NewsScan Daily, 16 September 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 16 September 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Battle Is Brewing Over Net Management
        VeriSign's Site Finder Profits From Typos
        Challenge to DMCA; 'Too Soon To Change The Law' (Hatch)
        SBC Resists Subpoenas to Identify Music Downloaders
        Allen Gives $100 Million for Brain Research
        IM-ing Habits Differ in U.S., U.K.

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Two Different Rights (Both Hard to Enforce)

BATTLE IS BREWING OVER NET MANAGEMENT
Two camps with opposing views on Internet management are emerging, setting 
the stage for discord at the upcoming UN-backed World Summit on the 
Information Society in December. "Some governments are arguing that the 
management of things like (Internet protocol) addressing, global domain 
names and privacy should be done by an intergovernmental organization 
because the feel the Internet is a public resource, and they have 
responsibility over public resources," says Mohammed Sharil, chairman of 
the government advisory committee for ICANN (the Internet Corporation for 
Assigned Names and Numbers). "Then there are some governments who feel that 
the Internet should be managed by an international body. International by 
definition means everyone is involved, from governments to private sector 
and civil society. Whereas intergovernmental gives an indication that only 
governments are involved and not necessarily people." Sharil says many 
countries in the Asia-Pacific region prefer an independent international 
managing body, whereas some in Europe and the Middle East favor an 
intergovernmental organization. The issue is currently under debate as the 
wording of a key article to be adopted at the summit is hammered out. 
"Positions are shifting all the time," says Sharil, who adds that ICANN 
will not take a position on the subject. (Reuters/CNet 16 Sep 2003)
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5077101.html

VERISIGN'S SITE FINDER PROFITS FROM TYPOS
Internet registrar VeriSign has launched a new service, Site Finder, that 
offers users who mistype a URL a list of alternative Web sites that they 
might be trying to reach. Several ISPs do the same thing -- most notably 
AOL and MSN -- but critics say that because VeriSign controls the directory 
computers for ".com" and ".net" names, they could easily reroute all 
queries to Site Finder. "We put so much of our research into developing 
this AOL search result page," says an AOL spokesman. "We are reviewing our 
potential options. We are strongly opposed to them interjecting themselves 
into our members' search experience." Site Finder's suggestions include 
both standard search results and pay-for-placement advertisements, which 
are identified as such. But while VeriSign VP Ben Turner says the new 
service is designed to "improve overall usability of the Internet," Danny 
Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, warns that Site Finder's 
capabilities could also be abused -- by directing users only to 
pay-for-placement sites, for instance. Meanwhile, the new service provides 
a much-needed new revenue stream for the Internet registrar. "Right now, 
VeriSign's business is not a growing business, and anything that they do to 
add the slightest amount of growth is going to be positive," says an 
analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray. (AP 15 Sep 2003)
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030915/D7TJ2U5O0.html

CHALLENGE TO DMCA; 'TOO SOON TO CHANGE THE LAW' SAYS HATCH
Verizon is challenging the constitutionality of the subpoenas forcing 
Verizon to turn over names and addresses for at least four Internet 
subscribers. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 permits music 
companies and others to force Internet providers to turn over the names of 
suspected pirates upon subpoena from any U.S. District Court clerk's office 
(and a judge's signature is not required). Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), 
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said that it's too early to 
consider changing the 1998 law. "These issues have not ripened enough. I 
don't think we can yet determine if these subpoenas are being used 
responsibly to identify alleged infringers... As we start to hear more 
voices protesting the impact of these subpoenas, there may be more of a 
chance to reconsider their impact.'' (AP/San Jose Mercury News 16 Sep 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6784743.htm

SBC RESISTS SUBPOENAS TO IDENTIFY MUSIC DOWNLOADERS
In another challenge to the recording industry, No. 2 regional phone 
company and Internet service provider SBC is refusing to comply with 
subpoenas requiring it and other ISPs to turn over to the Recording 
Industry Association of America (RIAA) the identities of subscribers 
suspected of music copyright infringers. SBC's general counsel James D. 
Ellis sees it as a privacy issue: "Clearly, there are serious legal issues 
here, but there are also these public policy privacy issues. We have 
unlisted numbers in this industry, and we've got a long heritage in which 
we have always taken a harsh and hard rule on protecting the privacy of our 
customers' information." Matthew J. Oppenheim, a top RIAA executive, says: 
"SBC believes that free music drives its business. That's the only 
explanation for why they would relitigate issues that have been resolved." 
(New York Times 16 Sep 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/09/16/business/media/16SWAP.html

ALLEN GIVES $100 MILLION FOR BRAIN RESEARCH
Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is donating $100 million as 
seed money for brain research and for the creation of the Allen Institute 
for Brain Science in Seattle. The Institute would have as its mission the 
identification of every gene's role in the human brain. Allen says: "We 
believe this is a historic opportunity to unite the genome and the brain. 
Researchers will be able to use the data and technology to tackle the 
challenges of neurodevelopment, neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease, 
and contribute to a fundamental understanding of brain science." The hope 
is that the keys to treatment and prevention can be found at the root of 
the brain where genes drive the mental processes. Genomics researcher Mark 
Boguski explains: "It's like opening a box filled with parts to build two 
tables and there are 30,000 parts and no instructions. There is no map. We 
have to figure out which are for the brain, and then we have to figure out 
how they are put together or what they do... This will be a launching pad 
for more research. Genome and brain research have always been two trains 
running down parallel tracks. This is where these fields can connect." (USA 
Today 16 Sep 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-09-16-paul-allen-donation_x.htm

IM-ING HABITS DIFFER IN U.S., U.K.
Using Instant Messenger at work to flirt with colleagues, complain about 
the boss and gossip about co-workers are among the most common IM themes -- 
at least in the U.K., where 65% of survey respondents say they use IM for 
personal purposes during work hours. "If you're leaning forward and typing 
away at your machine, who's to know what you're typing about," says Nigel 
Hawthorn, whose cybersecurity firm, Blue Coat Systems, conducted a poll of 
some 300 firms in the U.K. and the U.S. Half the British respondents 
admitted to spicing up their IMs with abusive language; 40% used IM-ing to 
conspire with colleagues during conference calls; and nearly a third 
confessed to "making sexual advances" via IM. U.S. respondents, meanwhile, 
were much more circumspect in their IM habits, with fewer than one in five 
using IM to comment on senior management or to flirt. The difference, says 
Hawthorn, is probably attributable to the Big Brother syndrome. While 
nearly 60% of Brits were pretty sure their bosses couldn't monitor their IM 
activities, 71% of U.S. respondents believed -- correctly -- that their IM 
messages could be traced back to them. (Reuters 15 Sep 2003)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&ncid=581&e=9&u=/nm/20030915/tc_nm/tech_internet_im_col_dc

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Everything is practice." (Pelé)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TWO DIFFERENT RIGHTS (BOTH HARD TO ENFORCE)
      Columnist Lee Gomes, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has doubts 
about the "Amish-like altruism" of online music thieves:
      "Critics of the record industry may be right in saying that it's too 
late in the game to do anything about music piracy, and that the industry 
will simply have to come up with a new business model.
      "All they are really saying is that PCs and the Internet are making 
traditional notions of copyright exceedingly difficult to enforce. But are 
copyright owners precluded from even trying? Those same two technologies 
also are making traditional notions of privacy exceedingly difficult to 
enforce. But no one I know is suggesting giving up on that fight.
      "If the RIAA didn't exist, music copiers would have to invent it, to 
have a villain they can rip off and still sleep at night. There is, in 
fact, a whole hierarchy of euphemisms that immunize downloaders from the 
moral realities of what they are doing, starting with the ridiculous phrase 
"file sharing," with all its connotations of Amish-like altruism.
      "Just like with free speech, copyright law is one of those areas 
where the more odious the person making the claim, the more important the 
fight may be.
      "Do we really want to be so cavalier with copyright laws in the age 
of the Internet? After all, one day, we may need them to protect something 
vastly more important than mere RIAA music. Like Linux programs. Or maybe 
even blogs."

See http://www.wsj.com for Lee Gomes's regular column called "Portals." 
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