Articles by Chet Dembeck

Universal Music Group (UMG) said late Tuesday that it will begin offering digital downloads later this week. The announcement comes less than one week after a U.S. appellate court allowed controversial music swapping site Napster to remain online until a trial in the landmark case is completed. Napster, which allows users to swap digital MP3 files...

To the chagrin of the recording industry, a U.S. appellate court has allowed controversial music swapping site Napster, Inc. to remain online until its appeal of the landmark shutdown ruling against it is heard Napster, which allows users to swap MP3 files of their favorite artists without paying per use, had been ordered by U.S. District Court Jud...

Despite the vociferous demands of consumer advocates for new laws to protect the privacy of online shoppers, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce (DOC) have endorsed an industry self-regulation plan developed by the Network Advertising Initiative "NAI constitutes over 90 percent of the network advertising market," said J...

U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel granted a request by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for a preliminary injunction against online music swapping company Napster, ordering the company to stop making files of copyrighted music available for download as of midnight Friday The court's action represents a major victory f...

eBay, Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) reported stronger than expected results for the second quarter, as revenue rose 97 percent and the number of people using the online auction service grew "The top line for the second quarter was in fact the bottom line: eBay's record profits," said Chief Financial Officer Gary Bengier. "These profits were powered by record...

Twelve Internet industry giants are among a group of 36 firms that are partnering with non-profit privacy seal organization TRUSTe to kick off Privacy Partnership 2000, a grassroots public service campaign designed to teach consumers how to navigate the Web safely and effectively The 12 major players participating in the initiative are AltaVista, A...

Amid the controversy over the sharing of digital music online, music downloading site EMusic.com, Inc. has launched a new subscription service that will give users unlimited access to its musical library for a monthly fee of $9.99 (US$) The announcement comes one month after MP3.com created an unlimited use classical music and children's channel, a...

Easily exceeding Wall Street's expectations, America Online, Inc. announced Thursday that an upsurge in e-commerce and advertising income helped double its fourth quarter revenues Excluding one-time investment gains and charges, the Dulles, Virginia-based company said it earned $334 million (US$), or 13 cents per share from $157 million, or six cen...

German media giant Bertelsmann AG announced Thursday that it will acquire struggling online music seller CDNow, Inc. for about $117 million (US$) The Guetersloh, Germany-based company will pay about $3 per share for CDNow and assume $42 million of the company's debt. Once a Wall Street darling, CDNow went public at $16 per share in 1998, but was al...

Online media company CNET Networks, Inc., which provides information on tech products, news, and television programming, has agreed to acquire Ziff-Davis' tech news site ZDNet for $1.6 billion (US$) in stock CNET will also absorb Ziff-Davis' Computer Shopper, a business-to-consumer technology publication, and Smart Planet, an online educational ser...

The burgeoning online gambling industry won a political victory Monday when a bill to ban online casinos failed to pass the U.S. House of Representatives. A similar bill has already been passed in the Senate Although lawmakers voted 245-159 in favor of the measure, it fell 25 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for approval, according to ...

As part of the industry-wide effort to make e-commerce more secure, credit reporting giant Equifax, Inc. has announced plans to positively identify online shoppers through quizzes based on their credit reports Company officials say that the process will virtually eliminate manual authentication methods, including the need for consumers to enter an ...

Online auction giant eBay, Inc. is reportedly scaling back its live auction business and will instead concentrate on Web auctions of the high price art and antiques that were central to that operation After shelling out $260 million (US$) just 15 months ago for the Butterfield & Butterfield live auction house, eBay is now going to lay off about fiv...

Santa Clara, California-based Yahoo! Inc. announced strong second-quarter earnings and better than expected revenue growth Tuesday, sending its stock soaring and calming investor fears The Internet bellwether said revenues for the quarter rose 110 percent to $270.12 million (US$) from $128.57 million in the same quarter last year. Net income totale...

Just seven months after rolling out its much-touted WebPC, Dell Computer Corp. has reportedly stopped selling the consumer-oriented product line WebPC was designed to allow users to access the Web with a minimum of installation and configuration hassles. Priced at $999 (US$) to attract first-time buyers, the slender model weighs about 10 pounds, is...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint Monday in federal court to block financially strapped e-tailer Toysmart.com from selling customer data to help pay off its debts In a unanimous vote during a closed session Friday, the five FTC commissioners resolved to seek a preliminary injunction against Toysmart.com to stop the online to...

In an attempt to test the waters before releasing his latest version of an Internet-only computer to the general public, Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison is making the first 10 units available through an online auction The units are being auctioned as individually numbered "limited editions" through Amazon.com, with certificates of authenticity signed...

While delivering a keynote address at PC Expo on Wednesday, Amazon.com Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos blasted a recent analyst report that the mammoth e-tailer might soon run out of cash The report contributed to a sharp sell-off last Friday, sinking the stock to 33 7/8 -- or less than a third of its all time high of $113 (US$).

Mammoth Internet service provider America Online announced an agreement Tuesday with InterTrust Technologies Corp. that will allow AOL's 23 million subscribers to digitally download music and videos for a fee, while protecting copyrighted material from theft The Sunnyvale, California-based InterTrust specializes in so-called digital rights manageme...

In an effort to boost demand for its microprocessors, motherboards and networking products beyond the PC market, Intel announced Tuesday that it plans to spend $100 million (US$) over the next year to open 15 e-business centers throughout the world The new "Intel Solution Centers" will provide hardware, software, lab-testing equipment, and engineer...