NewsScan Daily, 18 September 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 18 September 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        House Votes for Permanent Ban on Taxes for Internet Access
        Instant Message: You're Under Arrest
        Teen Pleads Innocent in Blaster Case
        New System Aims for Smarter Spam Filtering
        Yahoo Predicts Sponsored Search Revenues Will Double
        Europe's Downloaders Are Different

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: The Honorable History of Genetic Manipulations

HOUSE VOTES FOR PERMANENT BAN ON TAXES FOR INTERNET ACCESS
With bipartisan support, the House of Representatives has passed a bill 
(H.R. 49) that makes permanent a ban on taxing Internet connections of any 
kind, including all types of Internet dialup connections and ones made 
through high-speed DSL or cable access. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) said: 
"This bill would broaden access to the Internet, expand consumer choice, 
promote certainty and growth in the IT sector of our economy and encourage 
the deployment of broadband services at lower prices." Rep. Gene Green, who 
was one of several Texas Democrats who opposed the bill, said Texas would 
lose $45 million a year in tax revenue. "I don't need to remind my 
colleagues of the fiscal crisis that our states are currently finding 
ourselves in, including the state of Texas.'' (AP/San Jose Mercury News 18 
Sep 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6794251.htm

INSTANT MESSAGE: YOU'RE UNDER ARREST
The investigation of a Wall Street trading scandal (in which a former Bank 
of America broker has been charged with grand larceny and securities fraud) 
is the first case that has used a chain of evidence derived from the 
instant messaging records of licensed brokers and dealers. Instant 
messaging (IM) systems are now widely used on Wall Street and to a large 
extent have replaced traditional e-mail. One attorney who consults on 
electronic communications said a New York Stock Exchange executive's 
question about instant messaging was: "Wait a minute, is that what my 
13-year-old daughter uses at home?" The answer: "I said yes -- and your 
traders." (USA Today 18 Sep 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techcorporatenews/2003-09-18-ims_x.htm

TEEN PLEADS INNOCENT IN BLASTER CASE
In an appearance yesterday before a federal court in Seattle, high school 
senior Jeffrey Parson entered a plea of innocence to a charge that he had 
unleashed the Blaster.B worm that infected more than 7,000 computers. If 
convicted, the young man faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. 
Parson's contention is that the government overstated its case to try to 
make an example of him. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 17 Sep 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6796336.htm

NEW SYSTEM AIMS FOR SMARTER SPAM FILTERING
Cloudmark is marketing a Cloudmark Rating product that builds on its 
SpamNet software to help prevent legitimate e-mail advertising and 
newsletters from being blocked as spam. Initially, the rating program will 
benefit only SpamNet's user base, but Cloudmark says it is offering the 
software free to major ISPs and Web-based e-mail providers. "False 
positives" -- where legitimate e-mail is classified as spam and blocked 
from intended recipients' in-boxes -- account for about 17% of 
permission-based e-mails and cost businesses $3.5 billion in 2003, 
according to Ferris Research. "A lot of legitimate e-mailers are growing 
more concerned that their mail isn't getting through," says Cloudmark CEO 
Karl Jacob. SpamNet now operates on a sort of "community consensus" basis, 
where if a certain number of users click the "block" button when they 
receive an e-mail, the software transforms those decisions into blocking 
rules, so that messages with similar wording will be blocked in the future 
to all SpamNet users. The new rating system will enable SpamNet users to 
opt out of e-mails without labeling them as spam for other users. "There is 
a discrepancy between what some people think is spam and what others think, 
and ultimately that decision needs to be made by the end user -- not spam 
filters," says Jacob. (Wall Street Journal 18 Sep 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1063826981719000,00.html (sub req'd)

YAHOO PREDICTS SPONSORED SEARCH REVENUES WILL DOUBLE
Yahoo CFO Sue Decker says revenue from sponsored search queries, where 
companies pay to have their ads included in search results based on 
keywords, is expected to grow from about $2 billion currently to $5 billion 
in 2006. The Internet portal company recently boosted its pay-for-placement 
business by acquiring one of its most important partners, Overture 
Services. Yahoo is also generating more revenue from its e-mail service by 
charging for enhancements such as expanded storage and spam filters. "Two 
or three years ago there was no business around search or mail. But what we 
have found is that there are a lot of people who will pay for enhanced 
features on these services, if the core service is free," says Decker. 
(Reuters/CNet 18 Sep 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5078469.html

EUROPE'S DOWNLOADERS ARE DIFFERENT
Unlike most Internet downloaders in the U.S., who tend to be teenagers 
trolling for free tunes, European downloaders are avid music and video 
fans, as well as regular shoppers who don't mind spending money on CDs in 
stores. "They are more likely to listen to digital radio and visit artist 
Web sites," says Jupiter Research analyst Mark Mulligan. "There is 
compelling evidence that this group is the bedrock community for those 
willing to pay for legitimate (online) music services in the future." And 
unlike the U.S. situation, where record labels are waging an all-out war on 
music swappers, in Europe, labels are pursuing a gentler approach, 
promoting industry-backed services and educating consumers that downloading 
copyrighted material is illegal. Europeans also tend to download more 
videos than their U.S. counterparts -- 15% said they downloaded a movie 
every month from a free file-sharing service with Spain topping the list at 
38%. In contrast, about 12% of U.S. Internet users download a video file 
each month. Mulligan says Hollywood should take note and avoid the hardline 
tactics of the music industry. "I think there's definitely an opportunity 
for television companies and movie studios alike to harness an emerging 
pattern of consumption here." (Reuters 17 Sep 2003)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&ncid=581&e=10&u=/nm/20030917/tc_nm/tech_internet_p2p_dc

*****

FLASH CARD
      "However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape 
ourselves in the image others have of us. It is not so much the example of 
others we imitate, as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the 
echo of ourselves in their words." (Eric Hoffer)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE HONORABLE HISTORY OF GENETIC MANIPULATIONS
      In his latest book, "DNA: The Secret of Life," James D. Watson writes:
      "Our ancestors must have wondered about the workings of heredity as 
soon as evolution endowed them with brains capable of formulating the right 
kind of question. And the readily observable principle that close relatives 
tend to be similar can carry you a long way if, like our ancestors, your 
concern with the application of genetics is limited to practical matters 
like improving domesticated animals (for, say, milk yield in cattle) and 
plants (for, say, the size of fruit). Generations of careful selection -- 
breeding initially to domesticate appropriate species, and then breeding 
only from the most productive cows and from the trees with the largest 
fruit-resulted in animals and plants tailor-made for human purposes.
      "Underlying this enormous unrecorded effort is that simple rule of 
thumb: that the most productive cows will produce highly productive 
offspring and from the seeds of trees with large fruit large-fruited trees 
will grow. Thus, despite the extraordinary advances of the past hundred 
years or so, the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by no means have a 
monopoly on genetic insight. Although it wasn't until 1909 that the British 
biologist William Bateson gave the science of inheritance a name, genetics, 
and although the DNA revolution has opened up new and extraordinary vistas 
of potential progress, in fact the single greatest application of genetics 
to human well-being was carried out eons ago by anonymous ancient farmers.
Almost everything we eat -- cereals, fruit, meat, dairy products -- is the 
legacy of that earliest and most far-reaching application of genetic 
manipulations to human problems."
                      ***
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375415467/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for James D. Watson with Andrew Berry, "DNA: The Secret of Life" -- or look 
for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book 
recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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