International News »

• Drop the Sales Tax

  The advisory panel created by Congress to study the Internet sales tax issue is hopelessly divided. Some members want the Internet to be a tax-free zone; others want Congress to require states to collect sales taxes on out-of-state purchases.

  Written by Hal R. Varian • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Cognos and Oracle match wits

  The growing importance of business intelligence is quickly creating new competitors, as dedicated business-intelligence vendors and traditional platform vendors vie to meet users' analytical and reporting needs.

  Written by Michael Lattig • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• WAP standard threatened by GeoWorks' patent claim

  Just when everyone in the mobile industry thought it was safe to unite on a wireless standard -- the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) -- GeoWorks is claiming infringement on its intellectual property rights.

  Written by Ephraim Schwartz • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• GTS Expands European Broadband Net Services

  Global TeleSystems Group Inc. (GTS) is rolling out Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) services across Europe, the broadband Internet network and service operator announced today.

  Written by Laura Rohde • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Security Watch

  Out of the blue, your bank issues you a new credit card. Why? Not because the old one expired. Although the bank doesn't publicly admit anything, the explanation during a phone conversation says it all: "The bank decided to issue new cards to all our subscribers for the year 2000." Yeah, and I like to throw money out the window for no good reason. Chances are that the bank's credit card numbers have been compromised.

  Written by Stuart McClure and Joel Scambray • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Maxamine moves offshore to woo customers

  Despite the worldwide glut of technology start-ups, Adelaide-based Maxamine is taking its recent $2 million injection of funds offshore. The move is a bid to attract IT professionals seeking to monitor Web traffic, knowledge management and various bottlenecks across business processes. And its first stop is the US.

  Written by Sasha Nimmo • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Korean Chaebols to Announce E-Commerce Tie-up

  Eight affiliates of Korea's top three business groups, or chaebol, and three independent companies this Wednesday will sign an agreement to create an e-commerce alliance, an executive at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has told IDG News Service.

  Written by Martyn Williams • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• ActiveUSA's Small-Town Play

  In an effort to reach small-town folks, ActiveUSA has acquired rival LeagueLink, forming a site where amateur athletes and weekend warriors can register for local sporting events such as softball leagues or marathons. La Jolla, Calif.-based ActiveUSA would not disclose the exact price tag of the LeagueLink deal, which was announced this week - but company officials put the investment at about $15 million.

  Written by Bernhard Warner • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Looksmart Eyes New Zealand With Clear Net

  In what may be a sign of things to come, New Zealand Interner service provider Clear Net has introduced the Looksmart search engine part-owned by Clear's parent company British Telecommunications PLC (BT) as the key search facility on its Web site.

  Written by Gillian Law and Russell Brown • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• SAP Set to Open Bulgarian Unit

  SAP Bulgaria Ltd. is set to finish construction of its offices next month, giving local users a wider choice of companies that can help them implement the company's flagship R/3 enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

  Written by Nadia Krusteva • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Bradner's column: Why does this feel wrong?

  To start off the new year, President Clinton announced an ambitious plan to combat cyberterrorism called the National Plan for Information Systems Protection. In the announcement, he said all the right things.

  Written by Scott Bradner • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Show Me the Dinero

  Long perceived as a sleepy business backwater, Latin America is fast becoming the hottest global market for Web-based financial services.

  Written by Lisa Shuchman • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Patent Problems

  Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc. is Time magazine's 1999 Person of the Year. "Unquestionably, the king of cybercommerce," and among the youngest to join that exclusive club (only Charles Lindbergh, Queen Elizabeth II and Martin Luther King Jr. were younger), Bezos has become a kind of hero of the Net. His success is a measure of the reward the Net returns to innovation. And his company is a symbol of that innovation.

  Written by Lawrence Lessig • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Net Prophet

  The rise of the automobile led to the foreseeable introduction of freeways. But an unforeseen consequence of the automobile was the traffic jam. Living in Silicon Valley, I get to think about this a lot.

  Written by Sean M. Dugan • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Lucent acquires Agere for $US415 million

  Taking a strong leap forward in the growing industry of multi-protocol processing chip production, Lucent Technologies said last week it will purchase Agere, a maker of programmable network processor chips in a deal worth approximately $US415 million.

  Written by Brian Fonseca • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Lotus Introduces New CEO

  At Lotusphere 2000 in Orlando last week, Lotus Development Corp. introduced new CEO Al Zollar to customers, partners, analysts and the press. The 23-year IBM veteran will take over for outgoing CEO Jeff Papows Feb. 1. Computerworld senior editor Lee Copeland spoke with Zollar about his strategic vision for the groupware vendor.

  Written by Computerworld Staff • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Judge Halts DVD Encryption Hackers

  The Motion Picture Industry Association of America (MPAA) has won a round in its fight to keep its members' DVDs (digital versatile disks) protected from unauthorised users. US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York has granted a preliminary injunction requested by the MPAA members to force three men to remove Internet postings that give the code for cracking DVD encryption.

  Written by Jack McCarthy • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Sounds like a good bet at TABQ

  TAB Queensland will handle up to one-third of its bets through natural language speech recognition within 12 months, says managing director Dick McIlwain.

  Written by Byron Kaye • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Simon Says: Buy Me!

  CNET announced Thursday that it would plunk down 11.3 million shares of stock - a whopping $700 million or so - to buy the price-comparison site mySimon. To reflect its expansion beyond the tech sector, CNET will also change its name to CNET Networks.

  Written by Jen Muehlbauer • 24 Jan. 00 12:01

• Singapore to Speed Up Telecom Deregulation

  Singapore's government announced on Friday that it plans to bring forward the start of full competition in the island nation's telecommunications market from April 1, 2002, to April 1 this year. At the same time it also announced an immediate lifting on direct and indirect foreign equity limits for all public telecommunications service licenses.

  Written by Martyn Williams • 24 Jan. 00 12:01