The US Federal Trade Commission has voted to postpone action on the proposed merger between America Online and Time Warner to give the companies time to address competitive problems raised by the $129 billion deal. The panel agreed to put off their decision for no more than three weeks after meeting in private to discuss whether to let the deal go forward conditionally or to block it in court.
Company officials and FTC staff members have been tussling for weeks over how to implement a requirement that the combined AOL/Time Warner open its high-speed cable lines to rival Internet companies. Such a condition would mean that a customer subscribing to Time Warner's superfast Web service could sign up easily for online providers other than AOL. While agreeing broadly to such conditions, the two sides have struggled to settle on specifics such as how many rivals must be allowed on Time Warner's cable systems and under what terms.
Science Today: A site aimed at increasing public understanding of science has been launched. The site, www.science.ie, forms part of the Science, Technology and Innovation Awareness Programme managed by Forfas on behalf of the Office of Science and Technology. It will provide career information with contributions from Irish scientists as well as covering general science issues and information useful for student projects.
Global Net: A major language barrier on the Internet has crumbled with the registration for domain names in three Asian languages, to go with the extensions .com, .net and .org. Until now these domain names were recognised only in Roman letters and Arabic numerals but the new breakthrough will allow users to register names in Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
No Interest: The first-ever "World Internet Forum," which was due to begin today in London, was cancelled because of an apparent lack of interest. The conference was aimed at "helping governments and business face Internet reality," but was abandoned after fewer people signed up to attend than to speak. "We did not get the delegates that we expected. We expected 400 delegates and we had less delegates than speakers. You just can't do that to the speakers." Robert Blaney, the event's chief executive said. They should hold it in Barbados next year.
In The Clear: A US judge has ruled that online auctioneer e-Bay cannot be sued for allowing people to sell bootlegged audio recordings on its site. Judge Stuart Pollak in San Francisco County dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Grateful Dead fan who sought to stop sales of illegal concert recordings of the band. The litigation did not focus on copyright infringement as has the Napster case. In dismissing the suit, the judge said he based his ruling on the Communications Decency Act, which forbids computer service providers from being punished for the speech of others.
GOP Under Attack: A site run by the Republican National Committee had to be taken down after it was defaced in the final hours of last week's US presidential campaign. The site, www.GOP.org, was replaced with a text message, which urged visitors to vote for Vice President Al Gore. It also contained a link to Gore's campaign site.
Net Vision Thing: Ten individuals have now been selected as candidates for the second Irish Internet Association Net Visionary Award, to be given to an individual who has made "a significant contribution to the Internet in Ireland". The IIA is accepting votes for the nominees, a list of which can be found at www.iia.ie.
Into The Groovy: Microsoft Network is looking to break the world record audience figure for a live webcast on the Internet with Madonna's live performance at the Brixton Academy, London. Madonna is performing on November 28th and MSN says it is looking to break the current audience record of three million for Sir Paul McCartney's concert in Liverpool earlier this year.
Prison Cell Phone: Japanese police have created a website to enlist the help of millions of mobile phone-users with Internet access in catching criminals. Photographs of 25 of Japan's most wanted are posted on the site. The site can be accessed by the NTT DoCoMo i-mode mobile Internet access system and other mobile phones. People can refer to a photographic likeness on their display screen anytime and anywhere they think they have seen a wanted person.
In Brief...Cisco Systems beat Wall Street profit forecasts for the 13th straight quarter and showed a 66 per cent jump in sales. . . Upstart chip maker Transmeta debuted last week at close to $21 a share, nearly double its initial price range.