News publishers: See ya later, Gator?
U.S. news publishers and Gator Corp. have reached a settlement in a case protesting unauthorized third-party pop-ups. The New York Times, Dow Jones and the Washington Post were among the companies to sue Gator, calling its advertising approach “parasitical.” Neither side has commented on exactly what the settlement entails, or whether Gator will be allowed to resume serving the ads on the plaintiffs’ sites. A judge granted a preliminary injunction last July preventing Gator from delivering the ads to the media companies registering the protests. A January trial was postponed when the two sides began talks. Hitching to free software or product installations, Gator runs in web browsers’ background. The media companies had complained that Gator’s advertisements overpowered and obscured their own, even though they are marked “GAIN.” Gator has 500 advertisers and 30 million active users. The company still faces similar lawsuits brought by the United Parcel Service and Six Continents PLC.

Music industry debuts online UPC-like symbols
The UPC has come to the internet. Monday a joint effort between two music industry heavyweights introduced the Global Release Identifier (GRID), a type of Universal Product Code for the web, to track internet music sales. The brainchild of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry and Recording Industry Association of America, the GRID will ideally help monitor how much money musicians and song writers are owed for their work available online. At first the GRID fee will be paid by the resellers, as it’s a voluntary system. The system will record each song sold in the form of a web stream or download by online retailers and distributors, who will pay a yearly fee of $245.10. The recording industry is looking for any way possible to recoup or even stanch its large losses predicted this year, with a second-straight downturn in CD sales forecast. GRID is not designed to track the songs swapped by peer-to-peer sites Kazaa, Grokster or the like. But with major music labels doubling their efforts at legitimate online song sales to fight swapping, industry insiders said some sort of standardization was needed.

New FCC proposal could boost broadband costs
A new phone competition deal struck by the majority of Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  members likely would boost rates for high-speed internet access. The deal, which differs substantially from the Bell deregulation plan pedaled by FCC chair Michael Powell, would give states more oversight and allow consumers to keep control of local phone service choice. Part of the compromise would involve restricting access from Bell rivals to the Bells’ high-speed internet lines. Instead of paying $5 per copper line in the current arrangement, smaller companies would have to shell out much more for their piggy-backing, or stop doing it altogether. The Bells, as well as many cable companies, had to knock about 20 percent off their broadband prices last year to compete with the smaller, cheaper companies. Proponents of the restrictions say that such line sharing is ethically questionable anyway. The move doubtless would jack up prices for broadband, which has seen increased growth the past year. The commission will vote on the plan Thursday.

Insurance companies jack up hacker protection fees
Computer worms cost more than just time. Now insurance companies have begun pumping up prices for hacking protection costs, under network risk insurance policies that cost from $5,000 to $30,000. The $1 million in coverage is a necessity because so many hacking claims have been filed the past two years. Market research firm TruSecure estimates that computer crime losses will hit $2.8 billion this year, a 25 percent jump from 2002. Hacker insurance will only get more expensive, too. Currently a $100 million market, it will reach almost $1 billion by 2005, according to Gartner estimates. About 600 successful web site attacks occur each day in the U.S. With web dependence growing throughout the country, going without insurance is foolhardy. The 2001 Code Red Worm alone did $2 billion in damage to corporate America.

Lose the paper, gain savings for expense reports
Getting rid of paper can have a big impact on a company’s bottom line. A new study by the Aberdeen Group found that companies could benefit financially by moving expense reports to the internet instead of printing them out on paper. Not only would it save a few trees, but the switch would also likely cut down on employee errors, which have to be rechecked manually via the currently prevailing paper process. DuPont, for example, saved $10 million last year by making the change. Aberdeen found that employees take an average of at least 30 minutes of company time to fill out their expense sheets. It then takes an average 22 minutes for the accounts payable department to process the sheet. Automating the process cuts employee time to 18 minutes and accounts payable time to five minutes. Aberdeen found that this saves the company about $30 per report. While paper processing costs an average $48, automation drops the cost to $18. According to Aberdeen, less than 20 percent of U.S. businesses employ web-based systems.

February 11, 2003© 2003 Media Life


Printer-Friendly Version |  Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us