Web Shorts

After a drought, U.S. firms will up tech spending
Thankfully for the technology market, computers and software get outdated, though never as quickly as they may like. Now, after cutting back on their IT spending, U.S. companies will spend a bit more in 2003 than they did in 2002, according to a new study by IDC. Researchers there think IT spending will rise by 1.5 percent in 2003, to $372 billion. Spending will vary widely by sector. The biggest spenders will be those that need to replace their dated computer applications: manufacturing, banking, government and services. The study, titled "U.S. IT Spending Forecast by Vertical Market, 2003-2007," puts IT spending in 2007 at $467 billion, which amounts to a compounded annual growth rate of about 4.9 percent.

Monster.com delists some global hot spots
Looking to work somewhere unusual? Say, Iran, Cuba or Libya? Don't look to popular career site monster.com. These are among the federally sanctioned countries that monster.com has begun restricting job listings from. Others include Syria, Sudan, Myanmar, and North Korea. Reaching the right formula for complying with federal guidelines on sanctioned countries has been tricky for monster.com. When monster.com first eliminated some references to these countries from its site earlier this week, they deleted references in both the resumé section and the job listings section. They have since done an about-face. By the middle of next week, it will permit those using the site to say they went to school in one of these countries using pulldown menus. But customers will still not be able to say they would like a job in these areas. Monster.com’s decision to restrict references to these places has prompted protests from Arab-American groups, who say that the federal laws don’t actually require it.

Issue: In what jurisdiction do you sue web sites?
Cyberspace is a world without geography. That raises some pretty tricky questions when it comes to filing lawsuits against internet sites for information posted. The problem is where should cases involving the web be filed? The Supreme Court has just turned down a case that might have helped establish some ground rules on the cyberspace legal boundary issue. The question is one that keeps rearing its ugly head as internet site operators wind up in court for defamation and invasion of privacy. The justices just rejected an appeal over a case filed in Washington against a Colorado-based internet operator that provides ratings of healthcare providers. Northwest Healthcare Alliance, a Washington-based healthcare provider, has filed suit for defamation against Colorado-based healthgrades.com, saying it deserved a better rating. Healthgrades.com appealed to the Supreme Court, saying it should not be forced to go to trial in Washington. The 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that because Healthgrades.com had graded a Washington-based company, and used Washington State records, it could be sued in that state.

Off to jail for Chinese internet café operators
Two internet café operators in China were given jail sentences on Monday for operating without a license. The case arose after their café was torched last June by two boys, resulting in 25 deaths, reports the Xinhua news agency. The bars on the windows at the Blue Speed Cyber Café prevented people from escaping from the crowded café. Safety concerns following the blaze led to a national crackdown on unlicensed internet cafes, of which there are many in China. The two arsonists were given life in prison for setting the fire. The torching allegedly followed an argument with café staffers.

Another push to crack down on spammers
Bounty hunting could soon begin in cyberspace. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, (D-San Jose) has joined forces with Stanford law professor Larry Lessig to propose a bill forcing spammers to label their messages as advertising. Offenders would have a bounty put on their head. If this bill does become law, people could earn thousands by providing information that leads to the arrest of these modern outlaws. Lessig is so confident that this approach would work that he has said he’ll ditch his job at Stanford if it doesn’t. This bill is just the latest attempt to control the proliferation of spam, which has nearly doubled in the last year and now accounts for 45 percent of all email sent. The idea is that putting ADV in the headline would help programs filter spam out for those recipients that don’t want it. Problem is, there’s a law something like this already in California, but so far almost no one has been prosecuted. Lessig and Lofgren believe this is due to lack of enforcement, and that’s why they want to bring in the civilian posse.

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