Articles by Chet Dembeck

While online privacy is one of the thorniest issues in cyberspace today, inaction and rhetoric have promoted a groundswell of fear and distrust in the average consumer In many cases, Web shoppers believe that e-tailers take it upon themselves to collect and share personal information without being accountable for its use. If steps are not taken to ...

When the Children's Online Privacy Act of 1998 (COPPA) went into effect Friday, the measure received mixed reviews While some advocates praised the legislation, online consumer protection advocate EmailAbuse.org blasted the new rules as "a misguided attempt." ...

Last Thursday, Indiana University joined Yale University in banning the popular Napster site because of concerns about possible copyright infringement This action comes on the heels of heavy metal rock band Metallica's accusation that the universities and the makers of popular music-sharing Internet software were guilty of copyright infringement an...

According to published reports, state and federal officials are bickering over what remedies should be applied in the Microsoft antitrust case Sources close to the case say the only thing parties to the negotiations seem able to agree upon is that breaking up Microsoft is no longer a viable option.

This past weekend, a Canadian teen who calls himself "Mafiaboy" was arrested in the Montreal area and charged with at least one of the February denial-of-service (DoS) hacker attacks that blocked access to such popular Web sites as Yahoo!, Amazon and eBay In addition to inconveniencing millions of customers by disrupting Internet transactions world...

Just when it seemed that two Internet grocers were headed for the dot-com chopping block, a couple of food industry giants swooped in and saved the day with huge cash infusions Over the past several days, Safeway, Inc. paid $30 million (US$) for a 50 percent stake in GroceryWorks.com, while Holland-based Royal Ahold NV agreed to shell out $73 milli...

Last week, a federal judge disclosed plans to issue a preliminary injunction that would prevent auction portal Bidder's Edge, Inc. from gathering information off industry leader eBay's Web site While the full impact of U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte's ruling will not be known until the court issues a written order, many analysts feel the move ...

In an ironic role reversal, a San Francisco, California-based music firm filed a lawsuit against Amazon last week for an alleged patent infringement. Amazon threw off the spark that ignited the patent firestorm when it sued Barnesandnoble.com last year for stealing its 1-Click shopping feature ...

In what is being hailed as a landmark decision, a Bavarian state court ruled earlier this week that AOL Germany is responsible for allowing users to swap pirated music files via its online service. The court's action may finally give the music industry a powerful weapon against Internet piracy The case originated in 1998, when Hit Box Software sued...

E*Trade Group, Inc. reported quarterly results this week that far exceeded Wall Street estimates in an atmosphere where revenues -- not profits -- still rule Analysts seemed ecstatic with the number two Internet broker, in spite of what should have been one sobering detail: E*Trade lost $23.2 million (US$), or 8 cents a share, in its second fiscal ...

More flak is heading Microsoft's way -- this time over the software giant's Internet Explorer Web browser. The Web Standards Project, a grassroots software developer group, is complaining that the latest version of Internet Explorer is based on proprietary code rather than industry-wide technology standards The criticism comes only a week after a f...

When a leading Web incubator announced earlier this week that it would stop investing in business-to-business (B2B) companies, it reinforced concern that the dot-com shakeout in the business-to-consumer arena may be spreading to the realm of B2B According to published reports, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc., which has funded a number of such B2B firms...

In an effort to help elect Republican candidates to office this fall, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert is set to propose an extension on the current e-commerce tax moratorium until 2006 While it is believed that many Democratic Representatives will oppose the five-year extension, Hastert apparently has the votes he needs. Still, the Speaker is wag...

Just when it appeared that several years of negotiations between the U.S. Commerce Department and the European Union would lead to a new international privacy pact, a coalition of U.S. businesses is voicing strong opposition to its ratification In a letter sent to the department this week, the newly formed National Business Coalition on E-Commerce ...

While GartnerGroup predicts that business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce will reach a staggering $7.29 trillion (US$) by 2004, the real sweet spot for most successful B2B players is not likely to be the Web portal arena Even though the Internet is already awash with Web sites that exchange everything from farm equipment to toxic waste, most analysts ...

This week, when Dell Computer Corp. unveiled its plan to sell computers that manage networks and data storage technology online, the company once again demonstrated why it continues to be such a strong e-commerce player By adding "back office" technology to its offerings, Dell is hoping to cash in on one of the fastest growing segments of business ...

A group of 26 Internet advertising companies announced the formation of an organization to tackle the issue of online privacy at the Internet World trade show in Los Angeles today Perhaps the most notorious member of this new "Personalization Consortium" is DoubleClick, whose data collection practices have triggered a U.S. Federal Trade Commission ...

When talks between the U.S. government and Microsoft Corp. broke down for the last time Saturday, it heralded the beginning of the next painful phase in the ongoing antitrust case "After more than four months, it is apparent that the disagreement among parties concerning the likely course, outcome and consequences of continued litigation, as well a...

Ominous auditor reports brought the plight of several e-commerce companies into stark focus last week, sending their share prices toward the cellar amid a Nasdaq slide of nearly 200 points Though not usually headline grabbers, the auditing firms shared the spotlight with the beleaguered companies who were forced to publicly face the reality of clos...

If the wave of legal activity and negative publicity that has swamped online advertising agency DoubleClick is any indication, then attempts to self-regulate the Internet have been an abysmal failure In fact, a new report from Forrester Research suggests that government regulation of e-commerce privacy issues are now a foregone conclusion.