March 29, 2000
NY Times: New Species, Old Struggle.
Of the organisms that have crawled out of the primordial electronic muck, a rough consensus has emerged as to which types are eventually going to be profitable. Of course, evolution on the World Wide Web is happening so fast that generalizations get out of date quickly, and even dodo birds get lucky sometimes.
ZDNN: Patent Office to change its tune.
Amid a growing debate over patents that stake out broad claims for basic methods of doing business on the Web, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is expected Wednesday to unveil an overhaul of the way it examines applications and awards patents for many online practices.
USA Today: Judge OKs deep hyperlinking.
A federal judge ruled that online companies can legally offer links to rival Web sites, a service many new Internet firms use to attract new users. The ruling was in favor of upstart Tickets.com, which was the defendant in a lawsuit filed by Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch Inc. that alleged so-called ''hyperlinking'' should be banned.
News.Com: Many Web sites will pay high price for children's data.
The phones at Surfmonkey.com ring nonstop with thousands of parents calling each week to give the online playground permission to collect personal information from their young children. And each week, a team of about five staffers does little else but deal with the dizzying avalanche of calls.
NY Times: To Put G.E. Online Meant Putting a Dozen Industries Online.
Early last year, John F. Welch, the chief executive and chairman of General Electric, set an ambitious goal for the managers of the huge company's businesses -- establish a strategy for using the Internet and put it into effect before the end of 1999.
NY Times: Spinning Off Can Mean Big Money, but Big Danger Too.
The greatest danger of spinning off an Internet business may be that it represents the company's future, said Professor Allen of the University of Virginia. [...] "There's a temptation for people to say 'Don't worry about the future, I'll just go ahead and take whatever I can get right now.' "
InfoWorld: UCITA passes Maryland house, moves to Senate for vote.
The Maryland House of Delegates has passed and sent to the Senate a controversial bill that has the support of large software vendors, but has upset consumer advocates for software users, along with libraries and small businesses.
Salon: What'n the heck is MobShop?
Mobshop is a company name that could invite smirks for any Web start-up, whatever its business. But it's particularly eyebrow-raising for a company that's all about bringing customers together in groups to get cheaper prices.
Industry Standard: That Was CDnow, This Is Then.
CDnow reports that it has $40 million in cash and assets at its disposal. But the math does not favor the Fort Washington, Penn.-based retailer. Its quarterly burn rate – the rate at which the firm is spending cash – hovers at about $15 million, meaning that its reserve will run out in roughly six months.
NY Times: Costco Brings Its Big Box Onto the Web, but Cautiously.
There are about 1,800 items for sale on the site. And there is growing overlap with items in the stores, although Costco executives are still wary of cannibalizing the stores. Many products are more expensive versions of products sold in the stores.
News.Com: Net firms get creative to keep coffers full.
E-tailers, such as Amazon.com, and financial sites such as E*Trade and Ameritrade, are increasingly relying on financial instruments called convertible bonds.
- Industry Standard: From February 28, 2000; Debt Wish
NY Times: The New Economy's Currency Is Stock, Stock and Stock.
While law firms have long taken slices of their clients' companies on top of regular fees, consultants are now doing the same, along with public relations agencies, executive search firms and commercial landlords. Even independent engineers and building contractors are participating in the equity swap meet.
ZDNN: Stephen King e-book pirated.
[Len Kawell, president of Glassbook Inc.] "The reality is there's no such thing as an invincible copy protection system," Kawell said. "It's impractical to make it both invincible and usable."
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