Articles by Mary Hillebrand

The House and Senate Commerce Committees moved in perfect harmony this week, passing companion bills to allow digitally encrypted information to be exported. If they become law, the measures would open America's doors to increased electronic commerce in world markets Both bills would allow the Secretary of Commerce to deny the export of encryption ...

The United States Senate is taking relatively fast steps to curtail gambling on the Internet, but its counterparts on the other side of the Capitol have yet to pay attention to the issue The Senate Judiciary Committee passed S.692, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1999 last week just 11 weeks after the measure was introduced by Sen. Jon Kyl...

Among the flurry of votes Wednesday by the Senate Commerce Committee, Senator Spencer Abraham's (R-Michigan) S.761 Millennium Digital Commerce Act won approval with minimal tinkering by committee members. As previously reported, the bill would make little substantive change in U.S. policy but would officially endorse the use of digital signatures in electronic transactions...

The U.S. Commerce Department is looking at electronic commerce to provide the primary economic growth for the United States over the next 100 years, but at the same time, the agency has not yet figured out how big an impact Internet business has had on the country to date Commerce's Office of Electronic Commerce released its second annual report, "...

Suggesting the U.S. government and its state and local counterparts are predators "poised to take advantage of the new kid on the block -- electronic commerce," the Association for Interactive Media has launched an Online Shopping Council watchdog group The announcement comes as the Congressionally mandated Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerc...

With U.S. soccer star Mia Hamm on stage hosting the Women's World Cup, New York Yankees shortstop/heart-throb Derek Jeter batting 70 points above his major league average and Andre Agassi rising from the tennis cellar to win the French Open, the sporting goods company that outfits all of these marquee players would be foolish not to try to take advantage of this early summer sports frenzy...

On the eve of a much-anticipated meeting of federal and state government and private sector representatives to discuss the future of Internet taxation, a widely respected consulting firm said the Internet presents no major threat to sales tax revenues The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce starts its first meeting today in Williamsburg, Vir...

On the eve of a much-anticipated meeting of federal and state government and private sector representatives to discuss the future of Internet taxation, a widely respected consulting firm said the Internet presents no major threat to sales tax revenues The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce starts its first meeting today in Williamsburg, Vir...

Through a series of alliances announced Monday, Phoenix Technologies Ltd. hopes to take the first click away from surfing, and shopping, the Web Phoenix (Nasdaq: PTEC) will integrate six different Web portal pages into its BIOS computer operating system, giving the portals a chance to become the personalized face of an individual computer.

Desks, file cabinets and books that have been gathering dust in Baltimore City Government warehouses for years are now seeing the light of day -- or at least the light of the Internet -- through an alliance with Classified Auctions.com Baltimore's Bureau of Purchases recently put its surplus goods up for sale on the Internet to reduce its warehouse...

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), the nation's second largest cable TV operator and largest multimedia entertainment company is took a step toward a concerted electronic commerce business this week, appointing top bean counter Richard Bressler chairman of the new Time Warner Digital Media company. Bressler, who is also executive vice president and CFO, will start his new job July 15 and report directly to Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin...

American Greetings (NYSE: AM) plans to sell a minority interest in its electronic marketing division, americangreetings.com, in an initial public stock offering this fall. The company offered no clues as to how many shares it will offer or how much of the company will go public, though it said it will retain a majority interest. To account for the sale, the company said it expects to take a one-time charge on its balance sheets in the fourth quarter of this year...

The U.S. Department of the Interior is taking seriously the federal government's Congressional mandate to make better use of the Internet and electronic commerce opportunities in its daily business The department's Bureau of Land Management has latched onto the Internet as a way to rebuild the mystique of the "Old West" while finding homes for hors...

What's in a name? For Amazon, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), the Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BID) name brought a 7 percent rise in its stock price less than one hour after Wednesday's opening bell in New York. For Sotheby's, Amazon delivered a 10 percent boost. Such is the business of the Internet sales world today: Alliances are everything Amazon agreed...

The bad news is Canada is lagging behind the United States in electronic commerce. The good news is Canadians are dying to buy Canadian, if only their local businesses would get online IBM and the Retail Council of Canada are offering Canadian companies a primer on how to get started and who to target in a report issued this week by the Retail Coun...

Local communities are not yet ready to give up the issue of Internet taxation, despite a bone thrown recently by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott At the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting Monday in New Orleans, the mayors, their allies in the National Association of Counties and the International Council of Shopping Centers vowed to con...

The Los Angeles Times is going the extra mile, or maybe the extra $5 million (US$), to give its advertisers what they call in the ad business "added value." In case putting their wares on display in the nation's largest daily metropolitan newspaper is not enough to lure advertisers, the Times plans to offer them a link from its newspaper Web site t...

Seattle, Washington's GreaterGood.com is offering non-profit organizations a way to get in on electronic commerce to raise funds for their causes Through GreaterGood.com, non-profits of all shapes and sizes can set up a shopping center free on their own Web sites, and a portion of the revenues spent by shoppers will be passed to the organizations.

No one, including the U.S. government, seems to believe that the government should force Internet companies to use electronic signatures for Internet transactions. But look for the feds and the states to offer private industry strong encouragement to get that transition fully underway At Wednesday's House Commerce Committee hearing on H.R. 1714, th...

What a giant 40-foot purple gorilla has to do with magazines remains to be seen, but the name of a new online magazine subscription service is at least memorable for those who grew up watching cartoons in the '70s GrapeApe.com, named for the aforementioned giant gorilla of Hanna Barbera's cartoon library, launched an online news stand this week wit...