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                            THE STANDARD'S
                          M E D I A  G R O K
            A Commentary on What the Press Is Reporting and Why
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                                        | http://www.thestandard.com |

Tuesday, June  5, 2001

TOP GROKS:
* MyPoints Returns Finances to an Upright Position
* Leaving Las Vegas, Entering the Web
* Sleepless in Stockholm

MORE NEWS:
* Windows of the Soul
* EMI Plans Legal Music Downloads
* Sega and Sony to Link Consoles Via Internet
* Lawsuits Speak Louder Than Words


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TOP GROKS
~~~~~~~~~
MyPoints Returns Finances to an Upright Position

At first glance, this deal sounds as appealing as airline food:
Pending approval, the online subsidiary of United Airlines will buy
MyPoints, an "incentive marketing" company that gives redeemable
shopping points to users who jump through hoops such as reading
targeted e-mail.

Seems weird, but InternetNews.com suggested the deal makes some sense.
"Like several of its competitors, San Francisco-based MyPoints has
found airlines and travel companies to be some of the most receptive
to its offerings," said InternetNews.com's Christopher Saunders,
noting that MyPoints' clients include Continental and Alaskan
Airlines.

Forbes.com predicted that "large companies desperate to beef up their
Internet activities" buying "promising but beaten-down dot-coms" will
become a trend. The New York Times, on the other hand, pointed out
that United is building its Net arm at a time when other companies are
closing or reabsorbing their Internet units. Forbes added that United
opened its online venture a mere seven months ago - well, that's seven
months sooner than Wal-Mart launched its ISP.

United would pay $2.60 a share for MyPoints stock, a price observers
seemed to consider mile-high. "News of the deal sent shares of
MyPoints leaping 96 cents, to $2.56," said CBS MarketWatch. "It should
have ... the offer comes at a 62.5 percent premium to Friday's closing
price and a whopping 420 percent premium to the stock's 52-week low."
The New York Times took a good news/bad news approach, saying $2.60
"is well below the $88.50 it sold for in December 1999, but quite a
lot better than the 50 cents that MyPoints shares hit in March."

Either way, MyPoints is unprofitable, and the online advertising
market in general has seen better days. Forbes.com did the best
debunking job, under the incredulous headline "United Airlines Buys
Tiny Direct Marketing Firm." Reporter Lisa DiCarlo wondered how many
of MyPoints' 16 million subscribers are active members, whether the
two companies' subscriber lists overlap much, and how MyPoints'
proprietary technology is supposed to work for United.

Another mystery remains: United told InternetNews.com that it is
interested in linking MyPoints' marketing services with UAL's
frequent-flier club, while the New York Times reported that United
won't merge its frequent-flier program with the MyPoints reward
program. "The typical MyPoints user does not fly often enough to make
airline miles valuable to them," said the Times. "But United will
offer travel discounts as rewards for MyPoints points." Can we apply
the points to better airline food instead? - Jen Muehlbauer

UAL Corp. Unit to Acquire Mypoints.com (Reuters)
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26860,00.html

MyPoints to be bought by UAL unit
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B4AE9394C%2DA0B2%2D4897%2D8BEB%2D4CE3B8144B79%7D

United Airlines Buys Tiny Direct Marketing Firm
http://www.forbes.com/2001/06/04/0604united.html

United Airlines Subsidiary Makes Pitch For MyPoints.com
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/166440.html

United Airlines to Buy MyPoints.com
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article/0,,12_777641,00.html

United Airlines Buys Online Marketer
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/technology/05ONLI.html
(Registration required.)

-------------------------------

Leaving Las Vegas, Entering the Web

Future Comdex attendees may have the option of staying in their hotel
rooms all night and gambling from their laptops. Nevada has taken the
first step towards legalizing online gambling. Like past legislation
intended to ban Internet betting in the U.S. and Australia - and, if
you're feeling cynical, like any legislation anywhere - it has come
with political finagling and special-interest lobbying.

The federal government considers Net betting illegal, and this bill
wouldn't change that. But Nevada's pending legislation would authorize
regulators to license brick-and-mortar casinos to go online as soon as
they can prevent bets from minors or anyone whose home jurisdiction
disallows gambling. (MSNBC gave a good rundown of what that might
involve and how long it might take - think 2003.)

Nevada casinos wishing to legally offer online bets would have to
front a $500,000 licensing fee every two years. Some say the fee would
ensure that only reputable companies take bets online; others say it
would unfairly lock out small operators. "That would have been like
saying five years ago, 'only bricks-and-mortar bookstores can sell
books over the Internet,'" a Nevada state Senator Terry Care told the
New York Times. He has a point, but then again, there isn't much of a
market in offshore, rip-off paperbacks.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal explained the local saga behind gambling
legislation. An original online gambling bill died in the Senate amid
nebulous political goings-on. It was revived as an add-on to a
different bill about work cards for casino employees. If the online
bit is an amendment, a notoriously anti-gambling state senator
wouldn't be able to pull the usual maneuver - amending any gambling
bill with a substantial tax increase - because the bill would already
have an amendment. The Vegas papers, as an aside, consistently refer
to the "gaming," not "gambling," industry.

Several outlets noticed that Las Vegas casinos have reversed their
stance on Internet betting. "But as they've watched online casinos
rake in cash from people who never need to leave their computers to
make a bet, several companies have changed their minds and are pushing
for a regulated way to get in on the action," said ZDNet. Sounds like
politics as usual to us. - Jen Muehlbauer

Nevada lawmakers OK Net betting
http://www.msnbc.com/news/578499.asp

Nevada Approves Online Gambling
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/technology/05GAMB.html
(Registration required.)

Nevada Casinos Eye Their Piece Of The Net Pie
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,5092022,00.html

Virtual Gambling Gets Real Approval (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/net_gambling010604.html

New life breathed into Internet gaming proposal
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/xgr/2001/jun/04/511907548.html

BILL REVIVED: Internet gaming advances
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2001/Jun-04-Mon-2001/news/16242105.html

-------------------------------

Sleepless in Stockholm

Gather 'round, boys and girls, for your quarterly heaping helping of
ICANN abuse. Four times a year, the quango (quasi non-governmental
organization) that nearly everybody loves to hate holds a public
meeting in some usually far-flung locale. The just-concluded meeting
in Stockholm stimulated a full measure of controversy and coverage.

For a good overview of the gnarly issues on ICANN's agenda, turn to
Jim Wagner's report in InternetNews. Wagner touched on ICANN's budget
(it's increasing - surprised?), the search for a new home for the .org
domain, alternate roots and the polite international revolt against
ICANN's legitimacy. A sound bite from an Australian delegate summed up
this last beef: "ICANN is basically an American intranet" holding the
..com, .net, .org and country code top-level domains.

ZDNet's Interactive Week ran two stories on the issue of alternate
roots, one from Reuters and one by staffer Juliana Gruenwald. The
Reuters piece took the point of view of the renegade name providers
who will happily sell you names ending in .xxx, .biz, or hundreds of
other unsanctioned choices. Gruenwald concentrated on ICANN's
hard-line stand against the legitimacy of such alternate roots.

Pretty much everybody who touched on alternate roots quoted Karl
Auerbach, one of the newly seated board-members-at-large. Unlike most
on the ICANN board, Auerbach has long professional experience in
network architecture. "Competing roots are no threat," Reuters quoted
Auerbach. "ICANN uses the threat of Internet destability to scare
people away. ... But in practice it is not in the interest of
competing root companies to ... guide people to the wrong places on
the Web."

Wired carried another Reuters story, a look askance at the dense
thicket of jargon that has grown up around ICANN in the few brief
years of its existence. The piece quoted ICANN board member Amadeu
Abril I Abril grumbling, "We speak ICANNese, not English." - Keith
Dawson

ICANN Wraps Up Stockholm Meetings
http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_777441,00.html

New Domain Firms Sweet-Talk Web Naming Body (Reuters)
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2768413,00.html

Alternate Roots, Naming Systems Coming Under Fire
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2768503,00.html

ICANN, Meet Gobbledygook.org (Reuters)
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44269,00.html

ICANN Seeks Domain Delay (AP)
http://www.nyt.com/aponline/business/AP-Internet-Names.html
(Registration required.)

ICANN Struggles With Internet Names (AP)
http://www.washtech.com/news/regulation/10214-1.html

Dot-Complaining Because ICANN (Motley Fool)
http://biz.yahoo.com/mf/010604/plate_010604.html

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MORE NEWS AT THESTANDARD.COM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Windows of the Soul
By Dominic Gates
Microsoft and AOL's Windows XP talks are deadlocked because Redmond
wants immunity from legal action - a demand that reeks of both
confidence and nervousness.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26885,00.html?nl=mg

EMI Plans Legal Music Downloads
By  Dow Jones
The British label is developing software with a Californian company to
let consumers "burn" their own music CDs both easily and legally.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26888,00.html?nl=mg

Sega and Sony to Link Consoles Via Internet
By  Reuters
Sega's Dreamcast console will be able to connect with Sony's
PlayStation 2 as collaboration  between the former gaming rivals takes
shape.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26890,00.html?nl=mg

Lawsuits Speak Louder Than Words
By James Niccolai - IDG AT&T slaps Microsoft with a suit, accusing the
software king of using AT&T-patented digital speech technology in some
of its products.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26883,00.html?nl=mg


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MORE LINKS
~~~~~~~~~~
EMI deal opens door to legitimate music downloads
http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3JIHFNKNC

Napster Near Accord on Music Sales
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/05/technology/05MUSI.html
(Registration required.)

Secure mobile phone offers public military-grade protection
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/054988.htm

E-Books Out of Print Already?
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44277,00.html

AT&T sues Microsoft over speech tech
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B3959002A%2DE3CC%2D44CA%2DA108%2D99F17F44F847%7D

H-P Will Pay Pitney $400 Million To Settle Printer-Technology Suit
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB991658211352436219.htm
(Paid subscription required.)

Microsoft Takes Aim at AIM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20585-2001Jun4.html

Making the most of the mouse
http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Article&cid=FT3ABIKGKNC

High-tech with all the trimmings
http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/today/business_1.html

Scots launch chess doctorate to boost supercomputing
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5092112,00.html

STAFF
~~~~~
Written by Deborah Asbrand (dasbrand@world.std.com), Michaela
Cavallaro (mcavalla@maine.rr.com),Keith Dawson (dawson@world.std.com),
Jen Muehlbauer (jen@englishmajor.com) and David Sims
(davesims@sonic.net).

Edited by Jimmy Guterman (guterman@vineyard.com).

Copyedited by Jim Duffy (jduffy@thestandard.com).

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