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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 04 Issue 30
Volume 4, Issue 30 Atari Online News, Etc. July 26, 2002
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2002
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Rob Mahlert
Carl Forhan
Dan Ackerman
Tim Conrady
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
and click on "Subscriptions".
OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org
and your address will be added to the distribution list.
To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
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To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
following sites:
http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
http://www.icwhen.com/aone/
http://a1mag.atari.org
Now available:
http://www.atarinews.org
Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=atari
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0430 07/26/02
~ New Spam-Blocker Shown ~ People Are Talking! ~ ATOS Mag Stops News!
~ Web-Filtering Lawsuit! ~ How To Prevent Spam! ~ Songbird/CGE News!
~ Cyber-Security Faulted ~ HighWire News Update! ~ More Atari MIDI!
~ PayPal Links To Stamps ~ Royalties Relief Bill ~ New N.AES Coming Soon
-* Intel Readies 3GHz Pentium 4 *-
-* eBay Rolls Out Fixed Price Format! *-
-* Privacy Groups Urge Use States' Common Law *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
With just one day of typical hot, hazy and humidity to remind us it's still
summer, it was another perfect week here in the northeast. It doesn't get
much better than this! Ahhhh, to be a kid again and really be able to enjoy
these summer months with no responsibilities.
Speaking of reminiscing, the other day I was thinking back about the "good
old Atari days" and I couldn't believe that it's been almost ten years since
Atari was still around doing something. Then I started thinking about all
the great times I used to have running the BBS, visiting our few dealers,
pawing over the new software and magazines, the AtariFests, the online
activity on services such as GEnie, CompuServe, Delphi and the like - and
wondered where the time has gone.
Most of those activities are gone and just a memory these days. Sure, there
are many of us who still use Atari computers, and perhaps other systems as
well. New software is barely existent. Dealers? Well, there are a few
around still although storefront sites are rare, if any. But, there is
still some excitement left in the Atari community and some visible activity
around, although fragmented. There is the Atari newsgroups on the usenet.
A number of web sites are available. It's not the same as yesteryear, but
there is some satisfaction knowing that the people are still out there.
As many of you know, I happen to run the Atari Forum on Delphi - or
DelphiForums as it is known today. Yes, it's fairly quiet there these days
because the service isn't accessible to Atari-using users. Still, there are
a number of people who use multiple computer platforms and have the
capability to enjoy our forum - and many do. Being active online for these
past many years, I've noticed a lot of grumbling from the community
regarding places for Atari users to "congregate" online, exchange ideas, and
do some without worrying about the various online "trolls" we've all
experienced over the years. Having a moderated area has been something
that's been lacking. Seeing and hearing these complaints, I've always
wondered why more people didn't add Delphi to their circle of sites to
visit, especially since access to it and all of the other forums are free.
Maybe people aren't aware. Maybe people feel that Atari forums should be
accessible with Atari computers. I really don't know.
So, I thought that since I was in a "down memory lane" kind of mood, I
figured that I should remind people that there are still online sites still
available for us to visit and discuss our favorite computer system and more.
The Atari Advantage forum on DelphiForums still caters to the Atari user.
Message discussions are moderated regularly and the trolls can be dealt with
effectively. People like "Sinclap" would not be tolerated unless they
adhered to common courtesies that we've come to expect in online
communities. So, if you're of the mind to do so, drop by and say hello, ask
a question, start a message thread, or just see what's happening. To get
there, just go to: http://forums.delphiforums.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=atari
and register. It's free for basic use - you can't beat that price! Also,
it's a good place to learn about other areas on the web that support Atari
users. On that note, I'll return to my daydreaming of yesteryear!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
HighWire 0.07A Public Preview Released!
The HighWire Development Team has released a new HighWire v0.07A Public
Preview.
This release has the first implementation of CSS attribute STYLE of some
HTML tags, read the full change.log or History.txt on the HighWire site for
more details.
Here is a partial list of changes in V.07 alpha of July 24, 2002:
- Margin settings of <frame> and are implemented now (default is 5px).
- < HR > tags are now correctly calculated in position and size.
- Very first implementation of CSS attribute STYLE of some HTML tags.
- For the color and the background - color can be set with the CSS style
attribute.
- Lots of smaller glitches fixed.
Download links are on the HighWire site.
HighWire Development Team
http://highwire.atari-users.net
HighWire Preview Releases an Explanation
Hello everyone, we have had the question come up as to why there is a
preview version of 0.06 but not a full release. And why call them previews
and not releases etc.
Hopefully I can explain the idea and dispel some of the confusion.
In reality there are 2 types of releases at the moment, "Full" and "Alpha".
The "Full" releases have been 0.01 - 0.05, currently 0.06 and 0.07 are
"Alpha" releases.
What's the difference?
A "Full" release has had the supporting documentation formally reviewed
with additions, an update to the Developers Letter and a Feature Freeze
period for a bit of formal testing before they are made public.
An "Alpha" release may or may not have had the documentation updated,
haven't had the Developers Letter updated and there has been no Feature
Freeze testing period.
What's the Real difference?
As far as stability goes, there have been no major differences between
"Full" and "Alpha" versions. Testing goes on constantly and it's just as
likely for a bug to become apparent after a "Full" release as it is to
happen after an "Alpha" release.
Why the change?
A full release takes a period of a week or more to formalize and get
released. This is a week where little coding can take place and most of the time is spent on
bug patching and documentation. At this stage in the development it was
decided by several members of the team that it would be to everyone's
advantage, if coding were not frozen quite as often and developments
allowed to occur at a faster pace. We believe that is something that
everyone would like to see. So we went went the "Alpha" release strategy.
What is the version numbering convention?
This has been a subject of some confusion by members of the development
team as well as the public. This will be standardized in the following
manner at the "Full" version 0.1.0 release. Currently all versions that
have been released have been of the format 0.0#, this will be amended to a
bit easier to understand 0.0.#. So currently the version number would be
actually represented as 0.0.7. There have been omissions of one of the 0's
in the past and this has led to a bit of confusion. We apologize for that.
Plans....
At the moment, the 'unofficial' plans are to run through versions 0.0.8
and 0.0.9 as "Alpha" releases, with a "Full" release coming at version
0.1.0. When we reach this point then we will probably continue with "Full"
releases coming when appropriate to the development status and "Alpha"
releases occurring in the intermediate periods. Full releases will be noted
by the increment of the second digit, 0.1.0, 0.2.0, 0.3.0 etc...
Alpha versions need not be a total of 10, they can be more or less as is
needed for the current focuses of development. It's possible that there
will be 14 alpha releases of one minor version "Full" release, but only 3
alpha releases of another "Full" release.
Hopefully I've eliminated some of the confusion and created no more. In all
effects 'preview' or "Alpha" versions are just as stable as "Full" releases,
and no one should be discouraged to use them because of the wording of
"preview" or "Alpha" in the title of the release. All this really means is
that the programmers have decided they would rather spend their time
programming on HighWire, instead of agonizing over the grammar in their new
documentation.
Dan Ackerman
aka baldrick
HighWire Development team member
http://highwire.atari-users.net
New N.AES Coming Soon!
www.ST-Computer.net is reporting..
Woller Systems announced a new version of N.AES definitely for the autumn
of 2002 in a discussion with the editors of ST-Computers. In the current
phase, users of the elegant AES system for MiNT should contact the
developers for improvement suggestions.
Woller Systems has also updated there website.
http://www.woller.com/
More Algo-comp from TAMW Released
Tim posted in comp.sys.atari.st...
Hi All:
More Atari-MIDI programs released!
Wolfgang Martin Stroh: Algorithmic Package Page
About 28 programs in all!
http://tamw.atari-users.net/algo.htm
When you see these screen shots, I know that you will be impressed! I
was! These are great programs well worth looking into. They work in
Steem as well.It would be best to print out the page as a sort of
manual/guide unless you know German , as the docs are in that
language.
Also!!(just when you thought it was safe) The MOZART DICE WATZ page!
http://tamw.atari-users.net/mozart.htm
This is a neat algorithmic program based on Mozart's Dice Waltz
composition. Fun and educational as well.
http://tamw.atari-users.net
ATOS Magazine News Coverage Stopped
Roughly translated from the www.atos-magazin.de site (Thanks to AltF4)...
ATOS Magazine, a great German language Atari site is stopping it's Atari
News coverage due the lack of new articles and personal time, but the news
archive will stay online at http://www.mindrup.de/atos/
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. I want to talk about a couple of things
this time around, but none of them are particularly Atari-oriented.
First of all, can someone out there with Mac experience point me in the
direction of a text editor for OS X that will actually do word-wrapping
correctly?
I've been looking around for something that will do the job correctly,
but so far every application I've tried has disappointed me.
I can remember a time several years ago when any programmer who could
put two lines of code together for the Mac thought that they should
become millionaires from it. Things seem to be better now, with many
applications available as either freeware or shareware, but there still
seems to be a shortage of good, solid text editors in those two
categories. So if you know of a good no-frills text editor for OS X,
please drop me a line. Something that compares to STeno would be just
about perfect!
Next up is the SETI@home TEAM ATARI search group. Evidently, you didn't
think that searching the cosmos for an alien intelligence was important,
because there haven't been any new additions to the group lately. The 51
members of Team Atari have so far contributed 91 years of CPU time in
the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It's really easy to
participate, it doesn't cost you anything, and you might just end up
being the one who discovers that first signal from an intelligence
outside of our solar system! Wouldn't that be cool?
I'm not going to lie to you... the chances of this project finding a
signal are unknown right now... we've got nothing to compare it to. And
even if the project does find a signal, there are more than 3.8 million
other people participating. But winning probably isn't the reason that
you should join up. If you're considering joining up, do it because it's
a really cool project and it'd be great to be able to say that you
participated.
If you're interested, check out http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu for
information on SETI@home in general, and
http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/team/team_21046.html for info
about Team Atari. We can't promise you fame or fortune, but it'd be the
coolest thing imaginable to be able to say that the first signal from ET
was found by an Atari user!!
Well, let's get to the news, hints, tips, and info from the UseNet.
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Walter Cole asks about emulating an STE:
Is it possible to emulate an Atari STe on a PC solely with software?
If it is, where on the WWW may I find it?
I've been an ST user since 1986, but find the PC's access to the
Internet too much easier to use."
Jonathan Mortimer tells Walter:
"Little Green Desktop is a good place to visit, search for them in
Google. STEEM is probably the best emulator around, in my opinion."
Lannie Schafroth adds:
"Go to The Little Green Desktop. http://www.atari.st
They have a emulators section. Steem is the best right now. gemulator is
good only for applications. Games are out. Steem seems to run the most.
Also check out: http://aranym.sophics.cz/index.html still in early
stages, but looking great."
Edward Baiz jumps in and adds:
"You want to try Pacifist. It can load in the various roms from 1.0 to
2.6.
http://www.pacifist.fatal-design.com/
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/8458/
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~atari1/ "
Paul Caillet adds:
"Look at there:
http://music-atari.org/atari/emul/ "
Walter now posts:
"I have downloaded STeem and TOS 2.06 and am ready to try to emulate
my 1040STe on my PC. But I have one problem: How do I get my Atari
files on to my PC hard drive, since my PC floppy won't read my Atari
disks? And assuming I can move files, is the any ready way to move
files from my Atari hard drives to the PC without putting them on
floppies first?"
Dave Wade asks Walter:
"What type of programs are these? Games or productivity programs. If
they are normal programs then a couple of suggestions.
1. If you go to the http://www.emulators.com/download.htm and flip down
to the utilities at the bottom then you will find Gemulator Explorer
which will allow you to read some disks on the PC (if you have Windows
95,98 or ME, not so good on NT, 2000 or XP) and copy them to hard disk.
2. There is a program called PARCP
http://www.manualy.sk/parcp/parcp.html
which allows you to copy with a modified printer cable. I have used this
and its pretty quick
If they are games then look around the Atari FTP sites and you may find
a copy someone else has already migrated for you..."
Bob Retelle tells Walter:
"Your PC floppy drive CAN read Atari floppies, IF you format the
floppies on the PC.
(There are other ways, this is just the simplest.)
Note that you MUST format the floppies as 720K disks, NOT the
default 1.44M. (There is a dropdown on the main Format page to select
720K when you format.)
It works best on "true" DoubleSided floppies, NOT the "standard" 1.44
Meg High Density floppies, but it may work with HD disks. Use one of
your regular Atari floppies to be sure.
Format the disk on your PC, then copy the Atari files onto them. Your
PC should have no problems reading the files.
(The PC and Atari floppy disk format is almost exactly the same. The
Atari format differs by a few bytes, which makes the PC unable to read
them. Formatting on the PC avoids this and allows BOTH systems to
read and write the disks.)
You can also connect the SERIAL ports of the ST and PC together using
a NULL MODEM cable and XMODEM (or YMODEM or ZMODEM, or whatever) the
files across. You'll need a terminal program on each computer with a
compatible download protocol."
Mickael Pointer adds:
"Anyway, I have to add precisions:
1) Yes, a PC can read/write 720k floppy disks. Unfortunately, most Atari
user used to format their floppy with programs that allows up to 10
sectors per track and 82 tracks per side... and most PC are not able to
read or write correctly this type of format.
2) You can use HD disk without problem, just think about filling the HD
detection hole. Put some non-transparent tape on it (or a piece of
floppy sticker), and tadaaaaa... it's now recognized as a true DD floppy.
3) The few bytes of difference are only true for STF. This has been
corrected with the release of the Rainbow Tos (1.62 and upper) that
equipped the STE machines."
Walter replies to those who responded:
"Thanks to all for their help with my problem of getting my files and
applications on to my PC. Since I have skads of files 80/10, I'll
have to copy these on to 79/9 floppies. My many applications are
likely on the lower density formats and should load on to the PC OK.
I hope it will be worth the effort. I'll concentrate on some
important Data Manager files and the Protext word processor (which is
just as useful and a lot more straight forward than MS Word).
STeem looks pretty good and the Haywards should be congratulated."
Lannie Schafroth asks about installing EasyMiNT:
"When I run the install it says it needs a raw partition. I am using
ARAnyM 0.1.7 for Windows.
How do I create the partitions for this install? I'm just experimenting.
I've never used Mint before."
Edward Baiz tells Lannie:
"When I installed it, I created a "LNX" partition. You need to run your
hard drive utility software and create that type of partition."
Stanislav Opichal adds:
"Normally create a partition of a size you want and then change the
partition type to RAW (e.g. using HDTOOLS.APP from HDDRIVER). Remember,
to run FreeMiNT. You need to use HDDRIVER from Uwe Seimet, because it is
the only one that is XHDI compatible."
Lannie takes in the provided info and replies:
"I tried HDDriver (demo) and it crashes the program at the SCSI check
point during boot."
Stan Opichal replies:
"Yes, the SCSI is not implemented in ARAnyM. You should not do any
operations that touches SCSI. In HDDRIVER you can set the devices to be
tested during the boot to IDE only devices which is the case you need.
Please, subscribe to the aranym-user mailing list to let other users
read the solutions and archive this mails."
Edward Baiz asks for help with setting up his Milan to access a cable
modem:
"Since I will be using a cable modem, I have started to use GlueStik.
However when I try to use it with Newsie, Newsie locks up my computer
when I try to access the various address books or mail boxes. I have the
same problem when I try to do the same thing without having the Hades's
memory split into ST and TT ram. Splitting the ram solved my Newsie
problem. Now, in order to get things to work I have to install STiK
instead of GlueStik. Just wondering if anyone has ideas or else
experiencing the same thing."
Ekkehard Flessa tells Edward:
"I've had a problem with Newsie on my Milan, too: accessing ftp servers
by double-clicking them in the list would crash. Marking them with the
mouse and hitting return, however, would work. Perhaps you could try
this."
Peter Slegg asks for help with his Milan's sound system:
"More or less ever since I have had this Milan I have had a
problem with the sound system.
It works perfectly most of the time and then suddenly with no
error message and with no obvious cause it stops working and there
is no more sound output.
For example. If I play sound files via Aniplayer it suddenly stops
making sound but otherwise it continues playing files as though
everything is working. The only hint of a problem comes from the
percentage indicator in the Aniplayer window which starts displaying
values like 15%, 109%, 14%, 127%, etc.
It's not just Aniplayer that is affected though, once the sound
system is broken, GEMJing is silent too. I have found that I can
usually cause the problem to appear by moving the slider in the
Aniplayer window but it also appears when using GEMJing.
The only thing that fixes the problem is a reboot which obviously
re-initialises something.
I feel that the problem is in the software between the application
and the hardware. I tried upgrading to a later version of the
MilanBlaster software but that made no difference.
I increased the amount of ST-Ram to 14Mb as I read that using less
could cause problems with the Soundblaster driver.
I am using Mint and NAES 1.2, do either of these have any affect
on the sound system?
This may be unrelated but I see on acp.atari.org that there is a new
pci-bios for the Hades is there any benefit in using this on the Milan?"
Clement Benrabahn tells Peter:
"Try this to avoid a reboot: open the Soundblaster Mixer and click on
Reset."
Well folks, that's it for this week. Tune in again next week, same time,
same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Level 3 To Provide Xbox Online Support!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Songbird/CGE News!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Level 3 Says to Provide Xbox Online Infrastructure
Level 3 Communications Inc., the high-speed networking company that
recently brought Warren Buffett on as an investor, said on Monday it will
provide infrastructure services for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live online
gaming service.
Xbox Live, which is set to launch later this year after beta tests this
summer, is part of Microsoft's multibillion-dollar video gaming strategy
and also part of the company's strategy for linking broadband networking
and home entertainment services.
Buffett, part of a group which invested $500 million in Broomfield,
Colorado-based Level 3 two weeks ago, is an old friend of Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates.
Under the deal, terms of which were not disclosed, Level 3 will provide
Internet access and private network services for Xbox Live, a subscription
service that will cost $49 for the first year.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Songbird Celebrates CGE Fifth Anniversary
July 24, 2002
For immediate release:
ROCHESTER, MN -- Songbird Productions is once again proud to be a part of
this year's Classic Gaming Expo (CGE), which takes place in Las Vegas, NV,
on August 10-11. To honor the show's fifth anniversary this year, Songbird
has produced a limited number of Jaguar and Lynx collectables which provide
a retrospective on the shows from the last four years.
The Jaguar CGE 5th CD features a slide show of digitized pictures from
World of Atari 98 all the way to CGE2K1; nearly 50 full-screen, high-color
photos are included in this collection. This CD will play on any consumer
Jaguar CD unit which utilizes a JagFree CD compatible cartridge, such as
Protector SE.
The Lynx CGE 5th cartridge also features a slide show of over a dozen
digitized pictures from CGE's past. This is made possible by use of a brand
new high-color display engine which allows pictures with dozens or even
hundreds of colors to be displayed with amazingly vibrant color and clarity
on the Lynx screen.
Only 60 of each commemorative item will be produced, so be sure to get to
the Songbird booth at CGE right away to secure your copy. Also check out
other recent Songbird releases, including Protector SE, CyberVirus, and the
brand new Phase Zero Demo cartridge. The latter is an impressive, playable
demo which includes at least five missions for you to explore and conquer,
and is a great addition to any Jaguar fan's collection. Skyhammer and the
Rapid Fire Controller should also be back in stock just in time for the
show.
For the latest details on ticket pricing, directions, and special guests
and events at CGE, please visit the CGE website at http://www.cgexpo.com .
Songbird Productions is the premier developer and publisher for the Atari
Lynx and Jaguar. To keep up to date with the latest news at Songbird
Productions, be sure to visit the company web site at
http://songbird.atari.net . JagFree CD is copyright and trademark 2001
Songbird Productions. All rights reserved. This message may be reprinted in
its entirety.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Intel Readies Earlier Rollout of 3.0 Ghz Pentium 4
Intel Corp. is moving up the introduction of its Pentium 4 processor
running at 3.0 gigahertz, an industry source said on Monday, as the world's
largest chipmaker looks to tap the benefits of efficiencies in its chip
manufacturing.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel, the world's No. 1 chip maker, now
plans to have the processor to PC makers in time for the year-end holiday
shopping season, the source said.
Intel had planned to introduce the 3.0 gigahertz Pentium 4 processor, the
brains of a personal computer, by the end of the year. In additional,
Intel also is accelerating the introduction of its Pentium 4 running at
2.80 gigahertz, bringing that product rollout to the third quarter,
compared with a prior introduction date in the fourth quarter.
When Intel introduces new chips, it typically drops prices on the Pentium
and Celeron processors it already has on the market. The accelerated
introductions also put Intel farther ahead of its rival, Advanced Micro
Devices Inc., in terms of the clock speed of its processors.
By the of the current, third quarter, Intel will be selling a Pentium 4
chip running at 2.8 gigahertz, compared with 1.8 gigahertz for AMD, with
its Athlon processors.
PayPal Enhances Services with Stamps.com Deal
Expanding its service offerings as it awaits eBay's buyout, PayPal said it
will begin offering users direct access to U.S. postage through an alliance
with Stamps.com.
The two companies said the new service, which will let users buy and print
U.S. Postal Service stamps through their PayPal accounts, will be in place
in time for the holiday season.
That is about the same time that eBay expects to close its planned US$1.5
billion acquisition of PayPal, which has sparked its share of controversy.
The Stamps.com program is aimed at beefing up PayPal's shipping services,
which debuted last month. Those services let PayPal users include shipping
costs in the price they pay for items, most notably products purchased
through auctions on eBay.
According to PayPal, 15,000 users took advantage of its new shipping
service during the first month.
"Since many of PayPal's sellers have a strong preference to ship via the
U.S. Postal Service, our integration with Stamps.com should further
increase the popularity of PayPal shipping products," said Peter Ashley,
PayPal's director of business development.
The news came on the eve of PayPal's second-quarter earnings announcement,
which is being closely watched because it could have a strong impact on
the company's stock price.
Because eBay's offer to buy PayPal comes with a fixed exchange ratio, the
deal's value is tied to eBay's share price. At the time the acquisition
was announced, PayPal shares were at $23.61, well below the company's
recent high of $30, a mark reached shortly after PayPal made bullish
comments about its second-quarter earnings and revenue growth.
"PayPal is a growth story, and investors responded to that,"
Morningstar.com analyst George Nichols told the E-Commerce Times.
Stamps.com, meanwhile, has quietly written its own dot-com survival story.
Left for dead in the midst of the shakeout, Stamps.com has seen its share
price rise to $4.10, largely on the strength of its business partnerships
with Microsoft and HP, among others.
Just last week, Stamps.com announced that the U.S. Postal Service has
approved its NetStamps printable stamps product, making it the first vendor
cleared for that use.
"This feature promises to dramatically increase the convenience and hence
the value proposition of the Stamps.com service," said Stamps.com CEO Ken
McBride.
The new alliance with PayPal - and by extension, eBay - can only help
solidify the company.
EBay Rolls Out Fixed-Price Format
Internet trading leader eBay Inc. increased its shift toward fixed-price
sales Monday by launching a new format that lets buyers and sellers skip
traditional auctions entirely.
EBay, which began as an auction-only site, already facilitates instant
sales of items, both through Half.com, a site it acquired in 2000, and
through the "Buy It Now" option, which accounts for one-third of all items
listed on eBay.
With "Buy it Now," sellers can list an item at a set price, and the sale
ends if someone offers to pay that price. If someone enters a bid below
that price, the "Buy It Now" option is canceled, and the sale turns into a
regular auction.
Buy It Now will remain, but now sellers have another option: selling their
items at a fixed price, with no auction entering the picture under any
circumstances. Either the product sells for the listed price or not at
all.
The move had been requested by users who wanted a true fixed-price format,
eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said.
The refinement also figures to appeal to traditional retailers and other
companies that are increasingly unloading products on eBay.
Bill Would Give Small Webcasters Royalty Relief
One day before Congress adjourned for its summer break, several lawmakers
introduced a bill that would let small Internet broadcasters defer royalty
payments that could drive them out of business.
The measure would give small "Webcasters" a new lease on life by allowing
them to defer royalty payments to musicians and recording companies until
a new round of negotiations begins next year.
But the bill must advance quickly as Congress has only one more month of
activity scheduled before the fall elections.
Conventional radio stations have long been exempt from paying royalties to
recording artists and anyone else who owns the rights to the "sound
recording" of a song, but Congress said sound-recording owners should get
paid for Internet transmission when it updated copyright laws for the
digital era in 1995 and 1998.
The Library of Congress established a rate of 0.07 cents per listener per
song in June, which means that small Webcasters like Beethoven.com and
broadcast giants like Clear Channel Communications Inc . that "stream"
online broadcasts would be on the hook for 70 cents for each song played to
an audience of 1,000 listeners.
Webcasters say the rate is too high, and several have already announced
that they will shut their doors because their royalty bill will exceed
their income.
Virginia Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher, the bill's primary sponsor, said
his legislation would allow Webcasters with annual revenues of less than
$6 million to keep broadcasting until royalty negotiations start up again
next year.
"The goal is simply to give them life support until they get to the next
round," Boucher said.
Larger Webcasters would still be obligated to pay the established royalty
rate as well as royalties for past broadcasts dating back to 1998, he said.
The bill would also allow small Webcasters to participate in royalty
negotiations without paying arbitrators' fees, and would exempt them from
royalty payments on "ephemeral" buffer copies of songs that are stored on
Internet servers but never heard by the public.
It would also free U.S. Copyright Office arbitrators to consider what
effect any royalty-rate decision would have on the industry, rather than
modeling their decision only on other agreements reached between Webcasters
and content owners.
Boucher acknowledged that Congress has little time to consider the bill,
but maintained that it could pass if enough Internet users spoke up.
"Congress can act with tremendous dispatch when there is a will to do so,"
he said.
The Digital Media Association, which includes Webcasters, said the bill
"provides reprieve from bankruptcy for thousands of small Internet radio
companies, and that corrects significant problems with the royalty
arbitration process that imposed a devastatingly high cost on the nascent
Internet radio industry."
A spokesman for some copyright owners said the bill would prevent musicians
from getting fair pay for their work.
"These Webcasters are businesses. ... Why shouldn't they pay fair market
value for the music which is the very core of that business?" said John
Simson, executive director of SoundExchange.
The bill, which has 10 co-sponsors, will be referred to the Small Business
and the Judiciary committees.
Privacy Advocates Urge Use of States' Common Laws
With consumer-privacy efforts stalled in Congress, one expert is arguing
that those who fear that intimate details of their private lives could be
exposed already have plenty of protection through existing common law.
More than one hundred years of civil lawsuits in courtrooms around the
country have provided a broad understanding of privacy rights, allowing
consumers to sue for damages and encouraging companies to refrain from
invasive practices, said Jim Harper, editor of the conservative think tank
Privacilla.org.
In a report due to be released on Tuesday, Harper argues that lawsuits --
or the fear of lawsuits -- have largely held abusive marketing practices in
check, while allowing companies to develop new techniques that result in
savings for the consumer.
"State privacy torts provide explicit baseline protections for privacy at
the same time as they allow innovative new uses of information to occur.
For the most part, they have been unsung as privacy-protecting laws in the
United States," Harper said in the report, which he will present at a
meeting of state legislators later in the week.
Other experts say that while civil suits can be effective, they only
provide a partial solution and must be augmented by laws that prevent
abuses from happening in the first place.
Consumers are often reluctant to undertake expensive and time-consuming
lawsuits in which damages are difficult to prove, they say, meaning that
many violations go unpunished.
"I do think that lawsuits terrify companies more than (legislative laws)
do ... but it's an adjunct, it's not a total solution," said Robert Ellis
Smith, publisher of Privacy Journal.
The concept of a right to be left alone first arose in an 1890 Harvard Law
Review article in response to new technologies like the camera and mass
media that could expose an individual's private details. Computers, the
Internet and other new information technologies have increased concerns
exponentially over the past 30 years.
Congress has passed laws that place limits on how companies can share
consumers' medical and financial information, and lawmakers have introduced
dozens of bills that target online information-collecting practices in this
session.
One measure has passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee over the
objection of many high-tech firms, but insiders say it is unlikely to
become law this year as time runs short and homeland security, corporate
reform, and prescription drugs dominate the agenda.
In the House of Representatives, key Republicans have lined up behind a
bill but it has yet to move out of subcommittee.
Harper said consumers will be better off without laws that could stifle
innovation and prove unenforceable. The common law built up through the
courts is a better mechanism to curb marketplace abuses, he said.
"I never have litigated a single case, but I've benefited from other
litigation," he said.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center said that common law can be an effective tool, pointing out that
the privacy-rights group had argued in New Hampshire that it should be
extended to cover brokers who collect and sell personal information.
But common law should not be the sole basis for privacy protections because
the outcome of court cases is not predictable, Rotenberg said.
"It's in the interest of businesses as well as consumers to create
frameworks where the collection and use of personal information will occur
in a regulated environment," he said.
U.S. Cyber-Security Efforts Faulted
Years after orders from the White House to beef up the security of the
nation's most important computer systems, the government is having trouble
identifying which organizations should be involved and how they should be
coordinated, according to a new report.
President Bush's recent proposal to create a Cabinet-level Department of
Homeland Security said at least 12 organizations oversee protection of
important infrastructure. But the General Accounting Office, the
investigating arm of Congress, said it identified at least 50 organizations
already involved in such efforts, usually focused on protecting vital
computer networks.
The GAO said those groups include five advisory committees, six
organizations under the White House, 38 groups under executive agencies and
three others. Within the Defense Department alone, the GAO found seven
organizations.
Those numbers might go up. Richard Clarke, the chairman of Bush's
cyber-security protection board, said the Sept. 11 terror attacks and their
aftermath have caused the administration to consider broadening definitions
of critical infrastructure to include national monuments and chemical
industries.
"We have learned from the tragedy on Sept. 11 that our enemies will
increasingly strike where they believe we are vulnerable," said Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, D-Conn., who asked for the GAO report as chairman of the
Governmental Affairs Committee. "As this report shows, our cyberspace
infrastructure is ripe for attack today."
Clarke also noted that most of the networks needing protection are owned by
private companies, universities, state and local governments and even home
computer users. "This presents a unique strategic challenge," Clarke said
in a letter to the GAO.
The government previously defined critical infrastructures to include
banks, hospitals, water and food supplies, communications networks, energy
and transportation systems and the postal system.
The GAO report warned that the problem can't be solved at least until it's
defined well. "The opportunity for ensuring that all relevant organizations
are addressed exists in the development of the new national strategy," it
said.
Even organizations already involved are slowly discovering the scope of the
problems from an increasingly interconnected world. An early warning
network for the nation's food manufacturers recently decided it needed
to coordinate with the Interior Department because that agency controls
many of the country's water supplies and hydroelectric dams for
electricity.
The GAO also noted that it was nearly impossible to know how much the U.S.
government was spending on the protection of its infrastructure, because
the organizations involved don't receive money for specific projects and
don't track such spending.
Web Filtering Lawsuit Challenges U.S. Copyright Law
A 22-year-old law student filed a lawsuit on Thursday asking a federal
court in Boston to let him crack the digital lock on software that filters
Internet Web sites so that he and others can view blocked sites, some of
which he says are useful to the public.
The suit, filed by the New York-based American Civil Liberties Union on
behalf of Ben Edelman, challenges the controversial Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. The law prohibits creation or distribution of
tools that can be used to unlock digital copyright protections.
Edelman, who will enter Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in
the fall and is a technology analyst at The Berkman Center for Internet &
Society there, claims the filtering software is flawed and blocks
legitimate Web sites rather than just the pornographic sites it purports to
target.
"The core reason filtering software is of concern at the moment is because
it is being forced upon a substantial number of Americans as they attempt
to use the Internet in their local public libraries, public schools,
businesses and even in their homes," Edelman told Reuters.
For example, a product from Seattle-based N2H2 Inc., named as the defendant
in the lawsuit, blocks breast cancer Web sites and others with vital public
health information, such as the Asian Community Aids Services organization,
Edelman said.
The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which took effect in 2001,
requires that public libraries and schools receiving federal funds use
filtering software on their Internet-connected computers.
The ACLU challenged the library provision of that law in a lawsuit filed in
March 2001. A Pennsylvania federal judge overturned the law in May 2002 and
the case is on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Edelman wants to publish the list of blocked sites and distribute software
that would enable others to see the Web sites. The lawsuit argues that it
is within his "fair use" rights under the U.S. Constitution to do research
on the software.
Filtering software is also being used by governments in other countries to
censor and restrict access to the Internet for politically motivated
reasons, including China, Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia, Edelman
said.
He said his research found that Saudi Arabia had restricted access to Web
pages including the "woman" entry from the Encyclopedia Britannica," and
the Amnesty International site.
N2H2 is one of the companies vying for a contract to supply Saudi Arabia
with blocking software, the ACLU said.
Part of the lawsuit challenges N2H2's software license agreement, which
prohibits customers from decrypting or otherwise reverse engineering the
software.
The lawsuit claims the license agreement is unenforceable because by
installing the product the customer is forced to automatically consent to
the terms of the agreement and cannot negotiate, Ann Beeson, ACLU lead
counsel on the case, told Reuters.
N2H2 spokesman David Burt told Reuters, "We believe our software licenses
are valid and we do intend to defend them and our intellectual
property."
Other DMCA challenges have not held up.
An appellate judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Princeton professor who
feared recording companies would sue him over research into digital music
copyright protections. And movie studios successfully sued Eric Corley
after he published software to decrypt DVDs on his hacker Web site, 2600.
In another case, trial is set to begin Aug. 26 for Moscow-based ElcomSoft
Co. Ltd., which was sued for selling software to unlock copyright
protections on digital books.
Bill Lets Music Firms Hack Napster-Like Systems
Media companies would be allowed to sabotage Napster-style networks to
prevent songs, movies and other copyrighted materials from being swapped
over the Internet under a bill introduced in Congress on Thursday.
The bill would permit recording companies and other copyright holders to
hack onto networks to thwart users looking to download free music, and
would protect them from lawsuits from users.
Although Congress has little time to debate the bill before the August
recess, sponsor Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, said the
measure was necessary because the decentralized systems were impossible to
shut down.
"No legislation can eradicate the problem of peer-to-peer piracy. However,
enabling copyright creators to take action to prevent an infringing file
from being shared via P2P (peer-to-peer) is an important first step,"
Berman said in remarks on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Many large record labels have already resorted to a method known as
"spoofing," where they hire firms to distribute "decoy" files that are
empty or do not work in order to frustrate would-be downloaders of movies
and music.
Additionally, sources have said the major recording companies, like
Bertelsmann AG BMG, EMI Group Plc, Vivendi Universal and Sony Corp are
considering taking a new tack by suing individuals who use the services,
rather than the companies that host them.
The industry's trade group, the Recording Industry Association of America,
on Thursday welcomed the bill.
"We applaud Congressman Berman for introducing bipartisan legislation that
takes an innovative approach to combating the serious problem of Internet
piracy," said Hilary Rosen, chairman and chief executive officer of the
RIAA.
"Online piracy undermines the growth of legitimate music sites and hurts
all consumers in the long run. Every dollar lost to piracy is a dollar
that cannot be invested in fresh, new artists we have all come to expect
and enjoy," said Rosen.
The bill does not specify what measures copyright owners could take to
foil online song swapping, but does impose some limits on their efforts.
Copyright owners would only be able to stop the trading of their own
songs, and would be required to notify users and the Justice Department (
news - web sites) when they took action.
Overzealous companies could face a government ban and lawsuits from users
who suffered economic harm.
The recording industry blames rampant online piracy for a decline in CD
sales last year and has prosecuted online networks aggressively.
But while the industry succeeded in shutting down the pioneer Napster
service last summer, other less centralized networks like Kazaa and
Morpheus continue to attract millions of users.
"The current landscape for online music is dangerously one-sided, with the
peer-to-peer pirates enjoying an unfair advantage," Rosen of the RIAA
said.
"It makes sense to clarify existing laws to ensure that copyright owners
-- those who actually take the time and effort to create an artistic work
-- are at least able to defend their works from mass piracy," Rosen said.
Members of the movie industry also embraced the initiative, but not
entirely.
"We're pleased that a bipartisan group of lawmakers .. want to curb the
explosion of Internet piracy," said Jack Valenti, president and chief
executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America, in a
statement.
"However, there are aspects of the bill we believe need changing as it
moves through the legislative process. We look forward to working with
Congress in this regard," he said.
A spokesman for Valenti was not immediately available to elaborate.
New Spam Blocker Unveiled
A South Florida company said Wednesday that it has produced a new type of
spam blocker that relies on the validity of the sender's e-mail address
rather than on filtering. Extreme Programming Inc.'s "E-mail Bouncer" uses
an automatic confirmation system that will accept e-mail messages only
from verifiable e-mail addresses.
Legitimate e-mail addresses are confirmed with a single click, the company
said. Once the address has been confirmed, future e-mails from the
confirmed source will get through unhampered.
Spam is generally sent from false or otherwise unverifiable e-mail
addresses, and it is sent in unattended batches.
Most spam-fighting products on the market involve some sort of filtering
technology and scan for certain keywords in the subject line or body.
Quality varies, but most allow at least some spam through and block a
certain amount of legitimate e-mail.
"Ours is different because it actually verifies the sender's e-mail
address," Aaron Jay Lieberman, who developed the E-mail Bouncer software,
told NewsFactor.
"The message is put in a pending list and then the message is sent back to
the sender from the system, telling them that my e-mail address is
protected," he said.
The sender is given a link asking them to confirm their address, and when
they click it they receive a message telling them it has been confirmed,
Lieberman added. The system lets the network know the address is a
legitimate, working e-mail address and only then puts the message in the
recipient's in-box. The process typically takes about five minutes.
E-Mail Bouncer is based on the fact that many, though not all, spam
senders use illegitimate, often stolen, e-mail addresses.
The program's control panel allows users to see all of their pending
messages, which are erased after 30 days if not confirmed. Addresses,
including the domain names of specific companies, can be added manually to
the "valid" list.
Extreme Programming's service starts at US$5 per month for 1,000 e-mails,
and the company offers an "unlimited" package for $10.
With the extremely cheap cost of sending spam, experts do not expect the
annoying phenomenon to go away in the foreseeable future. Of an estimated
30 million e-mails sent per day, an average of 30 percent is spam,
according to industry estimates.
The cost to businesses and consumers is heavy. The European Commission
estimates that spam costs Internet users $8.7 billion worldwide on an
annual basis.
The issue of spam has attracted the attention of lawmakers. So far, 25
states in the United States have passed laws governing spam, and a number
of federal bills are pending.
For example, Virginia representative Bob Goodlatte is sponsoring the
Anti-Spamming Act of 2001, introduced last year but delayed because of the
attacks on September 11th. The law would make it illegal for e-mail
marketers to use other people's e-mail addresses to send spam.
And the Unsolicited Commercial Mail Act of 2001, sponsored by
Representative Heather Wilson of New Mexico, would give consumers, the
Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the right to sue
spammers for $500 for each unwanted e-mail.
Tips Offered for Preventing Spam
By Larry Blasko, Associated Press Writer
It's not exactly poisoning village wells, but those who generate the tons
of bogus and unwanted e-mail messages known as "spam" ought to suffer some
appropriate punishment in the hereafter; perhaps having a demon devoted to
stuffing flaming pine cones up their personal inbox.
In the meantime, those of us who originally switched to e-mail to avoid the
junk that came with snail-mail can at least do a few things to get the
electronic equivalent of a flea infestation down to manageable proportions.
There's a variety of spam-blocking software available, but there are also
things that can be done before you spend any money. Viral Tripathi, a guru
in the Associated Press Management Information Systems department recently
distributed an internal memo on actions you can take to reduce spam. His
suggestions are worth sharing.
First, Tripathi said, never respond to unsolicited e-mail. To the perps,
that's exactly what they were looking for, a pair of eyeballs.
Second, don't believe those instructions that say you'll get off the list
if you reply using the word "remove." Tripathi says that just identifies
you as a live one and you'll get on ever more lists. Well it might be
unsettling that marketers would deliberately try to deceive you, it's true
nonetheless and oh, by the way, the check is in the mail.
In a similar vein, Tripathi cautions against signing up on Web sites that
promise to get you off spam lists. They might be sites that collect
addresses and sell the same.
As much as you can, avoid any public display of your e-mail address.
Spammers use programs called "bots" that surf the Web looking for addresses.
And finally, Tripathi says, if you are a member of any group or service
that maintains a directory, see if you can opt out. Kind of like an
unpublished phone number.
Following these suggestions won't eliminate all spam, but it will reduce
the flow.
And why is that good and what's so wrong about spam anyway?
Spam is more than just the junk mail that the post office delivers.
With snail-mail, the junk mailer pays the postage for the delivery. On
e-mail, you pay for the connection and often, the storage for stuff you
didn't want in the first place. That's theft.
From time to time, various politicians propose legal remedies and the
chance of any of those becoming law, much less being widely enforced, is
anyone's guess.
As for the spam-blocking software, most of it works within limitations, one
of which is that like computer virus-prevention software, if it's not
constantly updated, the perps will surely work ways around it.
=~=~=~=
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