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The record labels aren’t the only part of the entertainment industry that should be worried about online piracy. According to a recent study by Media Force, roughly one million copies of hit movies were passed around online last month. The most pirated movie online in June was Guy Ritchie’s “Snatch,” trailed by “Pearl Harbor,” “Traffic,” “Tomb Raider,” “The Matrix,” “Gone in 60 Seconds,” and other hits of recent years. Three flicks that are currently in theaters, namely “Shrek,” “Tomb Raider” and “Pearl Harbor,” made the most-pirated list. The Motion Picture Association of America, much like its music-industry counterpart, the Recording Industry Association of America, has filed several lawsuits to try to stop its products from being copied illegally on the internet. But unlike the recording industry, the movie business has not moved rapidly to launch paid online distribution channels for its wares.
Survey: Give us boundaries online
People wish there were more rules to govern their activities online--but not too many rules, concludes a survey carried out for the Markle Foundation. The study found that people’s attitudes toward the web are conflicted. Seventy percent of those surveyed reported that they doubt the truthfulness of much material on the web. While 60 percent of those surveyed said they think the private sector, rather than the government, should create and enforce rules guiding internet use, 64 percent thought the government should make laws to protect web surfers. Fifty-eight percent say they don’t trust private businesses to self-regulate their online activities. A majority of survey respondents reported that they have a positive impression about the web, yet expressed worry about it at the same time. Sixty-three percent of all respondents, and 83 percent of actual internet users, said they have favorable opinions regarding the internet. Yet 47 percent find the net to be a “source of worry” rife with pornography, a place where privacy is nonexistent. Fifty-four percent of respondents reported that they feel they don’t have some of the same protections in cyberspace that they have off-line.
EDiets and DietSmart merge
In keeping with the philosophy that weight loss works best as a team effort, top diet sites eDiets and DietSmart have announced that they are merging. The companies have not said if there will be a name change or significant restructuring. The merged company will be based out of eDiets’ Deerfield Beach, Fla. headquarters, though DietSmart’s New York City office will remain open. Besides being the No. 1 diet site, eDiets is a rarity among internet companies as it has posted two consecutive profitable quarters this year. EDiets’ 250,000 subscribers each pay $45 for three months of its service and $10 a month after that. About 5.6 million people receive eDiets’ free newsletters. No. 2 diet site DietSmart is an extremely lean company headed by a CEO who sacrificed her own paycheck to keep the company afloat. It charges $44.97 for a three-month diet-counseling package. The merger will place the companies in a better position to challenge long-established, primarily bricks-and-mortar companies like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig in the $30 billion-a-year diet and weight loss industry.
Arkansas will auction surplus goods online
The state of Arkansas has jumped aboard the online-auction bandwagon with a program to sell off its surplus equipment over the internet. State government auctions are nothing new in Bill Clinton’s home state. The Marketing and Redistribution Division, which is in charge of the online auction, has been selling surplus goods from a Little Rock warehouse for years. But in the past, state agencies and other buyers have had to actually go to Little Rock to bid on surplus goods. The new program is intended to function much like auction site eBay, saving the state time and money. State agencies have dibs on the equipment, but after 30 days, unsold items will be available for bids from the public. Goods for sale include computers, office equipment and shop tools. Other states, including California, Maryland, Oregon and Texas, have run similar auctions.
MSN Messenger revives, worse for the wear
Software titan Microsoft says that its instant-messaging service, MSN Messenger, has come out of its weeklong coma. However, many of its users’ address books may have been misplaced or permanently erased. A glitch that surfaced on Tuesday, July 3, left about a third of MSN Messenger’s 30 million users unable to access the service or their so-called buddy lists. The glitch occurred on a computer containing the MSN Messenger database, while a backup computer failed as well. This is MSN Messenger’s second outage this year. It also blacked out in February as a result of hacker attacks and flaws on Microsoft’s web sites. It’s too early to tell, but the most recent outage has likely driven at least some disaffected MSN Messenger users toward the instant-messaging products offered by rivals Yahoo and AOL.
July 11, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
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