NewsScan Daily, 8 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 8 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Bidding Up Prices on Online Auctions
       FCC to States: Leave Internet Phone Oversight to Us
       Yahoo Yodels for Original Hollywood Content
       Pirates See Video Games Before Paying Customers Do
       Iran's Crackdown on Pro-Democracy Web Sites

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Red Light -- Then Green Light -- Then GO!
       Honorary Subscriber: Elisabeth Marbury

BIDDING UP PRICES ON ONLINE AUCTIONS
     Eight eBay sellers who bid up products online to inflate their prices
have been ordered by the New York Attorney General's office to pay almost
$90,000 in restitution and fines. More than 120 people will receive money
from the settlement of the three cases. One man will receive a check for
$3,089 after overpaying for a 1999 Jeep Cherokee sport-utility vehicle he
bought from an eBay seller in 2002.(Washington Post 7 Nov 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32944-2004Nov7.html>

FCC TO STATES: LEAVE INTERNET PHONE OVERSIGHT TO US
      The Federal Communications Commission is planning to declare Internet
phone service off-limits to state regulators. Bruce P. Mehlman of the trade
group Internet Innovation Alliance says: "The decision before the FCC is
critical, and very serious. The question for regulators is: Do we treat it
like telecommunications, taxing it and regulating it heavily, or like
information technology, keeping our hands off and letting market-based
innovation benefit everyone?" But Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of
America disagrees, saying: "If you let these people avoid their public
responsibilities and not pay their fair share for using the network, the
people left behind are going to be harmed by rising prices and declining
quality." (San Jose Mercury News 8 Nov 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10128196.htm>

YAHOO YODELS FOR ORIGINAL HOLLYWOOD CONTENT
     Yahoo wants Hollywood producers and talent agents to start pitching new
shows and short films that it could license for broadcast online. A Yahoo
spokeswoman is characterizing the discussions as "purely exploratory" but
the recently appointed head of Yahoo's media and entertainment group in
Santa Monica says: "I already sense a tremendous appetite on the part of the
creative community to access the Internet as a platform to distribute
content. There is an enormous amount that can be mined in the creative
community here, and that's no question a part of what we'll be doing." Yahoo
is apparently considering advertising and subscription fees to cover the
cost of the programs, which Yahoo is viewing as an act of self-defense to
insure that it keeps getting good content. One observer says: "How do you
know the supply of derivative content is going to keep up? Going past the
networks and dealing directly with the producers protects the pipeline to
Yahoo." But there are also some skeptics, including Standard & Poor's
analyst Scott Kessler, who notes that "it's been pretty obvious that video
content on any paid basis hasn't worked out so well on the Internet." (Los
Angeles Times 8 Nov 2004)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-yahoo8nov08,1,363364.story?coll=la-headlines-technology>

PIRATES SEE VIDEO GAMES BEFORE PAYING CUSTOMERS DO
     Pirated copies of the sci-fi action title "Halo 2" and games such as
"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and "Half-Life 2" have been circulating on
file-sharing networks, news groups and Web sites even before their official
release to consumers. Brian Jarrard of Microsoft's Bungie Studio, which
produced "Halo 2," complains: "You spend three years of your life pouring
everything you have into this project, and then somebody gets their hands on
the game and gives it away to the world for free. We made this, and these
guys had no right to give it out to the public." Douglas Lowenstein,
president of the Entertainment Software Association, admits: "The problem
and challenge with piracy is that there are people out there on a worldwide
basis who've identified piracy as a very profitable enterprise. You don't
end this problem overnight." (AP 8 Nov 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041108/D867MSU80.html>

IRAN'S CRACKDOWN ON PRO-DEMOCRACY WEB SITES
     In the past several months Iran has blocked hundreds of pro-democracy
Web sites and arrested such journalists as Mahboubeh Abbas-Gholizadeh and
Fereshteh Ghazi, both of whom write about women's issues. But the move to
block Web sites has the support of senior cleric  Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi,
who declared in September that Web sites should be blocked if they "insult
sacred concepts of Islam, the Prophet and Imams," or  if they publish
"harmful and deviated beliefs to promote atheism or promote sinister books."
(New York Times 8 Nov 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/middleeast/08iran.html?oref=login>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and
actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art
impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We
should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls
and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner."
(Eleanor Duse)

RED LIGHT -- THEN GREEN LIGHT -- GO!
     If you haven't tried RedLightGreen yet, today would be a good day to do
so, to see where you can find a library copy of the Lewis biography of
Honorary Subscriber Elisabeth Marbury. Notice that RedLightGreen contains
the letters RLG. Maybe that's some kind of coincidence. Anyway, red has
turned to green, so GO there! (And then bookmark it.)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: ELISABETH MARBURY
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the theatrical and literary agent
Elisabeth ("Bessy") Marbury (1856-1933), who turned a casual interest in
organizing a benefit theatrical performance into a successful career in the
theatre as a business manager and agent.
     Marbury's career got off to a good start in 1888, when she managed to
get a job handling the dramatic version of "Little Lord Fauntleroy," which
had become a current best-seller. Later in her career she would represent
other major writing talents such as George Bernard Shaw and Somerset Maugham
as well as performers such as the dancing team of Irene and Vernon Castle.
     Born in New York City, Marbury grew up in a well-to-do and cultured
home. Educated to a large extent by her father at home, she spent her early
years occupied with social activities, Sunday school teaching, and a brief
but successful experience with poultry raising on the family's Oyster Bay
farm. In 1885 she volunteered to organize a benefit theatrical performance,
which became the springboard for her career as a professional manager.
     In 1891 she traveled to France and convinced playwright Victorien
Sardou to allow her to be his representative in the English-speaking market
as well as the representative of the other members of the Société des Gens
de Lettres. In addition to George Bernard Shaw, she represented James M.
Barrie, Hall Caine, and Jerome K. Jerome, among British authors, and Rachel
Crothers and Clyde Fitch among Americans. For many years she worked closely
with Charles Frohman and his Theatrical Syndicate and later with the rival
Shubert brothers' organization.
     It was a time of rapid expansion of the New York theatrical business,
and she has been credited with bringing order to the enterprise. She joined
several other agents in forming the American Play Company, and she helped
stage several productions with music by Jerome Kern and Cole Porter,
becoming instrumental in the development of the typical American style of
musical comedy.  In 1913 she brought Vernon and Irene Castle back from a
Paris trip and set them up in a fashionable New York dancing school.
     Beginning in 1887 Marbury became a close friend and companion of Elsie
De Wolfe, whom she assisted in her career as an interior decorator. In 1903
Marbury joined Anne Morgan, Florence J. Harriman, and others in organizing
the Colony Club, the first women's social club in New York.
     Marbury was also a writer of sorts, publishing "Manners: A Handbook of
Social Customs" in 1888, and in 1889 coauthoring the play "A Wild Idea."
During World War I she helped out with relief work for French and American
soldiers in military hospitals, for which the French and Belgian governments
decorated her. 
     In 1923 she published the autobiography "My Crystal Ball." In 1933,
following several years of declining health, she died in New York City.
                         ***
[To find a library copy of Alfred Allan Lewis's "Ladies and Not-So-Gentle
Women" visit RLG's RedLightGreen.com:
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=17637920&>
-- or to purchase a copy go to:
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0670858102/newsscancom/ref=nosim>
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy
programs.]

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