA: From Conception to Supreme Court - A timeline tracing the history of the Communications Decency Act from the mind of Senator James Exon to the cramped courtroom of the nation's highest court. [Wired News]
Volunteer Army to Fight Patent - The World Wide Web Consortium will enlist an open source-style Internet army to try and overturn a patent that threatens what many believe is a key Web privacy standard. By Jennifer Sullivan. [Wired News]
Investors Hold Tight to Tech - Only a week since the Nasdaq crashed and burned, tech and Net stocks once again have the run of Wall Street. The rest of the market looks anemic by comparison. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Random House Ending Multimedia Foray - Once upon a time, publishing houses embraced children's multimedia projects. But with mounting losses, Random House wants to close the book on Living Books. [Wired News]
Congress May Legislate Domain Names - A House panel is waiting for a Commerce roadmap before it begins drafting a bill to prevent non-US registration of top-level Net names. [Wired News]
Net Overloads US Patent Agency - The US Patent and Trademark Office can't hire people fast enough to keep up with skyrocketing demand for Internet patents, let alone stay current with the technology. By Jennifer Sullivan. [Wired News]
MIT's Geek Sweepstakes - Student entrepreneurs polish their business plans as MIT's $50K Entrepreneurship Competition heads into the home stretch. Is the next Firefly among them? [Wired News]
CompuServe Fences Off Naughty Bits - The online service will move all adult content to a not-very-secure gated community of sorts. [Wired News]
Govs, Mayors Issue New Warning on Net Tax Bill - Moratorium on taxes would hurt economies, violate state sovereignty, they say. [Wired News]
Europe Demands Clean Computers - The European Commission's proposed ban on toxic chemicals could set the electronics industry back US$50 billion. By Louise Knapp. [Wired News]
Is the Spectrum a Tribal Right? - New Zealand says it has tried to be fair with the aboriginal Maoris, especially when it comes to sharing natural resources. But how do you share the islands' radio spectrum? Stewart Taggart reports from Sydney, Australia. [Wired News]
Intel, Compaq Join Hands for PC Theatre - The two megacompanies want to be in the emerging market that merges computing with traditional forms of entertainment content on large-screen displays. [Wired News]
Spamming Lawyer Disbarred - Laurence Canter, notorious for spamming listservs and Usenet to promote his legal practice, loses his license to practice in Tennessee. Those who loathe junk email hope similar deserts are in store for others. [Wired News]
Tripped Up on Commodity Tips - A federal lawsuit challenges basic regulatory principles in a case involving Web sites that dispense commodity-investment advice. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
NBC's Must-See HDTV - NBC makes its boldest leap yet into high-definition television by launching the Tonight Show in the ultraclear digital format. The picture's great. Still one problem: No one's watching. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Pixar Closes CD-ROM Division - The computer-animation studio sold almost 1 million copies of its Toy Story titles, but now it will focus on movie-related projects in partnership with Disney. [Wired News]
Cool Reception for McCain-Kerrey Crypto Bill - Legislation that to date has had smooth sailing ran into rough waters when virtually no one at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing offered wholehearted support. [Wired News]
Feds Lose Billions on Y2K - A new General Accounting Office report says federal agencies have let billions of dollars earmarked for Y2K repairs slip through their fingers. [Wired News]
AT&T's Roll Continues - The company announces higher than expected earnings, and a deal with Japan's NTT. Also Free online service planned for Europe, and Amazon goes on a buying spree. [Wired News]
San Francisco Dream Job: Creative Director - Atomic Vision wants a creative director to give context to Web clients. [Wired News]
Hearing After Hearing for Kashpureff - The domain-name activist gets another hearing - and promises of more next month - as he remains jailed in Toronto. His lawyer says he will start a defense fund for the AlterNIC proprietor. [Wired News]
How Much Damage Did Mitnick Do? - Companies targeted by Kevin Mitnick claim the notorious cracker cost them US$300 million. But a hackers' journal supporting Mitnick thinks the figure is inflated. Douglas Thomas reports from Los Angeles. [Wired News]
Business Wire Sues Pranksters - Business Wire, a press release distributor, sues three people for sending out a sham press release. Also Amazon offers online greeting cards, and Sprint buys wireless cable-TV system. [Wired News]
PointCast, DirecTV Focus on Japan - By offering new services in the Japanese market, the two companies are aiming to establish a toehold for other Asian endeavors. [Wired News]
The Digital TV Giveaway - Broadcasters control the tube. The tube is the life-support system for national officeholders. So is it any surprise that broadcasters won't have to pony up for their new slice of public airwaves? John Heilemann reports. [Wired News]
House Panel Endorses Y2K Bill - The House Judiciary Committee, led by Republicans, approves a bill to curb Y2K lawsuits. Democrats charge that the legislation could hurt consumers. [Wired News]
Keeping the Menace Down - While the RIAA clamps down on MP3 and copyright violations of a Phantom Menace single, an email filtering service wants to rid your network of the trailer video. [Wired News]
Oracle Helps Customize CNN's Web Site - CNN Interactive adds a feature that gives users a sophisticated way to filter news stories. [Wired News]
Judge Affirms Crypto Free-Speech Ruling - In a follow-up to a case fought in a San Francisco federal courtroom last year, a judge said that the US government's crypto-export policy remains unconstitutional. [Wired News]
Clinton Makes Play for Privacy - The White House proposes measures to protect consumers online. Privacy advocates say a surveillance clause goes too far. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Blue Chips Back in Form - Tech and Net stocks are elbowed aside as investors renew their affection for Wall Street's old guard. Like clockwork, traders are once again leery of sky-high prices. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Aristotle Offers Help against Unwanted Spam - A new service gives registered voters the right to block spam emails and penalizes promoters that misuse information. [Wired News]
Web Piracy Dispute Turns on Free Content - One issue in a suit by a legal database publisher against a rival is plain theft. Underlying that is a struggle over how to make content available free of charge. [Wired News]
Click Here for Safe Surfing - The White House and prominent Web sites react to fears that the Internet played a role in the Columbine High School massacre. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
States Want Area Code for Mobile - With cellular phone use on the rise, several states are worried about a shortage of numbers. They're asking the government to let them create separate area codes for wireless devices. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Business School to Have Knowledge Professor - Fuji Xerox and Xerox are uniting to fund a US$1 million endowment to study information at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. [Wired News]
Taking on the 'Culture of Prohibition' - The Drug Reform Coordination Network agrees with The New York Times and the White House about one thing - the Internet plays an important part in the national drug issue. But where others fear the Net as a dope den, DRCNet sees it as an indispensable tool for bringing rationality to the debate. [Wired News]
Truste Boss Plots His Course - Seasoned Internet marketing and operations pro Bob Lewin takes charge of the privacy seal program, with an eye to beefing up relationships inside the Beltway. [Wired News]
Selling PCs the Mary Kay Way - A PC marketer uses one-on-one marketing to boost its revenues. The first 10,001 people who agree to annoy their friends and neighbors could earn a free PC. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Apple Mum on Jobs Report - A newspaper report says the co-founder, currently an 'adviser,' is going to be the troubled computer maker's new chairman. [Wired News]
Spam-Control Project Loses a Partner - Experian, part of a three-firm consortium setting up a global opt-in system for handling junk email, quits the effort after a blowup over misuse of the name of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. [Wired News]
AOL: MS Killed Browser Market - An AOL executive says Web browser market share was not a factor in its merger with Netscape, as Microsoft tries to strengthen its defense against antitrust charges. [Wired News]
Blue Chips Hit Record High - The Dow roars back to life following several days of listless performance. High-priced tech and Internet stocks are elbowed aside by wary investors. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Mitnick Lands in Solitary - Locked up on charges of software theft, Mitnick has now been put into solitary, apparently for hoarding food, his lawyer said. [Wired News]
Build a Cell Tower, Fund a Spy - One lawmaker has come up with a way to fund the FBI's wiretapping program and to jack schools into the Net: Lease federal lands to phone companies building wireless towers. [Wired News]
A Personal Data Privacy Bureau? - The online industry has failed in its promise to protect consumer data, say privacy advocates who want to turn the job over to a new federal regulatory agency. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Inside Amazon's Shopping Cart - Amazon downplays its purchase of Alexa Internet, which takes the online bookseller a step closer to personalized online shopping. Privacy advocates are not pleased. A Wired News analysis by Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Trouble in the Wind at Electric Minds - Founding members have left Howard Rheingold's Web-based conferencing center, and the company has had problems making payroll. [Wired News]
Clinton Insider Goes to SF Investment Bank - Tim Newell, widely credited for fostering the mutually rewarding relationship between the Clinton administration and the tech industry, takes a job with Robertson Stephens. [Wired News]
Who Owns Whois Database? - The Justice Department is sniffing around the offices of the reigning king of the dot-com business. Is Network Solutions risking an antitrust charge by refusing to share its database? By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
AOL Profits Set Another Record - The world's biggest online service reports record earnings, revenue, and subscriber numbers. But the stock slips in after-hour trading because some investors were expecting even better. Go figure. [Wired News]
Apple to Lay Off a Third of Its Workers - The struggling company's latest restructuring cuts loose 4,100 people, including 2,700 full-timers. [Wired News]
What Constitutes a Technotragedy? - Technotragedies are caused by events that are not immediately clear or comprehensible, involving technology with often unknown capabilities. They tap into our propensity toward paranoia and fuel our lust for conspiracy. [Wired News]
FTC Spanks Kids Site on Privacy - The Federal Trade Commission enters into a proposed settlement with the company behind Young Investor, a site designed to teach kids about investing. The site gets its knuckles rapped for breaking its promises. By James Glave. [Wired News]
Imaging Satellite Lost in Space - The ballyhooed high-res commercial satellite made by Space Imaging fails to call home. Also Cisco acquires Amteva Technologies, and Redmond backs Internet2. [Wired News]
PeopleSoft Incorporates Internet Solution - Java brings new tricks to the business-applications software maker. [Wired News]
Hundt Plays Lonely Digital TV Gambit - FCC Chairman Reed Hundt has long-term fiscal reasons for pushing early broadcast of digital TV. But industry isn't buying into the scenario. [Wired News]
Landmark Ruling on Encryption - A presidential order limiting encryption exports is ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals panel, which says encryption software is protected by the First Amendment. By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
ABC Inks Video Search Deal - Missed your daily soap? Virage's video searching technology will allow you to check out the good bits, and other network fodder, on the Web. Michael Stroud reports from Carlsbad, California. [Wired News]
Disney Wishing Upon a Starwave Stake? - The companies aren't commenting on a published report, but analysts say the move would help speed up Disney's dream of a major Web presence. [Wired News]
Final Farewell to Cult and Hysteria - The fickle media washes its hands of Heaven's Gate. [Wired News]
Sites Must Retool for Disabled - Pending federal rules will force government Web sites -- and those run by companies doing business with the Feds -- to tweak their design and content to better accommodate disabled users. By Heidi Kriz. [Wired News]
VA Buys Part of Linux Hardware - The Linux hardware market is consolidating as leader VA Research on Wednesday purchases a portion of Linux Hardware Systems. [Wired News]
Yahoo Buys Four11, Secures Compaq, Gateway Deals - The Net's directory power expands its reach and acquires a service that gives it more oomph in the people-search category. [Wired News]
DNC Put a Price on Time with First Lady - Evidence surfaces that in the pursuit of campaign cash, the Democrats sold face time not only with the president, but with his wife, too. [Wired News]
Crypto Wall Comes Tumblin' Down - When a professor tried to publish his crypto research back in 1995, the US government told him not to. Now, following a landmark First Amendment court challenge, he's itching to press "send." By James Glave. [Wired News]
Teaching Hollywood How to Act - They've got the money and Hollywood would dearly love some of it, but Silicon Valley's venture capitalists aren't too keen about the way Tinseltown does business. Also: Can't anybody down there use email? [Wired News]
Entry-Level Dream Job: 3-D Animator - OCS is a family-owned special-effects studio in Southern California that offers a chance to learn and advance. [Wired News]
Paula Jones Is not the Real Issue - Jon Katz on why the media can't help us understand our world. Part I of a series. [Wired News]
Argentine Government: Don't Sweat Y2K - Only one of Argentina's financial institutions remains unprepared for the millennium. Of course, the government won't say which bank the bug might bite. Declan McCullagh reports from Buenos Aires. [Wired News]
Sony Profits Sink Big Time - One of the world's biggest gadget makers says continuing economic trouble around the world is gutting its profits. Expect more of the same next year, the company says. [Wired News]
Dow Jones to Launch Executive Want-Ads - Targeted at The Wall Street Journal's readership, the site will use job listings mostly for well-paid suits. [Wired News]
White House Wrangling over Crypto - In one corner, Louis Freeh, who appears to be carrying the ball for an aggressive new Clinton administration effort to clamp down on encryption. In the not-exactly-opposite corner, William Reinsch, who argues that crackdown proposals go too far. [Wired News]
Court Battle for Cable-TV Limits - AT T's buyout of MediaOne could be affected by a six-year-old law on cable-TV ownership -- that is, if they ever take effect. The regulations are complicated, so pay attention. [Wired News]
Dreamcast Fails to Rescue Sega - The next-generation Dreamcast game console, which came out last November, didn't sell as well as Sega hoped, and the company reports a whopping loss. So much for becoming a PlayStation killer. [Wired News]
Ameritech Withdraws FCC Petition at Last Minute - The company withdrew its application to become the first Baby Bell to enter the long-distance market four days after an FCC rejection. [Wired News]
Tech Execs Invade DC - Bill Gates, Andy Grove, Carol Bartz, and a crew of other powerhouse CEOs penetrate the Beltway with advice on how to keep their industry healthy and happy. [Wired News]
Spying on the Spies - Concerned that the National Security Agency's Echelon worldwide surveillance network might be up to no good, the European Parliament asked an investigative reporter to dig around. Here's what he found. By Niall McKay. [Wired News]
Another Down Day for Techs - Blue-chip stocks remain Wall Street's darlings as investors favor heavy industry over high technology. AOL turns a tidy profit but still feels the sting of rejection. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Finance Dream Job: Electronic Brokerage - Schwab's Electronic Brokerage is hiring. [Wired News]
Domain Registration in Geneva Assailed - The chairman of a House subcommittee says the United States has too much invested in the Internet to stand by and watch such an important function leave for a foreign country. [Wired News]
Activists Sit Tight on Crypto - Don't post that code yet! The court ruling granting constitutional protection to crypto source code won't take effect for 45 days, and could stall even longer if the feds fight back. By James Glave. [Wired News]
MS Sets Up Streaming Media Unit - It's another indication that Microsoft wants to break into the music distribution business. A top Microsoft exec will oversee the operation. Chris Stamper reports from Seattle. [Wired News]
Hoover's Makes Peace with InfoSpace - The reference publisher's aggressive action in federal court hastens a settlement with the directory service. [Wired News]
IAHC's New Handle? Dangerfield.org - As yet another vocal critic steps up to challenge its plans to roll out seven new generic top-level domains, the biggest question about the work of the now-disbanded International Ad Hoc Committee is whether it will ever get any respect. [Wired News]
Britain Shuts Down Spy Sites - An ex-spy leads the British government on a worldwide chase with his threats to post intelligence secrets on the Net. The sites are coming down as fast as Richard Tomlinson can put them up. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
What's It All About, Andy? - Intel's chairman muses about Internet stocks. Like everyone else, Grove could use a crystal ball. [Wired News]
Apple Braces for More Restructuring - On the eve of the company's plan to announce organizational changes, one insider says Apple 'is crumbling from the top down.' [Wired News]
Compaq Exec: Microsoft Twisted Firm's Arm - In a statement to Justice Department lawyers last week, the company's director of software procurement said the software giant issued threats over the use of a browser icon. [Wired News]
Survey: Web Privacy Improving - While technology companies say survey findings show that the online industry is capable of self-regulation, others aren't so sure. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Techs Take Another Pounding - Investors pick heavy industry over high technology, sending the blue chips to yet another record high. AOL turns a tidy profit and still feels the sting of rejection. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Apple Vows to Slash $400 Million from Operating Costs - Executives said they don't know how the cuts will be accomplished, but warned no sector of the company would be spared. [Wired News]
Germany Gets Radikal About Extremists on Web - Are the German government's tactics for barring extremist material on the Internet realistic? [Wired News]
Domain Case Dismissed - A federal judge throws out a case assailing Network Solutions' first-come, first-served domain registration policy. Is it the antitrust vindication NSI makes it out to be? By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Buy, Buy, Buy Net Stocks - Internet stocks don't make sense, but pro money managers say they're still the greatest buying opportunity in history. Eileen Buckley reports from the Hambrecht Quist Technology Conference. [Wired News]
So Long, Delphi UK - Hello, LineOne - News International is ending the text-based Delphi UK to make room for a new online service it's running with British Telecom. [Wired News]
Poll: Protect Kids from Net Smut - An independent survey finds that most respondents want the government to be more than big brother - and act like a content baby-sitter. [Wired News]
Freeing Windows NT Source Code - A small Connecticut software firm claims Microsoft has locked up the source code to Windows NT in an effort to stifle competition. The software behemoth denies the charges. [Wired News]
Amazon.com Wows Analysts - Amazon beats Wall Street's first-quarter projections with a whopping 236 percent increase in revenues. Losses triple, however. [Wired News]
Sony Slashes US PlayStation Prices by 25% - The move turns the heat up on Nintendo, whose 64-bit game player has gotten off to a promising if late start. [Wired News]
Report Blasts Clinton Crypto Plan - A panel of academic and industrial encryption experts concludes that the White House vision of a global key recovery system is too technically complex and costly to build. Beyond that, it would not adequately protect data. [Wired News]
Shaky Start for Fraud Council - After a big send-off, the Internet Fraud Council is scurrying to correct the impression that it's an FBI-run venture blessed by President Clinton. It's actually a fee-based industry association. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
CIH Virus Culprit Pegged? - An engineering college in Taiwan says a former student named Chen Ing-hau wrote the hard-drive-eating bug.... UK's United News & Media buys tech publisher CMP.... AOL, hungry for audio content, may be pursuing Chancellor Media. [Wired News]
CBooks Buys Computer Literacy Bookstores - The online computer-book retailer will bolster its distribution network with Computer Literacy's inventory and strategically located stores. [Wired News]
FCC's Internet Paper: Who Will Make It So? - A new working paper on the Net is filled with talk about the need for regulatory restraint. Will anyone back up the FCC's talk? [Wired News]
House Passes Y2K Bill - With the technology industry cheering them on, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would sharply limit the ability to sue companies over Y2K disasters. Now it needs Senate approval. [Wired News]
Teen Bids $3.1 Million on EBay - A 13-year-old from New Jersey places US$3.1 million in bids on eBay, including $500,000 for a Van Gogh and $900,000 for an antique bed. Credit didn't check out. Also: MCI WorldCom profits on the rise. [Wired News]
Yahoo, Visa Revamp Commerce Ties - A co-branding arrangement - and hefty payoff - replaces the original plan to jointly run an e-commerce Web site. [Wired News]
TV Copyright Hearings: 'Let Market Rule' - The US Copyright Office holds hearings on the future of the rules that will govern satellite, cable, and broadcast TV. Lots is at stake for everyone involved. [Wired News]
Stiffer Fines Due for Pirates? - Members of the software industry joined the FBI and the Department of Justice to push through legislative amendments that would clean the clocks of those who steal software. By Heidi Kriz. [Wired News]
Amazon Warning Spooks Market - The biggest online retailer says it's going to lose a lot more money before the year is through, and this is sufficient for investors to keep dumping Net and tech stocks. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Dilbert Invades Wall Street Journal - A leading software company is bringing the popular comic strip to the paper's staid pages - but only as a paid ad. [Wired News]
Notes from (the Jon Katz) Underground - Following a reviewer's attack on his inner sanctum, Jon Katz describes the place media rants are born. [Wired News]
US Web Site Outs British Spies - British intelligence struggles for damage control after discovering the names of its secret agents exposed on a US-based Web site. [Wired News]
Rick's Cabaret Shakes It Online - Rick's Cabaret, the only publicly traded chain of strip joints, hires a consulting firm to help the cabaret go online. Too bad www.topless.com is taken. [Wired News]
Cox Weaves Smalltown, USA, into Web - By hitting towns like Nacogdoches, Texas, Cox's local content offerings won't face online arch-rivals Sidewalk and CitySearch - at first. [Wired News]
Sun, Feds Headed for Crypto Showdown? - By setting up a foreign marketing deal for encryption software much stronger than that currently approved by the Commerce Department, Sun Microsystems has challenged the government to a fight over its code-export policy. [Wired News]
US May Pull Belgrade Bandwidth - A US trade embargo against Yugoslavia may threaten a satellite Internet link that serves as a critical communications channel for ordinary citizens. The link is safe -- for now. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Amazon Losses Chill Net Stocks - Profits? Forget it. The biggest online retailer says it intends to blow a lot more cash before the year is through. Investors reply by fleeing anything with a dot com. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Time's Other Debacle: Personal Edition - With sources describing the subscription service as a "technological disaster," the rocky relationship with CompuServe may be facing another big bump. [Wired News]
Critical Mass Rolls - on Street and Online - Cyclo-politics is making headlines in San Francisco, where riders, cops, and politicians are waging a battle for the streets. Critical Mass, the leaderless force facing off with the city, has also staked out a little piece of cyberspace to tell its story and do some strategizing. [Wired News]
Annoy.com Peeved at Blacklisting - Although the site invites users to send their friends explicit, subversive postcards, Annoy.com's founder resents MindSpring filtering everything into the mulcher, as if it were common spam. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Fox Is At Home in Broadband - Fox's online arm inks an agreement with At Home to be the premier broadband news supplier. The deal bumps CNN out of the top slot. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
AOL Network Snafus Disgruntled Users, Survey Says - Nearly half of AOL's 8 million users were disgruntled enough to consider junking the service during its networking troubles earlier this year, a survey suggests. [Wired News]
Timeline: The Act from Cradle to Grave - Tracing the history of the Communications Decency Act from the mind of Senator James Exon to the cramped courtroom of the nation's highest court. [Wired News]
Belgrade Satellite Link Safe - The Clinton administration has decided not to sever the link that allows Serbian ISPs to operate, saying that the Internet can only help the people of Yugoslavia know the truth. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Geeks Going, Going, Gone! - The 16 engineers and managers who tried selling themselves as a team on eBay have vanished without a trace. But a new group has turned up, trying the same thing. By Polly Sprenger [Wired News]
Constellation On Track, Undaunted by IE4 - Netscape and Microsoft insist their audiences are as different as their networking products - but their timing is remarkably similar. [Wired News]
Fight Continues for Crypto Bill - Proponents of the effort to loosen federal government controls on encryption exports and ban the creation of a universal back door to let cops get at scrambled data are in 11th-hour talks to salvage their much-amended legislation. [Wired News]
UK Ex-Spy Denies Posting List - "I'm innocent," claims a British ex-spy who made headlines this week by threatening to distribute a list of UK spies via the Internet. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
AMD Investors Want CEO's Head - The annual AMD shareholders meeting turns ugly as investors openly call for the resignation of CEO Jerry Sanders. Sanders asks for patience. After all, he says, his company's up against Intel. [Wired News]
STATS Scores the OK to Broadcast NBA Info - A federal court rules that sites can transmit game scores over the Net without a license. [Wired News]
Did Gates Really Say 640K is Enough For Anyone? - Jon Katz cites Bill Gates' impassioned denial that he ever said anything as potentially unprofitable as the quote attributed to him. [Wired News]
Not for Sale: Bushsucks.com - Thinking of registering a parody George W. Bush domain, with an eye to lampooning the presidential hopeful? Sorry, they're all taken, and they all point to one place. [Wired News]
Investors Lose Heart, Rally Sput - A broad buying spree sparked by surprisingly strong economic numbers falls flat. But at least tech and Internet stocks are again showing signs of life. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Online Mall Buys Online Bookseller - The Books Now purchase gives the operator of the Access Galaxy Mall something it has lacked as a virtual landlord: product. [Wired News]
Faceless Freedom on the Net - A conference on electronic anonymity focused on high principles. One entrepreneur's experience suggests that everyday realities are just as important in providing a needed service. [Wired News]
NetSol Cleared of Antitrust - A US Court of Appeals clears the domain-name registrar of charges that it refused to add new top-level domains to the .com, .net, and .org family. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
The Wired News Week - Europe and the United States remain an ocean apart on privacy ... a pricey satellite goes up in smoke ... more trouble at Network Solutions ... Iridium's balance sheet looks bleak ... and other happenings. Compiled by Pete Danko. [Wired News]
H-P Posts 'Disappointing' Profit - Earnings are up at the second-biggest computer-maker, but not as much as expected due to higher costs and delays in shipping some products. [Wired News]
Net Regulation: It's Australian for Censorship - The government down under contemplates regulating the Net and allowing the local phone company to charge businesses for Net access. [Wired News]
US Government Exposes Itself - Nobody's giving away any state secrets, but a new search engine allows the public to poke around the myriad of federal sites out there. It isn't free, but at least there's a way to cut through the bureaucracy. By Lindsey Arent. [Wired News]
Comcast Seeks MS, AOL Backing - It could become one of the biggest corporate skirmishes yet. Comcast may ask Microsoft and AOL for financial help in its bid to thwart AT T and buy MediaOne. The prize: a national broadband network into US homes. [Wired News]
Cinemania, Music Central Nearing an End? - With 20 workers' contracts having been canceled, sources in the company confirm reports that Microsoft is withdrawing support for the entertainment Web sites, and may absorb remaining staff into its Sidewalk site. [Wired News]
FTC Hosts Spam Roast - Although the king of junk email told the Federal Trade Commission that spam doesn't hurt anyone, a wave of negative testimony leads one member of the agency's board to call for prosecuting fraudulent junk email. [Wired News]
Canada Won't Regulate Net - The Canadian Internet industry breathes a sigh of relief as the government says that it won't ask Canadian Web sites to adhere to Canadian content policies. Not now, not ever. By Pierre Bourque. [Wired News]
Free ISPs Storm Europe - The high cost of telephone toll charges has kept many Europeans from logging on to the Net. But new business models may bring the disconnected into the fold. David Brake reports from London. [Wired News]
Survey: Many Net Users Looking Beyond PCs - WebTV and handheld terminals strike more than a third of Net-savvy Americans as solid alternatives to sitting in front of a computer. [Wired News]
Law and Order and a Crypto Bill - Despite Justice Department warnings that House encryption legislation will let loose a legion of criminals, SAFE continues to gain momentum. Why? It allows supporters to feel tough on crime and market-friendly. [Wired News]
Ex-Spy Returns to the Cold - A group opposing Internet censorship criticizes the British government for cracking down on a former spy's Web activities. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Boeing Eyes Phone Biz - While other parts of the satellite phone industry are falling out of the sky, Boeing wants a bigger slice of the business. The company is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the Ellipso satellite network. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Excite to Sell Stock - Or Just Buy Time? - The search engine is selling an additional 2.3 million shares to the public amid speculation that it could itself become a target for acquisition. [Wired News]
California Takes on Human Cloning - A bill making its way through the Golden State's Legislature would impose a five-year moratorium on attempts to genetically replicate humans. [Wired News]
Stopping Censorship Down Under - A series of nationwide protests tries to raise awareness of proposed Australian legislation that would criminalize adult content on the Internet. [Wired News]
Huge IPOs Slated Next Week - Some big -- both in size and importance -- initial public offerings are slated for next week. Goldman Sachs will be the one to watch. But a Justice Department probe into the investment bank's practices could sour the week. By Kourosh Karimkhany. [Wired News]
ABC's Rush on Judgment Is a Red-Faced Flub - Due to a "technical glitch," the network's Web site carries word of Timothy McVeigh's guilt an hour before the jury announced its verdict. [Wired News]
Digital Signature Bill on the Way - With states implementing a wide array of laws on online authentication, a senator promises federal action. [Wired News]
Iraqi Paper's Online Edition - A weekly newspaper owned by Saddam Hussein's son launches a Web site to give the world an inside perspective on Iraq. The site may reveal more than he intended. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks in Late Rebound - Trading with more bounces than an NBA game, Wall Street turns in a mixed performance as investors take renewed interest in the silicon crowd. The Dow takes a beating. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Basic Books Succumbs to Crowded Market - HarperCollins decides to close the forward-looking literary division, handing its remaining titles to the adult trade department. [Wired News]
Indian Tribe Launches Online Lottery - But the state of Missouri has already filed suit against the Idaho tribe, which claims that its server rests off US soil since its reservation is "sovereign territory." [Wired News]
Government Info Site on Hold - The Commerce Department changes its mind and pulls down a new fee-based government search engine, concerned that the charges might limit open access to public information. [Wired News]
The Net's Neighborhood Watch - Federal and state agencies have teams of investigators tracking claims of online securities fraud. But they still get some of their best tips from amateurs. [Wired News]
Microsoft Denies Report of CBS Buyout - Executives both in Redmond and at network parent Westinghouse say they have no idea where the New York Post came up with its story about a pending deal. [Wired News]
Report Takes Aim at Cyber Patrol's Blacklist - Activists take a hard look at site-blocking software. The results are not friendly to filtering ears. [Wired News]
Democrats Shoot Down Y2K Vote - Democratic Senators stymie a Republican attempt to introduce Y2K legislation, saying that working on a gun-control measure is a higher priority. [Wired News]
Broadband Gladiators v. MediaOne - MediaOne has reportedly spurned Comcast's buyout offer in favor of a bigger bid by AT T. But don't count the cable operator out. Microsoft and America Online are waiting to join the fight. [Wired News]
Survey: Most Consumers Aren't Upgrading - Despite the encouragement of computer makers, a survey finds that most home users have yet to embrace Pentium machines and Windows 95. [Wired News]
Senators Embrace Mandatory Data Keys - The Clinton administration and the FBI director are finally winning some ardent adherents in Congress for their view that any software using encryption must have a key recovery feature. [Wired News]
Clinton Frees Up Search Site - The White House puts the brakes on a Commerce Department search engine after discovering the results come at a price. For the time being, gov.search is up and running -- and free. By Lindsey Arent. [Wired News]
A Banner Year for Net Ads - Online ad revenue climbed 112 percent to US$1.92 billion, the Internet Advertising Bureau reports. Also SAP's new Net strategy, Free-PC raises US$33 million, and Saudis interrupt phone sex. [Wired News]
Berkeley Systems Acquired by CUC - The membership shopping service giant says the purchase of the After Dark folks is just a "very small acquisition," but it follows other gaming deals. [Wired News]
Technotragedies, Part II: Listening to the Monster - Where Frankenstein, Batman, and The X-Files meet. [Wired News]
MS Trial to Resume 1 June - With no settlement of its federal antitrust case on the horizon, Microsoft is slated to return to court after the Memorial Day weekend. [Wired News]
MediaOne Accepts AT&T Buyout - Ma Bell just got more ferocious. MediaOne, the No. 3 cable-TV company, spurns a previous takeover offer from Comcast and accepts a US$56 billion acquisition bid from AT T. [Wired News]
Infoseek Taps Hoover's for Ad Revenue - In exchange for an equity investment in Hoover's, the search-engine giant will be the exclusive delivery agent for its ad sales. [Wired News]
MS Confab Filled with Worry, Spin, Backbiting - Day One of what consumer activist Ralph Nader billed as a chance to open a dialog on Microsoft's increasing power in the software marketplace degenerates into a worryfest. [Wired News]
Europe: Flat Rate, or Else - New research says that Europe is an e-commerce gold mine waiting to happen. Europeans want to be connected at a flat rate, and will hold a mass strike to stress the point. [Wired News]
IBM to Take the Stand Against MS - IBM will risk the wrath of Redmond by taking the stand as a government witness when the antitrust trial resumes. [Wired News]
Wall Street Spending 'Billions' on Y-2000 Bug - About $14 billion will be spent annually by securities houses on information technology within three years, a study says. [Wired News]
Since When Does the FDA Regulate Software? - A House bill would strictly regulate all software used in clinical settings. Needless to say, software manufacturers are not amused. [Wired News]
On the Lam for Web Scams - A Florida Web designer is in hot water for an alleged string of scams on the Miami Beach Strip. And Playboy is taking him to court for using its name in a fake modeling contest. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Dow Surges on Factory Data - As the blue chips head toward a new record, tech stocks are once again in the doghouse as investors throw their money at the pillars of heavy industry. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Car-Navigation Market Shifts into High Gear - As computers and cars begin to converge, Japan is leading the market for global positioning by satelling in autos. [Wired News]
White House Will Propose Own Crypto Bill - Facing a series of liberal encryption proposals in Congress, the Clinton administration decides to write its own legislation. [Wired News]
Kennard Takes Up AOL's Cause - AOL gets a boost from the FCC in its quest to regulate what sorts of Internet access that cable companies will be allowed to provide. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Will AT&T Blot Out AOL? - If AT T succeeds in its bid for MediaOne, it will control a massive chunk of the cable Net-access market. That could be grim for AOL, say analysts. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Axil Embraces Windows with New Server Line - The move is a departure from Axil's Unix-based machines and is intended to capitalize on the growing worldwide market for Windows systems. [Wired News]
Big Brother by the Bay? - An Oakland, California, proposal to set up a network of closed-circuit cameras to keep watch over high-crime areas - and programs like it elsewhere - raise concerns among civil libertarians. [Wired News]
Case: Netscape Makes Browsers? - AOL's chief executive says he'll have nothing to bolster Microsoft's defense when he's deposed as a hostile witness in the antitrust case. [Wired News]
Dow Blasts Past 11000 - The Dow rockets to another record high, topping the 11000 mark for the first time, while investors keep shunning the silicon crowd and their massive multiples. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Nasdaq Erects Virtual Trading Room - In a bid to become more photogenic, the computerized stock exchange has built a wall of video to evoke the excitement of a trading floor. [Wired News]
Media and Democracy Congress Upbeat, Unruly - There was booing, there was hissing, and in between, even some touchy-feely about building community online. [Wired News]
Victims Want Bomb Sites Off Web - AOL, Walt Disney, and Yahoo are facing pressure to remove postings on bomb-making and other dangerous pursuits from their Web sites. [Wired News]
Goldman Sets Premium IPO Price - Goldman Sachs, famed for launching stellar Net IPOs, sets its own IPO price at a whopping $3.7 billion -- the second largest offering ever. [Wired News]
Web Developer Pulls Plug on Print - The magazine's publisher realized that core readers get their information from the Web, and is revamping its digital offering. [Wired News]
Members of Congress Seek Cassini Delay - Representatives Ron Dellums and Lynn Woolsey, both representing Northern California districts in which opposition to the plutonium-powered mission to Saturn is strong, ask NASA to take another look at the project. [Wired News]
Dr. Laura Saves Censorware Law - In an effort to save a foundering library filtering bill, the popular radio talk-show host asks loyal fans to lobby California lawmakers. Their calls might have done it. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Caldera: MS Cheated in DOS War - Caldera, a tiny software company, details more alleged foul play by Microsoft to sink the smaller company's DR-DOS operating system. It's all out of context, Microsoft claims. Chris Stamper reports from Seattle. [Wired News]
SBC Taps San Francisco for Net HQ - The Texas telecom titan is looking to build on its acquisition of Pacific Bell, which is the first Baby Bell to reach 100,000 Internet subscribers. [Wired News]
Making Imaginary Sex Illegal - A US law quietly passed in 1996 outlaws creating, selling, or even possessing computer-simulated images of smutty kids. Civil libertarians call it a First Amendment travesty. [Wired News]
Klein Mum on MS Trial - The Justice Department's top antitrust lawyer disappoints an audience waiting to hear his take on Microsoft. Free markets? Just another term for nothing left to sue. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Microsoft to Grill AOL Exec - The witness list shows Redmond will focus on Netscape deal when the antitrust trial moves into its rebuttal phase. Also Norwegian company aims to build Web's biggest search database, Singapore ISP roils Net users, and Linux support startup gets powerful VC backing. [Wired News]
Web Dream Job: Lead Designer - Adjacency flees the Snow Belt for the gulch, seeking artistic talent. [Wired News]
Times Makes White House Do Smut Dance - For months, the administration has been headed resolutely toward releasing a policy paper that takes a hands-off approach to regulating Net content. But The New York Times' suggestion that President Clinton is going soft on Net porn prompts White House anxiety. [Wired News]
Caldera 2, Microsoft 0 - A judge orders Microsoft to give reporters access to potentially damaging documents in a Utah antitrust case. But Caldera is the big winner. Chris Stamper reports from Seattle. [Wired News]
Buy.com Rolls with the Punches - Even as the discount online retailer plans to go public, a spate of bad publicity is threatening to undermine the company's best-laid plans. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
US Info-Tech Revenues Keep Climbing - The country's information technology concerns will reach about $1.6 trillion in earnings by 2007, an industry report forecasts. [Wired News]
Clinton's $5 Billion Plan to Slow Global Warming - In advance of December's world summit on climate change, the president outlines plans to reduce emission of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels. [Wired News]
Amazon Relents, Reinstates Book - The online bookseller will resume selling the Scientology expose, A Piece of Blue Sky, except in Great Britain, where the book is banned. [Wired News]
Dow Retreats From 11K - Blue-chip stocks work out some of the cramps from their record-setting sprint past the 11000 mark. Tech shares, meanwhile, are going nowhere fast. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Too Clever by Half? Economist to Charge Online Fee - The influential British newsweekly is betting its content is compelling enough to persuade people to pay for it on the Web. [Wired News]
Cable's Real Competition Battle Is Within - A struggle between Cablevision, an industry giant, and a Boston start-up trying to start a new class of service, shows how tough the task of creating competition really is. [Wired News]
Beating Around the Bush - A site lampooning George W. Bush's campaign isn't going over too well with the presidential hopeful. And Bush wants the Federal Elections Commission to look into it. By Heidi Kriz. [Wired News]
Intel: To Sue Is Human - Intel files suit against a Taiwanese chipset maker, even though the companies are in licensing negotiations. Oops, Intel says, the suit was filled in error. Beware the contingency plan. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
Sex, Digital Style, Boosts Playboy's Fortunes - The world's leading purveyor of air-brushed flesh said its new-media efforts helped its net income nearly double. [Wired News]
Better Living through Technology - Software that helps kids understand the Net? A concept that makes blocking software look primitive. [Wired News]
Did Sun Inflate Mitnick Damages? - Sun Microsystems said that Kevin Mitnick's theft of source code cost the company US$80 million. There's just one problem, says the cracker's attorney: Sun gives the code away. By Lindsey Arent. [Wired News]
Pan-European Bourse in the Works - Fearing competition from the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, eight top European stock exchanges release a rough draft of plans to set up a continental megabourse. Lots of details remain to be worked out. [Wired News]
Novell Loses Big, Will Fire One in Five - The troubled software company vows to slash 1,000 jobs to atone for a US$14.6 million second-quarter loss. [Wired News]
A Non-Decision in Filterware Debate - A Santa Clara County board was asked to reaffirm libraries' policy of open access on Net terminals. It hung back from such a declaration, seeking time to study the issue. [Wired News]
AOL Denies Browser Lust - In a Friday deposition, AOL CEO Steve Case counters Microsoft's defense by saying that AOL did not purchase Netscape for its Navigator browser and had no intention of competing with Microsoft. [Wired News]
Levitt to Investors: Get a Clue - SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt tells online investors to stop making foolish bets on the stock market, and online brokers to stop encouraging them. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
AOL Pulls Out the Stops to Woo Analysts - Now that it has solved most of its network problems, execs are working to convince investors that the company will thrive over the long haul. [Wired News]
Brief Filed in Child-Porn Law Appeal - Free-speech advocates seek to overturn a law that makes it a crime to publish or transmit images that purport to portray children involved in sexual acts. [Wired News]
Report: CIA Plotting Cyberwar - President Clinton signs off on a super-secret plan to hack the Yugoslavian government's technological infrastructure. Formerly super-secret, that is. [Wired News]
Dow Drops, Tech Stocks Tumble - The Dow gives back about half its record-setting advance from a day before, as investors fail to adjust to the higher altitude. Tech stocks get creamed. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
BigBook, Direct Marketer to Offer Online Coupons - The alliance will let small businesses offer online coupons and give BigBook a marketing boost. [Wired News]
FCC Chairman Hundt Resigns - With 13 months left in his term and the last major decision of the Telecom Act of 1996 in place, he decides to leave to spend time with his family. Also, key events in Hundt's tenure. [Wired News]
Cracker Pal Turns on Analyzer - A former cohort agrees to testify against the Israeli man arrested last year for attacking US government and university networks. Tania Hershman reports from Jerusalem. [Wired News]
Less Ad Money Spent Online - A survey finds that major advertisers spent less money on online advertising in 1998. But they beefed up spending on establishing solid corporate Web sites. [Wired News]
Click Here to Get a Conscience - Judging the Internet an effective medium to promote public awareness, the Ad Council and the Internet Advertising Bureau have initiated a Web-wide program to serve public service announcements in lieu of ads. [Wired News]
Hearing Ponders How to Protect Kids' Privacy - A Federal Trade Commission hearing on children's privacy demonstrated that the marketers and others aren't close to conceding that there's anything about their practices that needs to be regulated. [Wired News]
China Cracks Down on Pagers - Shanghai orders paging stations and computer information providers to stop carrying political news. And those who wish to post Web news must ask the state's permission. [Wired News]
Comcast's Consolation Prize - The No. 4 cable provider backs away from its bid for MediaOne, ceding victory to AT T. A hefty breakup fee, plus 2 million cable subscribers soften the blow. [Wired News]
ABCNEWS.com Breaks in with 'Special Preview' - It's buggy, and there are plenty of pieces missing, but the TV network's play for a piece of the online news pie goes beta. [Wired News]
Surfing the Himalayas? - The Chinese government has developed a code to transcribe Tibetan for use over the Internet. But so far, accessing the Web in Tibetan remains an extreme sport. [Wired News]
Does AOL Own 'Buddy List?' - A tiny California software firm accuses the online juggernaut of bullying it out of the market. AOL says it has dibs on the term "buddy list." Tribal Voice begs to differ. By Dan Cox. [Wired News]
What Next for AT&T? - With Comcast out of the way, its acquisition of MediaOne is on track. Now AT&T is reportedly set to enter into a partnership with Microsoft. [Wired News]
Eword: Ratings = Censorship - How effective is the proposed N rating which exempts news from censorship filters on the Net? Ask the Ku Klux Klan. [Wired News]
Judge Defers AlterNIC Action - A federal judge in Virginia said that although it appears that Network Solutions Inc. has suffered harm at the hands of domain guerrilla Eugene Kashpureff, he cannot act on the case until the company presents a more specific injunction request. [Wired News]
Scammer Caught Red-Handed - The Miami-based Web designer pursued by Playboy Enterprises for staging fake talent contests is arrested in Atlanta. He tells law enforcement officers he did it to get on Howard Stern. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Zingo, It's a Portable Portal - Lucent turns to AOL's Netscape to develop a home base for its wireless information services. Also: Boeing's Delta 3 finally lifts off, but carries its cargo to an orbit that's too low.... AOL Britain tries to win back customers lost to free providers. [Wired News]
IBM Japan Goes Shopping for Used PCs - The unusual move is an inducement to get Japanese computer users to upgrade their systems. [Wired News]
Cyber Rights Now: 'Scotty, Beam Down the Lawyers!' - Viacom's move to crack down on Star Trek fan sites illustrates the increasingly uncomfortable mix of intellectual property, creativity, and DIY Web publishing. [Wired News]
The Battle for Broadband Access - Internet service providers continue to press the Federal Communications Commission to guarantee open access to the Internet cable market. It's no surprise that cable operators resist regulation. [Wired News]
National Semi Quits the Field - National Semiconductor concedes defeat to Intel and gets out of the microprocessor business, only two years after buying Intel competitor Cyrix. [Wired News]
Japanese Firms Use Camera as Online Lure - Sony's new digital camera will work with a standard floppy disk; Canon plans to link you to photo processing labs. [Wired News]
Congress Grapples with Global Copyright Pacts - Nine months after they were signed in Geneva, two world treaties that aim to resolve digital age copyright problems finally get hearings in Congress. [Wired News]
Spy Report Imperils Crypto Bills - Revelations that the Chinese pilfered US nuclear weapons secrets threaten legislation to relax crypto export regulations, the bane of the US software industry for years. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
AOL Plunges on AT&T Victory - Shares of AOL drop after cable firm Comcast drops its bid for rival MediaOne. AT T will buy MediaOne, and that could shut AOL out of the burgeoning cable Internet market. [Wired News]
Snailmail Gets Telecom Boost - The Postal Service gets a new network to compete in the snailmail market. [Wired News]
A Hard Lesson in Wiring Schools - The real world of city schools that President Clinton and friends want to get connected to the Net is full of pitfalls. [Wired News]
Piracy Still Rampant in Russia - Although software piracy is on the decline worldwide, more than 90 percent of the software installed in Russia, China, and Vietnam in 1998 is pirated. By Heidi Kriz. [Wired News]
Getty Images to Purchase Art.com - With the acquisition of Art.com, Getty Images could become the Amazon of the poster retailing business. By Lindsey Arent. [Wired News]
Revenue Flat, Costs Up at CNET - Revenue growth at the Internet media company slowed to a barely perceptible 3 percent in the three months ended 30 September, the company announced. Its stock's recent dive steepened. [Wired News]
Alaska's Big Connector - At 76, Red Boucher is the most prominent digital evangelist in the "Last Frontier". [Wired News]
Scientology Book an Open Issue - Sales of A Piece of Blue Sky have zoomed since Amazon.com reinstated the Jon Atack book on Scientology. But the online bookstore is still trying to untangle the legal muddle. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Liquid Audio Flows on to Market - The digital music distributor becomes the first of the online melody-makers to file for an initial public offering. Get ready to rock around the stock price. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Will It Really Be a Snap? - CNET launches Snap Online with brave promotional talk about knocking off America Online as a Net 'front end.' [Wired News]
FCC, Universal Service: Picard Meets Yogi Berra - The Federal Communications Commission continues its marathon effort to put the '96 Telecom Act into practice. Also, a capsule history of telecom reform. [Wired News]
Another Salvo Against Microsoft - Caldera, a small software company, doggedly pursues its antitrust suit against the software giant. Microsoft, meanwhile, wants to get the case dismissed. Chris Stamper reports from Seattle. [Wired News]
AT&T Wins War for MediaOne - The road is clear for AT T to acquire MediaOne, after it convinces Comcast to drop out of the bidding. If the deal closes, AT T could become the biggest power on the Net. [Wired News]
BigBook Trims 20% of Staff - The online yellow pages says it's found two new partners that can take over some tasks from the laid-off workers. [Wired News]
Cities Looking to Exploit Victory over TCI - A federal appeals court said that cable giant Tele-Communications Inc. was out of bounds when it unilaterally lowered franchise fees it owes cities. The cities are getting ready to strike back. [Wired News]
Pols Draw a Bead on Child Porn - Congress begins debate on a measure targeting online pedophiles. Sponsors say any child who logs onto the Net is a potential victim. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Stocks Plunge Amid Rate Fears - Fresh signs of US economic vitality rekindle worries that inflation -- and interest rates -- could be on the rise. Share prices skid as Treasury yields advance. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Microsoft Closes Montreal Sidewalk - The site hadn't even launched, but Redmond HQ is laying off all nine employees in the Canadian office. [Wired News]
Teen Offers Way to Crack Blocking Software - A college student posts software to reveal a popular blocking program's list of blocked sites. The company is furious, and one lawyer active in Net cases says it might have grounds to act. [Wired News]
Tentative Ruling on Java - The contentious litigation between Sun and Microsoft elicits a tentative ruling that would hand each company a partial victory. [Wired News]
AOL Plunges on AT&T Victory - Shares of AOL drop after cable firm Comcast drops its bid for rival MediaOne. AT T will buy MediaOne, and that could shut AOL out of the burgeoning cable Internet market. [Wired News]
Softbank Merges US holdings Under Ziff-Davis - With its stock sinking badly, the Japanese company reorganizes, folding its trade-show organizer in with its publisher division. [Wired News]
Chilean Press Flouts Drug-Case Censorship - A judge told journalists not to print stories about a big drug scandal. Maybe she hadn't heard about this thing called the Internet. [Wired News]
Music for the Masses - The Electronic Frontier Foundation comes out fighting, with a major new push to protect free expression in the realm of digital music. James Glave reports from San Francisco. [Wired News]
RealMedia on Parade - At its developers convention in San Francisco, RealNetworks draws a road map for the delivery of integrated, interactive media over the Web. By Christopher Jones. [Wired News]
That Microsoft Touch - WorldCom's announcement that it's looking to buy MCI stunned everyone except maybe Bill Gates. The Redmond giant doesn't want to be a media company - but a telecommunications company? Hmmm. [Wired News]
White House Unveils E-Commerce Policy - After 15 months of study, the administration puts out its vision of what government needs to do to ensure the robust development of the worldwide electronic marketplace. [Wired News]
Australia Poised to Bury Porn - Legislation that would impose severe financial penalties on Internet service providers hosting adult Web sites is close to becoming law. If that happens, Australia will have one of the toughest online anti-porn laws in the world. [Wired News]
Iridium: Edsels in the Sky? - One of the world's most indebted companies, Iridium is struggling to find customers. If the satellite telephone outfit doesn't find a couple hundred thousand in a hurry, it could be in dire trouble. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Eword: Sixth Coming - Gateway 2000 may revive the gone but not forgotton Commodore Amiga. [Wired News]
Uncle Sam vs. Mr. Bill? - The coming confrontation between the US Justice Department and Microsoft Corporation demonstrates that government does, in fact, have a role to play in the Digital Revolution. [Wired News]
New Registrars Join the Melee - With eight more successful applicants, ICANN expands its list of eligible domain name registrars to 43. [Wired News]
Up All Night with Instinet - Forget about calling them day traders. Instinet, the leading electronics communications network for institutional investors, plans to open its system to retail investors after hours. By Joe Ashbrook Nickell. [Wired News]
Business Software Piracy Hits US$11 Billion - That's down from more than $13 billion a year earlier, but still a blow to makers' profit margins. [Wired News]
What's a Revolution When No One's Listening? - It was more than just 'something to do with white guys and cable stations.' But you wouldn't have known it by the non-reaction reaction alternative journalists and progressive thinkers elicited in their anti-corporate media march. [Wired News]
Libel Law Has Bark, and Bite - A Canadian man who waged a five-year Web campaign against a dog breeder now faces criminal libel charges that could put him behind bars. Matthew Friedman reports from Montreal. [Wired News]
Stocks Sizzle in Late Rally - After getting pounded for much of the day, Wall Street throws off its gloves and comes fighting back. Investors decide maybe stocks have it over Treasuries after all. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Intuit Brings Banking to the Web - The software firm puts emphasis on simple banking transactions, and away from more detailed management of personal finances, like that found in Quicken. [Wired News]
DBS Wannabe Says It's a Space Homesteader - Telquest Ventures has been trying to convince the FCC to let it start a broadcast service from a Canadian satellite. With more conventional arguments rejected, the company is arguing that it has established homesteading rights in space. [Wired News]
MS Asks Again: What's a Browser? - Microsoft lawyers again haggle over the definition of an Internet browser, an important part of the software company's defense in the antitrust lawsuit. [Wired News]
Satellites for Sale, Barely Used - There are still lots of ways for Iridium to make money off its US$3 billion satellite network. Here are a few humble suggestions from Wired News. [Wired News]
Amelio Preaches Doom with Silver Lining - The Apple CEO's speech to shareholders contained a host of grim words - including 23 utterances of "crisis" - but he hints at a brighter future. [Wired News]
Computers-for-Schools Foundation in Trouble - A political snare grabs a private foundation that works with a California program in which prison inmates learn to refurbish computers for the state's schools. [Wired News]
Nosing Into Shopping Carts - A California supermarket drops its consumer discount cards. The bargains don't justify the loss of privacy for some customers. [Wired News]
Deal Likely Between MS & Ma Bell - Redmond is reportedly cozying up to the emerging broadband leader with a US$5-billion investment in AT T. Insiders expect word of an unprecedented software and communications alliance on Thursday. [Wired News]
WorldCom, MCI: The Basics - A snapshot of the players in what could be the highest-valued telecom merger to date. [Wired News]
Lawman Goes Online to Fight Spam - A Pennsylvania investigator jumps into the fray, and emerges convinced that the junk email problem demands action, no matter what the pols in Washington do. [Wired News]
The E-Rate Tax, Er, Charge - An upstart FCC commissioner calls a tax a tax. Harold Furchtgott-Roth has harsh words for his colleagues who would rather conceal e-rate levies. By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
Lockheed Does Broadband - The aerospace giant joins with TRW and Telecom Italia to build a global, satellite-based communications service. Also: China pulls the plug on satellite TV.... and MIT tabs the next hot startup. [Wired News]
Apple Loses Another $161 Million - The Cupertino, California, computer-maker has more bad news: overseas sales, especially those in Japan, are way off. The bottom line suffers as a result. [Wired News]
Valenti Moves From PG to IP - He made his mark on American culture with the movie ratings system, and now he's horning in on intellectual-property rights protection. [Wired News]
The Price of Wiring Schools - Telephone taxes are about to zoom upwards by US$1 billion to give schools and libraries Internet discounts. The GOP blames it all on Al Gore. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Microsoft Buys Stake in AT&T - For a US$5 billion investment in Ma Bell, Microsoft buys assurances that the biggest US phone company will use Windows CE when it rolls out digital television and high-speed Internet access. [Wired News]
Execs Surfing the Net Are Most Often Women - Women executives and managers are much more likely than their male counterparts to be heavy Net users. That may say more about their jobs than about the Net. [Wired News]
House Panel Seeks Expert Crypto Comment - The Commerce Committee is on a mission to help develop US encryption export policy. Members are canvassing the heads of the FBI and National Security Agency, among others. [Wired News]
AOL Loses Brazil Ruling - A Brazilian court rules that an Internet service provider in that country can keep using the domain name aol.com.br. America Online, which sued for trademark infringement, considers an appeal. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Intel Invests in SVG - Intel has acquired a minority share in a Silicon Valley chip technology company that is working on new ways to make smaller chips. [Wired News]
Cheap Network Computers Far From Threat to PCs - A new study says the NCs are handy in some areas of companies, but nowhere near a network nirvana. [Wired News]
Ameritech Has Long-Term Cable Game Plan - In complaining to the FCC that it can't get fair access to cable programming quickly enough to battle more established rivals, the telco is just making the first move in an involved game. [Wired News]
MS Got Mad, then Even, with IBM - Enraged by IBM's refusal to drop out of the operating system market in 1995, Microsoft exacted its revenge by ending some of the sweetheart deals between the two companies, a former IBM executive says. [Wired News]
Let My IPO Be! - Be Inc. files to raise US$57.5 million from an IPO. Without the money, its accountants say, the company could go out of business. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Eword: Search Engine Shake Out - As Infoseek and AltaVista's hold in the Internet search engine market weakens, it remains to be seen if they can hold on at all. [Wired News]
An Attempt to Hobble House Crypto Bill - Representative Benjamin Gilman, a New York Republican, doesn't like legislation that would loosen national encryption policy. Having lost a vote earlier this week, he is circulating an amendment that would nullify the bill's most important provisions. [Wired News]
Copyright Laws Enter Digital Age - Copyright laws are a bugaboo for distance-learning projects. The US Copyright Office recommends changes to give teachers a break. By Christopher Jones. [Wired News]
Greenspan Sends Stocks Reeling - While the Fed chief had some cheerful things to say about the economy, investors zero in on two words regarding inflation: "upside risk." Wall Street goes into a tailspin. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Nano-Entrepreneur Scores Big - A teenage computer troubleshooter is finding success as a bithead businessman. [Wired News]
House Panels Agree: No New Net Taxes - Two subcommittees give easy passage to a bill that would impose a moratorium on new taxes for Internet-related commerce or services. [Wired News]
New Hearing in Caldera v. MS - Caldera questions the motives behind Microsoft's licensing agreements. Microsoft says the Utah software company is desperate. Chris Stamper reports from Seattle. [Wired News]
Barnesandnoble.com IPO Set to Go - In its latest, and presumably final, filing, Barnesandnoble.com says it plans to raise US$300 million. Also: Dell to build plant near Nashville.... China cracks down on illegal satellite dishes. [Wired News]
Nite Guide Challenges Microsoft in NY - Upstart phone service challenges Sidewalk and Cityscapes' promise of interactive entertainment listings. [Wired News]
Bi-Partisan Group Seeks to Slash Telecom Pork - A quasi-government entity helps telecom companies expand overseas, but some say its just corporate welfare. [Wired News]
Serb TV Off the Air - Eutelsat, the European satellite broadcasting consortium, has taken Radio-TV Serbia off the air at the request of its member nations. Serbs aren't pleased. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
Broadband on a Dish - A new satellite venture headed by a former DirecTV executive aims to do for surfing the Net what satellite television did for sitting on the couch. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Knight-Ridder Launches SF Online Guide - The site is the latest entry in what may become the bloodiest of battles shaping up among the titans of online city-guides. [Wired News]
Internet Privacy Bill Could Inhibit ISPs - Simson Garfinkel speculates on the effect of a new Internet privacy bill on ISPs. [Wired News]
Crackers Penetrate FBI Site - Two days after crackers flooded the FBI's ISP, the Feds are keeping their site offline. An FBI inquiry into computer assaults prompted the latest attack. [Wired News]
Al Speaks, Tech Stocks Plunge - The Fed chief did have some cheerful things to say about the economy. But investors can't get past two words regarding inflation: "upside risk." The Nasdaq leads the market lower. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
US Robotics CEO Defends Acquisition by 3Com - Short-term stock value? Big deal. He tells stockholders it's all about long-term strategies and "value-building." [Wired News]
Senate Again Tries to Wrest Crypto from Clinton - A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers resurrects Pro-CODE, and says no to Clinton's key recovery policy. [Wired News]
Digital John Hancocks - A bill before Congress would make electronic signatures legally binding -- and result in some very happy e-commerce vendors. [Wired News]
Starbucks Invests in Talk City - Tipping its hand about how it plans to expand online, Starbucks says it invested in chat-room host Talk City. [Wired News]
Judge to IBM: It's Not 1956 Anymore - A federal judge has OK'd the lifting of an antitrust decree meant to fetter a different Big Blue. [Wired News]
Amid Cycling Uproar, Evidence Goes Online - San Francisco media and politicians are still roiling over last month's chaotic Critical Mass ride. Exhibits for cyclists' case against police have their own home on the Web. [Wired News]
MS Antitrust Battle Resumes - After a three-month hiatus, the Microsoft antitrust lawsuit resumes Tuesday. Each side has a parade of witnesses lined up to defend, or slam, the world's biggest software company. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Gates Sells MS Stock - Chairman Bill unloads 7 million shares of Microsoft and plans to dump 3 million more. The world's richest man is just tweaking his stock portfolio. [Wired News]
Apple Slashes Prices - With reductions of up to $1,000 on PowerBooks and Power Macs and rebates on peripherals, Cupertino hopes to unload a lot of machines. [Wired News]
New Crypto Bill in Senate - A bill introduced by the power trio of Senators John McCain, Bob Kerrey, and Ernest Hollings, hews close to the Clinton administration line on crypto: domestic key recovery, new classes of criminal offenses, continued export controls. [Wired News]
US v. Microsoft: Timeline - From the first rumblings in Washington almost a decade ago to the biggest -- and perhaps dullest -- antitrust trial of the decade, here's how we got to where we are. [Wired News]
Congress: Give It Up, AT&T - Dialup ISPs and America Online are complaining that AT T is becoming a monopoly provider in the cable-modem Internet access business. So lawmakers propose a bill to pry open Ma Bell's network. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
AOL Taps High-Power Lawyer for General Counsel - Amid lawsuits over prolonged busy signals and wrangling with state officials on consumer rights, AOL names a leading media lawyer to the post. [Wired News]
Lots of People Know What Happened to Lost Jet - The story of the missing Captain Craig David Button and his A-10 jet is a natural for conspiracy theorists. So far, though, surmises on the Net draw skepticism. [Wired News]
Overheard at the Trial - Lawyers say the darnedest things. They sure have at the Microsof trial -- and so have a few other characters. Compiled by Joe Nickell. [Wired News]
SBC and Ameritech a Likely Go - The head of the FCC urges a speedy conclusion to his agency's review of the SBC Communications and Ameritech marriage. But there are strings attached to his blessing of the regional telco deal. [Wired News]
Gateway Hunting for New President - The departure of Richard Snyder to head a venture-capital fund means CEO Ted Wiatt will likely take a more prominent role. [Wired News]
Library Blocks Porn, and May Block Rights - A Florida library says isn't against nudity - it brags of Mapplethorpe in its collection, after all - but wants to keep displays of flesh off its Internet terminals. The ACLU opposes the use of blocking software. [Wired News]
Crackers Target Federal Sites - Computer crackers break into two government Web sites and threaten more intrusions unless the FBI stops "harrassing" hackers. [Wired News]
Stocks Shake Off Inflation Fears - A day after the Fed chief did his usual number on the market, investors find confidence in the latest stats from the Labor Department. Things aren't so gloomy after all. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Intel Denies Digital Patent Violation Charge - The chipmaker says it didn't infringe on 10 separate patents in producing its Pentium microprocessors. [Wired News]
Designed to Annoy, Web Site Flouts CDA - Annoy.com will launch smart, scathing commentary Thursday - and file a lawsuit against Janet Reno. [Wired News]
Europeans Try New Telco Boycott - Frustrated by telecommunications companies that refuse to budge, advocates of flat-rate phone rates turn to that time-honored European weapon, the boycott. Heather McCabe reports from Paris. [Wired News]
Net IPOs: The Line Gets Longer - Internet public offerings continue to dominate the roster of upcoming IPOs next week. Among the highlights: TheStreet.com and Time Warner Telecom. By Lindsey Arent. [Wired News]
Excite Cuts Editorial Staff in Half - A reorganization of the Web directory to a narrower focus of interests prompts a cutback in staff-generated content. [Wired News]
FCC Issues Landmark Phone Rules - The Federal Communications Commission orders a sharp reduction in the $25 billion long-distance companies pay to local phone providers, and cut-rate Net access for schools. Critics say too much was left undone. [Wired News]
Aussies Battle Censorship - Hacker activists in Australia are targeting technical loopholes in pending national legislation requiring ISPs to block Net content. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Workers Sue to Get Stock Options - A group of Qualcomm employees file a lawsuit against their employer to get stock options that would otherwise be lost in an acquisition. Also: AT T likely will face FCC scrutiny. [Wired News]
Microsoft, Sun Release the 'Java Papers' - In a textual escalation of its legal battle with Sun Microsystems, Microsoft Web-publishes its Java licensing agreement in an attempt to demonstrate it has not breached the pact. Sun also publishes the document. [Wired News]
Political Big Spenders Exposed Online - MoJo Wire presents its second annual list of the top 400 political contributors. Many of the rich and famous show up. Larry Flynt does not. [Wired News]
MS Trial: Bell Rings for Round 2 - The government comes out swinging as the Microsoft antitrust trial resumes after a three-month hiatus. An MIT economics professor takes a swipe at the pro-Microsoft testimony of a colleague. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
The Wired News Week - AT T is poised to become a broadband gorilla, with its acquisition of MediaOne. Also Phantom Menace mania reaching a fevered pitch, a big week for strong encryption, and SEC chairman chides idiot investors. Compiled by Pete Danko. [Wired News]
Microsoft's Interactive Strategy Exec Exits - Eight years older and considerably wealthier, Richard Tait decides to move on to an as-yet undisclosed new project. [Wired News]
'Harm to Minors' Could KO CDA in Round Two - With the fate of the federal Net decency law in doubt, lawmakers and others anticipate new legal strategies for Round Two. [Wired News]
Warnings for Would-Be Crackers - The White House says breaking into government computers is not play, and dot-gov attackers will pay. Meanwhile, federal sites brace for future intrusions. [Wired News]
Dow Tops 11K in Late Rally - The Fed chief had frightened Wall Street with talk of declining unemployment fueling a rise in inflation. The latest labor stats say otherwise. Investors go shopping. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Scans: Get Paid to Get Spam - Intellipost's BonusMail program attempts to appease anti-spammers with free lunch incentives from airlines, phone companies, and popular retailers. Just fill out the online questionnaire and duck. [Wired News]
US Seeks Fine, Contempt Order against Microsoft - In harsh terms, the Justice Department condemns the software giant for requiring PC makers to include Internet Explorer on their machines [Wired News]
Your Money's Worth from MS Trial - High-profile ads demand to know what consumers are getting from the Microsoft antitrust trial. And a taxpayer group demands to know what it's costing. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Go2Net Investors Shoo Paul Allen - Allen's tender offer to buy 3.6 million shares of common stock from Go2Net investors falls through. But the billionaire investor could still become the biggest shareholder of the search engine. [Wired News]
Eword: Mom and Pop Pay Up - Gone are the days when midsize ISPs and national networks carried each others traffic at no cost. The cooperative spirit of the Net is losing out to cold cash. [Wired News]
The Clintons, Some Techies, Some Tuna Tartare - The president will be the guest of honor at a $1 million dinner hosted by some of the tech industry's biggest stars. The routine cash-raising aside, the event is all about the new intimacy between futurist Democrats and the industry they see dominating the next century. [Wired News]
The Golden State for Candidates - The presidential race is gaining speed in Silicon Valley, where candidates are competing for votes, money, and the vision thing. Who's ahead in the first lap? By Declan McCullagh. [Wired News]
Murdoch's Money on TheStreet.com - News Corp. invests US$7.5 million in the online financial-news service, which is scheduled to go public this week. [Wired News]
Start-Ups Pay Up - One headhunter estimates there are 150 searches for start-up CEOs in Silicon Valley and only about 80 good candidates. The result: executive pay is skyrocketing. [Wired News]
Banks' Crypto Permit Not as Free as It Looks - The Commerce Department sanctions use of unlimited-length encryption keys, without key escrow, for electronic financial transactions. But the Clinton administration's policy really hasn't loosened much. [Wired News]
Campaigns Online, Off the Mark - A citizens group wants presidential candidates to wrap their minds around technology -- and keep their hands off. Few contenders have a clue. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Compaq Streamlines Distribution - An analyst says the No. 1 PC maker will cut ties with its many wholesalers and borrow rival Dell's strategy of direct shipments. [Wired News]
Biggest ISPs Form Group on Net Problems - There's a reason no smaller companies are part of the new organization: membership costs a hefty US$25,000 a year. [Wired News]
Social Security Ripple: A Privacy CDA? - In the wake of the storm that blew up over potentially insecure data on the Social Security Web site, some fear that Congress will try to bludgeon the privacy issue into submission. [Wired News]
MS Lawyer Trips Up in Court - A Microsoft defense lawyer tries to define the software titan's competition, and ends up pointing out inconsistencies in Chairman Bill's public proclamations and company documents. [Wired News]
Intel's VC Fund for New Chips - The chipmaker intends to spend US$300 million in venture capital to support tech companies designing next-generation chips, including processors for mainframes. [Wired News]
AOL Users Facing Mail Slowdown - A jump in use earlier this week could extend delays into next week, the company admits. [Wired News]
Domain Guerrilla to Be Extradited - Eugene Kashpureff has suddenly waived his right of opposition and will leave the Canadian cell he's occupied since Halloween - for one in the United States. [Wired News]
Tackling E-Privacy in New York - Frustrated by the lack of political will in Washington to protect personal privacy, Albany acts to protect consumers online. By Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Chinese Hit Back on the Web - Sites are adding servers to keep up with the anti-US postings.... Also: Microsoft says it will do a wireless portal, and a deal with Nextel.... US West plans "Web Phone".... And Compaq makes its streamlining official. [Wired News]
3Com to Buy US Robotics - The deal would be the biggest merger in the data networking industry and give 3Com strength in some of its key markets. [Wired News]
House Votes on Spending Net Fund - The Clinton administration plan would initially wire federal labs and universities to a network 1,000 times faster than today's Net. [Wired News]
Scientology's Online Battle - The Church of Scientology subpoenas AT T WorldNet to obtain the identity of an online critic. It's part of an ongoing effort to curb the exposure of church doctrines on the Net. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
NBC Rolls Sites into One - The television network will merge parts of Snap, CNBC, Videoseeker, and Xoom into NBCi -- a site with the usual email, community, news, and search doodads. [Wired News]
Wired Ventures Seeks New CEO - Louis Rossetto will stay on as company chairman and editor and publisher at Wired magazine. [Wired News]
Satanist Sues ISP to Silence Usenet Poster - A former US Army lieutenant colonel who says he's something out of Revelation wants to stop an anonymous correspondent from dredging up a 1980s child-molestation case. [Wired News]
Microsoft-Bristol Trial Opens - Bristol Technology will testify that Microsoft's withholding its NT operating system source code has unlawfully hindered competition. [Wired News]
E-commerce Pirates on the Prowl - Still kicking yourself for not thinking up Amazon.com first? No problem. Just borrow the business model and set up shop overseas -- just like Amazon.gr did. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Infoseek Names Motro CEO - First the former CNN Interactive honcho got Robin Johnson's title as president. Now Johnson's resigned as CEO, and Motro is alone at the top. [Wired News]
Japan Wants to 'Wake Up' Unused Patents - The plan is to tap a potentially lucrative but mostly ignored resource: thousands of technology patents that no one has ever tried to use. [Wired News]
Australia: We Can Block Porn - The government minister behind a controversial Australian anti-pornography bill defends the legislation, which he says is a "non-issue" in Silicon Valley. A Wired News interview by Chris Oakes. [Wired News]
Stocks Boosted by Merger News - Wall Street likes what it sees in reports of corporate marriages consummated or in the works, and a possible divorce in USA Networks' none-too-popular takeover of Lycos. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Ticketmaster Blocks Sidewalk Users - Clicking from Microsoft's Seattle site now leads to a "dead end." [Wired News]
Corporate Privacy Standards Fail to Please Activists - Consumer online privacy advocates at the Federal Trade Commission's Net privacy hearings are countering an industry-led privacy standard with a healthy dose of skepticism. [Wired News]
MS Says Netscape Stretched Truth - Despite testimony by Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale that Microsoft's strong-arm tactics crippled his company's Navigator browser, documents produced by Microsoft attorneys tell a different story. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Tech Stocks Resist Sell-Off - Nervous investors decide to dump blue chips amid uncertainty in Yugoslavia and the usual inflation worries. A possible end to Lycos' acquisition boosts Net shares. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
May I Help You ... Get Online? - A new virtual mall helps newbies shop via PC. [Wired News]
Intel Runs into Costa Rica's Past - The largest foreign investment in Costa Rica's history ran into permit requirements and an archaeological find before groundbreaking took place last week. [Wired News]
Germany Endorses Strong Crypto - The German government encourages companies and citizens to use and develop strong data scrambling technologies to help shield the nation from prying eyes and ears. [Wired News]
Nullsoft Drops MP3 Program - Nullsoft, maker of the Winamp MP3 player, agrees to stop distributing a decoder cited in a US$20-million copyright-infringement suit. The plaintiff, PlayMedia Systems, says that the lawsuit is far from over. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
Fellows Add Technology to Disney Storytelling - Will these geek's geeks fit in with Mickey? More than you might think, Po Bronson says. [Wired News]
White House Wins Crypto Vote - A new bill that writes into law much of the Clinton administration's oft-criticized encryption policy passes a key committee test. [Wired News]
Yahoo: No Opinion on Censorship - An Australian senator counts Yahoo among supporters of his Internet censorship bill. That's stretching the truth, the company says. [Wired News]
Innocent Plea in PairGain Hoax - A North Carolina man appears in a Los Angeles federal courtroom to answer charges of securities fraud. His case goes to trial in July. [Wired News]
Digital Citizen, Meet the Digital Nation - A pollster has conducted a survey to discover if there is a digital nation, and, if so, what its values and attitudes are. [Wired News]
Virginia County Restricts Net Access in Libraries - All computers will be equipped with blocking software, with no provision to turn it off for adults. Patrons under 18 must have a note from their mom or dad to access the Net. [Wired News]
Feds Urge Net Gambling Ban - A federal commission says the Net gambling ban should continue. The two-year study suggests that Congress pass laws to deal with financial institutions that work with illegal casinos. [Wired News]
C&W, IBM Team Up for Speed - Cable and Wireless aims for smaller businesses with fast, always-on Net service. Also Qwest becomes an applications service provider, with help from HP and SAP, is USA giving up on its Lycos bid, and Zagat restaurant surveys hit the Web. [Wired News]
The Princess and the Publicity - The death of the young, especially the rich, glamorous, or beautiful ones, always touches a deep nerve in our culture. And big stories always change the media that cover them. [Wired News]
Free-Speechers Have a Go at NY Net Smut Law - A serious hearing on the state's attempt to protect children from pornography on the Net takes a detour: a discussion on whether a courtroom painting of a judge is "sexy." [Wired News]
Caldera: Throw Out MS Motion - In a special hearing to be held next week, Utah software firm Caldera will seek to have Microsoft's motions for dismissal denied. By Chris Stamper. [Wired News]
PointCast Fire Sale - Just two years after it spurned a US$450 million offer from Rupert Murdoch, PointCast sells out to Idealab for $7 million. Also Reuters buys into W.R. Hambrecht, and Yahoo gets into the radio biz. [Wired News]
Mountain Standard Time - Katz leaves the wired world and heads into the mountains for some perspective on the Net's real value. [Wired News]
Senate Panel OKs Net No-Tax Bill - To city and state displeasure, legislation would freeze new Internet-specific taxes through 2003. [Wired News]
Stripper: Barbie Lawsuit a Bust - Mattel is suing a Canadian stripper in an effort to stop her from using the domain name barbiebenson.com. She's fighting back. By Polly Sprenger. [Wired News]
AOL Unveils TV Venture - America Online announces a partnershp with three major electronics companies to offer interactive television. [Wired News]
The 8-Step Cure for Old Fartism - Filled with warring spokespeople, timorous warnings about pornography and other dangers, and disapproving harumphing about the decline of civilization, papers have become the clucking old maids of the digital age. [Wired News]
For Social Security Reform, Study Chile - Jose Pinera explains how privatization would give workers a free choice. [Wired News]
Inside the MS Spin Machine - Internal Microsoft emails shown at the company's antitrust trial offer a glimpse into the company's media-handling strategy. [Wired News]
Net Stocks Fuel Broad Rally - AOL leaps into television and Yahoo into radio, and investors renew their affection for the Internet. Also, TheStreet.com goes public. Guess what happens. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Revving Java's Engine - Despite the hype surrounding Java's cross-platform capabilities or lack thereof, it is speed that will likely make or break the language. [Wired News]
Cyber Rights: Too Close for Comfort - Congress has become hostile turf for campaigns to relax the US government's encryption export controls. [Wired News]
Pro-Mitnick Demos in US, Russia - Supporters of notorious cracker Kevin Mitnick stage protests "worldwide" at federal courthouses and the US embassy in Moscow. Polly Sprenger reports from San Francisco. [Wired News]
TheStreet Storms the Street - Shares of TheStreet.com nearly quadrupled in the first day of trading. That's good news -- at least for company insiders and institutional investors. By Craig Bicknell. [Wired News]
Fear of a Tech Planet - Technology is both amoral and neutral, no better or worse than the people who create and deploy it, reflecting their values rather than making any of its own. [Wired News]
31 Nabbed, 1,500 Fingered in Net Kid-Porn Sting - The New York attorney general discloses the results of an investigation with global dimensions, but a courtroom opponent sees a more limited agenda in the announcement. [Wired News]
Striking for Cheaper Phone Rates - America Online and a Web founder are at the forefront of a European protest seeking flat-rate local phone fees to foster wider use of the Net. David Brake reports from London. [Wired News]
Bianca Finds New Sugar Daddy - The online publisher of "literate smut" site Nerve agrees to buy the parent company of Bianca's Smut Shack, an online pioneer and still-popular community site. By Louise Knapp. [Wired News]
PEZ-Heads Unite - Collectors have taken the cult around the candy dispensers online in a big way. [Wired News]
Clinton's 'Next Generation' Push for a Better Net - The reception in Congress to Clinton's push to develop a faster, less crowded Internet may be cool, at best. [Wired News]
European Net Strikers Dig In - Organizers of Sunday's pan-European telecom strike said that close to a million people left their phones on the hook to protest metered Internet access. Heather McCabe reports from Paris. [Wired News]
AOL Unites Web, Channel Surfers - A dream alliance for the "You've got mail" crowd. America Online announces a partnership with three technology companies to deliver interactive television. By Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]
What, Me Funny? - Mad magazine, once an icon of American subversion, is going for a 'darker' look in an effort to get back on the cutting edge. The Sucksters are skeptical. [Wired News]
US, Mexico Cut through Pager Static - A treaty four years in the making coordinates paging-service frequencies along the border. [Wired News]
NSI Shares Dot-Com Registration - Register.com finally gives Network Solutions competition in the .com, .net, and .org domain name registration business. [Wired News]
Log on, Tune in, Buy Now - Radio stations now have a cure for the "gotta have it" blues. A commerce company is automating the impulse buy in linking playlists to music purchases. By Christopher Jones. [Wired News]
How to Buy Suck - The best-case scenario. [Wired News]
Microsoft to Meet with Nader - Redmond execs apparently want to tell the consumer campaigner why they're giving away their browser and gaining market share. [Wired News]
Internic Poser to Pay Up - The FTC and an Australian consumer commission force an Internic copycat to reimburse overcharged domain name owners to the tune of US$161,000. [Wired News]
Net Stocks Hit Accelerator - Wall Street turns multimedia as AOL breaks into television and Yahoo discovers radio. Meantime, TheStreet.com goes public -- a day trader's dream. By David Lazarus. [Wired News]
Praising Amy - As the country's most influential daily newspaper, the Times has been instrumental in propagating the idea that new information technologies are primarily decivilizing, even dangerous. [Wired News]
Helms a Threat to Kennard Nomination? - The senator is reportedly making noises about blocking the elevation of William Kennard to head the FCC. This time, the welfare of a North Carolina businessman, rather than ideology, is at the bottom of his opposition. [Wired News]
Witness: MS Bullied Big Blue - An IBM manager testifies that Bill Gates, angered by IBM's intention to compete with Microsoft and not toe the Redmond line, withheld licensing for the Windows 95 operating system. Declan McCullagh reports from Washington. [Wired News]
Motorola Narrows its Focus - Motorola sells off much of its semiconductor components business to a private investment group in order to concentrate on its wireless and telecom businesses. [Wired News]
Invitation to a Beheading, Part III - It is one of my profound ambitions in life never to be at any event with Arianna Huffington or the information minister from Singapore, not to mention Haley Barbour and William Bennett. [Wired News]
Cops Leave 'Blasphemous' Link Alone - British investigators decide not to proceed against a gay/lesbian site that links to a poem including some raw references to Jesus Christ. [Wired News]
Swiss Exile Whistle-Blowing Spy - Swiss authorities have asked former British agent Richard Tomlinson to leave the country. The man accused of exposing the names of his fellow spies has also been barred from the United States, New Zealand, France, and the United Kingdom. [Wired News]
Struggling to Be - Be may have created the most fascinating operating system, but it needs more than snazzy software to survive. Will its pending IPO rescue the struggling software company? By Lindsey Arent. [Wired News]
The Great American Cop-Out - Media might be offensive, even disturbing, but when it comes to kids and morality, parents are clearly responsible for how kids turn out, according to a new study. [Wired News]
Hong Kong's Divided Mind - With 20 days to go until Beijing takes over Hong Kong, the air of the city is suffused with equal parts optimism, uncertainty, and resignation. [Wired News]

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