NewsScan Daily, 20 May 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 20 May 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Roxio Plans 'Napster's Second Coming' With Pressplay Deal
        SBC to Build WiFi Network
        EBay Sanctions Purchases Using 'Loyalty Points'
        Are You a Spammer?
        Lawsuit Charges Best Buy and Microsoft With Consumer Fraud
        Yahoo Hopes to Regain Position as Lead Search-Dog

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: The Globalized Economy

ROXIO PLANS 'NAPSTER'S SECOND COMING' WITH PRESSPLAY DEAL
Roxio, the CD-burning software maker who recently bought Napster, has 
acquired pressplay, the joint venture owned by Universal Music Group and 
Sony Music Entertainment. The company says the $40-million deal will enable 
it to use pressplay as the foundation for a new online music service, which 
will "retain the overall feel and vibe of Napster," says Roxio chairman and 
CEO Chris Gorog. "With our acquisition of Napster we obtained the most 
powerful brand in the online music space. Now, with our acquisition of 
pressplay, we have the most complete and scaleable legal technology 
infrastructure to use as a platform to relaunch Napster." Of course, the 
first order of business will be repositioning the brand for music fans who 
currently associate Napster with "free music," says Gartner analyst P.J. 
McNealy. "Roxio is going to have to spend quite a bit of money 
reestablishing the Napster brand… as a pay-for-music service." Meanwhile, 
Roxio executives are heartened by the overnight success of Apple's iTunes 
venture, which sold more than 2 million downloads in the first 16 days 
following its April 28 launch. (AP 19 May 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030519/D7R4M3GG3.html

SBC TO BUILD WIFI NETWORK
SBC has begun shopping around for the wireless networking gear it will need 
to establish public WiFi hotspots, building on an existing service that 
sells WiFi access points to corporate customers and subscribers of its SBC 
Yahoo DSL service. The telecom firm recently appointed a vice president of 
WiFi, Brooks McCorlce, who describes SBC's WiFi strategy as "aggressive." 
Telecommunications companies increasingly are seeing WiFi deployment as a 
means to stave off competition by cable companies, which have managed to 
grab 20%-30% of local telephone market share in some areas. (CNet News.com 
19 May 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-1007820.html?tag=fd_top

EBAY SANCTIONS PURCHASES USING 'LOYALTY POINTS'
EBay says it will allow customers to pay for their online auction purchases 
using frequent flier miles and other loyalty program points, such as those 
earned from hotel chains, phone companies, etc. The user will exchange the 
points or miles for eBay "Anything Points," worth one penny each, which can 
then be used to buy anything on the site. "It's really a new currency that 
can be exchanged or issues," says Don Albert, who heads up eBay's strategic 
partnerships. The exchange rate initially will be fixed, but over time, 
"the currency will find its own value," says Albert. Currently, 10,000 
HHonors points from Hilton would convert to 1,000 eBay points and 6,945 
AAdvantage miles from American Airlines would garner 5,000 eBay points. 
Frequent flier mile exchanges must convert their miles through Points.com 
Inc. (Wall Street Journal 20 May 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105337940047834600.djm,00.html (sub req'd)

ARE YOU A SPAMMER?
Hundreds of thousands of computers are now being used without their owners' 
knowledge to forward spam around the world. William Hancock, chief security 
officer of Cable & Wireless, says: "This is not about a hacker trying to 
show off, or give you a hard time. This is about money. As long as there 
are people who want spam to go out, this is not going to go away." And how 
do the hijacked victims feel? They usually feel ignorant and in the dark. A 
network abuse engineer with Earthlink explains, "People are shocked. 
Someone will say, 'I thought my computer was running a little slow, but I 
had no idea it was being used to send spam.'" A common way for spammers to 
pull this trick off is to use a backdoor in the software used to link 
several computers or "proxy servers." (New York Times 20 May 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/05/20/technology/20SPAM.html

LAWSUIT CHARGES BEST BUY AND MICROSOFT WITH CONSUMER FRAUD
A Los Angeles man has filed a class-action complaint against Microsoft and 
the Best Buy retailing company, alleging that Microsoft's MSN signed him up 
for MSN's Internet service without his knowledge or permission, after he 
bought a computer at Best Buy. Microsoft says that the man's allegations 
"do not appear to be consistent with the program we have in place with Best 
Buy." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 20 May 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5898647.htm

YAHOO HOPES TO REGAIN POSITION AS LEAD SEARCH-DOG
Yahoo, the Internet company that started as a directory of Web sites but 
has since broadened into a full media company (with news, maps, travel 
services, messaging, etc.), has launched a new advertising campaign as the 
first salvo in a battle to regain from Google the position of No. 1 search 
engine on the Internet. Video billboards on the Reuters headquarters in New 
York's Times Square will scroll live search queries from users throughout 
the country, to show the power of Yahoo search capabilities. (Reuters/USA 
Today 19 May 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-19-yahoo-ads_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
      "In science, the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not 
to the man to whom the idea first occurs." (Sir William Osler)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE GLOBALIZED ECONOMY
      Financial management guru George Soros is a well-known advocate of 
"the open society":
      "We live in a global economy that is characterized by free trade in 
goods and services and even more by the free movement of capital. As a 
result, interest rates, exchange rates, and stock prices in various 
countries are intimately interrelated, and global financial markets exert 
tremendous influence on economic conditions everywhere. Financial capital 
enjoys a privileges position. Capital is more mobile than the other factors 
of production, and financial capital is even more mobile than other forms 
of capital. The globalization of financial markets has reduced the ability 
of individual states to tax and regulate capital because it can move 
elsewhere. Given the decisive role that international financial capital 
plays in the fortunes of individual countries, it is not inappropriate to 
speak of a global capitalist system.
      "We can speak about the triumph of capitalism in the world, but we 
cannot yet speak about the triumph of democracy. There is a serious 
mismatch between the political and the economic conditions that prevail in 
the world today. We have a global economy, but the political arrangements 
are still firmly grounded in the sovereignty of the state. How can the 
needs of a global society be reconciled with the sovereignty of states? 
That is the crucial problem facing us today.
      "Capitalism and democracy do not necessarily go hand in hand. There 
is some correlation: Rising standards of living and the formation of a 
middle class tend to generate pressure for freedom and democracy; they also 
tend to support greater political stability. But the connection is far from 
automatic. Repressive regimes do not relax their grip on power willingly, 
and they are often aided and abetted by business interests, both foreign 
and domestic. We can see this in many countries, particularly where natural 
resources such as oil or diamonds are at stake. Perhaps the greatest threat 
to freedom and democracy in the world today comes from the formation of 
unholy alliances between government and business."
                             ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1891620274/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for George Soros's "The Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism, Public 
Affairs" -- or look for it in your favorite library. [We donate all 
revenues from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

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