Web Shorts

Federal judge OKs class action suit against AOL
A federal appellate judge denied an appeal from America Online last week to strike down a national class action lawsuit, which alleges the internet service provider ensnared customers with misleading advertising. AOL earlier handed over almost 4,700 written complaints from consumers who believe they were not properly notified that the phone numbers they were using to dial up for internet access might be long-distance numbers. The lawsuit could eventually involve ten of thousands of customers who paid long-distance fees from 1996 to the present. The false advertising claim stems from AOL's pricing agreement, which promises unlimited access for $19.95 a month. Legal representatives for the plaintiffs contend that AOL does not provide sufficient information about long-distance charges. Moreover, they assert that the company's software switches to long-distance numbers after exhausting a list of local numbers that they complain is often inadequate. AOL counters that its disclaimer elucidates the possibility that some of the numbers listed might incur long-distance charges, owing to the variety of long-distance plans and their policies.

Victoria’s Secret show doubles web traffic
Models traipsing down the runway clad in their skivvies might be a traffic-stopping sight in one sense of the word, but in another sense, the scene has caused traffic to accelerate. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show that ran on ABC on Nov. 15 significantly boosted internet traffic to Victoriassecret.com. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, 423,000 people visited the web site the week after the show, compared to 212,000 people a week pre-show. More than 25 percent of those visitors logged onto the page within the site that featured information about the show. That page offered streaming footage and stills of the steamy broadcast. Men made up the majority of site visitors, at 52 percent. The typical visitors spent 10 minutes on the site.

U.K. web surfers are friendlier
The word “Britain” evokes, for many, stodginess, propriety and stiff upper lips. But that image doesn’t apply to British web surfers, it turns out. According to a survey by London’s National Center for Social Research, online Brits are gregarious, and they are more likely to trust others and perform community service than their unwired counterparts. About a third of U.K. net users are part of an online community group. The less experienced with the web they are, however, the less likely they are to belong to an online community. Less than 25 percent of people who have not used a search engine, for example, belong to a community group on the internet. Like their U.S. counterparts, moneyed, educated Britons are more inclined to be internet users.

Vicious virus records passwords
A computer worm known as Badtrans.b is tearing its way through home and small business computers and networks. The virus is a reincarnation of Badtrans, which first appeared in April. Once launched, the worm uses a bit of code known as a “backdoor Trojan” to lay a machine open to hackers. At the same time, the virus captures a user’s keystrokes, which helps hackers lift credit card numbers and passwords. Despite Badtrans.b’s nasty side effects, antivirus companies are labeling it only a medium threat, because antivirus software can usually catch it. But home and small businesses are warned to be on high alert, since their antivirus software is more likely to be out-of-date than the software that guards large corporate networks. The Badtrans bug spreads by responding to unanswered email and by mailing itself out to addresses in a recipient’s Microsoft Outlook address book.

FuckedCompany pressed to name names
FuckedCompany, the site that lets people post unconfirmed rumors about troubled internet companies, is under pressure to reveal the identities of some members of its community. According to the New York Post, a print-management company called PrintCafe has taken to the courts to try to force FuckedCompany to reveal the identities of people who criticized PrintCafe on the site. PrintCafe says that some comments that were posted about it on FuckedCompany were untrue. To that end, the company is trying to get the courts to depose the site’s proprietor, Philip Kaplan, to force him to uncloak three individuals who posted messages. Their handles are “EX-DLJ,” “SUCKY-ME” and “IDIOT!” Kaplan, for his part, pooh-poohs the latest tempest, saying that he’s accustomed to such things and receives cease-and-desist letters all the time. PrintCafe argues that the First Amendment does not protect untruths, but legal experts say that Kaplan is under no obligation to name names unless the courts actually subpoena him.

Correction: Barnesandnoble.com fliers were fake
Yesterday’s web shorts included an item headlined, “Book peddler BN.com turns to windshield fliers” that described how Barnesandnoble.com, the e-commerce brand of bookseller Barnes and Noble, was slipping photocopied fliers under car windshields in Manhattan in an apparent effort to save money on advertising. The source for the short was a New York Post news article, which had inaccurately claimed that the fliers came from Barnesandnoble.com. According to the company, the fliers were not distributed by Barnesandnoble.com or its parent company, despite being labeled as such. Media Life regrets the error.

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